Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Organizing My Albums

I had NEVER liked the way my albums were organized.  No labels, not always in order, not complete.  So I was constantly looking and thinking about ways to solve that problem.  I was creating TONS of beautiful pages and then waiting weeks or months to get them into my books and onto the shelves.  Problem #2 was that with the 4 girl's, family, Christmas, and vacation albums, I had SOME idea of which was which but often we found ourselves pulling out albums at random...sort of potluck!!!  So last summer I had seen Steff's take on album labeling and I thought it was FANTASTIC and super adorable!!  She had tied a piece of ribbon around the spine and attached a card stock label to it with the name of her son and the year of that album!  So I decided right then it was something I wanted to do.  For our next crop at the attic, I took NO crop stuff...okay well I took some cause I of course thought I could tackle this project in no time and have TONS of extra time to get like 50 pages done!!  heehee!!  Little did I know that this project would take me ALL day but the results would be wonderful. 

For my labels I chose basic white cardstock and a 2 inch circle punch.  I wrote the name or theme of the album on it along with the year.  You could also use a label maker or computer for this.  I then punched two SMALL holes in the circle at the top and bottom.  I used a 1/8th inch circle punch for this (think MINI hole puncher).  You could use a regular whole punch or Crop-A-Dile as well.  I really wanted to keep those holes on the small side.  I then took a yard of ribbon or tulle or BOTH in a pattern that matched the album, theme, or taste of the person, threaded it through my label and tied it around the spine of that album.  Some times making big fluffy bows, simple knots, or I hid the knots on the inside of the album.  It just depended on how it looked with the type of ribbon I used.   I even dangled charms from some of the bows!!

The pictures don't do this a ton of justice but TRUST me they look really CUTE!!!  You can see the big tulle bow but also look at the green album.  Its a family one...a very simple line, knot tied to the inside with that awesome chenille ribbon.  Since I have four girls it's usually the bigger the bow the better!!!


and here is a close up of the labels...


I of course baby Paisley got paisley ribbon and tulle on her book!!!

AND I decided to rotate an album on display.  I need to get a stand to put it on!  It is funny...I don't know why it took me so long to set one of the albums out.  Probably because of the little hands, but now that I have found a fairly safe spot it is getting looked at so much!!
What are your tips for labeling or organizing albums?  Are the out on a shelf or in your crop room???  Do you keep up with putting away your pages?

4 comments:

KB said...

Super cute idea! KB

Lindsay said...

Love it! I want to try this with my albums.

Teresa said...

LOVE this idea!! But I'm stuck. I have an OCD confession. I've got tons of pages done, in protectors...just needing albums. I've gotten stuck on what type of album to use and I have this notion that I need the same album, maybe in a different color for each kid so everything can be the saaame. But then what do you do if the company stops making the album!! AAAHHHHHH!! So, I'm probably the only crazy one stuck with such a situation....but I wanted to know if you use a certain type of album or if you mix and match. This labeling would seem to work with all album types and coordinate them well.
Whew...can't believe I just aired that for all to see ;) My dirty laundry is out for all to see!! :)

JennK said...

Love this.. I did this similar with the round tags you find at a office supply store or the school suplies at wm.. and tied it into the bow..:)