I've been keeping scrapbooks

for a long, long time.  

I've probably mentioned before that my mama kept a little yellow suitcase full of memories up on a top shelf and would occasionally get it out for us to look through and reminisce...

 

 It had some of our early schoolwork, church programs, etc.

I recently found a sunrise service from 1964! And just look at this treasure from the forties!!

 

But the one thing I enjoyed seeing the most was her scrapbook

 from junior high and high school. I love it still...

And, yes, I've taken it apart and put it in acid free protectors...

So. I actually MADE my scrapbooks back in the day - and have one from middle school and high school... as well as college.... Then, like my mama, life got busy and scrapbooking just didn't happen until the late nineties.. and I was introduced to creative memories...

Trim those photos with fancy scissors into all kids of shapes 

and throw them on a page with stickers everywhere! 

OH. MY.

Yes... 

And since then it's grown into a BIG hobby of mine...

I've always loved photos + paper

[+ the story...] 

 

And while my 'style' [or products] has progressed / changed through the years...

I still enjoy it so, so much. 

 

One big change I've made from the early years [due to budget, I'm sure] is that I now do each layout / page as free standing... and I chose photos I want to do NOW, instead of each page being done chronological... As a result, I sometimes tend to have lots and LOTS of pages stacked up ready to go into albums... 

And you may recall that [way] back in the day I declared that I was going to CHANGE IT ALL UP and take all the albums apart and sort them into albums with different labels where I could find photos easier... It took me at least a year to get going on this project...

NOTE: I kept the boys' albums as they were [in creative memories albums] one each for preschool age / grammar school age / middle school age / and HS - College age.

This week I tackled  it all again - sorting and putting in layouts that I've made for the past couple of years - and declared it DONE [although it's always anon-going process, right?]

THEN I FOUND ANOTHER BOX of albums that needed to be taken apart...

But look at some of these gems I found! [Apologies for the topsy turvey photos - I don't know why my camera does that...] So... some of these went in travel [Places We Go] ... some in 'All About Matt.. or Drew'... some in 'Oh Brother' [- pages with both of them...]

And at last!

I think I've got every single completed page in it's 'correct' [to me] album!

I know my labels are not the neatest... but I can see them easily and it's hanging in there, even if they are taped on...lol... 

Most importantly I now know where I am and what needs to be completed...

And thanks to Stacy Julian's class "20 in 20" last year, I have lots of projects to continue working on in addition to the regular 'Places We Go' for each year... 

Would love to hear what your scrapbook plan might be...