Playing catch up...

I was doing it yesterday, something I've tried to get out of the mindframe of forever. You know, that intense desire to get "caught up." It's something I've heard people like Donna Downey warn against (loved her at a CKU telling us to basically do a month in review page or year in review and then let everything else be gravy). It's something I've tried to rally members against (because really, you'll never caught up and if you do, then at some point you probably stopped really living and moved into your cave of a scraproom!!)

So it's worth revisiting again. I've got a couple tricks up my sleeve because my scrapping time has been slashed with work and having a more active (translation, crazy) life than I did a couple years ago when I really could get it all done. Some are old, some are new and I'd love to hear more of your suggestions.

1. Many of you have heard me talk about the annual album I make for my second-grade age BIL, Will. Basically I take a 4 by 6 album, some 4 by 6 pieces of Bazzill and all the random photos I've collected over the year. It took a morning and I had captured the essence of a year in this boy’s life! PS, this year I got to use up all my KI Fusion so it was rewarding to me as well to cut into my stash. Here's a sample of a page from an earlier book:



2. Like I said earlier, many of the SB personalities push those "year in review" books and I totally see the sense in those. Around the beginning of the year, there are always online classes available for this or go out on your own right now. Make it 1-2 pages per month and 12 to 24 pages later and you're done. Find a nice, clean sketch that will accommodate 8-12 pics and let loose. Make it as simple or as complex as you would like, but you get this done and then there is no guilt when you stay up an entire night cutting swirls out of a piece of Cherry Arte paper for one layout about spring flowers or something equally indulgent. Here's a VERY OLD sample from one I did one year as part of Beth Proudfoot's class through BPS, be kind:



3. Last night I started work on something I've been wanting to start for a long time that is 100% for and about Dylan -- his school album. I have been holding on to an old SB Etc. School edition where I saw some ideas. Basically, I'm getting an 8.5 by 11 3-ring album and it will be the place for his school pics, his artwork and anything else I want to include. I know we were all just talking about whether you scrap those - this is the perfect destination. Mine will have tabs for each grade level. I'm so excited, yesterday I scrapped his Halloween party for preschool last fall and it was too cute! Not to mention I got 12 or 15 pics on a two page LO...not too shabby. Sorry, no pics yet, but you get the idea

I'd love to hear how the rest of you try and feel like you're "caught up." Feel free to share in the comments (or express your feelings of overwhelming stress).