I think one of the most common questions
I am asked is “how do I find a theme amongst thousands of
photos?”
When you begin scrapbooking, looking at thousands
at photos can often lead you to put the photos away and not even
consider getting them into scrapbooks.
Here are several themes you can consider. These
are all very general themes to help you sort those thousands of
photos:
• Children Through The Years – This
would mean pulling out photos of the one child and putting the
photos into a chronological order.
• Family History – This would involve
pulling out all family photos and from there organizing them into
categories, such as aunt, uncles and cousins. Or it could mean
organizing the photos by family last name. For example, perhaps
your extended family has both the Smith’s and the White’s.
Separate the photos into two categories and either create one
book with each family at either end of the scrapbook, or break
it into two albums if you have enough photos.
• Vacations – Pull out all of the
photos of vacations over the years. I know my folks took trips
every year. We were able to determine what year from either the
photos themselves or from the envelope given to us when the photos
were developed.
• Christmas or Hanukah through the years
– I was able to pull out all of the holiday photos and put
them in chronological order and have one holiday album.
• Pets – Often we take wonderful photos
of our pets. Create an album that is just photos of family pets.
• Specific event – As we look through
our old photos, often we find a large amount of photos from one
event. Pull out that event and create a scrapbook for just that
event. It might be a wedding, or an anniversary party, or a teenager’s
prom. If you have enough photos of one event, create an album
of just that event. Some of our events are day trips. For example
we went to Disneyland and took so many photos we were able to
create an album of just that one day.
• Birthdays – We are big on birthday
celebrations. If you have had many birthday celebrations over
the years, make an album of everyone’s birthdays. Your album
can have both kid’s birthdays, mom and dad’s birthdays
and even grandma and grandpa’s birthday.
• Sports – Many of us have had the
joy of watching our children in various sports events. My own
daughter loved cheerleading. Create an album of your children
through the years in connection with their sports activities.
Once you’ve been through those thousands
of old photos, and assembled them into categories, or themes,
you’ll begin to take new photos, thinking of the upcoming
scrapbook. For example, my daughter took a one week trip to Washington
D.C. She knew she’d be making a scrapbook of just this trip.
She took plenty of photos to make an entire album.
Not every photo has to go into a scrapbook. If
you pull out those photos that fit into the themes you’ve
chosen, the rest of the photos can either be collaged, or put
into photo albums.
Article
by:
Audrey Okaneko has been scrapbooking for several years. She can
be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or visited at www.scrapping-made-simple.com
