A Year in Pictures

Occasionally I blog about my other passion:  Scrapbooking!  My dilemma was that life was getting so busy, that I really haven't had time to indulge my creative scrapping side.  Meanwhile however, photos of all that we do in a year were piling up.  I decided that there had to be a better way for me to create beautiful pages of all these events without taking up a ton of time.

As our main living area is open concept, we have one large wall that sits between our family room and the kitchen.  I have had a variety of plans of what I would like to display on this wall, but nothing seemed to pan out.  I was shopping in Walmart one day and came upon these beautiful frames for only $10 each in the clearance section.  They were the approximate size of a scrapbooking page (12" x 12") once the matting was removed, and there were 12 left.  A plan instantly formed in my mind as I hurriedly loaded these into a cart!

Employing the help of my husband Greg and using his laser to ensure the nails were lined up perfectly, we created 4 rows of 3 frames each.  Then I set to work creating pages!!!  I chose mainly one big event per month and framed it.  Now I have 12 completed pages that cover pretty much all we did in 2013, and have since gone on to create other pages for the months where we had lots of events.

My biggest fear as I was halfway through this endeavor was that the wall would end up looking messy with the explosion of colours and variety of photos all in one space.  However, once they were mounted on the wall, the neutral colour served as a perfect backdrop to highlight all of our family and friends that are featured on these 12 pages.  Everyone enjoys revisiting the past year's events by looking at the pages, and now that we have completed January 2014 and almost February 2014, I am going to replace the two months up on the wall with the current year so this acts as a perpetual calendar!!!

What I love most about this is that we all get to enjoy my scrapbook pages since they aren't shelved away in albums.  When we finish a month, then the page gets taken down and placed into an album for the year, but not without being thoroughly enjoyed first!  The only thing I worry about now is that the pages might fade out with the indirect sunlight...but the benefits far outweigh the negatives in my mind!!

Stuff!

I just realized that I haven't posted anything since mid-October...I guess I've been busy! Lately we've been eating a lot of dinners that I have already posted on my blog, so there's nothing new to add, sadly. I have been focusing on my scrapbooking which has been sorely neglected over the summertime while India and Devon were at home, and the early fall when things were super-busy over at Cooper's CSA Farm & Maze! (So technically I haven't been sitting back relaxing - just not catering to my creative outlets as much as perhaps I should!!) A few weekends ago I got together with a group of my girlfriends for a weekend retreat and got a LOT accomplished! I am almost finished my 2009 album in time for 2010 to come to a close :0) My goal for these layouts was to minimize the number of pages that I was having to complete because I had 50 pictures of each event.  Therefore, I now choose better-quality and fewer photos that best show whatever event I am scrapping about! Here are a few pages that I wanted to share...take a look!!!

I love the fact that the photos that we took at our wine tasting are as blurry and poorly composed as we all were!!

Even though I wanted this page to be fairly simple as the photos have a lot going on in them, I decided to write all the different "language" that the Sommelier encouraged us to use while tasting, around the journalling area.  I created a circular journalling space to mimic a ring left by a wine glass!

I also decided to add the varieties of wines that we tasted that night (of course I had to refer to the notes we were given because I really don't remember much after the white wines and champagne!!!)

I created this page for my girlfriend's latest baby, Jaxon!  What was cuter than the baby, was that Michelle understood my scrapping needs and dressed herself and Jaxon in similar colours!!!




Just a close-up of the title that I created on my Cricut using the "Cuttin' Up" cartridge and the paper buttons that I backed with foam squares to give a 3D effect!




Who can resist the play on words?!

I decided to do a page devoted to Greg's first car that he ever owned (and he still owns)!!!  BTW, India chose to pose like that all by herself....future auto show girl?!  LOL!

I attempted to recreate a VW symbol using silver card stock - not exact, but not bad!!!

The black ribbon reminded me of a tire tread mark on a road, and I added the purple floral one to tie in with India's boots and floral pattern on her skirt!

This page is all about India and celebrating the fact that she is now our Sunday morning Chef at breakfast!!  India's favourite are pancakes and she faithfully reproduces them from my "Canadian Living Cookbook" from scratch...of course no pancake is fully dressed without a smile!!

Just a close up of the silver crown that I backed with foam squares and cut out using the Cricut cartridge "Cuttin' Up".  The holographic appliques are repurposed from one of India's old shirts!!

As I wanted the pancakes to be the focus of this page, I decided to print this photo as a 10" x 12".  Then I simply applied white cardstock strips to provide a journalling space!



Baby Boy 8" x 8" Scrapbook!

This is a photo of Meghan at 6 mos -
I used adobe photoshop to convert it to
black & white and used film grain to
create a 'texture' to the photo!  The
 clock signifies the waiting that every
pregnant woman experiences!

My brother-in-law and his wife, Meghan, are expecting a baby boy in early November!! They've chosen the name Simon and the baby shower was this past weekend. The one requirement was that instead of a card, we write a message to Meghan, Geoff and the baby on a book that they can read together. I decided to make my own book that they can share and created an 8"x8" scrapbook of pre-made pages for them to place their favourite photos in! (and I made a card because I LOVE making cards!!) Here's a picture of it!

Please bear with me because I am not overly confident with posting more than one photo at a time (and there are quite a few because I included one of each page and the card!!), but I feel they're definitely worth a look!  For some reason I loaded them in order, but they got mixed up?!  Enjoy!





I visualized a beautiful black and white photo of our newborn nephew on this page!  I used a silver stamp pad on the edges of the navy star and then elevated each star with foam squares.  The title is a double layer of navy lettering with silver on top!





This is the cover page and on the back of each of these pages, since Meghan isn't a scrapbooker, I put a sticky note with a drawing of the page and where I thought pictures would look nice on each!





I thought a beautiful photo of Simon in the hospital with his Mum and Dad, could go on this page!!                                                                             



I love the primary coloured blocks of paper on this page!

I titled this page "On The Move" so that they could place photos of Simon in his car seat or stroller on this page

I think this is one of my favourite pages of the whole album - the colours just speak to me!  Hopefully this is where a picture of all of us with the new baby will be placed!

I remember feeding time being a messy time as both of my kids 'explored' what was in their bowls or mouths!  I attempted to capture this memory with the splatters!!



Just a fun page where perhaps they could have a photo of Simon when he first arrives home and everything is new to both him and to his parents!



Obviously I made this page with a photo of both India and Devon with Simon, in mind!!  The "o" in Cousins is a blue heart-shaped brad and the squares are just scraps of paper put together in a way that reminded me of a quilt!



A 'manly' page celebrating Father's Day - the blue square brads in the top left corner spell D-A-D.  A metal heart elevated off the page with foam squares and a strip of coordinating ribbon down the left side, completes the page!



Another one of the holidays that Simon will experience in his first year - Valentine's Day!

I created this fun & vibrant page so Meghan can add a photo of Simon at a playgroup or with some of his little friends!  The yellow tag is held in place with a brad that's a blue arrow - all the children's names who are in the photo with Simon can be listed on this tag!

It's always lovely to head outdoors and go for an autumnal hike, pick apples, or choose a pumpkin at a local farm - this page was created with that sort of activity in mind!

I placed this page after the Valentine's Day page with an Easter Bunny theme!  It could also include a small photo of some other springtime activity such as going to a sugar shack for maple syrup, or looking at the spring flowers.

Of course there always needs to be a page for Mother's Day!  As this page is opposite the one for Father's Day, I chose papers that have polka-dots for both! 

Summertime is always a time for playing on the beach - I thought it might be nice to have a page where Geoff and Meghan can put a photo of Simon at the cottage on the dock, in the boat or playing on the beach!

The very last page in the album is one celebrating Simon's first birthday!!

Don't know if Simon will be dressing up for Halloween, but this could also include a picture of visiting a u-pick pumpkin patch or him beside a jack-o-lantern!  The ghost has purple eyes so I found a square of coordinating paper and then elevated it off the page with foam squares so it looks like it's floating!

There's nothing sweeter than a photo of a little baby fast asleep!  I used silver lettering to make the title 'quieter' and the silver star is elevated off the page using foam squares.

Thanksgiving is always a nice time of year when all the family gets together - in 2011 we'll be thankful for this new addition to our family!  The photo square in the middle is held in place by the two photo corners.  I punched out a leaf in the top left corner and added a yellow piece of paper in behind to make it stand out and then some buttons finish it off!

Nothing cuter than a baby new year!  I hope Geoff and Meghan get him a little top hat to complete the look! 

Just a fun playful page to display a photo of Simon with some of his favourite toys!

Simon will only be a month and a half old when St. Nick comes to visit, but I hope they have a photo of him curled up on Santa's lap for this page!!

Bath time was always a fun time in our house and I have many photos of India and Devon sporting shampoo horns and mohawks in the tub!!  Just a page devoted to splishy-splashy fun!