For More Meaningful Pages
Recently, three of my scrapbooking friends shared with me their latest projects and I think you'll find that these ideas will inspire you to create more meaningful pages.
Starting with an 8.5×11 piece of heavy card stock, Kelli began to create a layout that had a "caps and gowns" background, "Happy Grad" as the title, her senior picture, the graduation announcement, and in the lower right corner a mini-book.
The mini-book contained a photo of Kelli's preschool graduation, kindergarten graduation, middle school graduation, and a list of special recognitions from her senior year. She titled the mini-book "Kelli's Big Days". To keep each layout unique, Kelli also included a framed journal area where she thanked the person who was going to receive the scrapbooking page for the influence they have had on her life.
When you're thinking of new things to do on your scrapbooking pages, a mini-book is a great option if you have several photos that you want to use. Rather than cramming all the photos into your layout, or having to create extra layouts, a mini-book can easily hold six or eight photos.
To create each mini-book, Kelli used two pieces of chipboard, textured paper for the cover, and four pieces of folded white cardstock for the inside. She made the mini-books in advance to allow plenty of time for the books to dry before adding them to the layouts. Kelli used her computer to scan copies of some of the photos, while others were taken to a nearby photo shop for copies.
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A couple of months ago she and her sister Aimee went through a few boxes of old photos to put together a collage to honor her mother's memories for the funeral. While discussing some of the photos, Anna and Aimee swapped a lot of "remember when" stories. One of their favorite photos was of their mother in a red and white striped simple dress that she sewed by hand. Whenever she worked in the garden, she had to wear that dress!
Seeing the photo of the red and white striped dress, gave Anna the idea to use the fabric from the dress as the cover for each scrapbook album for her four siblings. Anna then felt inspired to find other fabric, buttons, and ribbons that belonged to her mom and use them in some fashion for each layout.
Press Play On The Video Below To See a Beautiful Idea For Creating Texture On Your Page...
# 3 Add a personal touch with hand stitching
My friend Roxanne is used to being on the go. She is busy from the moment she steps out of bed right up until she heads back to bed at night. When she ended breaking her leg, we were all concerned about what Roxanne would do with her time since she would be doing a lot of sitting.
One day when I took dinner to Roxanne's home, I was amazed by the greeting cards that she was making! As thank you notes, Roxanne used cross stitch floss and hand-stitched the recipient's name onto the front of the card. She used rubber stamps to decorate each card and would hand stitch just one element of the design–a ladybug, a flower, or even the head and paws of a teddy bear.
As I was admiring Roxanne's work, we began talking about how hand stitching could easily be used with other scrapbooking ideas. Roxanne is currently working on a baby scrapbook album for a friend. The title of each page is hand-stitched, and very similar to her cards, Roxanne has hand-stitched at least one object on each page. It's fun to look at a layout and anticipate where she used hand stitching.
Roxanne recently sent me a greeting card and I know that I will treasure it for many years to come. It's hanging on my bulletin board where I can see it every day. My name is hand-stitched on the front of the card along with a beautiful flower. She used a scalloped edge with tiny pinholes for the left and right side of the card. Beautiful work.
When it comes to scrapbook album ideas, your options are endless. As you begin to plan each layout, think about what you can add to the page to make it extra meaningful. Is it a mini-book? A sentimental scrapbooking touch? Hand-stitching? Or some other inspired touch?
Want more inspiration? Click here to see ideas for 7 Headache-Free Simple Scrapbook Layouts!