Articles : Tutorials - Digital

How digi-scrapping helps me be lazy

(or, how I re-use my layout designs for pages in multiple albums)

Ok, so I have a confession: I don't have unlimited stores of creativity in me just waiting to be tapped. Some days I can't even bring myself to open Photoshop, because the thought of simple tasks like making decisions about photos and which papers and elements will go in a layout make my brain hurt.

But there are SO many photos I love and want in my scrapbooks. And I don’t want to slow down with my picture-taking just because subconsciously I feel myself falling more and more behind with layouts. (Yes, this has happened before.) So I found the perfect solution:  I use one layout design for multiple subjects and stories.

 

Before you think I’m crazy, I’ll quickly explain my album system. In addition to my 8.5x11 chronological albums, I have several 8x8 albums: mom & me (Jake), dad & me (Jake), Jake and his pets, my best friend's three girls (hi, Priscilla!), Christmas, about me (Jen), and fun pages. The fun pages albums are kind of chronological, but consist of favorite photos, Jake quotes, funny little stories, and such. So I'm working with seven different 8x8 albums.

It makes sense then, that for me, using the same concept or design of a layout in multiple layouts isn't a big deal. It doesn’t even bother me that sometimes, aside from the words and photos, the layouts are identical. Really, with seven albums to think about, I’d be crazy not to use repeats! The repeated layouts are in different albums and about different subjects – no harm, no foul.

 

I started doing this recently. Sometimes I would feel, after finishing a complicated or time-consuming digital layout, that it's a shame I put so much time into a project and only had one page to show for it. Especially when it's a good design . . . seemed like such a waste when I had other photos that would easily work – and actually be kind of perfect – with that design. So I started to, as our friend Bob the Builder would say, “Reduce, reuse, recycle!”

To further understand why I do this, we also need to touch on WHY I scrapbook. Some people scrapbook purely as an artistic outlet. Some people scrapbook as a social activity. Some people paper scrap because they like the physical activity and feel of the textures and tools. Some make certain layouts because they're on creative teams and are getting paid or getting something in return. Some people scrapbook simply because it’s fun. All of these are valid reasons. But me? I scrapbook to get our best pictures in an album, and to tell stories. And it makes me happy to have albums busting at the seams. I don’t rush through creating pages just to have a finished product, but I do love spending time filling the page protectors of an album with new layouts and having a lot to look at.

 

A huge priority for me is our chronological albums, for reasons I've expressed here before (I believe in being kind of “caught up” and Reflections on the Past Year.) And outside of my chronological albums, rather than create photo albums filled with every picture I take (a scary proposition!), I like to make layouts with my favorite pictures. My new re-using layouts trick helps me accomplish this because I spend time creating one layout but I get two to four layouts out of it, all going to different albums.

 

This is an awesome way to create gifts. I like to make layouts for two friends of mine, both SAHMs with multiple children. (It’s true when they say that one child is an accessory, but more than one is a life-style! I definitely have more free time than they do.) The thought of making pages for my friends from scratch in addition to keeping up with my own pages stresses me out -- but plugging some of their pictures into one of my completed layouts? That's no problem. [I brought up this topic for discussion a while ago at DST, to ask digital designers whether they would consider the making of layouts for others like this against their terms of use. The majority agreed that making gifts for others is an appropriate use of kits if you get nothing in return and the friend receives only a flattened layout (in JPEG form.) A few designers disagreed, so it's always best to check a designer's TOU when you're not sure. Here is a link to that discussion.]

So far I’ve found 3 levels of adjustment needed to redo a layout: 

1. Replace the pictures, replace the text. (For friends who digi-scrap, delete the text and let them add their own.) 
 

2. In addition to #1, replace some paper or elements to make the layout more subject appropriate. 
 

3. In addition to #1 and #2, make some modifications to the original design, while keeping the framework the same. This is still less time-consuming than creating a page from scratch! 
 

P.S. for layout details, including credit for many inspirations for the layouts shown, which albums each layout is for, and to view layouts larger, click here.

About the author ...
Jen Strange is mama to Jake, a full-time secretary, part-time piano teacher, and obsessive scrapbooker (since her son's birth in 2002.) An avid blogger since 2004, her DigiScrappin' with Jen blog serves as an introduction to digital scrapbooking, while her Stop Piracy blog is a centralized spot for learning about and fighting the piracy of digital scrapbook kits and designs. Jen has been digitally scrapbooking since April 2005; find Jen at www.jenstrange.com and Layouts by the Numbers

Submitted by strangejen