One of my favorite things to do is to “scrapbook” my family’s photographs.  It is like therapy for me, taking the time to design wonderful pages to highlight our photos and memories.

If you’re like me, you may have a pile of photos and can’t possibly keep up on everything.  It may feel like you just need to get them in a photo album as soon as you can, but you want those pages to look like you spent a lot of time on them.

The Scrapbook stores do offer some shortcuts for you so that you can create some really good looking pages that do look like you spent a lot of time. 

Some of these shortcuts are:

• Albums and matching pages with coordinating letters and stickers.
• Kits that include coordinated paper, stickers, die cuts, and tags.
• Card stock stickers that have realistic texturing techniques.
• New Transparencies with various themes and writing.
• Computer programs that offer graphic techniques-design your page on screen.
• Look for Idea books devoted to making quick pages that look great. 

I also support making the time to going to scrap-all-day or scrap-all-night events.  All the resources are right there at the store and you can get a lot done at one time when you are not interrupted by chores or making dinner. 

You don’t have to be creative to get started either.  Every Scrapbook store I’ve ever been in offers classes and has very helpful employees who will help get you started.

Whether you spend 10 minutes or 2 days on a page, I believe you are creating a “One of a Kind” artwork-story book about your family that everyone will enjoy for decades.