Scrapbookers- please help

[peaz]

Hi

I have never scrap booked in my life, apart from when I was about 8 and stuck a load of postcards in a notebook. But I am thinking of doing two within the next couple of months.

My brother recently died. It was quite sudden, and very very sad. He was 40. He leaves his wife and his 2 year old son. It's just awful and I cannot understand it.

I have been collating photos and memories that people have kindly given us, and now need to find a way of displaying these. My options are as a photobook, a coffee table book or as a scrap book. A photobook won't give me the option of largish amount of texts so I am probably ruling that out. Coffee table books are a huge cost, which in the sad grand scheme of things isn't that big a deal but I would also like to do a copy for my mum.

So I am exploring the idea of a scrapbook but I have no idea where to start. I want it to look amazing. My brother was creative and I need to reflect his personality in this.

So, my questions at the moment are...

What do I need?
How long will this take me?
Any online resources to help me?
How can I preserve the life of the photos?

Literally, the only things I have are photos and written memories. I have no ticket stubs, etc. I do have a blog which he did when he went travelling so I am planning on taking out parts of the text and putting them in.

Any advice would be good. I am undertaking this as part of therapy as getting through this.

Thank you x

[RufusTheReindeer]

Hey lovely

I would have a little look at Project Life for some ideas. It's on the expensive side but you can get similar albums and pages for a reasonable price and you can use your own paper bought cheaply elsewhere

I also make Creative memories style albums which are a bit more time consuming

Have a little look and think about type and size and I'm sure I've got some bits you can have

I am happy UK send you some photos or some of my pages and I can pm those photos to show you what I mean if you like

Sorry for your loss

[RufusTheReindeer]

Why does it keep changing to to UK"?????

[peaz]

Hi both

Thanks for your best wishes.

OK, I will have a look at the Project Life pages tonight. I just had a quick look at the Becky Higgins page- it's all so pretty!

If you could PM me the pages that would be lovely, as I have no idea at all where to start.

I take it I need a book, paper, pages (are paper and pages different?) and stamps? Stamps- what are these for?

Anything else? Special adhesive? Any embellishments?

Thanks againx

[Fluffythefish]

I'm sorry for your loss - what a lovely idea to preserve some special memories like this.
I would suggest Project Life style as well in that it breaks everything down into little bits - mostly sized 4x6 which are useful for average sized photos and you can also fit quite a lot of writing on a card that size as well. It is less intimidating to start with than a large piece of scrapbook paper which is usually 12x12". A good place to ask more questions would be UK Scrappers forum (there is a gallery there) and also Pinterest where you can find lots of free things for Project life and other kinds of scrapbook pages.

Some other practical answers
you will need a scrapbook - the size depends on whether you want to do just PL (in which case you can use a smaller one) or some PL and some 12x12 in which case a larger album with a variety of inserts.
Usually the base for a page is heavy weight patterned paper or cardstock and then you put others on the top.
You need some paper glue (I find Pritt stick works the best although it is more expensive) and double sided tape.
You could buy stamps but might not need to - it depends how you want to make titles for pages - often people use alphabet stickers or cut them out by hand.

Like Rufus, if you like I could send you some ideas of what I do, but I am so not a project life person (although I did do a mixed album way back when)

As to how long it will take - a single page can take a surprising number of hours, mostly pleasurable! But the time I found it hardest were the pages to do with the death of my dog. I sobbed when doing that. I'm so glad I did it and those pages are very important to me and helped me through a time of loss, but it was even slower than normal because of the emotion involved. I think making these albums is a wonderful idea but expect it will truly be a labour of love

[SoupDragon]

Sorry for your loss :(

You need to make sure that any paper, glue, decorations etc are acid free. Proper scrapbook supplies should be this anyway so it shouldn't be a problem.

[SoupDragon]

I once did an A-Z scrapbook for DDs first year. 26 photos which could be summed up with one word (I had to cheat for X!). Might this be less daunting than trying to do a big project?

[peaz]

Thank you all for your kind words and advice.

I love the 'one word' suggestions, but it would be impossible to do my brother any justice with one word. People have shared so many memories with us that I need to document these so that his DS can read these in years to come. I am so sad that he will never remember his daddy. It breaks my heart.

Fluffy, yes this is going to be a long labour of love. I have a feeling it will take me months, especially as I have two DS's!. At the moment I can't look at many photos of my DB without breaking down so I have no idea how I will tackle this. In the meantime I am waiting delivery of over 1000 photos. I am making small photo books for 38 of his closest family and friends with a selection of photos and quotes/statements from people, or from him from his FB posts, texts, blog posts. That will take some time too but at least his DW and DS will have that, whilst I work on this. And my mum too.

Trying to get my head round everything I need. Are folders just plain folders, which I then embellish? I think I need to see an actual scrapbook irl but I don't know anyone near me who does this. I have tried searching on FB but no luck. Oh well, this will certainly keep my mind of things.

Oh and one other thing...do I need a paper cutter?!

[TheHelpfulHiker]

Sorry for your loss. I am not very creative either but decided to make a scrapbook of the first year of my son's life. Got the actual book and paper sheets from hobby craft, then got ideas from pinterest and other sites online. It's quite easy to find templates etc and personalise them. Good luck with your project!

[RufusTheReindeer]

peaz

I'll pm you tomorrow

The nice thing is that this can be as easy or hard as you want

One of my scrapbooker freinds said that in her experience people started very simply, then spent a few months doing very intricate and time consuming pages until they eventually found a happy medium

My pages are simple but I think they look effective in an album

I do have masses of spare project life cards which I would be happy to send you to get you started

[peaz]

OK, I am slowly getting my head round it. I will be doing two books at the same time because I would hate to start one and not get round to doing the other, and I would worry that whilst doing the second I would find something that I wished I put in the first.

Right, I am doing this. Doing it doing it doing it.

Rufus, that would be lovely, if you don't mind? Thank you, x

[RoosterCogburn]

Sorry for your loss.

I'm a lapsed scrapbooker. I think doing two books simultaneously is a great idea.
Scrapbooking can be addictive, I started off trying to throw everything onto a page and ended up as quite a minimalist scrapbooker.
There is nothing wrong with scrapping the same photo twice if you have different things to say about it.
Have a look in the gallery at www.ukscrappers.co.uk where there are lots of different styles of scrapbooking, you might see something that really appeals to you.

[LetThereBeCupcakes]

Hi OP. I'm a little late to the thread but hopefully since this is a long project I can still help.

Firstly, I'm so sorry for your loss, and for your SIL and DNephew.

Secondly, as others have said, you can go as simple or intricate as you like. Do one page at a time and work with the photos / memories.

I like //www.shimelle.com for inspiration.

I love an American site called Scrap Your Trip - they will ship to the UK and it works out around the same cost wise, even with postage, as their stuff is much cheaper.

Finally, I also have spare bits and bobs as I need to clear out my craft room. Can you give us any ideas of pages / themes? Perhaps as you're working you could PM me with things you'd like and I can see if I've got anything suitable.

I hope your project is able to help you and your family.

[peaz]

Thanks for the reply. and for your kind words.

Wow, that Shimelle site is beautiful! See, I always thought scrapbooking was a bit fussy, dated, lots of frills and lowers. But I have seen some lovely, lovely pages. I love the stuff that Rufus PM'd me too. It's a great help as I have ideas but not sure if they will work.

I am mainly basing my book on bright colours, and will be using core cards as my focus, and everything else blends in around it, although the Christmas pages will be red and green, baby pages will be a baby blue and football pages will be blue and white, as well as an orange page for the house that my brother was head of at his school. The core cards I am using are all from PL- honey, midnight (there will be a few b&w photos), sunshine and honey.

I'm starting to mock up my pages now, and have got loads and loads of ideas.