Scrapbooking Resolution: Take More Photos

I remember as a child everyone getting annoyed at my uncle who always had a camera or video camera in our faces at EVERY family event.  Now that I'm an adult, I'm glad that he did as we have a record of memories from the past.

I don't think you can ever take too many photos.  In fact, I always have my camera handy at home in case there's an oppurtunity to snap a picture.  I almost always try to take it to any family event so I can record it.  Whether it's gathering together to watch Ohio State football games or celebrating a birthday, the camera is there.

I take pictures of my nephews and nieces silly faces, funny poses, and goofy dances.  Some of them are getting to the age where they HATE getting their pictures taken and I get an occasional roll of the eyes.

Now, you may ask what do I do with all these pictures?  Most are stored on my hard drive and thumb drive.  I don't print every single picture.  Just the ones I plan on scrapping or framing are the only ones that get printed.  And when I do print them, I do it online and have them shipped to my house.  It's definitely a lot easier and most of the online photo websites have photo editors that allow you to crop and correct pictures.  I've even printed pictures as cheap as a penny a print on sites!  Most sites allow you to upload your photos and store them in 'albums' for later use.  Some of my favorite photo processing websites are:

Winkflash
Snapfish
Kodak Gallery

And what if you want to scrap all your photos, but don't want 150 layouts of one person's birthday?  A few companies have started making 12x12 photo sleeves for your albums.  We R Memory Keepers and American Crafts are two companies that have sleeves for albums that hold 4x6 photos (or other sizes), enabling you to have photos and layouts in your scrapbooks.  These companies also make sleeves that hold larger and smaller photos in addition to 4x6 photos.  In addition to photos, you can put journaling blocks or other embellishments in the blocks!  The possibilities are endless!  We have these sleeves available here at the Scrapbook Outlet and can order additional sizes if you need something special.



Don't be afraid to stage photographs either.  If you see a paper you adore, stage a picture that would be perfect.  Case in point, my 3 year old nephew got a drum set brought to him by Santa for Christmas.  I had the perfect paper and title: 'Little Drummer Boy'.  I made him pose with the drumsticks and took lots of pictures with him playing the drums (very LOUDLY, I might add...) 

So...this year resolve to capture more memories on your camera.  Don't be afraid to take pictures and if you're like me, endure complaints from the subjects.    Take pictures of a child playing with a toy, a dog playing in the snow, or a haircut.  Take pictures of your flower garden, your house, or your car covered in the first snow of the season.  In ten years, you won't regret having records of these memories.

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