Page Planning

I've enjoyed a few days off work, so I've been able to start scrapping the pictures from our trip to Washington, DC in July. I wanted to use the newest idea book Magic, which required a little planning ahead since many of the layouts use larger photos or non-traditional sizes of photos. I spent some time with the Magic book and my computer to plan out which photos I needed to get printed. I use scrapbookpictures.com  for photo printing because they offer such a wide variety of photo sizes. The 1.99 shipping in August didn't hurt, either.

I started by selecting a Magic layout, then choosing photos which fit on the layout. In a little notebook, I wrote the name of the layout, the photo sizes, and brief notes about which photos I was using on that layout. Even though this was time-consuming, it is paying off now that I have time to scrapbook! Once all the layouts were planned, I went to scrapbookpictures.com and placed my order. I especially like being able to order 2x2 or 3x3 photos instead of cropping the pictures manually. The scale is correct, and it saves a bunch of time!

When the picture order arrived, I spent some time sorting the photos by layout. If I were really organized, I would have selected the papers, too, and had that all ready. But I wasn't that organized this time. I'm finding that, because of my planning, I can get the papers cut and the basic page completed in about 15 minutes. The embellishments -- not so much! Anyone who knows me knows that the embellishing is the most time-consuming for me, but I love doing it!

Here are a couple of the results of my planning:

Here is a page in process (about visiting the Julia Child exhibit at the Smithsonian!). The Magic book is open to the layout being used. I shamelessly copied the page, down to the paper choice. Hey -- it worked for these photos! Why reinvent the wheel?

I hope this has inspired you to give Magic a try. Spending a little time in planning can reap big results when there is time to scrapbook!