Mini-book Layouts

Water and I aren't "friends" per se.  I've always (since a young age) had an irrational fear of the water.  As a young girl, I was sent to swim lessons in the Hayfield (midwest town names are so fun, aren't they?), so I could always perform well around water.  I simply hated it though- the kind of hate that is a *mostly* silent, seething hate that others may not be entirely aware of.  Still have an inner voice that feels this way.

These photos in the water are fabulous, but slightly fear inspiring.  "Knuckle under, buddy!", I shout to my inner voice, "This is my kiddo we're looking at."  Since I wasn't actually present for these pictures, my inner voice listens and dies down. 

I much prefer the photos of the girls hanging out.

The blessing of my one irrational fear is that I don't have any inherent reaction to climbing up a vertical wall with a teeny, tiny rope holding you up which is likely manned by the teen counselors at camp.  Wait, maybe that was my inner mama voice....

Katie, like her dad, is game for anything once.  Usually she loves it and then goes back for more and more. 

The archery picture was about a year prior to The Hunger Games frenzy which she is now heavily involved.  I think she's quite proud of this perfectly framed photo.  Our little Katniss.

Still, there's a little bit of the crafter in her.  Needless to say, the mama eventually creeps in there.

The very simple back cover...  I hope you've enjoyed my mini-book trip.  Sorry for the abundance of photos.  Hopefully you might use them to inspire you to get out some old photos, supplies, or projects and finish them up.  That's what I'm most pleased with.  These memories are wrapped up.  Bonus that the pictures have made their way to the blog.  Hooray!

Since green is my favorite color and green played a major role in this book, I've linked one of pages up with the Simon Says Stamp Monday Blog Challenge:Green.  Come join the fun!

Mini-book

These pictures of my surf girl are the most enjoyable for me.  I really tried to keep the embellishments simple to make her the star of this show.  I am pleased with how this worked out, because I do think she is the star.  Katie was one of the girls to get up on the board more than once during the short weekend camp.  Those softball skills come in handy in more ways than one- a sense of balance doesn't hurt either. 

The book still needs journaling, but I've left that for Katie.  There's room for some side comments and a little storytelling.  She's not much for the long winded discussions (unless it's on her teenager terms), so I'll be very curious what happens here.  I just photographed these before because the teenage eye rolls are too frequent as it is.  I can hear it now, "Mooommm, I don't want "my stuff" all out there on your blog!".  I did not seek or desire input on the pics though...

Just simply lovin' the whole thing.  I've only a few more pictures to edit and I can get the final set posted.  Hopefully tonight, but more likely tomorrow night!

More of the Surfish Mini-book

Sun-kissed beach photos are the best, aren't they?  I got these photos taken and edited and now I'm hot on the task of posting them up to the blog.  These next few layouts represent more of the layout of the original mini-book kit.

The papers are fun, retro (a bit?!) and are a beach friendly color scheme.  I picked this mini-book because so many of the surf pictures where heavily blue, but I still wanted a little girly feel. 

The opposing pages are not always a part of the original mini-book design.  I sprinkled the "add-ons" because the original layouts were exactly matchy-matchy and it felt right.

What's better than a shot of you running on the beach looking all tough in your wetsuit?  I've not one picture like this of me!!  At this late date, I'm unlikely to ever have one either.

Katie's troop leaders very graciously joined them in the surfing fun.  I am so grateful to women who volunteer their time and energy to my girl.  Jane and Jennifer are wonderful role models who have taught my daughter and I am grateful.

Surfish Mini-book

I honestly didn't think that this girly mini-album could justify a knarly surfing mini-book title.  It's a little too feminine and a little short on real surfing pictures.  Nonetheless, it is a mini-book that I *finally* put together for my lovely Girl Scout surfer.   The font is old, old, old from my Sizzix Tag-a-long and is called Sunset.

Katie was lucky enough to join her Girl Scout troop on sponsored trip to Camp Surf a couple of years back.  You heard correctly- these pictures are two years old...  and I had to leave older pictures on the table to scrap these.  This kind of dedicated-to-the-bigger-project-of-an-album crafting time is not consistently available.  Still, I have pre-made mini-books that are beggin' to be used (and thus make their way out of my Scrapbox).

So, I got busy putting this one together.  I won't bore you with too much detail here.  The mini-album was pre-made years ago when I worked at a LSS.  The kit came in from a vendor and I taught the class.  It was a simple, follow-the-instructions class, but fun to do with a group of women. 

A good bit of the embellishments came from the historical stash- trying to use that stuff up.  I've little recollection as to the sources except to say they include some Making Memories rub-ons (how do those things still work after a decade?), Quick Quotes emphemora, etc. 

I ended up adding pages to the book by covering 6 x 6 pieces of cardstock with printed paper that seemed to match the feel of the original mini-book pages. 

Most of the pictures are very close or in their original 4 x 6 printed form.  This is largely because there are so many group shots and I needed the surface area to make things work.  This is also the reason that the pages are so very simple.  Formula:  Matted picture + very small embellishments + patterned paper = DONE.

I've a few more pages to show you.  The trick is getting them all photographed, uploaded and posting to the blog.  I have set a goal for myself to squeeze this in over the next week.  This will *I warn you* result in picture heavy posts with little discussion.  Still, these simple layouts are an inspiration to my crafting and I'll hope they are to yours as well.