How to combine digital and physical memory items into a scrapbook?
December 4, 2014 5:39 PM Subscribe
I'm a low-key scrapbooker who has been stuck at 2005 because that was the year I started using a digital camera.
I can't figure out how to combine the physical items (tickets, brochures, physical photos, etc) with all the digital photos I now have.
My main ideas are:
1) Use clear plastic pockets in a ringed binder (like baseball card holders), but that would require printing all the digital pictures, which is not appealing to me.
2) Print photo books with the digital pictures and make a separate mini scrapbook (8x8) for the physical mementos. But it's a little cumbersome to have two different books for the same time period.
3) Create photo collages of digital content in a 12x12 format, then find an affordable and good quality way to print the 12x12 photo sheets and intersperse them with physical mementos in a standard 12x12 scrapbook. I think the $$$ would add up quickly with this.
I've printed a couple of photo books with scanned-in physical memories, threw most of the physical stuff away, and have felt some regret over doing this.
How are the scrapbookers of metafilter handling this issue?
I can't figure out how to combine the physical items (tickets, brochures, physical photos, etc) with all the digital photos I now have.
My main ideas are:
1) Use clear plastic pockets in a ringed binder (like baseball card holders), but that would require printing all the digital pictures, which is not appealing to me.
2) Print photo books with the digital pictures and make a separate mini scrapbook (8x8) for the physical mementos. But it's a little cumbersome to have two different books for the same time period.
3) Create photo collages of digital content in a 12x12 format, then find an affordable and good quality way to print the 12x12 photo sheets and intersperse them with physical mementos in a standard 12x12 scrapbook. I think the $$$ would add up quickly with this.
I've printed a couple of photo books with scanned-in physical memories, threw most of the physical stuff away, and have felt some regret over doing this.
How are the scrapbookers of metafilter handling this issue?
Printing digital photos couldn't be easier. You literally do everything from your home. Select the photos you want and upload them to CVS/Walgreens/RiteAid/Target/Walmart/etc and they will mail the printed photos directly to you. Don't waste your time bringing your flash drive to a photo kiosk or picking photos up or any of that. I love uploading online and having them delivered. It's so easy.
I would just pick out an album you like that has slots for photos and the physical items you want to include. Then just get the photos printed in the correct size + orientation and assemble. I don't really see why having digital photos printed would be a limiting factor for you? Is it the printing process or having individual photos that you don't like?
Either way, I wouldn't have a book of photos and a separate book of physical items. You'll want to see the physical items being enjoyed in the photos (i.e. photos from a football game you have the stubs for, or whatever). Definitely have everything together.
posted by AppleTurnover at 5:51 PM on December 4, 2014
I would just pick out an album you like that has slots for photos and the physical items you want to include. Then just get the photos printed in the correct size + orientation and assemble. I don't really see why having digital photos printed would be a limiting factor for you? Is it the printing process or having individual photos that you don't like?
Either way, I wouldn't have a book of photos and a separate book of physical items. You'll want to see the physical items being enjoyed in the photos (i.e. photos from a football game you have the stubs for, or whatever). Definitely have everything together.
posted by AppleTurnover at 5:51 PM on December 4, 2014
Response by poster: Sorry I didn't make myself too clear. The problem is that I have a LOT of photos I'd like to include in my books, so it would be overwhelming and cost-prohibitive to get them all printed. I covet the look and feel of smaller, streamlined photobooks (I've made them through Shutterly, Photobook America, Blurb, and a couple of other companies). But on the other hand I also love the physical "touch and feel" part of traditional scrapbooks. Just can't make up my mind on what medium to concentrate on and wanted to hear what others do. Thanks!
posted by wannabecounselor at 5:56 PM on December 4, 2014
posted by wannabecounselor at 5:56 PM on December 4, 2014
Leave blank pages (maybe making a captioned background for them even) in an iPhoto or Shutterfly or whatever book, then glue in the physical memento?
posted by mimi at 6:12 PM on December 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by mimi at 6:12 PM on December 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
Well, you could assemble the photos you want for a Shutterfly-type book, leaving space to paste down the ephemera, but chances are it would not lie totally flat because it's perfect-bound.
I don't see how you can reconcile "including a lot of photos" with "cost-prohibitive" with "touch and feel".
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:14 PM on December 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
I don't see how you can reconcile "including a lot of photos" with "cost-prohibitive" with "touch and feel".
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:14 PM on December 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
Ok, what about assembling the photos in a page layout program, having the pages laser-printed at Kinko's or similar place ($1 or $2 per page?), paste down the memorabilia in the black spaces you've left, then take it back to Kinko's to have it bound. They do coil binding which in not terrific, I much prefer wire-o, but I think they do perfect-bound as well.
Now color laser printing (basically color photocopying) is not nearly as good as CMYK printing but it is flexible.
The issue here is the binding. If it is bound after the memorabilia is pasted down, the binding will take into account the added thickness.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:33 PM on December 4, 2014
Now color laser printing (basically color photocopying) is not nearly as good as CMYK printing but it is flexible.
The issue here is the binding. If it is bound after the memorabilia is pasted down, the binding will take into account the added thickness.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:33 PM on December 4, 2014
Kinko's used to stock 12x18 paper they didn't advertise but which could totally go through their color printers via the bypass tray, albeit not with edge-to-edge printing. Ask nicely to find out whether yours still does, because otherwise 12x12 prints will be more like $10+ each.
posted by teremala at 7:04 PM on December 4, 2014
posted by teremala at 7:04 PM on December 4, 2014
Best answer: My first thought here is Project Life. Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. She also has a whole 3-day course on CreativeLive.
Her creation is basically the pocket scrapbooking method (similar to baseball card sleeves) that are 12x12 sized (she also has 6x18 sizes now too). The gist is really just stuffing things into pockets. There's a variety of pocket sizes and configurations but the classic "Design A" is a mix of four 4x6 horizontals and four 3x4 verticals.
My other favorite scrapbooking resources: Ali Edwards and Cathy Zielske. Simplicity is king with these folks. Cathy converted from physical/hybrid to all digital awhile back and her blog posts do talk about why. The thing that gets emphasized a lot from blogs I read is that documenting something is better than nothing, and it doesn't have to be everything. I hear you have a LOT of photos you want to document, but maybe setting up some constraints will help get things done. Is it possible to select a few photos that are the highlights and capture the story you want to tell? Ali has a great blog post with some tips on memory-keeping that captures this question.
Me, personally, I use digital templates (from Cathy Z) in the Project Life essence. Then I print a bound book from Shutterfly. In terms of those physical things like movie stubs, I snap a photo and incorporate it in or scan it with a feed scanner. I also did buy one 6x8 binder with 3x4 pocket pages to keep those things.
posted by watch out for turtles at 7:50 PM on December 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
Her creation is basically the pocket scrapbooking method (similar to baseball card sleeves) that are 12x12 sized (she also has 6x18 sizes now too). The gist is really just stuffing things into pockets. There's a variety of pocket sizes and configurations but the classic "Design A" is a mix of four 4x6 horizontals and four 3x4 verticals.
My other favorite scrapbooking resources: Ali Edwards and Cathy Zielske. Simplicity is king with these folks. Cathy converted from physical/hybrid to all digital awhile back and her blog posts do talk about why. The thing that gets emphasized a lot from blogs I read is that documenting something is better than nothing, and it doesn't have to be everything. I hear you have a LOT of photos you want to document, but maybe setting up some constraints will help get things done. Is it possible to select a few photos that are the highlights and capture the story you want to tell? Ali has a great blog post with some tips on memory-keeping that captures this question.
Me, personally, I use digital templates (from Cathy Z) in the Project Life essence. Then I print a bound book from Shutterfly. In terms of those physical things like movie stubs, I snap a photo and incorporate it in or scan it with a feed scanner. I also did buy one 6x8 binder with 3x4 pocket pages to keep those things.
posted by watch out for turtles at 7:50 PM on December 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
Best answer: What I do is insert all of my photos into a digital book using Photobox, have it printed as a spiral bound soft-covered book (8" x 8"). When this arrives, I remove the spiral binding, slice off the little holes and presto! I have inserts for my standard 8x8 scrapbooking album! I can then do my usual type of scrapbooking with all the tickets, trinkets and whatnot interspersed with the photos which are on their own pages. I sometimes deliberately leave gaps between photos if I know something needs to go there, but more often I just alternate pages with photos and pages with stuff.
posted by car01 at 1:27 AM on December 5, 2014
posted by car01 at 1:27 AM on December 5, 2014
Response by poster: watch out for turtles, thank you SO much for introducing me to those resources - I'd heard of Becky Higgins but not the other two. If anyone else is searching for this question in the future, this post also covers a lot of the ground I've been thinking about.
posted by wannabecounselor at 6:21 AM on December 5, 2014
posted by wannabecounselor at 6:21 AM on December 5, 2014
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posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:43 PM on December 4, 2014