Scrapbooking Childhood Moments : 200 Page Designs

Rating:
Summary: The WORST book in my collection
Review: I received this book as a gift and I was very disappointed with it. I have a three-year-old son, so I'm always looking for fun layout ideas. Unfortunately, this book has nothing I would ever want to use. The layouts are extremely basic and unimaginative. I created better designed and eye pleasing layouts when I first started this hobby than the layouts featured in this book. I would not even recommend this book for a beginner.

Rating:
Summary: The WORST book in my collection
Review: I received this book as a gift and I was very disappointed with it. I have a three-year-old son, so I'm always looking for fun layout ideas. Unfortunately, this book has nothing I would ever want to use. The layouts are extremely basic and unimaginative. I created better designed and eye pleasing layouts when I first started this hobby than the layouts featured in this book. I would not even recommend this book for a beginner.

Rating:
Summary: Very basic, very understated, extremely simple.
Review: There is nothing wrong with this book. The information inside about scrapbooking is correct and helpful, there are many examples of typical childhood moments that would need layouts, such as first haircuts, holidays, etc, and there are some good timesaving tips and techniques. I liked that page accents were paired down and kept out of the spotlight so that there was room for the photos and journaling to shine through.

For my taste, however, the page designs were a little on the oversimplified side, and that's saying a lot considering that I usually define myself as a Simple-style scrapbooker. Maybe it all comes down to something as basic as color choices/preferences: this author does seem to prefer beiges and browns, often in the same layouts, while I like a more sharply contrasting, graphic look with richer and bolder colors for an album about children. Then, too, I think some of the photos looked a little too "lost" on the pages - perhaps matting would have benefited them. Karen's very basic style is a little too basic for me.

Recommended for beginning croppers and people who like *very*simple scrapbooking.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle