Chatique with Laura Lou

Whether you decide to share the photos exactly as scanned, or restore them first, you want to get this part finished in a timely manner.  Because I had two beautiful leather bound photos books, I chose to create 4” x 6” layouts to fit into the pockets of the albums.  The albums also had 2 pages at the back of for CDs or DVDs.  One held all of the scanned original photos, and the other had all of the layouts on disk.  There are many 4” x 6” albums out there from the Dollar Store to folders at the photo counter to high end like I found on sale quite by accident.  If you choose to go that way you will also want all of the mini-layouts to coordinate.  I found 4x 6 Brag Book Templates fit the bill perfectly.  I also chose to stay with elements from just one kit for consistency.  I used my favorite kit for heritage.

When I started to put the albums together I had over 40 pages done, quickly, with the templates.  I turned the 4” x 6” designs upside down or flipped for some pages if the design lent itself to turning.  I made the two albums identical, one for my family and one for my brother’s. 

If you prefer a square format, check for a Quick Album.   Each design could be turned 4 ways and flipped to turn 4 more ways.  That makes the purchase of a quick album kit economical and those pages go together so quickly.  Below I show just 4 of the layouts I made, all from the same pre-made album page. 

I have printed and re-printed square format pages in large 12” x 12”, 8” x 8”. 6” x 6”, and even 3” x3” for a keychain album.

I used the French Country Album by Doris Castle at Studio Girls/Scrapbook Graphics.That album no longer exists but they have many more Quick Albums.