Speed Scrapping with Speedy Album Planning - the Key to Faster Scrapbooking!

There is a way to organize your supplies for speedy scrapping even if you have no previous experience making scrapbook albums. You can get an album done in a week or two this way if you want to! You will need to follow the simple instructions given here step by step. Make this program your own, but don't deviate too much from the speed scrapping instructions until you are confident in your own method. This method saves you time and energy and headache! After all, a finished album that highlights the photos in a creative way is the goal. So let's tackle this goal a step at a time.

MATERIALS:

a large container or tote to keep everything together as you work
a 3 ring binder or top loading album to fit the size paper you use
page protectors or zip bags that will hold your paper and embellishments in the binder
40 coordinating papers of solid cardstocks for your page backgrounds
40 coordinating pattern papers for embellishments, titles, and matting
2 shape templates
2 pens
2 photo corner treatments
1 decorative scissor
1 fiber
various page embellishments as you desire
the album itself
your photos for this album only

1) Plan Each Album Separately.

Here is what I would do for each album I want to speed scrap. This is speed scrapping from scratch, so to speak. When pulling together the elements for any one album, focus JUST on that album for today. Focusing on organizing one project at a time is vital. Focus is just as important to finishing an album as any good intentions or a vast array of supplies. You may be working on many albums in the long run. Great! But organize each into it's own box or tub when planning it. Plan and pull together the supplies for each album separately. Don't get distracted or overwhelmed. The keyword today is FOCUS! :)

2) Get a Container or Tote.

Find a big sturdy tote bag or box with handles. You need a big container to keep your supplies in it just for this ONE album! There are many great smaller totes designed for scrapping. Any of them would be wonderful. Just make sure it will allow an album and all your papers and tools to fit inside. Use a heavy-duty canvas tote or plastic bin if you have one. Your container should be big enough for a binder, an album, your photos, tools and several basic supplies. You will not need 90% of your other supplies for this job! (Don't let your husband read that!) Also, try to find a large 3 ring binder for short-term storage of your speed scrapping page protectors as you work. You can use a top loading album or a 3 ring binder that fits your size pages.

3) Determine Your Theme.

Is it a specific year? vacations? a child? your heritage? sports events? holidays? Decide on whatever theme you want to put into this particular album. Pick an album style (top loading, strap, binder, spiral, mini size, 8.5x11, or 12x12) and the cover color. Try to choose this cover and color to further the theme of your album photos. There are so many beautiful albums out there now that choosing should be a fun process.

I chose to do a special album on all the correspondence and postcards and photos I have gotten from my recently-discovered cousin in Norway. The subject matter helped guide my album choices. The colors of the Norwegian flag are the basic colors for my album- red, white, and blue with the focus mainly on blue and white.

4) Plan for the Inside of the Album.

Based on your album theme and perhaps the color of the outside cover of the album, decide on the album's interior pages. This is where we keep it harmonious, SIMPLE, and focused! The album type should be one that allows you to move pages. I prefer binder or post bound for this. They usually come with 10 pages of top loading page protectors. (This means 20 pages for photos if you count both sides.) I automatically add another set of ten page protectors in the same style/manufacturer. Now you know you will have 40 pages to create for this specific album. Spiral bound albums are very hard to use for speed scrapping. But if you really want to, it can be done! You will just need to REALLY plan out the layouts of the pages a little more thoroughly using a spiral bound album and use an accordion file or zip bags to hold the kits since most spirals do not have top loading page protectors. (See step 16) :)

A) Choose two colors of solid cardstock. These should be coordinating and harmonious with the album cover. Buy at least ten to twelve sheets of these two colors of cardstock. And if you want all the background paper to be identical cardstock, buy 40-45 sheets of one color.

B) Choose two kinds of patterned papers. These should coordinate in color with the two colors of cardstock already chosen in step A. Take advantage of pattern paper packs that have lovely coordinated designs. Many companies like SEI, Chatterbox, ProvoCraft,  and more make these packs of pattern paper and they save you a lot of time deciding your patterned paper coordinates!

5) Pick two template shapes for photos.

Keep it simple. Square, rectangle, oval or circle. Don't choose cutesy pillow shapes or intricate stars. If using a cutting device, like a circle cuter or a Coluzzle, put this in the speed scrapping tote now. If you are doing heritage work and do not want to cut the photos, skip this one step. I kept my shapes very basic... rectangles with some corners rounded and one rounded shape every 2nd or 3rd page.

6) Select two types of corner treatments.

Photo corners come in many styles (corner punches, stickers, clear, black, gold, white, etc) . But pick just two that coordinate. You can also decide not to include photo corners at all. Just mat the pictures.

For heritage work, I say use corners. Heritage photos should get photo corners because someday a great-great grandchild will have to redo your work. Use corners and make it easy on them! No adhesives should go directly on the backs of heritage photos. Save the adhesives for mats and other embellishments.

7) Pick two pen colors to use for journaling.

These pens should show well on both solid cardstocks in Step A. Many speed scrappers choose black Zig Writers and a white gel pen. Put all the other pens away except the pens you choose here.

If you like to journal on matted squares of paper, cut about 10 pieces of each color solid cardstock measuring 2 inches by 3 inches. Use a paper trimmer or see scissors tips in Step 8 below. When it comes time to actually journal, keep it simple. Who, What, When, and Where. Never just put the title "Grandpa". Make sure that three generations from now, they will know his full name, date, and his location! Speed scrapping doesn't mean being incomplete!

8) Embellishments should be kept simple.

Only use the main colors you have already chosen in Step 4 A to create the borders, punch art, paper piecing, etc. Don't get too carried away on embellishments. The same simple fiber, flower, or border throughout a whole album looks elegant and classic and harmonious. This keeps the focus on the photos and the messages in the journaling AND it saves you time! After you get this far, you might take a look through your sticker binder or punch art stash. You will be surprised! You probably have MANY things on hand to coordinate with the colors you have chosen.

Try to use what you have. If you have to make something extra, keep it simple. You pull supplies FIRST from your existing stash of stickers, papers, titles, punch art, and swaps to go with the theme of your pictures. Use those past swaps and other supplies up! Why keep them if you are not going to use them? If you just don't have something you really do need, add it to a shopping list.

9) Designate just a couple of pages for being extra-artistic.

Do those time-consuming technique pages at the end of the speed scrapping process. You can certainly do a page or two or three that can be time intensive and 'artistic' within each speed-scrapped album. Those can take longer and have pop ups, lovely punch art or paper piecing, etc. No problem. What I refer to here as speed scrapping is for the BULK of the album. That means get 34 pages done in the speed scrapping style and then go back to do about 4 to 6 later in a more 'artistic" way.

10) Chose one Decorative Scissors that You Love.

Or perhaps the same scissors in regular and jumbo cut--like deckle regular and deckle jumbo. This keeps the eye from registering the cuts used as too "busy". Using straight edge scissors on some pics and mats and one decorative scissors on others is enough variety in the scissor dept. I chose the mini postage stamp to echo the Norwegian postage stamps on my title page.

11) Clear the Floor!

Now for the fun!! Clear the kitchen table or your scrapping desk! Get rid of the family! You will need lots of space for this. Pets and small children love to "help" so this may be a good time for them to be out of the house. :)

12) Lay Out the Page Protectors (40) on the Floor.

Place two pieces of cardstock or pattern paper in each protector to be the background. Hurray! You are making progress!

13) Get Out Your Photos.

Whether in a box or an old album, bring your photos to the work area. Arrange your photos in the page protectors in the same sequence you want to use in the finished album. Most albums are chronological within the event theme. Start taking out the 4-6 photos for a page and insert them into a page protector. Repeat this until all the groups of photos are inserted by page layouts into their page protectors. How many will fit on each page depends on the size of the photos. Keep it as an estimate for now. You don't have to actually lay them out on the backgrounds exactly yet. Just loosely place them inside the protectors.

14) Poor pictures can be weeded out at this time and thrown away.

Give your duplicates away or store them in a safe location. Label and store your negatives off site at a safety deposit box, a friend's home, or family member's home. Keep sorting the photos for this one album until you have all the photos divided up throughout the protectors in the binder or on the floor.

15) Use that Binder!

Now put the page protectors with the background paper and the photos into a large 3 ring binder if possible. Don't put them into the final album until the END of the scrapping process. This will give you flexibility to move them easily or work with them more than once until you get the pages in a 'final' sequence that you like. The 3 ring binder is only a temporary sequencing aid to a quicker final album.

16) Tuck Your Simple Embellishments into the Page Protectors.

I love this part! Go back to the beginning set and place embellishments and page additions into each protector. Tuck in only those that you know go with those photos. This includes any poems, stickers, die cuts, pre-made page toppers or other additions you already have on hand. Make sure that what you tuck in is what you WILL use on that page with those specific photos. Add in a fiber strand here or there from your fiber choice. Not every page needs fiber but it is a nice addition and adds texture and continuity to the album.

17) Save the time-intensive embellishments for other albums.

Do a minimum of complicated embellishments when speed scrapping. If you are on a deadline, speed scrap simply first and at the end you can determine how much extra time you have and whether you want to add one or two more complicated embellishments in the same space and place of a simpler one. But make sure you get the album DONE first. This is especially true if it is for an anniversary gift or family gift for a set deadline and date. Getting it done will be more of a treasure for those who are expecting it than getting it as perfect as the Mona Lisa!

18) Make a master shopping list.

Need something? Go for the quicker embellishments. Shop for only the items on the master list. You have not actually started scrapping pages yet but you are getting ready. If you have a choice when shopping between a $4.00 pattern for an accent and a ready made $4.00 page accent, choose the ready made. It will save you an hour's time for the same price!

19) Pack Up that Tote.

Pack your bag, box, or tote (chosen in number 1) with the adhesive of your choice, scissors, binder of photos and papers, pens, journal squares, extra corners, and the extras of the papers you chose to coordinate in step 4 A and 4 B. Add your photo corners to the tote. Terrific! You are ready for cropping either at home or at a cropping party!! Put everything else away for a while! Your speed scrapping kit is ready to go! Plan some cropping time and keep that appointment!

20) Enjoy! Set Aside Some Time to Enjoy Your Speed Scrapping!

Now you know that you are focused. You are ready to rumba! You have all your supplies together. You have a goal in mind. Now go for it! Have fun with it! As you work, keep in mind that you want to FINISH this album. Focus, Focus, Focus! Set aside time to work on it on a regular basis. :) But have fun and relax as you work as well.

With a start like this, your album will be done in no time!