AT MY BEST...: Mini Album

40th Album - OTP

10:00 AM

'Family Love' - 4x4 Instagram Album

4:00 AM

Now that 2016 is long behind us, and I am now on maternity leave, waiting for this little bundle of joy to join us, I am playing catch up on craft projects and blogging. It was a pretty hectic end to last year with study, work and dealing with pregnancy, but we got there. I can say that after 3 days off work, I am already feeling lost. I live for my work routine and I am missing it. I know that new routines will be formed in good time, but for now sitting in limbo will have to do... Time to focus on getting crafty projects up to date!

Lets flash back to Christmas. My in-laws do a Kris Kringle for the adult gifts, and I drew my lovely mother in law, who is also a creative type. This always gives the chance to make something and know that it is definitely appreciated.

With our little one on the way, and knowing this was the last Christmas before the grand kids number was to grow by another one, I wanted to pull together an album that can be added to each year. It has become a bit of a tradition each year prior to the kids being able to open presents at Christmas, that I take a group photo of them all. This gives the adults a chance to make sure that everything is all ready to go without the kids in the way. There have been many years where there is at least one child that has protested the photo, but with presents being the outcome, they usually oblige when they realise that all it takes is one good photo and they are right to go.

This annual photo is simply a moment in time, every 12 months, where we can see how much the kids have grown. The main issue is that they have been sitting on my computer being lost in the world of digital storage, something I know we are all guilty of. Having this chance to pull them out and actual use them for a project was exciting. A mini album was the final decision for this gift.

I went with a 4x4 Instagram album, which I picked up from my local Spotlight on sale when they were moving. The book plate on the spine was the only alteration done to the cover.

I wanted to keep this album simple and about the photos. So to keep it exactly like that, I pulled a pocket from another album and stuck it inside the front cover. I find that when I gift something like this, and you leave room for others to journal their thoughts, the journaling doesn't happen. So to eliminate this issue, the only journaling is on the tags in this pocket, which I filled in.

My very first Christmas with my in-laws was 2007, and the first time I met most of them. My hubby and I had only been dating for a couple of weeks, so there is no photo from that year. The album needed to start somewhere though, so 2008 it was. The first photo that I have of all of the kids together.

By 2009 there was another addition to the family, but this year I didn't get a picture of all the kids together. With this being the case, I just had to go with what I had, and this was a candid shot of the kids putting on a 'Christmas show' for us.

Some photos were able to be resized from landscape to square for a change.

As of 2011, there was now 6 gorgeous kids. While trying to keep a lot of things flat, some texture is needed. This was added throughout the album with flair, thickers, chipboard, wood veneer and enamel dots.

2012 was a bit of a different Christmas and I don't have a single photo with all of the kids in it (one of the them cracked it big time and wasn't in any of the photos). With this being the case, I found a photo of all the kids with my mother in law (the recipient of this gift) on her birthday. Its not the same time of year as the other photos, but works in just fine.

The background papers were pulled from a couple of different ranges, all of which were used to compliment the colours in the photos. Its also a great way to use stickers and die cuts.

Seeing tags and tabs sticking out the top of the sleeves from other pages adds an extra dimension to the album. Some pages are also best kept simple and not overloaded.

This isn't a project that needs to be over thought to be thoughtful. One of the best parts of this is that the pictures are no longer lost on digital storage, and it makes a great little creative brag book for a wonderful Nanna.

One thing I should have thought more about was turning a few more of the pictures black and white. But as it is ongoing there is time to work these in over time.

The beauty of this album is that every year we can add to this and keep it going.

It was a decision made early on that the photo would sit on the right side of the layout so that when people are flicking through it, they don't miss the point to the album.

Thanks for calling past, and here is hoping that I can get more craft and blogging done in the next little while, rather than hit and miss like it has been the last little while.

Catch Up

Hens Day Mini Album

6:30 AM

This project..... Lets be honest, there is absolutely no reason why this project took me so long. I have no idea what I was thinking when I started this, but I can say that maybe waiting to get it done was the best thing to happen to me. It has now been completed at a time where I am not over worried about everything. A time where I spend way too long over thinking things. A time where my confidence is high enough to just get one with it and move on. And I love it!

My hens day was back in November of 2012 - nearly 3 years ago now - and the album was purchased and prepared ready for photos back in January of 2013. I had all of the photo ready to go. All I had to do was chose the ones that I wanted to use and pull it all together. Apparently this just didn't happen.

Now that is a bit of a blessing in disguise. While I have forgotten the absolute minor details of the event, all of the memories that exist are the story that I have told with this album. They aren't over run with so much detail that I would have had no room for photos. And finishing a project like this so long after the even also gave the change to relive such a fun day.

The album us made up of 8 chipboard pages, each of which have been covered with the same Teresa Collins paper collection. As there were so many photos that I wanted too keep, I have had to add a few extra 'pages' as I went. This wasn't an easy task as the chipboard pages take up pretty much all of the space on the binders, but I think I have made it work ok.

I found a couple of sticker sets in my stash, which I have no idea what I was really saving them for, but they have now been used on this project and they matched wonderfully. Also the addition of a few enamel dots made for minimal decoration.

To gain the extra space needed, I have inserted shipping tags. These allowed me more photo space, but also more journaling space.

Washi tape was a wonderful addition for this album as it takes up no space dimensionally. It was the perfect accent for each page.

Its hard to see here, but I have also added a square transparency in this gap, just to add a bit more interest to the project. Its all in the details!

There are two different types of shipping tags used on this project. The larger tags sit horizontally and the smaller, darker tags sit vertically. These have had the yellow ribbon tied to the top of them and have primarily been used to journaling only about each location we stopped at on the day.

This page is a really good example of the two tags working together and how they fit into the album. A couple of enamel dots was all it needed to dress up the journaling tag.

There was a lot to write about a couple of the places we visited. The hardest part to working with these dark tags is that they are very thick. This means that they take up a fair bit of room in the album, so I was limited as to how many I could use and where.

The shape of the pages was a bit of fun to play with in getting all of the photos I wanted into the album and positioned in such a way that there wasn't much lost of the photo. This page was a good one where I had a bit of room to play.

I loved the ability to double up these photos, especially the two on the right hand side.

There is another transparency in this gap. I wanted something to add to it so that it wasn't the only place where both full pages had nothing in between and very similar photos on both pages.

This album size gave me the ability to use both 3x2 size photos and 3x4 photos. By adding both sizes, it gives the ability to add some variety into the album, but also highlight a few particular ones that are special to me.

I found a way to include as many photos as possible onto these two pages so as to document one part of the day without needing too much additional space. Again done so with the journaling tag in the centre continuing to tell the story.

It was a super fun day with so many people that I love, and I am so glad that I decided to start this album to remember it by. Looking back at it now, it was one of the best ways to spend my hens day.

One thing that I did do in this album was use the very last page as a way to document all of the relevant information from the day. This has the list of wineries we visited and in what order, who attended the tour during the day, and who came to the dinner at night. This page wont be easily accessible with how full the album is, so I thought this was the best place to make sure that all of the finer details were not forgotten.

I really, really love how this project turned out. It is currently sitting in a prime place in my scrap room (with another mini album that I love). It feels good that I don't keep seeing the cover of this album and thinking its another thing that I really need to finish.... Its now marked off the to-do list!

I hope you have found something inspiring in this project that would entice you to try a mini album for a special even too.

Catch Up

The Color Run - 4x4 Mini Album

10:00 AM

Taking a break from the Delights Retreat layout share, I thought I would share this mini album that I finally completed.

It seemed a bit of a funny idea to complete a whole album based on one event that took a couple of hours of our life, but being something that was so fun and celebrating a friends birthday, I couldn't help myself. The best part of this was that I was able to complete a second album for her for her birthday and do them both at once.

This was the first one of these 4x4 We R Memory Keepers albums that I had completed and I was very happy with it.

The Color Run came to Wollongong for the first time back in 2014 and we figured that it was a good bit of birthday fun. The day was great and the photos turned out amazing. Especially considering they were from an old iPhone camera.

In following on from the 'to do list' and getting it done, all I had left to do was the journaling - in my opinion one of the most important parts of memory keeping. Yet one of the things that we often say we will come back to as we cant think of the right words at the time.

Here is a bit of a look at how it all came together.

I washed the headband (which I used as a watch cover wrapped around my wrist on the day) and have used it around the album to keep as memorabilia. This way I didn't have to find a way to incorporate it into the album, nor feel the need to add something to the cover.

I chose to use the Australian spelling of Colour on the cover, even though the event is the American spelling - Color - as seen in the background photo.

Using the 2x2 pockets was a bit of a challenge, but once I found an easy way to print them to size, they came together pretty easily.

When I pieced the albums together I tried to make sure that I kept a good amount of journal space. It turns out that, like life, I had more to say than I realised, so was looking for a bit more space, which a design decision at the start made possible to find easily, as you will see a bit later in the album.

The embellishing on the photos has been kept simple. This was a decision that I made at the start and stuck to as the album progressed. I selected the enamel shapes and the sticker packet at the beginning and didn't stray from it, which I think made the process simpler in the end.

I knew when I put the ampersand card into the album that it would buy me a but of extra journal space where needed. Lucky as I used every bit of space. If there was only a small amount of journaling required I would have written it inside the ampersand.

I love how these photos came out, highlighting the bright combination of colours, and how covered we were from the 5km course.

Using plan cards to mount photos on also gives additional journal space.

The left hand card was the only other card placed specifically for journaling in this album. By the time I got to the end of that space, I knew there was still more I needed to tell, so again with the use of a fairly plain card, I was able to use the space to finish the story without having try and add more cards.

So there is a glimpse at the first 4x4 album that I have completed. I loved the process so much, that I have another 4 of these albums ready to go. 2 of these will be holiday albums and the other will just sit in the stash for a bit now. I know that it will be used the moment a project comes up. These albums took me a little bit out of my comfort zone, but not enough to scare me away and I love that I have so many more idea from this one, and have used it to learn what I like and don't like. I will continue to learn from these and experiment with ideas!

And the added bonus of something else off the 'to do list' complete.