I can't decide how to bind my scrapbook pages

I have more than 220 page that need to be printed... all of my son's "1st year" pages, plus many, many more. I've been trying to decide for months whether I should order them all bound together into a photobook, or get them printed individually, put them in sleeves, and add them to a post-bound scrapbook - and THAT is what is keeping me from getting them printed, I can't decide!!

For my 'Belly Book' (pregnancy scrapbook), I am getting it bound into a photobook, but I want to be consistent with my son's scrapbook pages - so I need to make the decision now on photobook vs. "traditional" scrapbook.

The good thing about a traditional scrapbook is that I can go in and add pages later, which I can't do with a photobook without having it reprinted. Also, I am doing well with scrapping current events, so in theory if I do the traditional scrapbook, I could print the pages as I do them to keep it current - and then show it off in real time. With a photobook, I have to wait until a certain milestone (like the end of a year, etc), and wait until all of the pages are complete, to have the photobook printed.

But I think photobooks look so much more 'finished' and 'complete'.

What is your take on this? What do you prefer, and why?

Personally, I am on the hunt still for a great photobook printer because it is lots cheaper for me to print that way... printing each page and buying the albums can get really pricey.

But, I am really up to date w/ my pages so I don't need to rearrange my books....

I have always used traditional scrapbooks, but I am now switching to photobooks mainly because traditional scrapbooks start to take up a LOT of room after a while. My kids are only 6 and 8 and I already can't find room to keep their books! With page protectors, you essentially have the width of 3 "pages" for each page as opposed to just one in a photobook.

I don't like bound books. My kids are really rough on books and tear pages all the time. I would CRY if they ripped my photobook. And I really think it's important for them to be able to look at their scrapbooks, that's why I make them. So, I go with the sheet protectors & threeing albums. I prefer those to post-bound albums because they are easier to rearrange. And my daughter has already pulled through two sheet protectors. The pages were fine, the sheet protectors were not! Can't even imagine the destruction that would happen to a photobook.

I have come to terms with haphazard, no rhyme-oreason-to-them bound photo books as I tend to just print whatever I have when I get a good deal. I agree with Megan -- I think the bound photobooks are cheaper, which is why I'm doing it that way. I just try to put the layouts in chronological order w/in the photo book but they have no theme or anything like that.

One day I may make a book that spans an entire year or has some sort of theme.

Personally, I'm going with the traditional books...I don't scrap chronologically, I just do what inspires me and sometimes do a theme until I get distracted and go with something else...nothing is DONE, just started. It would make me crazy to have photobooks with random things in them (unless that was the theme of the book, lol) - I tend to want to organize my books by year/person/event (ie. Family Vacation 2006, Mason's personal album, Natalie's personal album, first year, etc). So yeah, I'm going traditional books because my personality could NOT handle them being in the wrong order, or doing a page that I want to add to a book but can't, lol.

Though I don't see why you can't do a little of both. If you've got an album finished, go ahead and get it done as a photobook. Some things I will do that way, when I get them done...and others that aren't events or whatever, I'll just add to the books as I get them done.

I just use traditional scrapbooks from Close to my heart.

Well, you're probably going to get an even amount of opinions from both sides!

I agree with Megan in that it's cheaper for get it bound in a photo book and I LOVE the small size and the look of them. LOVE it! So that's what I do. I have a 2007 album and my 2008 album will be ready when the year is up. I'm currently working on 2005 and 2006 (much smaller than 2007!!) so I'm excited to get those done eventually.

Meredith makes a great point with kids though. I was "lucky" enough that one company made a couple mistakes in a couple books of mine and reprinted a new one for free--so I have extras that my girls play with. I would like to have my own copy and have copies for them to take with them throughout their lives so I am going to print a "Kathryn" book and a "Hannah" book. I will do softcover because it's slightly cheaper and then I don't care quite as much what happens to them. My kids aren't too rough with books anyway... but just in case.

I don't scrap in any order & I print randomly when I have some extra cash, so I mostly go with traditional books because I can re-organize the pages as I print.

However when I have specific project-like Journal Your Christmas- and all the pages ar completed and in order, then I get a bound book.

I print pages individually then put them in traditional scrapbooks with page protectors. I do that for several reasons - I don't scrap chronologically, I want more control over my books, etc... The biggest reason is that if I decide to use a different album organizational scheme, I can take the pages out and rearrange them as I see fit.

It's just personal preference I guess.

Another nice thing about traditional albums is that you can stuff a few mementos into the page protectors -- I usually include stuff like occasional report cards, postcards, a piece of the kids' art here & there.

Uh oh, I'm talking myself back into regular scrapbooks!