Printing Layouts: Books vs. Single Sheets

For the longest time I've been debating if I wanted to print all of my layouts in a bound book or print them on single sheets. I have personally decided to print them on single sheets and then place them in plastic protectors and place in a binder. Let me explain why I chose this option.

 

(Photos from Persnickety Prints Website.)

1. Rearrange: If you print your layouts in a bound book you can't ever add any more layouts or rearrange them. There have been plenty of times when I thought I had scrapped all my pictures for a certain time period only to find more pictures hiding away or given to me by a family member. It's nice to be able to rearrange and add or take away layouts.

2. Replace: If a layout in a bound book gets dirty, ripped or something spilt on it you have to re-purchase the whole book again. If you have them in single sheets you can easily just print the damaged page and replace it, saving you time and money.

3. Durable: If you print your layouts at Persnickety Prints*, like I do, the pages are printed on archival quality paper which makes them more water resistant than an ink jet. It would be damaged if you submerged it in water but a few drops of water won't hurt the sheet. It's nice to be able to let your kids look at all of your memories with out being paranoid the whole time. Plus you don't have to worry about wrinkles or fingerprints as much since you have page protectors on each sheet.

4. Extra Photo Sheets: If you print single sheets then you can also have sheets of individual photos behind your layout. I use sheet protectors such as these so I can fit 6 photos on each side. A great way to save space, time & money.

5. Print As You Go: If you print in single sheets you can order the prints as you scrap them. You don't have to wait until the whole book is scrapped. More time to enjoy your printed layouts.

*Just so you know I print my layouts in the 12x12 size and I always print at Persnickety Prints. The cost is about $1.99 per page but sometimes they do sales. You spend so much time creating your layouts that I think it is worth the cost to get them printed at a high quality place that will last a lifetime. They print on the highest quality paper and they print full bleed so you don't have to worry about any of you layout getting cut of when you print it.

2 Dollar Tuesday

 It's $2.00 Tuesday over at Stuff To Scrap again!! That means you can get one of my kits for only $2.00 but only today. The kit I have in the bin today is "Beach Cruisin" and the coordinating quick pages. Hurry over to the store and grab it today while it is on sale.

"April Showers" Kit Feature

Remember my kit "April Showers"?!? Well it is on sale for 25% off this week along with the coordinating quick pages. If you don't already have this kit now is a good time to grab it. Check it out again, images are linked to the store.

And here are some amazing layouts using this kit.

This is such a fun kit and can be used for some many different layouts. Hurry and grab it this week at 25% off through Sunday.

Friday Flair

Since my kit "Fresh" is being used for the Quick Page Exchange Challenge at Stuff To Scrap there are a ton of new layouts in my gallery using this kit. They are all so gorgeous I just have to show you some of them.

{Remember this kit is 25% off all month long so you can still grab it and play along with the challenge. All you do is creat 1 quick page using the kit, email it to me and you get all of the quick pages submitted at the end of the month. I think I already have about 20 quick pages so you will be getting a lot if you play along.}

Check out this eye candy!! Images are all linked so you can see who created them and leave them some love in the gallery.

And ther are MANY more amazing layouts in the gallery. Also, all of these have actually been made into quick pages so if you participate in the challenge you will get these amazing layouts and many more!!

Watermelon Seeds Freebie

So I have a little freebie for you from my new kit "Watermelon Seeds." Remember the kit and quick pages are 20% off through Sunday so be sure to grab them at a discount. First,check out the full kit again.And here is your freebie. It is a little cluster frame. Click on preview to download. Enjoy!!

Extrenal Hard Drives & Online Backups

If you're like me then you are probably paranoid that you are going to lose all of your pictures and layouts from some freak accident. It's not unlikely that your computer will crash one day and everything on it gets erased. Now I hope this never happens to anyone but if it does it's important that you are prepared so you don't lose your precious memories for good.

The first thing I have done is store everything on my external hard drive. This not only will save you if your computer crashes but it will also help your computer run quicker and more smoothly since it's not bogged down with tons of pictures and scrapbooking supplies.

The external hard drive I have is the Toshiba 1 TB External Hard Drive. It was only $89 and came with free shipping at B&H. I think that is a pretty good deal for 1TB of space. Another plus to having an external hard drive is you can take it with you and use the files on any computer.

So cool!!

Now I know that external hard drives can also crash so the next thing I do is an online backup of my external hard drive. I chose to use Mozy because it is only $4.95 a month and they have unlimited space you can use. They will also send you disks of all of your files if your computer ever crashes. I have been really happy with Mozy so far. I have been using them for about 4 months now. I usually just backup my hard drive every night when I go to bed and it is done by morning. It usually only takes a few hours depending on how much new stuff I have to back up. The initial backup did take about a week because I had A LOT of stuff but after that the backups have been really quick.

The last thing I do is make DVD's of all of my pictures. I haven't been the best at this but a couple of times each year I put all of my new pictures on DVD's and put them in a safe spot. Another thing my mom does is she has a copy of all of her pictures at my house as well. She gave me a little box and it has jump drives with all of her pictures on them. She then gives me more with new pictures a few times each year. This way if there is ever a fire or some other disaster at my mom's house there is also a copy at my house so she doesn't lose anything.

Now it's probably not necessary to do all of these things but I'd rather be safe then sorry. I would just be devastated if I lost all of my pictures and the memories that go with them.

How do you make sure you don't lose all of your pictures and scrapbook layouts? I'd love to hear from you.

New "Watermelon Seeds" Kit

I have a new kit for you today called "Watermelon Seeds." This kit has fun black, pink and green colors perfect for any watermelon pictures but as you will see from my CT this kit can also be used for a variety of other pictures. It has 31 elements, 15 papers and 1 alpha. Check it out.

And I also have a set of 12 quick pages that coordinate with this kit.So finally check out what my amazing CT did with this kit:

And now the winners of the kit and quick pages are:
Kit: Nancy
Quick Pages: Cori
Go ahead and email me and I can get you your prizes!!

Also, the kit and quick pages will be 20% for one week so be sure to grab them while they are still on sale.