Memorabilia

Pages from Mara & Mini Album Idea Book Sighting!

I was super excited this weekend to finally see my Fall mini for this project in the latest Create: Mini Album Idea book from Northridge Publishing!  Yay!  I was dying to see what pages were selected and it was so fun to see some scrappy friends and my dog in a magazine :)

 

If by any chance you found us via that article, welcome!  Me and a few super crafty girls I know are doing this project all year.  You can jump in at any time.  Just leave a comment to let us know what you are up to.  I would love to show off some other people's work here on the blog.  You can also come chat with us at www.thecreativesoup.com - a scrapbook challenge forum.  In fact, we have a Re-Opening Gala kicking off today!  Lots of games and fun and a few prizes of course.  

 

Okay on to more fabulous pages by Mara...

 

**All notes are from Mara, giving you a bit of detail about her book**

 

ere is a mini page made out of an Under Armor racing hat I bought to keep me warm as I ran in the winter. It documents my trails and set backs as I got ready to run my first 5k.

 

 

This is made from the shopping bag from the store I bought my real running shoes. I wanted to keep it nice and simple so I could focus on the journaling and documenting my experience.

 

RAD is the rail arts district here in Atlanta and Tess' husband is one of the artists that participated in the tour. Each artist had a business card and as we walked around I gathered them all and then stapled them together to make a "page".

The back features one of the most talented artists Ive ever had the pleasure of meeting. The photo is a piece of hers.

 

 

Just a quick little insert made from the studio calico label they close the bag with. 

 

My new hairdresser sent me this thank you card for choosing their salon and I thought it be the perfect thing to document my new hair cut and color. 

 

 

And my first ever race number! I finished a 5K and had bought the post card one day to cheer myself up. It worked perfectly as a way to add photos and journaling to my race # which was made out of this weird material not really conducive to journaling on it and it was too flimsy to be a page on its own. I even left the safety pins in there!

Yummy pages

If you are anything like me, you eat out more than you mean to... even if its just to grab a latte from Starbucks or lunch on the run.  Check out these food pages this week.

First from Mara

 

 

From jessica*bree

 

More pages from K

More pages from K - I just love how her album is coming together!

All comments from K on how she put her pages together!

 

For this first page, I took apart the packaging from my 4-pack of bottled soda, flattened it out and added some paper and labels for my title and journaling. I tried to match fun vintage supplies with the fun vintage look of the packaging. 

 

The second page (front and back) was made out of one of the netflix envelopes that comes in the mail. Since the backside of the page is bright and all "netflix in your face", I made the front side a little bit more subdued with the grey and just a small journaling box. I just added a little bit of washi tape for color, and a stamped and embossed bee for some texture.

 

For the third page (sorry the photos aren't great, the awkward shape made it difficult to photo) I used the packaging from a big bottle of excedrin to document my headaches, and what I'm going through with them right now. The backside shows my journaling, telling the story of why excedrin is such an important part of my life right now.

 

For my last page, I just wanted to do something quick and easy for these movie ticket stubs, and I thought this October Afternoon woodsy map paper went perfectly with True Grit! I just added a border to the left hand side, and attached the stubs with my little attacher. On the backside, I stamped and embossed some kraft cardstock with a woodgrain pattern and added my journaling. 

Winter by jessica*bree

First, a quick note that my Project Life Memorabilia Album will be featured in the soon to be realeased Mini-Album issue coming out from the publishers of Scrapbook Trends :)  I can't wait to see which pages they are showing.  I mailed them my Fall 2010 book.  

This week I am sharing a few pages from my Winter 10/11 book.  

 

In December, I had jury duty for the first time!  I served on lawsuit case for 1 week.  The page above is my jury summons obviously.  I added paper and washi tape along the edges to try to reinforce the thin paper.  I journaled on the front about jury duty and about my husband and the shuttle bus on the back.  (He wrote a note pointing out the shuttle bus info that I had missed).

 

I made a little page out of my tag from some winter pjs I got at Target.  I adhered it to a piece of pink patterned paper before binding it into my book.  The tag flips open to reveal the journaling.

 

This year I got a GPS for Christmas, and I saved the little sticker that was on the screen for my book!  

 

I included the photo christmas cards I got into my album.  I put this one in sideways so it would fit and just added washi tape around it.

 

A page about all the tags I make each year.  The "memorabilia" for this one is one of the tags that I made for Scrapfreak.

Mixing It Up with K

I have some more faboo pages to share with you from the very talented K.  I just love K's artsy, graphic style.  Below are some pages from her book and commentary from K on what she did and notes from me on how her work has inspired me!

 

Revamp Atelier

With this page, I wanted to document the reorganization of my scrappy area. I took the instruction manual (leaflet really) from one of the Ikea products I bought, sized my photos down to fit one photo to a page, and then just added a bit of journaling. Because the leaflet was so small, I attached a couple of thin strips of cardstock to the lefthand side so that I would be able to have two binding holes. 

Ideas: I love how K reused what would normally be "trash" AND I just love how it folds out, plus I am a sucker for little cute things.  A-DOR-A-BLE

 

Kit Day

For this page I used one of the Pink Paislee Anthology separated page protectors. I cut up a couple of random sheets of Studio Calico coupons and paper and fit something different inside each pocket.

Idea: I seriously bought these page protectors because of K!  Even if you don't have them, I love the idea of creating a little grid of photos, journaling and memorabilia as a page.

 

January 31-15 (it doesnt have a name)

To document the new journal I bought myself, I took the outside wrapper off the journal, and tore out one of the journal sheets. I added the gift card that I used to make the purchase and a couple of photos of the journal itself. 

Idea: I love how this page mixes together different memorabilia - the gift card from Amazon and the packaging from the item she bought with said gift card.  

 

Sophie's

My favorite restaurant had a couple of different promotional cards out for people to take. I grabbed one of the business cards, and two of the postcards. I adhered the business card and the postcard to a larger sheet of paper, so it would be a little bit more sturdy. And I adhered another postcard to the back for the journaling. This way I didn't miss out on the cool back part of the postcard. 

Idea: with a normal mini you might have an photo on one page, and then journaling on the opposite page.  But when you do a memorabilia book, considering do what K did instead... the journaling about Sophie's is on the back of the memorabilia.  So you would look at the front and back of the item to get the full story.

 

Playing Xbox

My boyfriend got one of those "special edition" video games, the ones that come in the cool fancy boxes with all the goodies. I grabbed the silly card inside (which is supposed to be a health poster in case of a zombie attack) and made my page out of that! I'm really enjoying finding cool things to use as page bases.

Idea: think creatively about what "memorabilia" is... its not always just about places you visit!  

Promise to try to post more frequently!  We just had a lot of winter illnesses hit the team in Jan/Feb so here is hoping for a healthier March :)

 

 

Mara's Book & What to Document

Hello my fellow scrapbookers!  This week I have two things to share with you...  First we will take a look at Mara's book, for a look at another format for you to consider.  Then I want to share some thoughts with you on WHAT kinds of things you collect and what topics you cover in your year-long Project: Life Memorabilia book.

 

Gestalt 2011 by Mara

Format: Mara's book is just a bit bigger than 8.5" wide by 11" tall, bound simply with six rings (2 at the top, 2 in the middle and 2 at the bottom).  The cover is handmade from cardboard.  Below is a slide show of her first pages.

 

What to document: Places You Go

So what you cover in your PLM book is 100% up to you... if you just want to cover "events" like dinners out, movies you saw, places you went, then cool.  But I also wanted to share some ideas to get you thinking about some everyday things you can also document in your book to make it more a "slice of life".  Every few weeks I will post some thoughts and ideas to push you to capture more, which is what this project is all about.

 

This first topic is about the places you tend to visit... and I don't mean trips and vacations.  I mean the everyday things that we rarely take the time to capture.  Consider capturing some of your usual places, and new places you try out.  Here is a list of ideas to get you thinking...

GROCERIES/HOUSEHOLD SHOPPING

Where do you typically shop for groceries and house hold items?  Why do you go there?  Has it changed recently?  IDEAS: Take a flyer from your favorite store if they have one, or consider asking for paper bags on your next trip and cut out the store logo for a page.  Take a snapshot of the front of the store, the aisles, and your shopping cart.  Document how much you spend on various items.  

 

COFFEE/ DRINKS/ FOOD

Are there places you tend to go for a quick coffee, soda or lunch?  What are your favorite places to grab dinner on the way home?  Any new places you suddenly love, or do you stick to your tried and true favorites? IDEAS: Get a take-out menu or frequent shopper card to add to your album.  Snap a quick photo of the store sign, the menu, or your favorite item.  Document what you love to eat or drink from your favorite places.

 

COMMUTE

Do you have a commute you do for a job or school or for the kids each week?  IDEAS: Snap a quick photo of your drive (while at traffic lights of course!), take a photo of the parking lot, grab a business card or other item with the name of your work/school.

 

CRAFT/SCRAPPY STORES

If you are like me, you love to stop by J's, M's or your LSS on a semi-regular visit.  Next time you go, create a quick page about your trip and what kinds of things you like to shop for.  IDEAS: Keep a coupon from a local craft store, save a flyer, or print the store logo from the internet.  Snap a quick photo of your store aisle, your shopping basket, the LSS owner, or a favorite item you just bought.

 

INDULGENCES

Are there any stores you just love to go to when you need a pick-me-up?  Maybe a new pair of shoes, or some bubble bath?  IDEAS: Snap a shot of the stores exterior or a close up of products on the shelf during your next visit.  Write about how often you go and what your favorite things are to buy.  Save a label or packaging from your favorite products for your book.

Creating Pages from Memorabilia

This week I wanted to show you some pages I made using larger memorabilia items.  Let me know if anything is not clear and I can make a video for next week on how to recreate anything you see in my book if its helpful :)

 

CARD AS BASE

For this "page" I started with a store bought card.  I scored the front one 1" inch from the edge on the right, and then the I scored the back  3/4" inch from the edge on the right as again.  This let me refold the card to create a page that can be closed.

I made a notch to hold the page closed using my basic grey notch tool... the button hides the closer.

Inside reveals hidden journaling

 

POCKET PAGES

H

This page was made by sealing the end and side of a museum map and then using it as a pocket page

FLIP PAGES

This is the inside brochure from a box of exotic truffles I got as a gift

Get CREATIVE... think of ways to use your memorabilia in unique ways.  When you do be sure to comment here with a link, and I might just feature your page on the blog and at creativesoup.forumotion.com :)

 

A look at another take on the class - Monica's Book

This week, a glimpse at another take on the project, but project team member Monica.  Monica's style is clean and graphic, as you can see from the look of her project.  Monica's approach to the project, much like mine, shifted as she went from concept to actually making pages.  In Monica's words:

"I've been saving more stuff than what I actually included. As I started the project, I found that I really wanted to tell some kind of story with it. While I had saved some food packaging, I didn't want the book to be full of I had such and such for dinner and here's the package. So I tailored it some from my original idea and included more event type memorabilia, photos and simple journaling.

I also wanted my album to be easy to add to during the year and not very supply intensive. It's only 12 days into the year so I imagine the book will evolve over the year into a more regular flow of stuff as I get more comfortable with looking for and gathering memorabilia. "

And a look at the start of her album...

 

Snippets - Monica's Format

COVER

EARLY JANUARY PAGES

 

I intentionally left the inside front cover blank as I might go back at the end of the year and write about the process. Right hand side was a just a movie poster photo where I wrote some quick journaling. 

 

Left hand side was a sticker I picked up at the record store. Right hand side includes a photo I took while there...again with simple journaling.

 

On the left - paper bag cut-out and journaling.
On the right - gift card holder from the restaurant where we had lunch.

 

Left - picture on the back of the gift card holder of my meal since it is one of my favorite things.
Right - business card from late Christmas present

 

Left - pic of the actual present
Right - movie poster printout and tickets from the movie

 

Left - restaurant didn't have anything to take away with so I included another dinner pic  

Right - Top of a box of toffee that I love. 

 

 

 

 

 

This or That... Album Format

I hope you have been saving up some "junk" this last week for this project!  Even if you have not, no problem, but GET ON IT :)  For those that have saved, let's start planning for your book size and format.

Pull out your memorabilia and ask yourself a few questions

• What size do you expect your largest item of memorabilia to be?  Are you okay with folding or cutting something if its "too large" for your book ?
• Is most of your stuff going to be small, like it could easily fit on a page or in a pocket (ticket stubs, business cards, gift cards, clothing tags, labels), or do you expect to have some larger items like brochures and maps?
• Do you want all your pages to be the same size or do you want to mix it up?
• Are you comfortable making your memorabilia INTO pages in your book or is that too artsy for you?
• Do you prefer to have everything safe behind page protectors?

So based on your answers, you can start to narrow down your choices!  Here is a list of some options, and a few pros & cons to consider:

1. Premade mini-album - using a premade book will keep things simple and you will have more uniform look to your project.  Be sure to choose a size big enough so that you don't get frustrated later.  In general, my guess is an 8 by 8 album or 8.5 by 5.5 would work well for the most common memorabilia.  The only down size is it might be hard to fit some items into your book and adding more pages is not always easy.
2. 3-ring binder - a big binder album like American Crafts can offer a lot of flexibility.  You can mix and match page sizes, and use page protectors if you want.  Plus the binding method is simple - just hole punch your items to get them into your book.  And as long as you buy a large enough binder (see K's 3" binder) you can fit a TON of pages and items in there.
3. Make your own album, BIND IT ALL - if you own a bind it all or similar this can be a very economical approach.  You can make your book any size you want and simple bind items as you go.  The one big downsize is depending on how many pages you make your book can get too thick to bind.  You can just split it up into quarters like I am doing, but keep this in mind since the largest coils are usually 1.5 inches.
4. Make your own album, ACCORDION FOLD BINDING - this is what I have done and it has the benefits of being very flexible and I love how nicely the pages turn.  The downsides are you have to hand make your binding which some people find hard to do, especially if you are a perfectionist.  But the binding method does create extra thickness at the binding side to help make room for lumpy pages and embellishments.  If you are a very "flat" scrapper, this may not be the best method for you.

 

This or That: K's album vs. Bree's album

K went with a super thick 3 ring binder.  This gives her LOTS of room to expand, and is pretty simple to use.  You can see that she decorated the inside too... love it.

and a few sample pages...

Page 1: front of "post card"

Page 2: Back side

Page 3: Flap for title

Page 4

Page 5: Back side

 

I went with a handmade book using an accordion fold binding.  This lets me add as many pages as I want and it costs almost nothing to make.

Watch a VIDEO HERE to see a quick (and very rough) tutorial on how to make an accordion fold binding edge.  See previous post for examples photos of the pages.

Share with us what you are thinking about doing for your format!  And let us know if you have any questions about the video or the books :) - j*b

Capture MORE of Your Life

 

While I love scapbooking, I find I have a few challenges.  

1. I love the idea of year long projects but find many of them too time consuming. 
2. I want to document more of my everyday life, but often forget to capture the little things.
3. I want to capture more memories, especially in the form of photos, but don't have my camera with me all the time.  But I do often find that I have menus, cards, coasters and other memorabilia that I grab when I am out but never get around to using on projects.

My solution?  Gather up all this "stuff" I have collected (and keep collecting more), add in some quick snapshots from my phone, and use it to document my everyday life.  Here is what I came up with...

 

COVER:

I made an accordion fold binding for my book (how-to will be shared later this month)

Size of album is 6" tall by about 9" wide

The cover was made using a flyer from Barcelona and a transparency

INSIDE PAGES:

My pages are NOT uniform in size.  Because I used memorabilia as the basis for many of my pages they are all different sizes.  Some are glued into the binding so they are aligned with the top of the book, while others are centered and some aligned at the bottom of the book.

******This post was edited to remove several of my photos because the book was requested for publication!  Thanks for your understanding ****** 

BOSTON:

A few pages on a business trip

PAGE 1 - simple page with no memorabilia, using iPhone photo.  It flips open to reveal more photos and journaling.

PAGE 2 - Journaling spot & back of an old hotel key card, iPhone photo

 

HOME WITH SEVEN

Simple page to document a day at home, playing with my dog

PAGE 1: Postcard I got in a book about Labs as a gift

PAGE 2 - Made from Patterned Paper

 

All these pages from 

Jessica Bree

 

Each week, come back to see what our team has documented.  You'll see how combining memorabilia with journaling about your life can be an easy and fun way to document your life.  

HOW TO GET STARTED:

1. Start collecting STUFF: the label from favorite products, menus from your go-to take out place, labels from your clothes, ticket stubs from the movies, used gift cards, and so on.  Don't worry about how you will use it.  Just KEEP IT.
2. If you have a camera on your phone, start snapping more photos.  Try to document everyday things.
3. Jot down a few quick notes on post-its or a small notepad if you think you will forget the what and where of your memorabilia :)
4. Come back each week in January to learn more about the various formats each team member is using to create their album.  
5. Then play along and share a link to your work.  Join us over at www.creativesoup.forumotion.com to chat with others doing the project and for a chance to win prizes!

Project Life Memorabilia:  capture more of your life