Q About Album Organization

[Lyd]

I do an album for each child of their first year, and everything else is in a family album for each year. I don't scrap chronologically, so I'm still working on finishing the "first year" album for DS#2. I'm trying to figure out what to do with layouts that are of my two boys together or of the entire family, etc.

So, my question is: Do you put those kinds of layouts in the "first year" album or in the family album for that calendar year, or both? If you put them in both, how do you keep them organized on your computer until you have the layouts printed and the album actually put together?

[CA Dreamer]

I put family events that happened in their first year, in the kids first year albums too. I figure those albums may leave our house when they have families of their own(I TOTALLY don't like to think of that, but reality sets in...:( ).

As for organization, I used to keep everything in one place and have a place where pages were waiting to be printed. Now that we also make photobooks, I make a second copy of the jpeg and put it in each folder for books that will have that LO in it. Probably not an efficient way, but it is less complicated for me when doing a photobook.

[MamaBee]

Since I only have one child, not sure I can help much... :unsure:... all my layouts for the year goes into a 8x8 D ring album. For kiddo's first year of just him and learning new things... I had a photobook made. Also for special events like vacations (need to start), december daily (need to finish), week in the life (need to finish), P365 (need to start scrapping)... uhm, yeah... the plan for those to be in a photo book. Those are in separate folders on my hard drive until it's time to print.

[KateD]

I've gone back and forth about how to organize my albums. At one time (started before digi) I was doing family albums then a set of albums for both of the boys. Now I'm just planning to do the family albums and print duplicate books for the boys. I also have a paper album for each of them for school & scouts that will have mostly memorabelia in them. I keep the albums organized by year.

[TracerM]

I keep separate albums for my niece and nephew. If there is a layout with them both in it or the entire family, I put a copy of the layout in each album.

[Trista]

I just read something on a blog about album/layout organization and I found it to be helpful. The article is here:
Anna's Blog (http://annaaspnes.typepad.com/anna/2010/09/layout-organization-photo-books-v-traditional-albums.html)

[*Celeste*]

i'm no help bc when i did the boys first year albums i was scrapping chronologically. At the time I had separate albums for each boy - that i maintained until their 3rd year. So some of my younger ones pages are the same topic as some of the older boys pages but from the older boys perspective if that makes sense? so i'd probably put the layouts in the first year album and the ones that cross over into the family album as well!

[Sweets2005]

I have one year old twins (their bday was this past Sunday!) and I put all of their pictures together in one album. Well actually, it ended up being three 3" ring binder albums (12x12)! Anyway, I did paper for their first year and just discovered digital. The thought of making 3 albums (DD, DS and family/together shots) along with taking caring of infant twins seemed too daunting so that is why I kept everything together. But now that I am doing digital, I am going back and slowly making them each an album of their first year, but *only* using my very favorite photos. It is always my ultimate goal NOT to fall behind too much! I was very proud of myself for keeping up with their photos all the way up to their birthday! :thumbup:

[Lyd]

Thanks for the suggestions ladies. And, thanks for the link to that blog article - good info there. :) I think I'll do like many of you suggested and put everything in the 1st year albums and duplicate certain layouts in the family albums. Computer organization is a whole other mess, but I'm getting it worked out in my brain. Gonna have to completely rework my current system. But, it will be better now I think.

Rebecca - Where do you get your 8x8 Ding binders and page protectors? I've only been able to find post-bound albums, and I would much prefer Ding.

[Sweets2005]

Lydia, I use the (12x12) We R Memory Keeper albums, just like in that blog post. I buy mine from RitzCamera.com. They also have 8x8:

http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/EP90571036.htm

Maybe also try amazon :)