The Panelists

• Dina Wakley
• Shimelle Laine
• Michelle Hernandez
• Noell Hyman

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Picks of the Week

• Hero Arts Neon
• Crate Paper Pier Slide Frames
• Crate Paper Pier Ephemera Pack
• Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint

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and

Any guesses?

The Panelists

• Stacy Julian
• Debbie Hodge
• Noell Hyman

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Sponsors

Big Picture Classes Click here to see special offers from Big Picture Classes!

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Picks of the Week

• Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?
• Queen and Company – Perfect Party Collection – Decorative Bags
• Sorted Books
• Ranger Embossing Pens
• 3Doodler

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Hi Izzy,
Firstly, you should know that I only have one subscription online, and that is to Paperclipping…

…Noell has a wonderful way of giving substantial instructions to whatever she is demonstrating. She does it in a way that makes me feel as if she is in my craft room with me. Her voice is natural and calm. She does not repeat the same words over and over.

I thoroughly enjoy every video. The information is clear and the products she uses are often recycled or inexpensive. I have watched many videos in the past, but none that are as informative.

Please pass on my sincere thanks to your lovely wife, and tell her to keep doing what she is doing! I love to watch and learn! Congratulations on a job so very well done!

Grace Norman

Thank you, Grace, and all of you others who make us feel very good about what we do.

CLICK HERE to learn about our video tutorials and the Paperclipping. Maybe you’ll agree with Grace! :)

I used to slap that little devil off of me and follow my guardian angel, but not anymore…

I realized we can have everything we want — we can succumb to temptation, then get forgiveness and make it right by making layouts that are one-and-a-half pages. You really can scrapbook great designs and well-journaled stories together.

With one-and-a-half page layouts — meaning the standard 12×12 page plus a 6×12 page for the journaling — you can be as wild and care-free as you like by first making the page of your dreams on a 12×12 layout and ignoring the journaling.

But don’t worry. Your reckless ways don’t have to stick with you…

Nobody will ever know of the secret wild child that lies within because you can clean up your act by providing the story on a supplemental 6×12 page.

Multi-Page Scrapbook Layouts

My Baby Blanket Story – One-and-a-half page spread.

Multi-page scrapbook layouts are great for ephemera and memorabilia. And of course, they’re great for multiple photo pages.

Not only that but multi-page layouts are especially useful for old childhood scrapbooks where we tend to have groups of photos of events and ephemera.

My Baby Blanket Story – In the album with a blanket scrap insert and the next page peeking through.

For now let’s focus on multi-page layouts that are one-and-a-half pages long.

By adding a 6×12 page to the usual 12×12, your scrapbook album becomes a page turner because you can see part of the next page behind the 6×12. Who can resist their curiosity with a sneak peek like that?

Chad Was Born – Pages 1 + 2.

This is the page that comes after my layout above. I originally meant for the journaling to go on the right side, as you see in this photo, but when I designed the Baby Blanket page to come before this one in my scrapbook, I moved the journaled 6×12 page to the left so it would go behind the 6×12 page of the first layout.

Sharing Mutli-Page Layouts Online

If you make two-page layouts you’ve probably noticed they tend to get fewer views online. The images are so long that the thumbnails show up small in galleries and they don’t attract as much attention. But if you design the 12×12 first, and then design the 6×12 to coordinate with it, your 12×12 will look good on its own.

You can use a photo of the 12×12 as your gallery thumbnail to attract more viewers. When they click on that thumbnail you can share the full multi-page spread in the supplemental photos.

More One-and-a-Half Page Scrapbook Layouts

Leonardo da Vinci – Pages 1 + 2.

Sometimes your journaling may not need to be all that long, but it’s a bit much for multiple photos and ephemera, like my page above. Now you can relax, fit it all in, and still have fun with layers and design.

Why We Don’t Pay Our Kids to Do Their Choires – 3 page layout – Page 1 (with page 2 peeking out).

My story for this page was so long that it took two half pages to complete. I could have fit all that journaling onto a 12×12 page to make it a full two-page layout (meaning, two 12×12′s). But doing it on two sides of this 6×12 is so much more interesting, don’t you think?

Why We Don’t Pay Our Kids to Do Their Chores – pages 2 + 3.

And once again I was able to fit some ephemera (in the pocket) and also scrapbook with fun techniques.

Why We Don’t Pay Our Kids to Do Their Chores – page 3 (main page).

This next page only had a single photo and the page design is very simple. Of course, I could have fit the typed journaling and the picture onto a single 12×12. But I love this photo that highlights the dancer in her through her bun, her neck and shoulders, her dance bag. Sometimes you want to enlarge a photo to show the details.

Power Elite – One-and-a-half page spread.

That means you have to tell the journaling to move over…over to the next page.

Finding Freedom – One-and-a-half page spread.

Other stories call for an enlarged photo, a long story, and also some techniques. I love that I was able to to create a sense of movement with lots of butterflies on a page that is otherwise very calm and serene. It’s a combination of of the physical peace I can finally enjoy after twenty-five years of chronic neck pain, and the freedom from suffering; the freedom of physical movement.

Finding Freedom – closeup of journaling.

Finding Freedom – butterfly closeup.

Whether you’ve been listening to the devil on your left shoulder or the angel on your right, you can stop being so one-sided! Do both and get everything you want every time you scrapbook.

Not sure how to make the half-page go with the design of your initial 12×12?

No worries! I share how to design 6×12 pages to coordinate with 12×12 layouts in a video tutorial. CLICK HERE to learn how you can get this video.

If you regret pages from an earlier and wilder scrapbook life, this is a great way to go back and add the story! Don’t you think?

So which is it for you? The angel or the devil? Or both? :)

The Panelists

• Amy Tan
• Allison Kreft
• Noell Hyman

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Sponsors

Big Picture Classes Click here to see special offers from Big Picture Classes!

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Picks of the Week

• Stamp It!: DIY Printing with Handmade Stamps
• Craft Attitude
• Tim Holtz’s Distress Paint

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The Panelists

• Angie Lucas
• Jennifer Wilson
• Marilyn Sibblies
• Noell Hyman

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Big Picture Classes Click here to see special offers from Big Picture Classes!

Picks of the Week

• Fancy Pants Designs – Hopscotch Paper
• TJ Maxx
• So Major Journaling Cards
• Amy Tangerine’s Yes, Please Transparent Letter Stickers

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Remember the old borders we used to make for the sides of our pages years ago? They were often intricate, time-consuming, and sometimes even a distraction from the photos.

Edge gatherings are similar to borders, but they’re much easier to put together and they’re way cooler.
They’re also not so cumbersome.

What are Edge Gatherings, and What Can They Do for You?

Edge gatherings — layered items on either the top and bottom edges of the page, or along the sides — are organic and free form, so they’re much easier to place on almost any page design without tipping the balance of weight.

Design Purpose

But better than that — they have a wonderful design purpose. Edge gatherings will keep the eye circling around the page so it doesn’t easily float off the edge and move onto something else.

I’m assuming you would like people to spend more time looking at your page, of course. Am I right?

If edge gatherings are new to you, give them a try!

Here’s Some Help!

This week’s video tutorial will take you through the process of putting together a few very different edge gatherings for a variety of layouts. You’ll get lots of unique ideas, plus see the general concepts for how to make edge gatherings look — well — edgy.

Or pretty, if that’s what you prefer.

Whatever the style, you’ll see how to make them complement your photos and the rest of your page.

This video is for Paperclipping Members and is now available in the Member’s Area or in your iTunes feed.

If you’re not a member, CLICK HERE to get more info!

That’s just about what I did when I switched to a monthly approach in February.

While I was intrigued by Izzy’s simple method for Project Life, I had to try a monthly approach first. Turns out that’s the approach for me. Here are five reasons this method for Project Life is easy is on the scrapbooker, as well as the scrapbooker’s budget…

Five Reasons to do Project Life Monthly Instead of Weekly

1. You don’t need a weekly 4×6 card.
If you want, you can use one card per month, which means…

• You can fit an additional photo onto the other pages, and this could save you a page protector per month, plus the time it takes to decide on the 4×6 cards.
• You can stretch your yearly edition of Project Life to last more than a year if you like.
• If you use the dividers you can skip the 4×6 cards altogether if you prefer.

February 2013 Project Life pg. 1

While I made a 4×6 card naming the month of February, my other February pages don’t use the cards, as you’ll see in every other page below.

February 2013 Project Life pg. 2 (a).

2. You can use fewer pocketed pages.

Ever have weeks where you have less than 7 pictures?

Because you’re not separating each week, you don’t have to spread a 3 or 4 photo week across the entire spread of pockets. You just keep adding photos to pockets till you’re done.

February 2013 Project Life pg. 3 (side b)

Most of my February photos happened in either the 2nd or 4th week of the month. The other weeks were minimal. Because I could start adding photos from the 2nd week into the first spread, for example, this probably saved me a couple of pages this month.

3. You don’t have to wrestle with timeline.

It really doesn’t matter if one photo was taken before or after another. Do we need to know which week it happened, in addition to the month? And does each photo really have to present itself in the order it was taken?

Instead of obsessing over that kind of weekly detailing, why not reduce the busy work and just put photos where they’ll fit? This simplifies things enormously. Plus, it can save you another page protector.

February 2013 Project Life pg. 3 (a)

This page comes after my Valentines pictures. It’s got photos and stories from Feb. 12, 13, and 25. They were small individual stories and it was so much easier to just put them together on a page in-between the big stuff.

4. You don’t have to wrestle with the pocket orientations.

Because you’ve freed yourself from a strict weekly timeline, you can put all the vertical photos on one page with vertical pockets, even if they were taken in different weeks.

Trying to work a week into a page can be a nightmare when you have both horizontal and vertical 4×6′s as well horizontal and vertical 3×4′s. Not only can it be stressful, but it requires you use additional pages.

Save on pages, yet again, by just grouping them together according to their dimensions.

February 2013 Project Life pg. 3 (insert a)

February 2013 Project Life pg. 3 (insert side b).

I had 3 vertical 4×6′s throughout the month, and three horizontal 3×4′s. I brought them all together in a single page that accommodated that size and quickly moved on.

5. You don’t have to worry about the start dates of each week.

Just look for all the photos you want to use for your month, print them, and add them to pockets where ever they fit.

Because my schedule and my priorities don’t allow me for me to work on Project Life every single week on a specific day, it cost me so much time when I had a few weeks to catch up on, trying to figure out which photos started and ended each spread. Identifying the photos per month is so much simpler!

February 2013 Project Life pg. 2

Free from the timeline, here’s how I dealt with two bigger events of February. Valentine’s took the entire right side, plus 3 pockets on the left.

February 2013 Project Life pg. 4 (last page for the month)

I’m so glad I didn’t try to fit this all into a spread defined by a week! Instead, I printed enough birthday photos to fill a side and put them in at the end of the month.

Are You Behind on Project Life?

Since I started in January 2012, I’ve been half-doing and half-not-doing Project Life, while always thinking about stopping it. The weekly approach took more time and struggle than I have to give. But after tried the monthly approach just once, I’m totally back on board.

This is so doable.

The entire month took me almost the same amount of time a single week used to take.

If you’ve struggled to keep up with weekly Project Life spreads, why not give this a try? You’ll love the freedom and ease! And the money-saving benefits aren’t bad, either!

Want more tips and ideas like this?

Sign up for free email updates and I’ll send you several videos when you register today.

CLICK HERE!

The Panelists

• Wilna Furstenberg
• Melissa Stinson
• Noell Hyman

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Sponsor

Big Picture Classes Click here to see special offers from Big Picture Classes!

Picks of the Week

• Washi Papers
• Gelatos
• Project Life Core Kit – Olive Edition

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The Panelists

• Shimelle Laine
• Erin Bassett
• Noell Hyman

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Sponsor

Big Picture Classes Click here to see special offers from Big Picture Classes!

Picks of the Week

• Gelli Arts Printing Plate
• Wedding Party App
• Tim Holtz Distress Marker – Brushed Corduroy

(Affiliate links wherever possible.)

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Need ideas for using small scrapbooking bits and scraps, AND a jumping off point for layouts?

Here’s why you don’t need to use up time and space (including digital space) gathering, collecting, and searching for sketches. All you need are a few basic hidden “structures” in your mind, which will lead to unique pages every single time.

This works for any timeless style or new trend. These few structures are so simple to remember they don’t need to be sketched.

This is how I come up with my Flexible Templates. And the reason I don’t make new flexible template videos as often anymore is because I really only use a few basic ideas for how I lay out a page.

I use these same ideas over and over again, but you would never guess that by looking at the pages.

See for yourself.

Scrapbooking Templates

The key is to have an underlying hidden structure — a shape. This shape gives you a very general idea of where you can place things on a page to create a balanced look. There’s all kinds of room for creativity and individuality from that one shape and it’s so simple and easy because the shape guides your placement.

I wanted to demonstrate this so I made a video where I take one of my Flexible Templates, which I shared over a year ago, and use it to make three pages in an updated style using scraps and and small pieces.

Dog or Goat?

Be Yourself & Love It

Yet Another Day @ Starbucks

Do you want help with small scraps? Do you wonder what you can do with all those small pieces so common in today’s newest product collections and kits? Each of the three pages is made completely with cardstock and lots of those little bits and scraps.

But the cool thing is you’ll get to see how this works whether you’re using small scraps or big pieces of paper, too. No matter what products you have or what style you like, you could scrap a lifetime of pages off this one simple concept.

You’ll need a membership to be able to watch this newest video.

Click here for info!

The Panelists

• Aby Garvey
• Gina Z.
• Laura Kaplan
• Noell Hyman

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Sponsor

Big Picture Classes Click here to see special offers from Big Picture Classes!

Picks of the Week

• Itso Bins
• Mappiness
• LOAD513
• Studio Calico – Sundrifter Collection

(Affiliate links wherever possible.)

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Ever have a hard time finding the embellishments that match your paper choices AND your story?

These Artisan Hearts by Pink Paislee are a great item to have in your stash for times like that. You can match them to whatever color you need as long as you have some color mediums.

More: Butterflies * Arrows * Stars

But what if your color mediums don’t match your papers either? You can make them match by mixing a few colors together.

I first painted one of my hearts with a blue Glimmer Mist that seemed the closest match to my paper (using a paintbrush). Turned out it was way too bright and too blue. I painted over it with a different blue mist that was slightly greener, but it wasn’t enough. So I found an opaque light yellow. Because it contained a lot of white, and because of its opaque quality, the yellow lightened the tone of the blue, made it less vibrant, and gave it just the right amount of warmth to match my paper.

Perfect match.

Tip: I painted instead of sprayed the mist to give it an even coating and to prevent spray unnecessarily going everywhere except onto the embellishment.

The best thing I ever did for myself to better understand color and all its nuanced differences was to learn to mix my own paint colors from basic primaries. It taught me to see a lot more subtle variations in color than I could ever see before. It also taught me to better see tone, temperature, and vibrancy differences.

I made a video tutorial a long time ago that demonstrates this. If you’re not fully comfortable with your ability to see the nuances of colors and how similar hues are slightly different so you can mix or match them, the video might help you.

It’s part of the Member’s Archives of videos — Paperclipping 106 – Mix Your Own Paint Colors. Click here for information about our videos.

The Panelists

• Stacy Julian
• Anneke Grobler
• Noell Hyman

You can use this audio player to listen to the show:

If you want, you can also right click this link to save the show to your computer manually.

Sponsor

Big Picture Classes Click here to see special offers from Big Picture Classes!

Also, you can get Stacy Julian’s ebook, Photo Freedom for 50% off through April 15th with the discount code: FREEDOM

Picks of the Week

• Fabscraps Line
• ReelGenie, and here’s the sneak link.
• Pink Paislee Resist Chipboard Shapes – Hearts

(Affiliate links wherever possible.)

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Do you scrapbook out of a closet? At the kitchen table? In the living room? At crops?

Aby Garvey, organizing expert, scrapbooker and co-founder of Simplify 101, is going to be my guest on the show and give coaching advice to two scrapbookers who need organization help because space is limited.

If…

• you’re a scrapbooker who does NOT have a scraproom
• you have a good internet connection
• you feel confident about being on an audio show
• you need organization help
• you are free on Apr. 9 at 10am PST

…then please tell me what your scrapbook situation is. Where do you scrapbook and what are your struggles? Please share some details that will help us choose, but also keep it brief so I can read the responses and extend invitations within the next 2-3 days.

If not, how close are you?

I have some questions for you in a minute, so please be sure to look for them below. I thought I’d share with you what I accomplished this month in our journey together to finish a scrapbook album in less than 30 days, and you can share a link to your own blog post or gallery entry to share all you’ve done..

Six Complete Pages

I originally thought I’d have a little more than that, but once I moved some things around to solve some massive problems (Members got to see that magic happened in the Everyday Life scrapbook video), I ended up having less to do than I thought…

Food Tastes Better Outside

Eating outside almost every day of the year makes me so happy.

Flowers On Wednesdays

There was a flower shop near the dance studio’s old location and most Wednesday nights when it was Dad’s turn to pick up Trinity (usually every other week) they would stop at the flower shop first and pick out a beautiful bouquet. These are my favorite kinds of gifts.

I made a vellum pocket and put three more pictures of flowers from Izzy and Trinity inside.

Reclaiming Our Home (left side)

Around 2010 we finally built the garage into a studio! * Goodbye, 3 days of a video studio in our living room every one to two weeks! * Goodbye, audio studio and messy office desk in our master bedroom! * Goodbye, giant fat cable that ran from one corner of the house (our bedroom), down the hall in full view of the living room to the opposite corner of the house (my scrap room)! * Hello, peaceful, happy, sweet, inspiring haven of a home! :)

We Do Art

Sous Chef

You became vegan in 2009. You decided you wanted to start cooking with me. You bought us the best new cooking tools…

knives
matching cutting boards
a Vitamix blender
a food processor

I bought us aprons (NOT matching).

And we found we move in coordination — like a knife and fork — without having to state who’s doing what. It just happens.

Two years or so later I began dancing every night at the studio and you took over as head chef. You bought a pressure cooker and Trin and I come home to a fresh hot meal every night.

2012 – ongoing…

The scrapbook’s title page: Our Everyday Life

Missing Details on Older Pages

I was missing some vital info and was in need of a few additional details on some of my old pocketed pages…

I added these chipboard cameras to some empty pocket pages. Front and back. I wish I had taken out the inner circle, though!

I made a title page for the focus of one week in 2010…

In addition to these I was still able to scrapbook a nice handful of pages for other albums, too. This project wasn’t overwhelming in any way.

How Much Better the Album is Now!

Wow — my album feels so much better in so many ways! If you got to watch the process video tutorial: Complete an Everyday Life Album, then you saw what a mess some of us have to deal with, and how easy it can be to fix problems like massive lumps and unevenness.

But another simple but big transformation that I love has to do with overall mood. When I started my album around 2007 I was using drab colors, and now with some time and perspective, I know those colors don’t reflect our everyday life at all. I didn’t change any of the old layouts. But by adding a colorful title page and the other five new pages scattered throughout my album, I do feel like the mood of the album is wonderful.

Some questions for you…

• How did you do with this project? Did you finish? Do you feel good about it?
• Is this something you would like to do with me again in the future?
• What paradigm shifts did you have this month as we talked about scrapbooking albums?

And please don’t forget to share a link if you blog about your album completion for our Play Along. Thank you for all the enthusiasm! It kept me excited — you guys are awesome!

Shine On,


Did you miss the series? You can still play along and go at your own pace! Click here to start finishing up a scrapbook album.

Can’t have “pretty” and “trendy” pages if you have a fair amount of journaling?

Can’t tell a good story if you want to use lots of fun product and layering?

I was getting tired of always sacrificing form for function to fit my writing. We like to have it all, don’t we? And we can…

A couple years ago it occurred to me that you can make a 12×12 with all the design gusto you posses, throwing journaling to the wind. And then you can retrieve that journaling from its wind-tossed location and add it to your page by putting it on a 6×12 to go beside your 12×12 layout.

With the design tools in your pocket it’s not hard to design your 6×12 page to fit seamlessly with your 12×12, no matter how reckless you were when you temporarily tossed your journaling aside and made the first page.

If those tools aren’t quite deep enough in your pocket to know how to do that, it’s okay. I made a process video for you that not only shows you step by step how I did it on the layout above, but also gives you the general concepts and principles so you can do it on your own pages.

You’ll get to see how design makes it work on other pages I’ve made, and you’ll see how these 6×12 supplemental journal pages can also make an album flow more because they show a part of the next page, and a person can’t help but want to see what the rest of the next page looks like!

You’ll need a membership to get access to this video. CLICK HERE for info.

Members can find it now in the Member’s Area and on iTunes!

Shine On,

To move forward in the Play Along: Finish an Album, click here: Did You Finish?

The Panelists

• Lisa Moorefield
• May Flaum
• Noell Hyman

You can use this audio player to listen to the show:

If you want, you can also right click this link to save the show to your computer manually.

Sponsor

Big Picture Classes Click here to see special offers from Big Picture Classes!

Picks of the Week

• Sizzix Floral Decorative Strips
• Simple Stories 6×8 Albums
• Tip: Move out items you’re no longer using.

(Affiliate links wherever possible.)

How to subscribe…

Want to make sure you never miss a new installment of the Paperclipping Roundtable?

Subscribe in iTunes (it’s free!) and you’ll automatically download the newest installment when it’s released. Click on this link:

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What if you could suck people into your scrapbooks the same way good authors suck people into their novels?

There is one thing you can add to your scrapbooks to make them massively more compelling. Just one thing. Before I tell you what that is, I want you to see this eight-second animated film of a rectangle with an opening, a circle, and two triangles. Just take a look real quick and then come back.

Did you watch it?

The film was part of some research in which the scientists asked participants to watch it and then tell them what they saw. What did you see?

Here’s what Brian Clark, founder of CopyBlogger, said about what your observation means…

Out of all the study participants, only one responded with “a rectangle with an opening, plus a circle and two triangles in motion.” The rest developed elaborate stories about the simple geometric shapes.

Many participants concluded the circle and the little triangle were in love, and that the evil grey triangle was trying to harm or abduct the circle. Others went even further to conclude that the blue triangle fought back against the larger triangle, allowing his love to escape back inside, where they soon rendezvoused, embraced, and lived happily ever after.

Did you imagine a story as well? Why?

We need stories. Story is the heart of who we are as humans. From our earliest days we have used them to understand who we are, to teach our children about the world, and to entertain. Does that resonate with you as a scrapbooker, or what?

Scrapbooks with a Story

Several things happened when I started thinking of my scrapbook albums as stories, rather than just thinking of the individual layouts that way.

• In the overabundance of photos, layouts and albums it was suddenly much easier to decide what was worth scrapbooking.
• I feel more excited and motivated to scrapbook than ever before.
• I believe the albums make someone want to keep turning the pages more than before.

Whether the story is a common thread or theme that runs through the album, or better yet, an actual plot where the “characters” struggle to get what they want, a story is practically irresistible.

Want an example? Here are some pages that show the plot and conflict of the dance album I’m close to finishing for Trinity. I’ve added the journaling under both in italics…

A Dance Scrapbook Album

Power Elite

This morning I saw I had a message from the owner of the dance studio. We’ve been adjusting to the chaotic life and overall demands of Trinity being on the company team. I was worried she needed to have a talk with me about the rehearsal we accidentally missed on Saturday because we’re still learning how to get it all organized.

I’m so proud of that girl. So happy for her.

Stretch

You practiced from 8am until 1:30. You ate lunch in the car while we made the 25 minute drive home. At home I did your hair and makeup, and then we all rushed back in time for your performance.

One thing I told you — no more slumber parties two nights before a big day like this. Maybe without the all-nighter you’ll do better with these extra exhaustive days.

The rest of the story?

Well, I haven’t scrapbooked it yet, but you’ll see Trinity now dances about 30 hours a week and no longer struggles with those marathon-length dancing days. You’ll find out how she started earning the scholarships at conventions this year and was just given the lead role in our ballet production for this spring. Hard work is paying her back.

Why a Story Matters More Than Style

Years ago when I first started thinking about scrapbooks as stories, I asked scrapbookers in a forum if they’d ever made a scrapbook that told a linear story. All but one said they’d never thought of scrapbooking that way. The only one who had sent me a link to a slide show of an entire album she’d completed.

I didn’t really love her scrapbooking style, but that didn’t matter. I was glued to my computer until I read every single word and looked at every single page in her entire scrapbook because it had an actual story to it. It was amazing to peek into someone’s life that way.

A scrapbook with a story can…

• drive people to turn the page
• excite you, as a scrapbooker, to create the page
• provide you with more meaningful layout ideas

It’s Not As Hard As You Think to Make a Scrapbook With a Story.

My two examples have a lot of journaling, but that’s not necessary. It also doesn’t require planning things out ahead of time. I start my scrapbooks with general topics, such as dance, or everyday life. In most cases I don’t find the story until I’ve filled up much of my album. We had to experience the 2.5 years of Trinity dancing before I knew where the story was going.

That’s okay. You can have “filler” pages that relate to the story topic, but don’t necessarily go with the running theme, nor push a plot forward. Here’s an example…

Sometimes developing the story simply means moving a page out of the album and adding in one from a different scrapbook. Sometimes it means you need to create a few new pages to move the story along, or make the story complete. If you’ve found empty backs of pages in your album that need to be filled, then you already have places to put those additional layouts that will round out your story.

I’ve shot four different videos that demonstrate this process in action:

1. Complete an Everyday Life Scrapbook – Paperclipping 213
2. Transform Your Albums Into Unified Stories: Part 1 – Paperclipping 175
3. Tranform Your Albums Into Unified Stories: Part 2 – Paperclipping 176
4. Visual Memoirs – Paperclipping 103

It’s a really fun and motivating way to scrapbook. And if you’re finding your albums are taking over your home and you need to prioritize what you do and don’t scrapbook, this just might be the thing to help you do it!

This post is part of a Play Along series where we finish a scrapbook album together. Click here to start the series, or to move forward click here: Scrapbooking 12×12 and 6×12 Two Page Layouts.