Our "Wild West Adventure" Album

Wooohooo! Last week I finished scrapbooking our trip to Phoenix!

This album is one of the new PicFolio Max albums - the 12x12 Travel Quick Kit. (To tell you the truth, I didn't really think I'd like it. After all, I've been using CM's traditional 12x12 expandable albums since 1997. This one has 32 pages - period. No more, no less. But it was good for me to be limited to 32 pages. And what would I do about memorabilia? Flyers, tickets, maps - How would I include them? Stay tuned!)

I took over 900 photos (gotta love digital cameras!) during our cross-country trip to Phoenix, Arizona. Do the math: averaging 5 photos per page, that would be 180 pages. Who wants to look at 180 pages of someone's cross-country trip? So I did the math again: 32 pages times 5 photos per page = 160 photos. Could I do it? Could I really cut down 900 photos to about 160? I had to try! I used CM's Memory Manager to rate my 900 photos - 5 stars for the best - and I ended up printing about 200 of my favorites (even getting down to 200 was hard!) and then I got to work.

Using the Power Layouts Box really helped me. So did a handy form I found - I listed each topic I wanted to include in my album. (I'll try to figure out how to post the form on the blog, or ask me and I'll email it to you!) I sorted my photos onto 32 Power Layouts guides, added my memorabilia and then grabbed the stack of 32 pre-layered papers that would be my pages. The papers were so pretty and just the right colors to use with the scenic photos.

I can't believe how quickly it all came together! In less than 3 weeks, I have a completed album. And I've been showing off ever since. My dad even thanked me for the "trip out west" after he looked through it!

Oh! And the memorabilia? I have things like: brochures, maps, receipts, tickets, invitations, and business cards tucked into the open part of each page. Some are attached to the back of the paper/page and others slide out for easy reading. (In the example below, two brochures are tucked into the right-side page - one brochure is open, and there is a receipt for the museum between them.)

Thanks for looking at "Our Wild West Adventure" album!