Over the past year or so I’ve had boxes and boxes and there are still a few more boxes to go to pull out any and all childhood photos I want to keep myself. I had been trying to figure out what to do with them. I didn’t want to just put them in a photo album or photo box. They lived there for the past 15-25 years, and since I turned 25 today I really wanted to begin thinking about what I wanted to do.  I think I’m going to put them in a minibook. I don’t remember a lot about the photos..most are from when I was an only child so up to the age of 3. My first Disney trip at the age of 5, or well other times. I think my school age photos are sitting in the boxes I have look at yet, but I think I’ll do school age in a different book.  So I started my thought process and I thought I’d share it in case anyone was every wondering where to start with a minibook.

First I start with theme..this one is Childhood photos. Then I scour the internets looking for the perfect paper collection to match my theme..this book I’m choosing October Afternoon’s Sidewalks which hasn’t been released yet; so I’m holding my breath I’ll be able to get it before Thanksgiving. (OA is known for not shipping on time) if it’s not ready I’m going to pick up Fancy Pants Summer’s End and start the base work for my Thanksgiving/Fall book.

Then I choose a size I’m thinking either a 4×6.5 (room for binding) or a 4×8. Since I don’t have a ton of memories of the photos there isn’t a lot of journaling or story telling to be told, but I can tell stories of what I do remember..the love of my little blue car, my favorite hiding places, and my hatred of shoes.

The 3rd step is to pick photos. This step I had already done I had a huge stack of photos that I saved. Some when to my brothers, some will go into a photo box, and the highlights will go in the book.

The 4th step and for me the most fun picking out all the add-ons, embellishments, and other stuff. I’m going to use some twine, stamps, and depending on what I find Sidewalk embellishments (label and word stickers, journaling cards, and flower sack (all the flat stuff) and maybe some buttons and chip and stick..depending on how big the book looks like it’s going to be. It’ll be flatter if I’m looking at 20+ page book, but if it’s less I’ll toss in tons of buttons and chipboard. (I think I’m looking at flat) Then I’ll also have some precut Silhouette designs with me, but I can always make notes and do all the cutting when I get home from my trip.

The 5th step sketch out a few page designs. Since I haven’t picked a size I haven’t started on that yet, but I plan to use a smooth cardstock base I’m thinking a mix of blue, green, and yellow.

And if you’ve stuck around this long I’ve got a treat for you. A layout I did a few weeks back. It took awhile to do, but I loved it. I first cut a honeycomb pattern from the Silhouette and then cut all the pieces to go inside in different pp. I used a My Minds Eye 6×6 pad that I had. Then I cut the title 4 times with the Silhouette and layered them, added a few labels and the photo and I had an arty layout I really liked. Thanks for reading & happy crafting <3 Ann

After my post yesterday with Lawn Fawn’s polaroid I wanted to share a layout I did with a polaroid die cut from the Silhouette store. I printed these pictures 6 months ago planning to do some minibook with them, but never got around to it. So all those tombstone pictures sat in my box and I’d look at them from time to time thinking I should do something with them.  So I did today. I cut 9 frames and took some digital scrapbook paper I downloaded yesterday that I though would be perfect for the layout and created 3 more squares one with the title. Some cardstock for a base and black and brown ink to distress the frames and I had a layout.  Thanks for reading and happy crafting <3 Ann