Scrapbooking for busy moms!!!

I love to scrapbook. But ever since my sweet girl arrived on the scene 3 years ago, my plans of creating beautiful memory albums for our family have long vanished. They have now been replaced by a desperate hope to one day complete our 1/4 finished wedding scrapbook, begun over 4 years ago. Sigh…

I am really, truly, honestly fine with the fact that I don’t have the time to scrapbook, nor the ability to keep my children out of the bits and pieces when I try to. I am willing to accept that a family album will be little more than some photos slid into slots, with the odd date scrawled on the back of a photo. But today I discovered that it doesn’t have to be this way!

Take a look at the beautiful pages that I put together, in a 20 page album for my mom’s Christmas gift. All told, I spent about 4 hours finishing the entire album. Here are some examples:

Sorry these pictures don’t have amazing color, so it’s hard to see the details really well, but trust me- they look so adorable!

It is an Album Kit, made by K & Company. It came with pre-decorated pages (with designs and places for photos, and some words), and several pages of beautiful, easy to use embellishments.

I’ve just been given another similar album, by the same company, but this one comes with 6 completely premade pages, which I will use as templates for my others to make it all match.

I used to think that these album kits were a really frivolous waste of money, but in a conversation with my husband yesterday, I changed my mind. I often bought random scrapbooking supplies when I saw them on sale, and currently have two large rubbermaids full of various papers, stamps, ribbons, etc. The problem is, it takes a lot of time, creativity, patience, and hard work to come up with albums using all of these bits and pieces. Although these premade kits cost more upfront (although I got mine for a steal at Homesense, sort of a housewares outlet store), I actually believe that they will be a far better investment for two reasons:

1) Everything matches everything else- I will not need to purchase extra items to make it all work together, nor do I have to wrack my brain to come up with cute ways to use what I have.

2) I will actually use my albums, and (miracle of all miracles!) I will complete them and have the end result of a beautiful album!

I love it! Maybe now I can finish my wedding scrapbook before our Golden Anniversary!