Scrapbooking for Photobooths

A couple of years ago, my best friend Josephine asked me to make my first guestbook for a birthday party (or was it an engagement party?). Whatever the case, her event planning company had convinced clients to try a non-traditional type of guest book that involved polaroids.  A scrapbook of the guests!

For the scrapbookers out there reading this, I'm sure you can imagine the initial difficulty in trying to make unique layouts that match a party theme when your limited by the actual size of the polaroid picture.  There is only so much room and possiblities that you can play with without wasting space and costing the client more.

Fast forward a couple of years....about 3 years.

and the latest trend seen in high end parties is the photo booth.  Josephine suggested I take a stab at creating a guestbook that utilized the photobooth strips - again, the layout options were pretty limited because photostips are a standard size and orientation.

Little did I know, I would soon be hired by a friend of a friend to make one for her daughter's Bat Mitzvah.  The party had a new party planner who had never seen a photobooth scrapbook.  All she knew was that I needed a table and that the scrapbook girl would be coming.

She fell in love with the album.  I honestly didn't know what to do with her reaction.  She kept coming back to the table and remarked about how amazing this idea was.  I clearly didn't walk away without giving her my contact information.

And now....I'm officially a Bat Mitzvah/Bar Mitzvah photobooth scrapbooking queen.  This is not a bad market to be a part of.....after a year of intense studying, the parties of these young men and women definitely shower their kids with a well deserved (and often insane) party.

The party planner circuit is a highly competitive circuit, but yet I've managed to get on the radar of three well known planners.  The demand is still where I can manage it...partly due to the fact that I have some incredible friends I can lean on to help me staff an event.  This has been a whirlwind experience that I never would have expected considering my 9-to-5 job does involve arts.  But I love that I get to dabble in this world on my own terms.

Below is a sample of a two page 12x12 layout that I pre-designed for a wedding rehearsal dinner.  The youth parties allow me to get a little crazier in terms of colors and embellishments, but here is an elegant version of a photobooth scrapbook layout.