Be Prepared! May 4, 2010

Hands up all the girl scouts/guides who had this drummed into them many years ago.  Yep!  Me too.  Pity I didn’t pay more attention to the advice in recent years.

I like to make albums and photobooks with themes – weddings, trips, life so far for the grandkids – that sort of thing. But I also prefer to make the individual pages myself using scrapbooking techniques as this gives me more creative freedom.   But these take longer than just opening up the photobook software and shoving in pictures and adding a dash of text.  So, when a great special comes along from a favorite photobook company with a short time limit, I’m never ready! One came in just this morning, a buy one get one free, but it is only good for a fortnight.  Can I do 40 pages in 14 days the way I want them?  Nooooooo….  So once again I promise myself I will ‘BE PREPARED‘.

Here’s my plan:

1. Decide on my theme  (first cab off the rank is our trip to Margaret River)
2. Organise photos (get them into time taken order, cull the bad ones, decide which ones deserve a full photopage spread…)
3. Choose my page size, shape, style… (A4, landscape)
4. Plan the look  ( master background page using a picture of some fallen gum leaves – Margaret River has lots of eucalypt forests, and I’m working on some simple embellishments to go in blank spots)
5. Gather extras (scan things like tickets and brochures, hunt down interesting facts about the places visited to add to the story…)
6. Prepare the pages
7. Wait for the next great special to come along and
8. Put the book together and place the order!

I don’t plan to pre-prepare the book because you just never know who is going to offer a special. But if the pages are ready, then it won’t take long to load them and work up a cover.

Now I just have to listen to my own advice and stick to the plan. Right now I am at Step 4.

If you like my Margaret River background, you can download it free here.  It is A4 size but you can trim it to fit your own needs.

Enjoy!