I don't know what a "snap pack" is - I'm guessing it is one of those sticker-heavy 300 pc all-in-one scrapbooking kits where you punch out frames and stuff.

One option would be to make your own snap pack (or whatever). For a small project like this, you can pick out a single product line at your local scrapbooking store. You can mix and match, too - but sometimes I find it easier to have someone tell me what cardstock matches what patterned paper matches what embellishments and fonts.

I'd stick to a couple of colors and a couple of page designs and you can mix and match while making the whole book look uniform.

With small albums, you can start with 8.5x11 paper and actually print all of your titles and such from your computer and then just trim down to 8x8 or 7x7.

Another idea would be to use a pocket album. Creative Memories seems to be promoting this. I haven't tried it, but you basically can trim down pictures and decoratively mat them, make little pocket sized pages for your titles and journaling and then just slide whole photos into the others. Seems pretty quick and easy.

My third suggestion would be to use one of the online photo printing sites that sell the custom bound memory books (like snapfish, etc). Wherever you usually get your prints made probably has one of these. They have the pages already coordinated and laid out, you just need to upload pics and type in your text. Not as much creative control as a traditional scrapbook, but much less labor intensive.

good luck!
Sarah

Here is a link that might be useful: craftfetish blog

Sarah - Thank you SOOO much for your ideas! I had given up checking back here, so it took me awhile to see your post. The party I want to make a book for is next weekend, so I have been successfully overwhelming myself with various ideas since my original post! So far all I've decided is that 8-1/2 x 11 would be a better size than the small ones, because I want to have room for guests' comments/ birthday wishes (maybe written on colored cardstock?) on the pages along with photos. And yes, I am tempted by the online photo books. But then I couldn't include the birthday wishes (or maybe I could scan and upload them in place of photos in some places??).

I like your plan of keeping it simple and using coordinated papers and just a couple of layouts... I just get so overwhelmed walking through those aisles! But maybe if I go with the nautical theme and stick with blues and greens like ocean and sky... I'm not inherently creative, as you can see! Do you know of a site where I can get SIMPLE ideas for basic layouts?

By the way (off-topic warning), I checked out your blog... I can't believe it.. .I just started the Couch to 5K! Did you find that podcast that goes along with it?? Seems pretty cool... Good for you for finishing! I haven't gotten past week 2 yet...

Thanks again for all your help!

Christina

Keep at it! We ad to restart the couch to 5k thing about 9 times before we ultimately made it :)

Back on scrapbooks, if you are looking for ideas, I like scrapjazz.

They have lots of 'sketches' and layout ideas to get you started. And frequently they have sketch challenges where a bunch of different people will more or less folow the same layout. But since they all have different papers and pictures and what not, the results are surprisingly unique.

If you wanted to get a magazine, there is a series called 'simple scrapbooks' that are based on bold details and relatively simple compositions.

Try not to be overwhelmed. With a lot of sites & books, there seem to be folks using millions of products and enough new techniques to make your head spin.

We can tackle head spinning on the next project :) For now, stick to just a few new things.

Here is a link that might be useful: scrapjazz