Anyway here are the next two pages of my album.
Day Five
This day is another multiple page day. I really like to take a lot of photos and have a hard time picking just one for most of the days. So instead of making me fit the album I am making the album fit my style. So if this means every day will have two or three pages so be it.
Supplies: Ali Edwards Hand drawn Holiday brushes and stamps, Bergen paper pack from Michelle Martin and Rhonna's Christmas swirls stamps
Today was the day it snowed. I took the pictures and journaling straight from my blog post. Reason #2 why I have a blog in the first place. Makes for scrapbooking a memory at a later date much easier.
I got the idea for my first page after I snapped this photo of the front of our house during our playtime outside, from Ali's 2008 December Daily album (scroll down to day 19). The photo collage I created using Picasa then added the Michelle Martin paper to the ends in PSE. I rounded the corners on one side and adhered both photos directly to the Snowflake acrylic paper. However, I am not thrilled with how the journaling page turned out. I might change it up later. You can't see it very well but the page was very plain and I absolutely hated it. So I added the Rhonna Farrer swirl stamp to it with red ink and then embossed that with white snow looking powder. It's better but I'm still not thrilled. So for now I am letting it go but I have in mind that I can always change it.
Here is the before photo of that page.
Day Six
I aboslutely adore this photo. I snapped it while holding her at my Mom's place. And that adorable hat! I'd been trying to find a hat for Sophie for the winter but something that was cute and not too warm. Seeing as people tend to overdress babies in the winter. At the mall shopping on day I saw this new store unBOWlieveable. They had the cutest hats and the most adorable bows and flowers to clip on them. It's my new fave I think.
Isn't she so sweet in these hats? I want to put them on her all the time. I see how they were made (the flowers) and think that I could replicate it with a few trips to A.C. Moore and Target. That will be a project for the new year.
Supplies: Ali Edwards You word art, Katie Pertiet Cut-up: Christmas, Ribbon: Cosmo Cricket, Pointsetta: Jolee's Boutique
One of my favorite pages so far. This is the front. It's kinda blurry. Still working on photographing my pages. Something that needs improvement.
As you can see from the before photo of page five I changed it up a bit. I liked having the embossed number six in the corner but it didn't go with the design I had for the page. So I added the number six to the photo instead.
The journaling talks about that adorable hat. How we spent Grandma Sunday as a family. Usually Mason goes to my Mom's house alone. Giving him some much needed one on one time. We were dressed up because we took the family christmas card photo that day. I will be using that picture on a later page when the christmas cards go out. Mason and my mom and sister all decorated my parents tree. They are doing the village today during their visit. I hope they take photos cause I'd like for those to go into the album. It also talks about how I felt seeing my dad holding Sophie for the first time since her birth. He had a stroke two years ago just before Mason turned a year old. It affected the left side of his body. He got use of his leg but still does not have the use of his left arm or hand. So he can't hold things well much less hold my children. So seeing her on his lap looking up at him made my heart soar. The last time she saw my Dad was Thanksgiving and she cried every time she looked at him. So it was a welcome relief that she wasn't scared this time. I think it is that my Dad looks like Santa, he plays one, and most little kids are scared of Santa. This year my dad won't be doing Santa at church like he used to. It's getting too hard but he is still going to dress up for my kids to get our annual photo with Santa. More about that on a later day. We have it all set up to do this coming friday. Looking forward to it.
Supplies: Ali Edwards Remember Word Art, Lil Davis Holiday Bottle Caps
This is the back of the page. Once again I was inspired by Ali Edwards. She did a design like this for day eight of this year. I however, did not use her layered template which you can purchase from Designer Digitals. I created my own.
First I figured out the size I wanted the whole page to be and created a new document that size in Adobe Photoshop Elements. I then figured out what size I wanted the photo block to be and created that document as well. Next I used the shape tool and created four squares for my photos. Then I used the circle marquee tool in the center and deleted the selection on each shape. Next I chose my photos and after altering a cropping them I masked each one into each shape, adjusting the placement or size as needed. Next I flattened the image and moved the photo block to my original page document and centered it. Then I used the word art from Ali. Changing the color to one that matched the pink in Sophie's dress using the eye dropper tool. And placed them at equal distance around the photo block. Since I am a hybrid Scrapbooker I didn't just print it out this way. I like dimension on a page. So I hid the layer of my text and printed out the photos onto photo paper. Then I hid the photo block layer and printed out the text onto white cardstock. Cut out both elements and placed the photo block in the center of the white cardstock and added the memories bottle cap to the circle in the center.
A simple page. A style I am embracing. Looking back at older layouts I just put too much on the page never leaving space for your eye to rest. Heavily influenced by Cathy Zielske and Ali Edwards, my style has changed. Turned towards a simplified one of photos + words.
In this layout it is photos of my Dad holding Sophie, the tree decorating and a message of Remember This. Exactly what I wanted to convey. Remember this day. These memories. These moments. It was good spending time with my family. And much needed. I got some alone time with my dad when we went to Red Hot & Blue to pick up dinner together. It was some quality talking that I have missed. It reminds me of what I really want for Christmas. The material gifts are nice (like that sewing machine I really want and the PSE 8.0 that I got as an early present) but what I really want this holiday season is quality, and I emphasize QUALITY, time with my family. It is something that I have taken for granted far too long.
still in progress
I don't have a photo of the original page seven. It was a full 8x8 page in a protector sheet. However since Monday was a day spent cleaning and no photos were taken I decided to change it up. I could have gone with just some journaling about our day being a normal ordinary day but I saw the envelope for page 10 and knowing that on Thursday we did the gingerbread house and no way would that day fit the small envelope I made the switch. Though thinking about it now I suppose I could have printed out the photos like postcards and written the steps on the back of each one and tucked those into the envelope. (note: this is a good idea maybe it can still be done just affix a pocket to the gingerbread house page or new envelope.) But I decided that I like the idea of writing a letter to each of my kids. Again inspiration came from Ali Edwards but also from Dooce's Heather Armstrong as well. I read her book and follow her blog and she periodically wrote letters to her daughter each month of her first year of life. I like the personal touch that writing to someone gives. It makes the reader feel involved, part of the moment. I wrote a letter to Mason just before Sophie's birth and I have one in the works for Sophie now that she is 6 months. So it just seems fitting to do it for our first Christmas as a family of four.
Next post will be days 8 & 9.
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