Plans for Summer

June came and went in the blink of an eye. We celebrated the last day of school today (yay!!) and I am really looking forward to the change of pace for the next 2 months.

When summer arrives, it’s a lot harder to convince myself that I “want” to be in my basement at my scrapbook table. It’s not the act of scrapbooking that I’m not a fan of, it’s the location. I’d so much rather be outside in the sunshine, enjoying the breeze, drinking a slurpee and watching my kids play. Knowing this is true (it happens every year), I changed my approach to memory keeping last summer. I downsized to a 6×8 album and created a bucket list of summer things we (I) wanted to do.  My storytelling centred around checking those things off the list. I still wound up with a really good mix of everyday life stuff thrown in there. It worked so well, I plan to repeat that same formula this summer.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

I’m using a 6×8 “Story Book” from Ali Edwards’ new line. I was so so excited to receive this one (in “greige”) when I attended Story Camp at the beginning of the month! It’s truly a beautiful album, and if you happen to be looking for a 6×8 album, I can honestly say the quality of these ones is fantastic. For this first page, I turned one of the journaling cards from the June Digital Kit into a cut file, cut it with my silhouette, and added it to a heavy weight transparency along with a recent family photo (Father’s Day at Medieval Times! Super fun 🙂 )

 On the back of the transparency, I created a little card with our (my) “summer bucket list” of to-do’s. I created the journaling card in the upper right pocket by repeating a digital stamp (“find your summer joy”) across a 3×4 canvas and added one of the digital chipboard elements with a foam dot (“hello summer”). These elements as well as the banner across that wood veneer camera are all from the June Digital kit. The camera itself was from a past Story Kit (“Click”). I used the other half on a layout 2 years ago and couldn’t bring myself to part with the rest of it. I’m so glad I kept it!This is probably my current favourite photo of Emily. She was goofing around on the back of Brett’s chair while we were at Liam’s soccer practice one evening and I grabbed my phone to snap a quick pic. When I got home later that night, I took a look at the June Digital Kit and the quote card felt like it was meant to be!!! I extracted the handwritten text from the digital card and added it right on top of my photo and I just loooooove it. I’m considering blowing this one up for somewhere in my house. But for now, it’s printed 6×8 and has a home in our summer album.

One of the things I love most about the 6×8 size is that it doesn’t feel quite as intimidating to experiment a bit with different mediums. I love the look of layers in my little albums, with transparencies and vellum and see through pockets. I used another one of the digital stamps to create the pink patterned background and printed it on vellum. I’m not entirely sure how I’ll incorporate it into my album yet. I may add it to a custom sized page protector, or I might just punch holes in the edge and include it as is.

My plan for the rest of the album is to make good use of the upcoming digital kits and shop my stash (which is in need of purging right about now). I’m looking forward to sharing my progress throughout the summer!

One last quick share before I sign off for today. I’m pretty sure we’re one of the last regions to finish up the school year, but in case you need some quick teacher thank you’s, I whipped up these adorable photo tags with a digital stamp (again with the June Digital Kit) and a photo, printed on matte photo paper and cut into the shape of a tag.   They add a sweet little personal touch for the super special people who help us make it through the year. Always thankful for our village.

Thank YOU for stopping by today 🙂