My Library of Memories System

I am at the end of Stacy Julian's Library of Memories (LOM) Workshop offered at BigPictureScrapbooking.com. I first read about Stacy's system of non-chronological scrapbooking last fall when I purchased her book PhotoFreedom. Then I discovered that she offers a workshop on this system each year. Over the past four months, I have set up this system for scrapbooking, tweaking Stacy's system here and there to fit our lifestyle. Here's a peak into some of the elements of my new scrapbooking system.

First, my storage binders and category drawers:

The Storage Binders on the lower shelf are where I put my photos once they are printed. These photo albums are a temporary storage space for my photos until I am inspired to scrap them. They are accessible and easy to view and I can quickly thumb through them to find photos I want to scrap for a class assignment or to go with some new scrap supplies. This past weekend I was inspired to create this layout (using photos from my storage binders) because I had purchased a Creative Memories paper kit (for $1 at a garage sale!). It even includes a piece of memorabilia (the map) from our trip.

I am using the photo boxes on the top shelf as my Category Drawers. These are long term storage for photos that I want to use on connection layouts eventually. Basically when I pull a group of photos to scrap, I might pull one or two that represent a category for these drawers and then if there are leftover photos that I didn't use on my layout, I decide if they can/should go in a category drawer.

Then there is my actual “Library” which includes these new American Crafts albums:

The new layouts I complete will go into these albums based on category. Stacy uses four main categories, but I decided on these six: Robbie & Melissa, Family & Friends, Days We Celebrate, Activities We Enjoy, Places We've Been, Things That Matter

My “Library” also includes all the other albums I’ve created over the years, including all the ones on my Memories Shelf and the ones that I have on display on the sideboard:

Currently I'm taking all digital photos although Robbie still likes to use his film camera on occasion. I went digital in 2008 and when I started the LOM workshop this year in January, I had only printed a few photos that I had scrapped or given to others. So, I had almost TWO full years of photos just sitting on my computer! I created a Digital Workflow Plan based on what I learned in the digital portion of the LOM Workshop, printed all my highlight photos from '08 & '09, and am now printing my highlight photos (those that I know I want to scrap) at the end of each quarter.

My printed photos were already organized (of course!) chronologically, and I had created scrapbooks or photo albums through 2006. I was in the process of organizing my 2007 photos and am now planning to incorporate these into my new system by adding those photos to a storage binder.

There are also quite a few “extra” components of Stacy’s LOM system that I’ve implemented.

I have these two file boxes – one to store Memorabilia that I want to use on scrapbook pages (I have sticky notes in my Storage Binders near the photos they go with to remind me that it’s there!) and one to store Inspiration (ideas for future layouts or color combinations or sketches) that I’ve pulled from magazines or the internet.

The green drawers in the middle of this shelf will be my Square Punch Drawers for photos that I did not scrap or maybe were duplicates. I will be square punching out faces to use on future layouts. For now, I’m also saving my index prints in the box on top of those two shelves thinking I might use that same concept to punch out some of these small photos for future layouts.

The box on the right holds my Cultural Memorabilia – things that reflect our culture and everyday lives. I’ve just started collecting these items, but here’s a peek into what I have found so far as I’ve sorted through my old memorabilia.

I’m also using this cute basket Robbie gave me for Easter to hold my Story Cards.

These index cards are for those times that I have an idea for a page but don't have time or am not ready to scrap it. I grab a card and write the idea, note any photos that I want to use and where they are located, add a label, and put the card in my category drawers until I'm ready to create that layout. Here’s a peek into one of my category drawers – you can see the Story Cards (with the yellow tabs) peeking out from between my category tabs and photos.

There are several other items that Stacy uses in her system, some that I am working to incorporate and others that I have not incorporated. For example, I have Cold Storage boxes in the closet and Family Word Notebooks scattered around the house. I do not need School of Life files or Family Tree Drawers at this point, so those are not part of my system.

I have been so excited about these changes and not worrying about whether I'm "caught up" with my scrapping that I've actually scrapped 121 pages so far in 2010. (Check back in a few days for a post about what those pages are!)

One of Stacy’s challenges in the LOM Workshop is to explain the system to someone else as a way of helping us learn the system. I would love your comments as to whether or not this all made sense!