Thumbs Up for 2-Up and 3-Up Albums

I must confess that when I switched from magnetic albums to scrapbooks, I became an album snob. I figured that if scrapbooks were so superior to magnetic albums, then I would only use scrapbooks. I stuck with that policy for about ten years, and then realized that there were some very good reasons to consider other kinds of albums. Of course there were the fun homemade kind, but recently I discovered the value of 2-up and 3-up photo albums. These albums come with a preset number of pages. Each page has openings for two or three photos, which gives the albums their name. I used to think these albums were only for non-scrapbookers because they didn't lend themselves to creativity. I was wrong.

Storage
One way I now use these albums is to store photos I haven't yet scrapped. I have five sons, and am nowhere near completing their albums. I have no wedding scrapbook, and no childhood scrapbooks. The point is, I don't have that much completed for my children to look at. My photos are all in photo-safe boxes, but who can look at them that way? I now purchase 2-up and 3-up albums to store all those photos. I have a new rule that every three months, I upload the digital photos I took during those months to an online photo developer. When the photos come back, I put them into the current album in chronological order. Since there are too many photos for one album, I bought several albums with the same design and I label the spines. Eventually I will put all past photos in albums as well.

Gifts
Another way I use the 2-up and 3-up albums is for gift albums. My sister-in-law was recently given an album at her baby shower. I didn't make it, but paid close attention to the idea. The giver of the album had made mini-layouts which she slid into pockets in the album. She left empty pockets in between, where my sister-in-law can put the photos of her baby. The mini-layouts included such themes as "baby's first tooth" and "rolling over." This is a terrific gift for a new mom who doesn't even have time to use adhesive to stick photos to a pre-made layout.

For Christmas, I made a similar gift album, but included the photos. My in-laws took my husband and me to Switzerland and France a few months ago. There is no way I could ever adequately thank them, but making them a gift album was a start. I wanted the attention to be on the photos, so I kept my mini-layouts very simple. I printed out journaling, inked it with a light brown ink, and adhered it to cardstock that had patterns which reminded me of France. I wrapped fibers around the spine of the album and attached French-themed buttons. I had taken several panoramic photos, so I created a pocket out of cardstock and adhered it to the inside back cover. You could choose to include a CD with all the photos in the pocket instead.

Theme Albums
Stacy Julian in The Big Picture suggests using a 2-up or 3-up album as a theme album. She used one to illustrate what a typical month (May, in her case) is like in the Julian household. I have purchased an album and taken the photos to create one of these albums, and expect it will only take me a couple of hours to assemble the whole album. Other themes that would work well in this style of album would be a vacation, Christmas traditions over the years, photos you love, new home construction, or anything else you can think of.

I plan on using 2-ups and 3-ups more in the future, because I know that as much as I love scrapbooking, there is no way I can keep on top of all of the albums I ought to make. I would far rather have the pictures available for my family to see in some form. Having my photos in these albums will only make it easier if I ever get the time to make scrapbook pages for them, because it will be easy for me to see what pictures deserve to be on a scrapbook page.

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