Top Ten Gifts for an Album Maker

I love working on my photo albums. I was born and raised in a picture taking family and it gives me a great sense of satisfaction to preserve my memories. I use Creative Memories supplies and want to share my top ten gifts for a picture taker who wants to make an album, whether physically or digitally.

1. MemoryManager Program - This program is revolutionizing digital photo storage and management. It compares to some of the much more expensive photo editing software, yet this program allows very user-friendly photo editing AND digital picture organization as well. An absolute must for anyone who takes digital photos, whether they work on an album with them or not, this program has helped real estate agents, photographers, police officers, insurance adjusters, and other who need to organize their photos in an easy, user friendly way on the computer. At only $39.95 this program is probably the best bargain this Christmas. It also comes with the StoryBook template creator allowing you to make your StoryBooks on your own computer.

2. StoryBook Digital Album - Brand new from Creative Memories, the StoryBook is the best digital album available. Beautiful templates that you can mix and match, personalized cover options, picture cropping features, journaling, and more are available. You can take your digital photos from the MemoryManager program (not required though the programs are compatible) and quickly create an entire album, upload and order it, and recieve the coffee book quality, stich bound book within ten days or so. I love that I can quickly create an album and also order multiple copies if desired. I will be able to spend an hour creating a book for the grandparents and will be able to order two copies, one for each set, to give at Christmas! Basic books start at $39.95

3. Power Sort Box - What if your picture taker still has a lot of prints that aren't in an album? The Power Sort box is an awesome way to sort and store photos in preparation for putting them in an album. It makes it easy to sort through the photos as the first step to getting them in albums and will hold 2,400 photos. I've literally started with two cardboard boxes full of photos and have ended up with all the photos sorted in chronological order in the PowerSort box with room to spare. A Mini PowerSort box allows me to pull out just the next set of photos I'm working on and take them to a crop easily. The Mini holds up to 600 photos and the pictures can be quickly exchanged between the two making it really easy to just keep on hand whatever photos come next in the album.

4. Power Layout Box - I'm the type of person who does better working on my album in stages. Rather than doing just one page at a time I prefer to layout several pages so my album has a more coherant look. Plus that way I'm only handling each tool once. The difference between making ten individual peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and making ten sandwiches by buttering ten slices, putting jelly on ten slices and then pairing them up. Much faster the second way! PowerLayout has allowed me to have a full year's album ready to stick down and enhance in one afternoon of working on it. A must for anyone trying to get caught up on their pictures!

5. Power Palette System - The last, and newest, of the "power" tools the PowerPalette system allows an album maker to select the color theme of their choice and create the entire album very quickly. It takes all the guess work out of album design by pairing the paper with coordinating stickers, titles, photo mats, journaling boxes and more! Pre-decorated stickers and paper means you can have beautiful and creative without spending an hour on each page. In fact, I know people who are finishing a year's worth of photos (pre-sorted) in just one afternoon and come away with albums that look absolutely amazing.

6. Organizational Tools - There are new Tool Totes and Decorative Files that make organizing and carrying your album making materials easy. Not to mention the importance of storing them out of the way of little hands. Most album makers would relish the chance to use a Journaling Mate Case or other organizer.

7. Paper Packs - Always! An album maker always needs (wants) more paper. The key thing to look for when purchasing paper, is that the paper is not only acid and lignon free but ALSO is a buffered paper. Without the buffering, which is an extra process most companies to not do, acid will creep into the paper and into the album and damage the photos. You can find beautiful papers, some double sided and printed, to keep your album maker a happy camper.

8. Basket of Stickers - A new sticker pack is a great stocking stuffer or find a nice basket and put in several different sticker packs that you think they might use. New holiday or themed stickers are always a sure bet! Combine #7 to #8 and you are sure to have a winning combination.

9. Picfolio Album - A unique album, the Picfolio has a durable cover that can be cleaned easily and pages that are plastic pocket type pages. The unique thing about these "slip in" style albums is the photo safety, and the journaling options that are available. The Picfolio Album comes in three different sizes and I love the 6x7 size. It's perfect for quickly and easily putting together a few of your favorite pictures and having a ready to go, beautiful album to give as a gift.

10 - Babysitting and Scrapbook Event - What if your album maker truly has it all already or you just aren't sure what to get? It would be a pretty safe bet that he or she would love to have some dedicated time to work on their albums! Why not give her a crop pre-paid and then babysit for her so she can go guilt-free? Or hire a babysitter and the two of you go together! Either way, the thought will be appreciate the work done a relief.