Tuesday 21 July 2009

Tell me about your albums...


This is what I would like...if money & availability were no consideration...





But they are USD30 each (although I have found them here for USD25 on sale) & they are bulky so postage would be quite a consideration. Let's double it & say the best scenario would be USD50 landed. R400 each. But the problem is, to replace the albums I currently have it would cost me R16 800 as I have 42 albums! Now I WILL do it if I win the lottery, but seeing as I usually forget to even buy a ticket it is unlikely that I will win...

For those of you who don't already aspire to these beauties...they are We R Memory Keepers 3 ring, wipe-clean mock leather albums. Yes, that means no more posts! No more extenders & expanders...wow, can you imagine?! Reality is that I have wipe-clean denim-look POST BOUND albums that cost me about R120 a piece. They are usually available here so as I start filling up I just pop down the road & buy a few more. The problem is I HATE post bound albums. I also have most of them in the same colour & would now rather colour code them according to person & theme. So what's a girl to do? I don't like showing off my albums for the very reason that I don't like them. The presentation is not the best. But as such a stash junkie I don't want to give up my Cocoa Daisy subscription every month in exchange for an album a month...plus that would take me like 4 years & by then I'd only need more, LOL!

The next problem I have is how many layouts to put into one album. The albums I buy come with a PATHETIC post of just half an inch long...I mean WHERE is that going to get me??? I have been fiddling with silly little posts & extender sections for too many years now so what I came up with last year is a section of screw rod with a bolt on each end. Genius. Cheap. Perfectly functional. Does the same job as a fancy "post" but way cheaper & no problems to report a year on...Just pop into your local hardware store, grab a screw stick (they sell them in metre lengths) - smile sweetly at the attendant (if you can find one LOL) - & tell him you'd like it cut into 12 lengths of 8cm each (or adjust your length/quantity accordingly) - then tell him you'll be back to collect it later...they do it FOR FREE so enjoy a cappuccino while you wait!

When my albums are lying flat they are 10 cm high - in other words the spines are 10cm wide. I used to like the look of thick albums - now I'm not so sure...they seem so daunting when I plonk them down on visitors laps & kids struggle to manoeuvre them. Albums should be a joy to show off...I want We R Memory Keepers!!! I know...It's this darn internet thing again...if I hadn't discovered them I'd be none the wiser...but I have & they just keep calling me...I can't shut the voices up!!! So what I want to know from you is :-

1.
What albums do you use? (Manufacturer, fabric/faux-leather, colour, etc)

2. How thick do they lie? (ie - how wide is the spine)?

3. Are they post-bound albums or 3 ring albums?


4. If you "extend" your posts beyond the supplied spine what then? Have you made your own spines? If so, do you just use matching
cardstock? (The spines that come with my albums can only expand to a couple of inches - 5cm- deep & I want my albums wider than that, reason being to have less albums...)

5. How many layouts do you put into each album? (I put 22)


PULEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZE...You know I never demand comments but just this once I would really like as much feedback as possible 'cos this issue is distressing me & I need to know how others deal with it...Please! ;-D Some of my best feedback comes from you guys so please take a minute or two to let me in on your systems...thanks!

{{{BTW check out the link & order for yourself if you can afford it as this is definitely the best price online at the moment - I really want to order all my albums at the same time so I won't be doing so in the near future!!!}}}

14 comments:

topkatnz said...

I have post-bound albums as like you I go on cost ... they are however colour co-ordinated per.person /subject. To get around that you could cover your albums in colour groups and/or just the spines??????? Realistically, I do not love my post-bound albums, and I have 'retro-fitted' some with flexible plastic strips, secured at the front and back, and these are much nicer...but, how often do older albums really get looked at anyway??? Like you I do like the look of D-Ring albums better, and they seem like they would be more versatile and functional ... although I have heard reports that the pages can be hard to turn, and can rip at the holes easily(think kids school folders!!) If you seriously want to replace your albums, just do it for the newest, current albums and leave the others for now... I put 30 LOs/15pages into each album approx. If size does bother you, make your albums smaller for newish/current albums, for veiwing, but then load them up as they become older than say a year or so, as they are bound to then not be veiwed as much...

Vicki said...

Will be using up what I have first before even considering the Memory Keeper ones. I've got about 20-25 pages in each album with a lot of spacers to make it sit flat. Mine are also colour coded for each person. I won't be going back and replacing the albums I already have because of the cost.

Stefanie said...

I don't like the 3-ring kind as the LO's can bend and buckle and be damaged if the album isn't closed properly with all the pages to the right.
The ones I am using for each year are navy faux leather Urban Memory Albums which come with 10 sleeves but I add another 20 and then they measure about 10 cms too. Total of 30 sleeves with 2 LO's per sleeve.
Mine are also colour coded for each person.

Jenny said...

I use the MM 3 ring albums. They're thick and I just put as many l/os as I can in them. I have no issues with colour coding - the only thing I do is use the same colour if I have more than one album per year (not often).

Try getting some Snaploads for your postbound albums

Lynette Jacobs said...

Wow those are gorgeous....but would cost me the earth to replace my existing ones. I also have post bound MM albums.

Bernadine said...

I also have the R120 albums which come with 10 sleeves in already and I normally add another 5 so it is not to bulky. Mine are not colour co-ordinated or year co ordinated.

I purchased a Fab Scrap album which takes 100 layouts but I find it way to bulky and heavy so I would not make that purchase again. :)

Desire Fourie said...

Sjoe Helen, you are so organised and always on a new organisation mission. I have been using leatherlook albums for nearly 10 years now. The album page size to fit into the sleeves are 30x30cm and the album covers are made of 'hard'board and not 'card'board as most albums one get ... this can carry quite a load of layouts. I have these albums custom manufactured here in South Africa. You can have a look over at www.doinglife.co.za at them. To display my albums I also use custom made wooden album stands which makes your albums instantly and constantly admirable. Happy planning.
Hugs
Desire

Ella Swan said...

Well thank you ladies for your detailed feedback...it really is much appreciated. Heidi - Unfortunately it never occurrred to me to colour-co-ordinate per person until it was too late & I had way too many. I have thought of a way of overcoming it though. A while ago (several years ago in fact!) a friend of mine (who no longer lives in Durban unfortunately) covered all her "like" albums with a plastic sleeve (available here but all too narrow to be used on thick albums as the spine width is not adequately alowed for...)but she cut the plastic so that it did not go around the spine - only on the front & back with a "fold" allowance (ie a double 1" hem) which she eyeleted then she laced the spine with a ribbon & it looked too beautiful. I have often thought of doing it but the thought is rather dauting with so many albums, but I think this may be the year to get that organised, as the WRMK albums are just not in my budget for the foreseeable future unfortunately...and I was thinking that the ribbons could be different colours...If I did an album every weekend or so I could have them all done within the next year, which I think is quite a realistic time frame given the quantity as I can't "stop life" to get them all done in one hit - and that would bore me stiff anyway! I don't know what you mean about "retro-fitted" but it sounds quite cool...do you mean so that they now look like ring-binder albums? If so that is also a very seriously cool idea, but don't think we get flexible plastic here...would have to be leatherette, like what upholsterers use...Only problem with that one now is that I don't think that any of my albums are in their final order, as I still have 3 albums's worth (I know because I use cheap "holding albums" to put page kits into...and they are all full...of old photos that need to be slotted in all over the place. I don't consider myself a disorganised scrapper, just an artistic one, in that I hate being ruled by chronology & scrap what inspires me at the time....and THAT for me is why 3 ring albums appeal so much ;-D In our home the old albums are viewed as much as the new because kids just love to look at themselves when they were babies. Also, because of the way I jump about with my scrapping order, I may have some very nice layouts in older albums. I have to say that there are also some shockers in there too though...hee hee...and I am way too anal to have albums of different thicknesses...waaaaaaaaaaaay too fussy for that...yes I am sad I know, but I have 2 sets of shelves exclusively for my album display, that are pigeonholed into square boxes just over 30cm square each, and these each hold exactly 3 albums (I might redo the albums so that each space holds exactly 4...) so I want the uniformity...(The units are like the IKEA ones alot of people have in their scraprooms overseas only smaller so I actually need 3 of them to hold my albums...justy waiting for money to buy another LOL ;-D

Ella Swan said...

I should experiment with making album covers out of leatherette I agree...in fact I bought some to do just that about 6 months ago...just haven't got around to it..Vicki I do the same as you with spacers but they are not available here so I make my own out of foamcore (a 3D type plastic used for mounting elements "raised" on layouts) & I punch the holes with my single hole punch, but they are such a pain to keep moving about...basically adding a page here & there is a nightmare...I do agree though that I like the look of a FLAT album...can't bear it to have a narrow spine then woosh out into a wide V...don't think that looks very nice at all...after all you don't get any books looking like that, but amazingly I don't see many people bothering to do the spacer thing...Thanks for the tip about Urban Memories albums Stef, I am going to google them soon & take a look...do the spines allow for so many pages? As my problem is now I havge to make my own spines too...and it would be so much simpler just to buy an album to suit my needs...Will also look into the MM 3 ring albums Jenny...there are some available here but the spines are only about 5cm - 2" thick - and I am looking at about 3" - although I don't actually know how thick the WRMK ones are so am just guessing...and have NO IDEA what snaploads are...so will be googling those too...thanks ;-D Bernie I agree about the Fabscraps albums...not worth the money...lovely albums but way too expensive & no way can you fit all those layouts in there anyway - I bought one, thinking it would solve my problems, but I defy them to squessze that many layouts in there...I tried & no way can it happen LOL! Desire I will take a look on your site & see your albums. They sound very swish indeed but not sure if they are ring or post albums...also the size...is that Creative Memories sizing & sleeves you use...as they are traditionally ever so slightly smaller than all standard scrapbooking papers & refills, as mine are 30.5cm each & the albums obviously slightly bigger than the actual layouts. Thanks again for all your input...it has certainly been food for thought ;-D

Michelle Ramsay said...

I use the albums that Desire gets. They are brilliant. I don't have a set number of pages - I see as I go along, how heavy it is getting(depending on the embellishments on the various pages. I agree, those coloured ones (especially the purple) are quite nice. Just read the end of your last post - the albums are post albums and can fit 30.5cm, but we cut our paper to 30 x 30 which gives a bit of space for bulky embelishments and doesn't make the page buckle.

topkatnz said...

Snaploads are what the plastic straps are called that I have fitted to some of my albums. Yes I agree that going back and slotting new LOs into old post bounds albums can be a pain. I make my own spacers too as you just can't seem to be able to get them in 'quantity' ...

Jenny said...

I gave Jenny a set of Snaploads so ask her to show them to you hen you meet. Oh and for spacers just use washers from a hardware shop

CathQuillScrap said...

My contribution to your discussion... days late I realise but for what it's worth.... I just use cheap albums... if I can find ones under R100 I buy! I use whatever refills I can find too and then usually have 25 refills per album. I've found that I can get screw posts at Waltons that are the right size for me... I make my albums 5cm wide otherwise they are too bulky and the refills buckle when you try to open the albums. Good luck with your organising... sounds daunting.

Ella Swan said...

In this household: Album, thy name is shoe or archive box.

Posted on Behalf of Sandra from Tuapeka Weka as she could not log in so sent it by e mail.

I am not joking! Most of our photos are in boxes (though hubby has catalogued them and they have pencil journalling on the back). Slowly he is working his way through them getting them into albums. No way am I going to scrap all our photos, ha-ha. So far, I have one album to put my scrapping in.