Scrapbooking Party with Shannon

Our babysitter, and daughter of my heart, Shannon, gave Danya a scrapbooking kit for her birthday this year. Danya really enjoys it, but her mean mom doesn't often share her supplies. So this was a good opportunity for all the girls to get a chance to make their own album pages. It was messy and chaotic, which meant I didn't get anything done, but instead ran around helping everyone else. I enjoyed helping the girls use my tools to make some neat additions to their pages.

Normally, it's just me up in my loft, being intimidated by stacks of photos and trying to get pages done in 30 minute increments of time before the kids need me again. I'm working on 8 different albums currently. Each of the kids has their own in their color, except "Junie B." and "Boo" who share one. Then there is one for Daniel and I together. That's the most neglected one. Although, I looked through them recently and noticed that, for some reason, I keep neglecting Katie's album. I do about half the number of pages for hers as I do for the older kids. I'm including a photo of a layout I did today (when I'm typing this, July 21st) to illustrate what I think of as the two most important tips for scrapbooking moms with lots of kids.

1. Keep it simple and cheap.
2. Get as many photos on the page as possible.

These things are crucial for several reasons. Lots of kids means you can't afford a ton of supplies and you wouldn't have time to use them anyway. I prefer to invest my money in tools that can be used for endless numbers of layouts. My favorites are stamps and die cutting tools. I only use about 5 punches regularly: border punches, letter punches, a heart punch, and a corner rounder.

We print our photos at Sam's Club. We checked out Costco, but Sam's is better. They let you make two wallet sized 2.5 by 3.5 photos for 13 cents. You can't beat that. So this page I did for Shane's album includes 18 photos that only cost me $1.26 plus tax. I buy my paper in bulk packs, too, so that it costs about 6 to 8 cents per sheet. I often use one sheet for two to three layouts. Our kids albums are just standard binders with basic page protectors. Scrapbooking can be an expensive hobby, but the enjoyment I get from making them and the joy I see in my kids' faces as they flip through them, almost daily, makes it worth it. Daniel appreciates the memories we're recording and the fact that I try to keep the cost within reason.