Late last evening, I put the finishing touches on my wedding album. Twenty eight years later, I can finally stroke this task off my list.
I did have an album that I bought about 10 years ago, I did have a couple of pages pre-scrapped (4 to be precise) which I completed at a scrapbooking class several years ago, I did have some pre-made matting that I bought from a gal off ebay several years ago - these things made the task go quicker than it could have.
What I found shocking was that in this one album I used over 1500 adhesive square to stick the papers and the photos into the album - that was approx at twenty dollar expense. After my first 1,000 squares, I went to Wal-Mart and bought the least expensive acid-free adhesive I could find, which at least made me feel a little better.
I threw away a lot of photos, blurring, unnecessary (how many photos of bridesmaids and groomsmen in a row do you need?). I found it hard to throw some away because my Dad has passed away and some were blurry pics of him...but, what do these photos benefit the next generation if they are not quality photos.
Our albums are to tell a story about an event or a moment in time, the event should be clear and concise. Scrapbooks are expensive, adhesive is expensive - the key to a good album is editing. Make each photo count and make each photo represent an important part of the moment. Aunt Joan with a mouth full of food will not thank you for including her picture unless there is a terrific story about why that mouth full of food was so important. Your dear friend Joe will not thank you for scrapping a photo of him with his head in the toilet at a frat party when he is 45 and a CEO. We remember these moments, we remember these events, albums are created to share the moments with others so be conscious of this when creating albums and respectful of family members and friends who may have moments they would rather not share with the world or future generations!
Total time after the initial sort was approx. 10 hours - done is small chunks over a couple of days, cost for album, papers and adhesive, approx $100.00 but the only thing I paid to complete this was $20.00 for the adhesive, everything else was already in the house.
So the oldest job is off my list now and I can tell you there is a huge sense of relief just getting it done. My wedding photos will not be a burden to my children, they now have then in a book and they can decide to keep it or toss it when I am gone. They do not have to sort through boxes and bins to decided what to do with them - that makes my heart sing!
That leads me into my next photo task....back on August 16th when I did the big sort of photos - one of the groups I compliled was a big bag of photos and crafts. So begins the next photo journey, ...scrapping all my daycare kiddies and their lovely gifts of artwork. After almost 25 years of daycare, I have a lot of goodies - the key will be editing, cropping out parts of photos that are unimportant and focusing on getting it done rather than walking down memory lane with each item and photo. At least with this task, I do already have an album started that I use as a portfolio when interviewing potential clients. This should merely be a matter of adding more pages and just getting it done. Today is Wednesday and I have given myself until Sunday to complete.
UPDATE...Friday August 27, task complete! Whoo Hoo. I was also able to finish my youngest school photos and get them into an album for her. The book was started and many of the pages just needed to be stuck into an album but it is done - I also left blank pages in the back of the album to cover the grades she has yet to complete. She now has a book with all her class photos in order of year plus any ribbons or certifiates she was awarded are in the book with the correct school year. I am so happy to see these tasks completed and it is amazing to see the piles disappearing!
