Hi Anne,
Hey! With you on that one! I am really kind of an artsy type, so I don't mind spending extra time ("extra" is hardly a strong enough word!LOL) on my pages. My kids really love to look at their albums and I think that the stuff I do with each page is a real reflection of my personality. (Can you tell I am trying to justify the time and expense that goes into these?? ha ha) As for the empty spots, I use those pages to just journal...get down in writing things about my children that I think would be neat for them to read when they have little ones of their own..in about 50 years I hope! I write things like funny things they may be saying, words they mispronounce, etc. I also write things that are important to me..I have included poems in my albums...ones mostly about little boys etc. Another good thing to put in those spots is any memorabilia that you might have that goes with the person you are doing the album for/about. I include the kids artwork, report cards, birthday cards etc.
I hope this has helped!
~Mar~

Dear Anne,
Count me amoung the guilty too! I much prefer the pages where you spend quaility time and effort. I think if you are going to spend all this money on this project to begin with, including photo cost, paper, stickers, etc... then you should give it your best. Sure it takes longer, but if all I wanted was a couple of pictures thrown on a page then I never would have fell in love with this craft to begin with. I can already go back and look at my first pages and think how I could have done them better. While I am not yet to the point of some girls I know who will completely redo pages from when they first started, I do try and spend as much time on the page as I have money, and I think each page should show your care and best talents. Penny

Hi- I hope you guys didn't get me wrong when I said I did 19 pages in one day. You see, photography is my strong point. It is my art. I love photo essays. I love it when people look at my pages and use other senses other than sight. I want them to smell the smells, hear the noise, feel the heat. The time that is not spent in putting them in an album is quality time I spent on taking the photos. Every element in my pictures is important. One of the reasons I crop very little if at all. I love my books. They have MY personality. It's truly in my photos. When I first started scrapping, I said to my daughter, "Finally, one day you will look at these and KNOW what I was all about.":o)

Dear Pam,
Please don't take offense, we, "I" did not intend for it to seem like we were disapproving of your book, or style. This was just our personal choice of how to do this craft, and I don't want you to think we want you or anyone else to change your style to make it fit into our "guidelines" of how we chose to do this craft. If you are a skillful photographer that is a major plus for you, and being so, your pages would need less man made glamour: you know stickers, dies, etc. I am not saying I do not enjoy looking at the photos of my children, or that I am not proud of them, I personally am just not a good photographer. :( As for your 19 pages, hey, I could be jealous of that too. Sometimes I wish my books were futher along so that I had more completed pages to look at. :) If we all did it the same, how boring, the pages would all look alike, and we would be back to those drab magnetic albums of yesteryear. Scrap that way that makes YOU happy and give me some good tips for better shots, God knows I need them! :) Penny

You are so sweet. No, I never took offense. I just wanted to explain my style. I really think the scrapbooks we are designing today (in our own personal ways) are going to be like the antique needle work and quilts you see today. VERY MUCH APPRECIATED AS AN ARTFORM. Hooray for us!