hi

i am an extreme novice to the forum never done anything like this before, so apologies if not doing it correctly

I have been cardmaking for 18months now and got into scrapbooking a year ago, i mainly scrap on the floor in our conservatory with my eight year old son, who is also a keen crafter.  I have thousands and I mean thousands of photo's to sort and go through, some dating back 50 years, I love all the great products that you can get with scrapbooking but seem to get myself in a bit of a pickle when trying to co-ordinate papers etc any help or tips would be gratefully appreciated.
xxx

Hi Tracy,
We are so glad you joined us. One thing you have to remember when scrapbooking is that it is all about the pictures. Everything else is just fluff. You are on the right track with sorting your pictures. I sort in chronoligical order. I don't always scrap that way but I do sort that way. Then when you start scrapping always remember to journal the who, what, when and where of the pictures.
If you are looking for great layout ideas I love www.pagemaps.com. It has layout designs that are awesome.
I have been scrapping for many years. Let us know if you need any assistance.
And most of all Welcome to the forum!!
Aldean

Thanks Aldean

Great tips and will browse the website on my lunch hour. I do struggle with the journalling on certain pages, especially the older photo's which should lean towards a vintage theme to accomodate the black and white photo's.  I am going to wait for my shipment from yourselves to arrive to see if my mental block will disappear.

In England we do not have as many shops and places to take classes without travelling some distances so having a website is great.

thanks

tracy

Hi Tracy, I just was at the pagemaps site and it is full of great ideas!  I am new to scrapping myself, but find this to be an interesting & different way to learn from others & get ideas...  I know what you mean about going through tons of pictures!  I am currently going through my sons pics, a vacation we took, as well as our wedding.  I didn't realize how many pics I had, now the hard part is to figure out which ones to use!!  I am also waiting for my recent order of goodies from this site and can't wait to get started!  Do you have a certain project that you were going to start with?  I think I will start with my 2 yr. old son's album, as I find EVERYTHING about him fascinating, he seems to teach ME something everyday!!  I never knew what life was really about until I looked into those precious eyes of his for the first time!!  How old is your son?
My (Joey) loves to color and paint and I hope oneday I learn enough to teach him how to do crafts too!  
Take Care!
Maria  :0)

Hi Maria

My son Kieran he is 8 yrs old going on 18 sometimes, he loves crafting and has great ideas, he is also a wizz on the computer so it is great for him to go on the computer print aload of journalling stuff off me using different fonts etc, I am waiting for my order to come so i can sit on my conservatory floor and have a good play and sort out all my equipment, papers etc, I went onto pagemaps and printed off a raft of the layout ideas, to get my imagination flowing, the only thing is I'm stuck at work worrying about bricklayers completing there work in the lovely british weather, and i would rather be at home crafting away, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on computer programs for printing photo's I have a few on the computer, and i have tried printing them out but they don't come out very well HELP!!
I need then to sort photo's out into groups so i can starting compiling the layouts I am going to start with all my sons photo's first starting from when he was a baby (eight years to catch up)  In between doing his I want to set up scrapbook for my mum and Dad who have relocated to france, last november who are currently finishing the renovation on this beautiful property so i have loads of before and after photo's, the have done a superb job in the timescale and I admire my father so much who has just won his battle against cancer. and my mother who has suffered many years from rheumatoid arthritis.  They are my hero's and i love them dearly.  

any way and ideas or suggestion glady accepted

thanks

tracy xx

Hi Tracy,
How cool to have a lil' assistant to help you with printing up your journal pages!!  I can't believe these kids and computers nowadays.
My 2 yr. old already tries to play games on the computer and it just blows me away!
My friend bought a digital camera that came wtih a photo printer which she says was a great investment/a bit pricey for me though...
I just download my photos to my local "Sams Club"  ( a wholesale discount store here, I am not sure if you have them there or not) I pay .19  for each pic and the software on their site allows you to do black and white, different size pics, crop and all sorts os neat things!
Don't worry that you have 8 yr. to catch up on as far as your son' book it sounds like he will be more than happy to help.  That will be a great way to spend time together,  since he can give you HIS input on HIS book!  
It is very sweet that you are doing a book for your folks, I can tell  you all are very close with them and that will make the book all that more special! A friend of mine did a book for her folks and titled it "Heritage" and with the old world paper and embellishments she used for then along with the current date pages, it was a really neat book to see!
Good luck w/ remodeling, NEVER fun, but the end result will be worth it!
I hope not to sound naive' but you mention sitting on the conservatory floor to scrap, what is a conservatory?
I know it is hard to sit at work when you have so many other things you are thinking about doing, I work from home p/t which makes it really tempting to just go into the next room and start on a project or what not, but I do my best to stay in my office until I reach my quota and I just think Friday is coming, Friday is coming...Ha!Ha!
Here's to tomorrow, my favorite day of the week!!  Hope you have a fun weekend with your son!
Take Care!
Maria   :0)

Hi Tracy,
What i did with my son's pictures was i put them all on TONS of cd's. It took me an entire weekend of scanning them to my computer and using the kodak machine at Walmart, but i scanned them all and labeled each CD with whatever the theme was. One CD is pictures of Water Time. From the pool, to the ocean, the bath,and anything else water related. I have another CD of "nice" pictures. Once they are all on CD they are really easy to print because you can "edit" them when you scan them. Then you should be able to take the CD anywhere to print, even your home. Seeing as you have 8 years to catch up on, your CD's can be for each year. The other nice thing about having them on CD is that it is really fast and easy to pick and print the ones you like. You shouldn't rush yourself either, take the time, work on one page at a time, and enjoy it. I also have a fire safe that i put all my picture cds and scrapbooks in so if there were ever a fire...i NEVER lose my pictures! Hope that helps!
Cheers!
Cassandra

hi cassandra

thanks for the great tips, but for some reason when I am printing the photo's off the come out grainy - I have a hp inkjet printer which is suppose to be the bees knees for photo's ( i think not) i have tried every setting gone through reams of paper and wasted lots of photo paper apart from standing on my head i think i have tried everything - I must be doing something wrong or its the photo paper I'm using. i bought glossy but someone advised me that matt is better is that correct!!!

thanks

tracy

hi maria

Nice to hear back from you, A conservatory is what we brits use as a summer house its attached to the back of the property and is mainly glass structure - its great because it has a good floor area so me and kieran can craft away and what qvc for inspiration the only thing it can get rather hot in the summer and my glue melts Ha ha !! (even for our british summer) I am actually a Base and Brickwork Manager for the people who make and build conservatorys, so i have the precious job of controlling 10 rather awkward bricklayers and sometimes being a woman in a mans world can be tough but they are a great bunch and sometimes using my womanly charms gets the job done. I am certainly glad its friday been tough week this week as we have had a few bad weather days again so the brickies have not been able to do much which adds pressure on get the jobs finished and ready for the conservatory frames to go on top, but hey ho its weekend and I'm obviously having a little break whilst typing this message to you.
any way you have a super weekend and hope to chat again soon.

tracy x

Hi Tracy,
I use both matte and glossy. What kind of a camera do you have? I have a digital but the resolution/mega pixels was set at its lowest level which was causing really bad printing of pictures. So i read the instruction book and i put it up to its higest level and bought a brand new memory card( it allowed me to hold 400 pictures instead of 50) and that made a really big difference. Generally good digital cameras allow you to have that option. Another thing  might be your ink. If you use just plain ink on the cheaper side, your pics will turn out grainy from that too. Try the best ink you can get on a matte photo and see how it turns out. So look at your camera (even get someone at a store to)and check out the ink. Just because it says it is good for pictures doesn't mean it is the best.
Have a Great Weekend
Cheers!
Cassandra

hi cassandra

thanks for getting back to me thats great advice, but since i last posted a message to you ASDA (walmart) emailed me with a great offer to print the photos for less than .3pence which is really cheap over here, so i have been sitting at my computer and uploaded over 600 photo's, to which you can crop and request sizes . so this weekend I am going to take great advantage of this offer and upload at least another 800 photo's and get them all done in one fell swoop.  I maybe cheating a little but as you can see i would have over 1400 photo's to mess about with and the cost of the ink and paper would amount too alot more than doing it myself (any excuse) and ideas or storage solutions ha ha

have a fab weekend

tracy x

Hi Tracy,
A conservatory sounds beautiful!  How inspired you must be when your are crafting in there!  
I think it sounds like a neat job to make them, but,  I can understand it must have its moments working with a bunch of men and being the only gal!
We may go to the zoo tomorrow, we finally have had 2 days in a row of decent weather here and my son has never gone yet..
I think it will be a good opportunity to get some great pics too!
Do you have any favorite pics or ideas from your son that you have found as you are sorting through all of your pics now?
Hope you are enjoying your days off!!
Take Care!
Maria  :0)

Hi Tracy. I am Liz and I am also from the U.K.
I found a great site to order your photo prints. It is called Pixum when you sign up they will credit your account with free prints I had 50! Also there is Snapfish, Jessops, Photobox and myPIXmania. I hope this has helped i find it easy to just order the prints for a few layouts so I am not overwhelmed and then when I am half way through I order the next set of prints. I am so glad I found this great site and what fab kits. I only ordered mine on Tuesday and I am already excited and really impatient  . I hope you find the websites useful and Happy Scrapping   Regards Liz : )