Oh, the memories...

[DogwoodMama]

So, true confession... I have printed very few of my pages over time. It was always something I planned to get to later, I guess? Or I had no money left to print because I was spending it all on kits? Anyway, I am finally going through my hundreds of pages (haven't counted, but probably around 200?) and saving them as jpgs and uploading to Persnickety.

I thought it would be horrible and tedious, but I'm actually having fun tweaking shadows and the pages a little bit, not redoing the whole thing but ummm my taste has changed since 2007, you know? It's sort of like scrapbooking-light, and is actually really relaxing. And I'm remembering when I got a kit (or not, some I haven't the foggiest!) and also when the LO was (why didn't I date EVERY page?) and what my thought processes were at the time (trying to scrap or shadow in a certain style.) Oh, and then of course the wonderful memories that come with what the page is about, of course.

Has anyone else had to do this? I am determined that I will get these printed! My kids are old enough that I know they will really enjoy sitting down and looking at an album. I'm going to let go of the guilt of not ever printing my pages, and just enjoy the process of getting it done.

[jacinda]

Good on you Elizabeth! You will LOVE having the printed album in your hands once it's done. I get mine printed every year. I date my layouts by year-month-day then title. E.g. 12-04-09-Easter. Then when it comes time to upload to a printing site (I get mine done in photobooks) it's soooo easy because they're already in chronological order.

[Sherri Tierney]

I have tons of printed photobooks with my layouts but nothing I consider completed since none of it is really chronological. My kids LOVE seeing the printed layouts. We get 8x8 Shutterfly books and they are the perfect size. Each kid probably has 20 books. The other night I found my 6 year old asleep in bed with a stack of books next to his head. He had been reading them before bed.

As for old layouts, well, I've long since gotten rid of the .psd files for them so no going back to tweak them. Really though, I need to go back and scrap new layouts with the same pictures because, gosh, some of them are BAD. They are pretty great layouts at the time, given what scrapping product was available. This was back in the day where nothing was scanned and extracted and everything was done digitally and papers had canned photoshop texture and that was all considered awesome.

[kristijoy]

I print mine a couple times a year. So far, I've just done individual pages since everything (but my son's is out of order). This year I'm considering doing an actual photo book for my son (2012). I love the dating idea!!

[LJSDesigns]

I've not printed a thing because I don't scrap in order and have not finished any one period of time. I was working on one using the photos from our cruise in '05 until my computer crashed taking a lot of that work with it. I lost photos and pages and just don't have the heart to try to recreate any of it right now.

Since I really want to print a book, I made the decision that I am going to print one called "A Year of Challenges" and just put all the layouts I have done for the Portfolio in it. Things will be out of order and kinda chaotic, but at least they will be printed.

[mrshobbes]

Oh my god, I am organizing my layouts to be printed, haha! I haven't had anything printed except random pages I gave as gifts. I started organizing during Lynnette's Spring Cleanathon, and am taking my time. But i'd like to send something off to be printed by my birthday.

[k23m]

yay for printing - you will LOVE having the pages in your hand!

I am in a lucky situation that I can print anytime...being the owner of a printing business! I just wish I could print books LOL. (anyone want to loan me $40k?)

[Freckles]

I've been trying to finish my 2011 book for months to get it printed in a bound book. I had about 3 sets of photos left before it would have been done. And then I browsed through all my 2011 photos again and added another 15 sets of photos that I thought needed to be scrapped. I'm always afraid my book is going to miss stuff!
@Jacinda: I date my pages like you, works really well. How do you decide when an entire year is finished? Don't you ever regret not having scrapped certain photos in your books? Do you print out your other photos in a regular photo book?

[mariewilcox]

I also print photo books chronologically. I get the 8x8 size and love them. At the end of each week (when I run a full backup of my computer), I upload any layouts I've done to Persnickety so they are save there as well as on my computer, but I delete the PSD file as soon as they're uploaded on line (big files=lots of space taken up) so I don't tweak them. I date them like Jacinda does so they are all set to plop into the book template in order.

[sprauncey1]

All i have to say is...
Why don't I date every page?!!!! I so relate!
Trying to put in order later is such a pita! Why do I not take 1 minute when I'm making the page to put the date every time!!!

good on you for printing them out, they are going to be loved!

[rainydays]

Thats awesome!! Its such a great feeling to 'finally' print them!! which reminds me I have oh a good 500 pages left to print LOL

[pomi]

That's great!

I haven't printed any of my pages yet, mainly because of tight budget. I want to print through Persnickety because I don't want anything of my layouts getting cut off, so I hope that sometime next year I send everything I have to print there (and then probably faint from bliss LOL).

[jacinda]

Originally Posted by Freckles

@Jacinda: I date my pages like you, works really well. How do you decide when an entire year is finished? Don't you ever regret not having scrapped certain photos in your books? Do you print out your other photos in a regular photo book?

Nope. My girls albums are 'fairly' up-to-date, so I don't find I re-scrap older photos as much. Sometimes I'll do a then/now page where I use older photos with a current one to compare age/growth etc. I also do P365 or P12 each year, so extra photos can go in there. I print photobooks at the end of each year, and whatever pages I've made for my girls that year, will get printed in those (between 130 and 180 pages per album on average). It doesn't worry me if I have the odd page or three at the beginning of the album that dates back to an earlier year. It's still scrapped and I'm OK with that. I still date all my layouts with the photo date, not the date I scrapped them.