Summer scrapbooking catch-up

Hello! It's been a busy summer for me and my family, despite the stay-at-home order. We have done some home improvement (patio, painting, and deck maintenance), visited family, and remained crafty. In my case I cross stitched several projects, got one framed, read several books, gardened, and scrapbooked. Here's some of what I scrapbooked this summer:

This page records my husband and boys at last year's Gen Con, which sadly was cancelled this year. I used an adventure-like line from Echo Park that I got last year at Pine City Scrapbooking for this, mostly using the paper as embellishments, plus some random Studio Calico label stickers. The journaling card is Elle's Studio, and I love it. 

Another page made with papers I picked up at Pine City Scrapbooking, Simple Scrapper Great Escape, I believe, this time to commemorate our trip to the Vikings exhibit at the Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, a legit castle. I made a mistake with the letters: those are meant to be dipped in glitter, so they have a protective coating on them covering super super adhesive. *crossed fingers the protective coating stays put*

This was a layout that came about when I cleaned. I found the social story and a note from my son's preschool case manager, and I decided to make a page with them. I had one--ONE!--KI Memories big office pocket eft, so I dug through my saved preschool photos to put on the page and embellished and journaled on the pocket. 

Here's a two page layout of one of our last trips to the Science Museum to a stellar exhibit on the history of gaming. Strongly recommend. I took my favorite photos from the visit and made a s t r e t c h e d page with them. I couldn't remember many details, but that's why the Internet exists; like I did with the Vikings page, I went and researched the exhibit and included the most memorable or favorite details. NOTE: The background paper is one I love from Bella Blvd about football, I think, but the quotes are all about games and winning, so it worked!

This is a page I made for my 100 moments album, one I got the idea for and started working on years ago because of Big Picture Classes. Again I used papers from a trip to Pine City Scrapbooking, this time Authentique. I dug into my Iris container with school-themed products--it's getting light, and when my boys leave the house in a few years, I'll probably get rid of the rest of them. I use a similar color-blocking type design for each layout in this album.

That's all I want to share today! I'll come back sharing some additional pages I made for Simple Scrapper and for my own family later this month. Take care!

Halloween in April: mini album acorss the years

Hello! Spring is definitely here in Minnesota, but I tend to scrap off season, so I decided to tackle some mini albums that were unfinished.

First, I added this past year's photo to the family Halloween album. I thought it would be easier to make this mini with my Bind-it-all so that I could  add new pages every year for as long as my boys dressed up.

I dug into my Halloween Iris container for this mini, mostly using October Afternoon with a little Elle's Studio and Authentique.

This first page was blank. I can see myself journaling a bit on this when they have grown up, but for right  now it's empty.

When I make a mini-album, I tend to use the same pattern for each spread. Here I liked the idea of the boys' photo taking up a full page, then the facing page having a pattered paper background with an embellishment cluster and the year. This next spread is my favorite photo I've ever taken of the boys:

Sometimes being a brother is better than being a superhero.

Here are the rest of the pages:

 

 

(One thing: You'll note that Dominic comes up to Rowan's chin. Since then, he is up to his eyes. Wow. He is growing so fast right now. When he finishes dinner, he asks for a snack.  I'm trying to avoid buying shoes and pants right now because he is growing so fast.)

I left the last page blank. If they get costumes next year, I'll use this as the page with the embellishments and the year. If not, this will be the end.

And the just plain back cover.

That is my mini! I have become enamored with making stuff that highlights the boys across the years. When I finish the next one, I will share it. That one involves baseball.