DIY Mini Scrapbook Album – Vacay

I was inspired to try making my own mini scrapbook album from scratch after watching Heidi Swapp’s tutorial class on Scrapbook.com. It’s a free class & she uses boxed cards to make the base of the album.

I had a few photos printed from my last vacation to Aruba and decided to use those for the album. They are press prints from Persnickety Prints that I had hanging on my Christmas tree last year. The press prints are so nice and sturdy, just love them. I also highly recommend the pearl finish when you have an image that you want to shimmer.

I had this Simple Stories Good Day Sunshine paper pad that I’ve been using for years now. I think it was a freebie from the Stamp & Scrapbook Expo, so it was a big stack with multiple pages of each design. I decided to try to kill it off with this album.

I chose a few papers and cut them down so that the album would be a 6×8 size. I adhered some pages together and used my sewing machine to sew pockets in a few pages (3). Heidi Swapp gives this idea/tip in her 2nd video in the class series. I like the idea of mixing the pages, some with pocket tags, some without.

I cut some chipboard to 6×8 and adhered it all together with Tombo permanent adhesive. For the cover I chose a paper that was 9 inches long so there would be overhang onto the back of the album to cover the spine. The journal card pages worked perfect for that.

Once the base of the album was complete, I loosely outlined where I wanted the photos then proceeded to complete & embellish each page. In total it probably took about 6-7 hours to complete the whole thing. Probably the quickest I’ve ever completed a project like this. Using the one paper pack as a base and sticking to a theme probably helped me focus more and get it done.

I used a lot of stash supplies, that “escape” sticker is from 7 Gypsies. Lots of Simple Stories embellishments from their mini “snap” packs and some other beach/paradise collection like “Here We Go”.

I love tags, and finally picked up a tag die-cut set at Stamp & Scrapbook Expo last year. It is from Hero Arts, the Infinity Tag set.

These papers worked out well because of the way they are color blocked for divided page protectors, it sort of blocks off different parts of the page layouts and also provides embellishment without having to add too much extra.

The “pure magic” is from Me & My Big Ideas, the other stickers and washi are Simple Stories Here We Go collection.

This fruity paper is from a 6×6 pad – American Crafts Dear Lizzy Happy Place. It was perfect for a visit to the smoothie bowl shack.

When I decided to start this album I had no printer ink, so couldn’t print additional photos that way. I did use my Lifeprint mini printer to print out mini photos of the food and snacks from the trip. The strip of paper under “good eats” is inked with Ranger Distress Inks. Again the pattern paper was already designed, so I didn’t have to add anything to it.

Sunglasses paper from 6×6 pad – American Crafts Dear Lizzy Happy Place. I also started by using the kraft photo corners, then just decided to continue that throughout the album for cohesiveness. The press prints are such a nice quality and I didn’t want to adhere them down.

This layout probably took the longest because I was trying to block off the left page to add some small stories. I have a Lifeprint hyperphoto that will take the place of the regular photo on the top part about these swans, fish and a swimming iguana. (Their servers were down at the time 😦 )

The bottom was a visit to a favorite night spot, Bugaloe, with live music & the best grouper ceviche – yum!

For the right side, I added a different paper from Simple Stories Summer Vibes collection. I cut parts off to make the words make sense for the theme.

I wanted to include some journaling in the album, some was recorded in Day One app and other in an Instagram post. I put the journaling (which I write a word or two about the different things that happen, places visited or inside joke type stories) on the viewable page. Then I add my more personal take to the pocket tag.

For the page I wanted to put the journaling right on that busy page, so I used the negative from the tag die-cut to ink a space that journaling printed on vellum would show up. I used Ranger Oxide Inks to get a nice layer of ink to cover up the images on the paper. At first I just printed the font in black, but then decided I would like it reversed better. I use apps on my phone to create this journaling and print directly to my Canon printer using their printer app. (Letterglow app, PicStitch app, and Canon Print – learn more about that here) I continued that inking on the right side of the page to outline the photo a bit more.

Used my typewriter for this journaling on the tag.

This album was fun and surprisingly easy to come together. I’m glad I have a completed project for something I wasn’t even sure I was going to scrap the photos for to begin with.

I highly recommend checking out Heidi’s class and trying a mini album of your own.

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Feeling Crabby // scrapbook layout share

I needed to just make a page. I hadn’t done it in a while. I wanted to capture the moment. I wanted to capture my mood. A few incidents have just been circling and sometimes recording it, & getting it out seems to offer clarity in some way. Or maybe validation?

I needed to get some photos printed on my Instax with the black border film that was in there, so that I could change it for some other photos I wanted to print.

So I printed these 2 photos from capturing my crab sweater, which also coincided with a Instagram post a couple weeks ago.

I just wanted to make and not think too much. I used paper from Pinkfresh Studio Dream On collection and elements from their Indigo Hill collection, I received in a warehouse box last year.

I also wanted to incorporate the new Tim Holtz Snarky Small Talk stickers.

I also used some stickers from Simple Stories Carpe Diem Posh line.

The cute little crab is actually from a stationery pad my cousin gifted to me.

If you follow me at all, you may know about my quest to understand my journey more, which deals with a lot of inward soul searching, in true fashion of a Cancer or crab, water sign, guided by the moon.

I let the colors of my sweater guide me. Nautical colors are always a favorite, but I liked that this was not a layout from the nautical season so much. Thinking about these collections in different ways.

I’ve been challenging myself to use older supplies, so pulled out the polaroid border frame and arranged it under the pop-dotted Instax photos.

I knew the most important part was getting some journaling down and left a space at the bottom for some quick notes. These sentence fragments are probably my favorite way to record journaling. Just how my monkey mind thinks sometimes, in bits & pieces.

I used a metallic pencil to quickly sketch some lines as a guide for the journaling. I went to use my Signo white roller ball pen, but it was almost out of ink, so I switched to the Sakura gelly roll. This one also wasn’t flowing, but got it to work. I suspect this incredibly dry air is part of that.

For the date title, I used some older alpha stickers. The white did not show up as well as I wanted with the pattern paper, so I outlined it with black pen to stand out a bit more.

I like how the layout finally came together. Sometimes I’m not sure as I’m going along, but I was determined to not get held up too much. I actually finished it rather quickly in comparison to others.

I always come back to a few tried & true techniques, or rather things I love about scrapbooking:

Candid photos  //  handwriting  //  pattern paper mixing  //  collage (or more modernly known as clustering)  //  words/phrases  //  dark backgrounds  // a 3-color scheme

Scrapbook Layout Share

I was fortunate to get to attend 3 crops so far this year! So I accomplished quite a few layouts (for me). When I go to crops, I tend to spend a longer time creating & trying out different techniques since I have a decent amount of time to focus on scrapbooking.

At 2 crops I worked on layouts and a traveler’s notebook from my Hawaii trip last year. At the 3rd crop, I just worked on cards to catch up my stash and prepare for a few card-worthy events coming up.

Here are just a few layouts I didn’t share yet:

This is just a simple Christmas layout of a family photo. The photo was edited with Photoshop Elements and printed through Persnickety Prints. I love this Carta Bella Christmas Delivery collection. I add a few of my signature designs with the folded up paper corner, page flags and stapled tab. The busy plaid green paper didn’t need too much embellishment.

I love this photo of my farmer’s market haul. Farm fresh brown eggs & flowers. This scene is pretty frequent in my summer. I knew I wanted to add some of the Graphic 45 paper from Home Sweet Home collection. I grew up in the suburbs, but where I lived it was more country, my neighbors had hens and we always had brown eggs. When I see this paper I always think of those memories growing up of my Dad’s huge garden, having to snap beans, pick & weed, Mom making quarts of tomato sauce, cherry pie parties with neighbors, it was truly something out of a Norman Rockwell scene.

I struggled with the title. I did not have my Silhouette machine with me and none of my alpha stickers worked (I kno right!). So I just handwrote the title. It’s probably a little smaller than I wanted, but I was focused on lettering neatly!

I still want to add some white stitching around the outside. It is sitting in my “to-do” bin waiting for a chance to get to stitching on a few layouts.

This candid snap was taken while placing the phone on the steps and trying to take a picture of us. It caught us in the midst of just playing around smooching. Love the light streaming in and contrast. I wanted to just use some pretty papers, but also have a gray layout. The cardstock is Papertrey Ink, and pattern paper from Simple Stories Heart Collection & another one I can’t remember! The SS Heart Collection is a very versatile one, I’ve used it on several different types of layouts. The colors of mint, black, gold, gray & mustard are a fav combo. The transparent ‘love’ journal card is an old one from Kelly Purkey. I thought of stitching on this layout too, but then decided I liked it as is and slipped it into my 2016/2017 album.

I’ve shared a bit of the layouts below on Instagram, but here they are again:

Green cardstock: Papertrey Ink; Yellow PP: Amy Tangerine Plus One, 6×6 American Crafts Happy Place; Instax photo printed with SP-2 printer; Celebrate Life giant stickers from MAMBI; Clear embellishment: Heidi Swapp Lightbox Icon Inserts

At the one crop, the door prize I picked were the Heidi Swapp Lightbox Icon Inserts. I don’t have a lightbox, but I thought they could make cute embellishments. I challenged myself to make a layout with them, and saw the photobooth props and remembered a photo of my nephew & I with mustaches. I brought my handy Instax SP-2 printer (more to come on that) with me to the crop, which makes it so easy to print photos as needed. A few quick edits in PicTapGo and voila, ready to make a layout!

As strange as it sounds, I don’t traditionally scrapbook vacations. It’s just too overwhelming! For my trip to Hawaii I did work on a traveler’s notebook while on vaca and recently finished it up. I also plan to make a digital photobook very soon through Mpix. I used Mpix to make one of their panoramic photobooks for my Euro trip and was really happy with the results. I just finished up another book with them for a graduation gift. So Hawaii will be next.

But I always like to include a few layouts or my favorite photos from a trip into my regular, chronological album. I printed this photo on my Canon Pixma printer just a little under 8.5×11. Punched the palm tree punch in the corner (that I’ve had since I was a kid!) And use the white, Uni-ball Signo gel pen to write my favorite places, memories & events of the trip. And fyi the colors of that photo are not photoshopped, probably just bumped the contrast slightly.

 

Hope you enjoyed my share and were inspired by something. If I didn’t link something you are interested in, leave me a comment.