Let's Talk Album Organisation!

I think as scrapbooker's and crafter's we are always striving to achieve that ultimate organisation for our supplies, tools, photos, memories and creations (at least I know I am). That is why this year we are bringing a new segment to our community to talk all things organisation! 

We are going to kick it off with album organisation since we first began our creative retail journey as a dedicated scrapbooking store in 2021. We know there are so many different types of albums out there, from 6x8 format to tags, journals, memory planners and so many more but we are going to keep it simple today and stick with the traditional 12x12 albums. 

Here is a small portion of my 12 x 12 albums and how I store them, these are ongoing (not completed) so they are stored in my craft room so I can access them easily and add layouts. Personally I prefer the D - Ring albums by We are Makers but it really is a personal preference whether you like post bounds or D-ring and what brand. 

There are so many ways you can store your layouts in albums and I think (from plenty of research) the most common way is to have a chronological album for each year where all layouts get put. This is the way I started off at the very beginning (over 12 years ago) and it worked until my life got more interesting and I found I wanted to document more things. 

The other really popular way people get about this is by doing "Project Life" - a concept originally founded by Becky Higgins and uses pocket pages to add more photos and document every day life experiences. This allows you to get more stories told without the bulk that telling one story per page brings with 12 x 12 layouts. 

After a lot of research, youtube videos and trial and error I finally found out what works for me in this stage of life of being both a mum, business owner, partner, pet lover etc and I am going to share it with you in the hopes it helps. Some topics I am going to touch on in further depth in future blog posts, so as not to over crowd this one. 

So... what is my ultimate album storage at the moment? I use these navy blue albums for our Family Albums where start with a title page (usually the photos I liked most from the timeline of the album) then document my stories of the family in chronological order. If I could not fit all photos on my page I will include a little pocket page or some flip flaps which also creates interest for the reader. 

Sometimes these albums expand into three or four albums for the year (especially in the toddler phase were in) so I just split them up into seasons and label them as Jan-Apr 2025 for example. More on these albums later. 

I found that there were stories I wanted to tell that did not fit a chronological timeline so I created an album for each family member. This is an example of the title page on Oliver's baby album, but after his first year he has gotten another album and I just keep expanding them as "Volume 2" etc as they fill up.

In here are stories about how he has grown, comparing photos from say 6 months old to photos at 3 years old - this wouldn't fit in with my chronological time line but I felt it was a story I would cherish for ever more! I also have layouts included about his favourite things at the time, stories he's told, little quirks he had at each age. 

I think it's important to point out that whilst that is an example of Oliver's album, we each have one and they get added to as I come across stories to tell. Even our pets have one - although theirs is combined into a pet's album for all 6 of them and I will touch on that later.

Another type of album I found myself needing is the "... and I" album - this one is the Jacques and I album. It houses all the stories I have about Jacques and I's relationship, the adventures we have been on and general information that just felt like it needed to be documented. 

As we grow as a family I have expanded this to an "Oliver and I" and an "Oliver and Jacques" album too. I will admit these don't get filled up as much as the Jacques and I albums but when I open them up and read the stories I feel they have their place. 

Now because we are in our adventure phase of life with young children we take a lot of photos at zoos, theme parks etc. This brought the need for an "Adventure album" to hold all those photos and document the little stories that come with them - like how a goat tried to eat the contents of our pram one day at the zoo!

I quickly found that we needed one for each year, so we have a 2025 Adventures album that houses the travelling and adventures we went on with most of the photos - these our summarised in our family album too (with a handful of photos from the event) so we can see them in the timeline. Each new adventure has a title page to mark that it is starting and contains pocket pages when needed to fit all the photos. 

Whilst these are the albums I have found I need to get our family and personal stories told, yours may be completely different. It is important to remember there are no rules in creativity or scrapbooking so you need to stretch the ideas to suit your needs. 

We would love to hear how you store your layouts and what your album organisation is! 
You can share it with us on the community page or leave us a comment below! 

Until next time, have a creative day xx