Having discovered that the ring-bound scrapbooks you buy in places like Hobbycraft are not, in fact, quite the stated size, and also that Real Scrapbookers don’t use scrapbooks, I thought I’d check out some Scrapbook Kits of the sort that give the layout and full instructions. [Hobbycraft, if you’re reading this, do you think you could make your in-house scrapbooks have pages with 12×12/8×8/etc of usable space? Ta!]

As with Card Kits, so many just give you the components and then leave you to it. Which is fine if you have a visual brain or a Proper Artistic Streak, but not so good if, like me, you don’t have a visual brain or a Proper Artistic Streak. And I know, a Proper Artistic Streak probably has far more to do with exercising your creativity than innate artistic-ness, but I haven’t exercised mine enough to have a Proper Artistic Streak. Time and energy and all that.

So kits with full instructions it is, until I have.

Or until I work out what to do about the 11 7/8”x11.5” pages in the scrapbooks I have. I mean, honestly! Not even a square of usable page! I suspect a lot of long thin scraps in my future.

Anyway, I found some lovely complete kits (and page protectors), known as Workshops, from Stampin’ Up!, and now have a pile of them waiting to be used.

Each Workshop makes three double-page spreads, but they aren’t entirely complete. They each introduce different techniques, which might require additional items, like ink pads or markers for details. But I’ll come to those bridges when I get to them. They are otherwise complete with instructions, like their card kits.

My main problem with the layouts, though, is that I don’t tend to take landscape photos, so I’m going to have to adjust slightly to using two 4×3 photos instead of one 4×6. Probably. Maybe a 4×4 and a 4×2, depending on the photos available. And then also having enough photos for the theme of the Workshop.

I will admit my photos for the Autumn To Remember kit are not, in fact, from autumn, but a February woodland walk. I will adjust the ephemera to remove mention of autumn. There’s only one page, really, that specifically says “Autumn”, and there are other stickers in the pack which could replace that title.

But the Reindeer Memories kit seems just perfect for a Christmas reindeer-feeding trip, plus other festive photos including some of Tito the Rocking Horse.

That’s two kits down. Only…several more for which I have yet to collect photos to go!

And then I’ll have to work out something to do with all the left-over scraps and stickers. And find an album to put the pages in, since we’ve already established that they’re ever so slightly too bit for a 12×12 scrapbook album. So irritating!