Album preference?

[ricslady]

I got my prints today from Persnickety Prints and I'm going to head to Hobby Lobby this evening to get albums. What do you prefer, ring or ...?

[rach3975]

Exciting! I love getting new prints. I don't think there's any perfect solution.

I use postbound albums and replace the posts with Snapload. (Snapload is a plastic system by the Pioneer album company, and I think their 12x12 postbound albums come with it already installed.) I like the album size and appearance, but the metal screw-in posts are a pain when you want to add pages.

I tried my first 3ing album this year for Project Life. I like the ease of opening and closing it to add pages, but it's so much bigger than a postbound album and takes up too much space in my bookcase. Also, my kids can hold and flip through a postbound/Snapload 12x12, but not a 3ing 12x12. For that they need a table and it's still unweildy. So I'll probably go back to postbound/Snapload next year.

[Sherri Tierney]

I have never heard of Snapload. Very interesting. I remember when strap hinge albums became all the rage. I couldn't wait to get one. I hated it. I went back to my post bound. The straps were just too annoying as were the metal rimmed pages they held.

No advice on albums as I don't do albums and do photobooks instead.

[Txcorey]

I order my albums online. I like the leather American Crafts 12x12 D ring albums. I prefer the look of post bound, but since I scrap out of order but like my pages in chronological order, the D ring albums make more sense for me.

[DawnMarch]

I recently switched all my albums to 12x12 D ring. I really came to hate the post bound albums over time -- the spines were always falling off and it is such a pain to add pages. I had a huge mis-matched collection and went with a matching set of WR Memory Keepers D ring albums.

[tanyiadeskins]

I am only doing mine as printed books these days from Persnickety I love em.

[NeverendingJen]

We R Memory Keepers D ring in faux leather from Target

[Nettio]

I have the American Crafts cloth D-Rings but if I were buying all new now, I'd go with the WRMK D-Rings. They have so many colors and I like their page protectors more than AC. The AC ones are kind of flimsy and droop a bit in the albums.

[ricslady]

Our Hobby Lobby only had The Paper Studio brand but I think I got a good deal. I got a 12 x 12 post bound faux leather with 100 page protectors for $29.99. It's expandable but I doubt I'll ever add more pages to it as it's already thick and heavy with the 100 pages. I should be good for awhile.

On a side note, 12 x 12 prints are HUGE!

[joelsgirl]

Originally Posted by DawnMarch

I recently switched all my albums to 12x12 D ring. I really came to hate the post bound albums over time -- the spines were always falling off and it is such a pain to add pages. I had a huge mis-matched collection and went with a matching set of WR Memory Keepers D ring albums.

This is me. I HATE redoing all the post bound albums everytime I order new prints, plus there isn't a standard size, so I have like four different brands of page protectors & I have no idea which album some of them go with. The Pioneer ones are like $5 for 5 page protectors, but the ones at Michael's that coordinate with the Recollections albums, come 10 in a pack. It made my head spin trying to get all my albums coordinated the other day.

I'd totally go Ding if I were you.

[Keely~B]

I love a D-Ring, compared to my old post bound albums, they're just the bee's knees. I use American Crafts and I've been happy with them but when I fill up the ones I have I'll think I'll be trying the WRMK as well.

[lorryfach]

Originally Posted by ricslady

On a side note, 12 x 12 prints are HUGE!

Yeah, that's why I never scrap that big. The few square LOs I made, I printed 8x8 and now I do 11x8.5.

[ricslady]

I had a terrible time getting my prints into the 12 x 12 page protectors because the pages were so close together. Next time I'll get D-Ring. That will be awhile though because I only have 19 prints in 100 page protectors. I have 181 to go before it's full.

I also got an 8 x 8 post bound for my random scrap pages. That one only had 10 page protectors. I like that size better so IF I ever get the other album filled I'm going to switch to the smaller size. I think 10 x 10 would be nice Maybe by then they will offer albums in that size. I saw that Shutterfly now has 10 x 10 books.

[Darcy Baldwin]

I've used both post bound (that I would use the extensions to make the posts taller or replace with th snapload straps - I prefer the snapload - but if you do any post bound album too large, they're going to be unweildy and move around on your). I've used ring albums and just prefer them because of their east of movement and ease of putting photos into an album. Since I don't scrap chronologically but I do store chronologically, I've found I just before the rings.

They don't lay out as nicely on 2 page spreads as post bound do, but I'm okay with that.

[ricslady]

Speaking of double page spreads. I love them but they sure make it hard to plan when you aren't doing a printed book. I had several months in review that I did 2 page spreads for but I didn't account for the single page in the front so now I need to do a cover page or something. I've vowed to only do them in the future for printed books.

[Darcy Baldwin]

I do them all the time! I just either stick a page in front even if it's a little out of order chronologically, it's not by more than a few days/week or so. I'm a huge 2page scrapper!

[farrijc]

I keep a running list of pages I'm planning on doing... that way I know I won't get stuck with a random page here or there when I start filling my album. I don't date every page either, so it's a good reference because I do like the pages to be in chronological order. My albums are a mix of one page and two page layouts, plus PL pages at the beginning and end of the month so I need my list to keep it all straight I put them in a 3 ring binder, and this works for me!