I’ve had a few sparks of creativity over the last few weeks. While I have more scrapbook tools than any store and take more pictures in a month than anyone would ever need, I haven’t scrapbooked in two years. Last year a dear friend made me a very fancy embellished scrapbook for Lorelai. So fancy, in fact, that I was afraid to mess it up with my photos and awful handwriting. I decided it would best showcase her series of monthly portraits which would not require journaling or cropping.

I felt so guilty about my other two children once her first 6 months of pictures were in the album, that I went out and bought a bunch of fancy tools and embellishments—none of which I had any experience in using. I tend to focus on simple, clean lines so I can clutter it up with my endless tales, captions, and sticker obsession. However, the giant stack of envelopes full of portraits never given out or placed in an album had me determined to make a beautiful album for my middle child. The oldest at least had her pictures in an album, even if it was undecorated.

I am pretty pleased with the results, but I don’t think I would use the fancy trinkets on a regular basis. They seem more fitting for specialty albums—like the wedding album I pre-decorated for my future sister-in-law—than for every day use next to my own handwriting. I’m just not a fancy person. On the other hand, I was hopeful it would reignite my interest in scrapbooking so I could catch up on the enormous backlog of photos. It just takes so much time to haul out my supplies and put them away again that I really don’t have time for any actual work in between.

Then a friend turned me onto digital scrapbooking. The concept was interesting—available drop-in templates, custom layout options, and completed pages without printing a million pictures. The pictures are already digital so I can crop and drop them in without all the expense and mess. I finished a page of our summer fun activities for June—one for each girl. This first set took a long time because I am learning how to use the software I’ve had for years. I’m hopeful once I get the concepts down I can crank out a set of 3 pages in the same amount of time it would take me to get out the tools for a traditional page.

I don’t think I’m ready to replace the handcrafting I’ve been doing for years, but I do like the printing options I’m finding and the idea that I could turn out an album for each kid in less time than it took to do one family album. The best part is that it can be replicated. I’ve designed the pages for a 12×12 album, my preferred size, but they can be printed in anything smaller as well. This would really come in handy for grandparent albums or printing one for the family and a small one for each child. The possibilities are endless and sort of have my mind spinning.