I have a decision to make

[KateD]

I have to decide what direction to go with my scrapping and our family albums. I went digi starting last year, but I have 28 Creative Memories 12x12 albums in varying stages of completion for the first 11 years of our marriage. I also have enough paper and supplies to complete the albums (except I'd probably have to get more adhesive).

The thing is, I really like digi. I've already decided to do my boys' albums digi, which means re-making a few layouts. I didn't really have a lot of theirs done, though.

So do I stay true to the paper scrapping for my pre-2009 albums? Do I do a mix of paper layouts and digi layouts that I print out and put into the paper albums? Do I scan the paper layouts and include with digi layouts in photbooks? Or do I save all my paper layouts in 4-5 albums and re-do everything in digi? I'd prefer to have my digi layouts in printed photobooks rather than individually printed in paper albums.

The space I'd save by going all digi would be tremendous. I have an entire bookshelf plus part of a second full of albums. Not to mention all the space my paper supplies take up. I really do like making the paper layouts, however I'm not sure how happy I'll be with the paper layouts I'd make because I can make much prettier layouts in digi.

I just hate the thought of getting rid of all those albums that I spent thousands of dollars buying.

Any suggestions?

[MichaelsMomJo]

When I made the switch from paper to digi, I printed out the layouts I was making to complete the books that I had already started with paper. So those books are a mix of paper and digi. I had only done a couple of my son's baby layouts in paper, so I redid those. As for my supplies - some got sold on eBay and Craig's List. Some were given to friends who paper scrap. Some of the paper was donated to my son's preschool. They were thrilled to get it! I have very little of my paper scrapping supplies left. Just a couple of things I wanted to hold on to for craft purposes.

[nun69]

I haven't swtiched and I LOVE my paper stuff but CM has protective pages ypu can buy now that you can incorporate into your already 12x12 albums I LOVE my CM albums and don't think I will ever really get rid of all my paper stuff, but I think you can totally print digital and mix it with paper

[maryinaz]

I have hundreds and hundreds of paper layouts and I've never scrapped chronologically and I am mixing in digi with paper. My son just graduated from high school, so I went through his albums to see where there were holes and quickly scrapped a bunch of digi layouts, had them printed, then inserted them. I put all his albums out at his grad party and NO one could even tell the difference at first look. Of course, not telling the difference isn't really my goal, but the bottom line is that I just don't have time to re-do all those layouts and I think mixing the 2 is perfectly acceptable. And anyway, I love my paper layouts and would never want to get rid of them.

[kristijoy]

I know exactly what you mean. I have our family & heritage albums with lots of paper scrapping in 12x12. I add to those frequently with my new DIGI layouts. So I'm sticking with 12x12 for those. I mix my digi and paper LO's in those. I don't want to re-do everything. My paper days were special too!

But...I have decided that next year for my son's chronological album I will do a photobook. Not sure if it will be 8x8 or 12x12.

So I think it depends on what you feel like doing. I would definately say go for mixing your digi & paper LO's in the albums you have mostly done. And then perhaps consider all digi for your kids!

[Chantal Miller]

that is a tough one... and you don't need to decide now, unless of course you are cramped for space. I've not used a traditional 12x12 sheet in over 2 years and only got rid of mine a few months ago.

[Darcy Baldwin]

I chose to complete my paper albums in paper and started with digi fresh on a particular year.

That being said, I finally got sick of having to go back and do paper layouts, so that last year's album will be finished in digi. I got rid of all my paper stuff except for a few pieces of hardware (cutter, scissors, etc) and some supplies for the boys' art stuff. I either sold it, gave it away to other scrappers, or donated it.

[Emmy]

I have been ignoring this question for about 5 years lol. It is just too much for me to think about. I have sold or gotten rid of 90% of my paper supplies though.

[tessfull]

I was the same way when I started scrapping and I have also mixed it up. I fill in the gaps with my digi pages - so I have a mixture of both. Eventually I hope to go all digital.

[sprauncey1]

Fill them in with digi pages. You can hold on to the paper stuff for a while but you'll probably not go back to it. But I wouldn't throw away the albums...they are a part of your past scrapping. And you are going to in a year look at your first digi pages and think that you need to re-scrap them...but don't because again they are part of your scrapping past.

But start in with the digi now because it is so addictive and you don't need any adhesive!!!

[KateD]

I took a closer look at my albums this morning and of the 28 albums I have, only 7 actually have any layouts in them. Most of the ones that have layouts only have a few and some of those are my old-old style layouts from when I was doing post-bound albums before I found CM. There's really only two years (2004&2007) that have any significant amount of layouts done. I think for now I'll work on those years when I have the urge to play with scissors and adhesive and put off making the decision on the other ones for now. By the time I get around to deciding what to do about the other albums, I'll probably have so many of those layouts digi-scrapped for my kids' albums that I'll just finish them in digi.

[KateD]

Originally Posted by sprauncey1

Fill them in with digi pages. You can hold on to the paper stuff for a while but you'll probably not go back to it. But I wouldn't throw away the albums...they are a part of your past scrapping. And you are going to in a year look at your first digi pages and think that you need to re-scrap them...but don't because again they are part of your scrapping past.

But start in with the digi now because it is so addictive and you don't need any adhesive!!!

I'll definitely never get rid of those albums; although I may consolidate all the layouts into 2-3 of the paper albums. I've gone through several "styles" of paper scrapping (I started on 8-1/2 x 11 sheets of printer paper) and I still have all the old pages, although I have redone some of them for newer albums.

I've been digi scrapping for 1-1/2 years now, so I'm already looking at some of my early layouts and wanting to re-do those. It isn't so much the style of my scrapping - although that has changed a lot - but the style of the kits I was using. One of the things that I like about SSD is that while the style of the kits varies, they all have a similiar "paper-ish" look to them so they'll give consistency to the albums. I won't go back and re-do all, or even most, of my layouts, but I probably will change a few so the albums look right when I have them printed. And I'll always have the digi-files of the original layouts to look at.

[MamaBee]

I struggle with this too... I still have all my paper stuff... I will purge some, but will keep most. I do hybrid and still do make pre-made paper scrapbook albums for family and friends who get married or have babies...

I have two big 12x12 albums from when my son was born... and I look back and cringe. LOL! I know that most important thing is that the memories are captured and I can see the growth as a scrapbooker... but it doesn't stop me from wanting to get the UN-DU out! LOL! In fact I was toying with redoing them into paper 8x8... but I have so much other scrapping to do, that I think I'll just leave it alone.

Do you follow Ali Edwards? She does a lot of mix albums of paper and digi... very cool!

[KateD]

Originally Posted by MamaBee

Do you follow Ali Edwards? She does a lot of mix albums of paper and digi... very cool!

I've been following her on Twitter, but I guess I need to check out her blog. Thanks for the tip.

[A-Manda Creation]

Can you scan in the layouts you have already made and make them into a photo book? I am sure we can all agree that if we look back at some of our first pages they are no where near what we are creating now! But the same will go into 10 years from now about what you are creating now! So I would hate to see you re-do everything you have already done, part of the memories and history with those books is how your style has evolved and how you created back then! I agree the space is a huge issue, but I think you can combine the 2 by scanning in the entire layout and putting it into a photo book...kinda of the best of both worlds. And scanning, though time consuming, probably wouldn't take as much time as re making 11 years worth of pages!

[KateD]

Originally Posted by A-Manda Creation

Can you scan in the layouts you have already made and make them into a photo book? I am sure we can all agree that if we look back at some of our first pages they are no where near what we are creating now! But the same will go into 10 years from now about what you are creating now! So I would hate to see you re-do everything you have already done, part of the memories and history with those books is how your style has evolved and how you created back then! I agree the space is a huge issue, but I think you can combine the 2 by scanning in the entire layout and putting it into a photo book...kinda of the best of both worlds. And scanning, though time consuming, probably wouldn't take as much time as re making 11 years worth of pages!

I'm definitely not getting rid of any of the older layouts, just thinking about maybe consolidating them into a couple of albums. Out of those 11 years of paper albums, I think I have a little more than a year fully scrapped... and those are scattered across about 5 years of albums. So if I did scan those layouts and put them in a book, they'd be mixed in the book with my newer digi layouts. I'm not sure I'd like that.