Boy

I had to put this page in before we were finished with our 30 days of layouts. It's got to be one of my favorite portrait pages of all times, I loved the pictures so much that it made the page really easy to do!

My background is just plain green cardstock. The orange polka dot and the brown plaid is scenic paper route. The green polka dot and the stripe is Bo Bunny. All the stickers are from a Bo Bunny sticker sheet, they matched my pictures perfectly! I spelled Ethans name using doodlebug button letters. 

The brown frog and green flower are felt shapes I got from Fancy Pants a long time ago. Again I mounted my stickers on chipboard. The orange ribbon is from American Crafts and the fibers and green ribbon are from All My Memories. I also used some brown snaps from We R Memory Keepers and some matching buttons. 

Posting these pages has been a lot of fun for me, I have had a great time looking through my albums and stirring up some of my old memories! Sure makes me miss my chunky little babies though! 

Keep an eye out for our upcoming page kit giveaway! 

YOU

When my kids were young we rarely did any photo shoots, they just weren't agreeable enough. So as they have gotten older we try to do a photo shoot every year on their birthday, I can't say they particularly like to do it but they are good kids and humor me! I chose this particular photo shoot because I loved the colors and the page kit!

When we did this photo shoot we wanted to capture some of the things that make Tyler who he is, so we took pictures of him with his ipod, because he loves music, it is a major part of his life, but  Obviously the most important part of his life is his mother right? What teenager wouldn't think that? At least that's what I tell myself everyday! 

This is another storytellers club pack...LOVE THEM! I loved the way the colors in this pack complimented the pictures and all of the tags went so well!  I love that storytellers pretty much comes with everything you  need for your page, even the background paper. I usually just add a few odds and ends to make it look complete. each of the tags had little circles printed on them that look like brads, but I like a little dimension to my pages, so I pulled some matching brads and put them right over the top of the printed ones. The punchouts on the side I mounted on more metal tags and added buttons. At the bottom of the arrow border I just added some matching ribbons and fibers. The only thing I wish I would have done with this page is maybe mounted some of the punchouts on chipboard or possibly have put them on my page using pop dots to make them stand out a little more. Other than that I love the way the page turned out, it made me realize that portrait pages aren't as hard as you think they will be. 

I wish I would have kept up on the portraits from the time the boys were little, I probably would have caught some really funny candid shots! 

Preserving School Memories

I don't make one page layouts very often, but when it comes to school pictures and you only have one photo, there isn't really a good way to turn them into a two page layout.  Even though these two pages aren't part of the same layout, I used the same basic idea for both of them, so I decided to post them both.

I saw the idea for the little squares at a scrapbook store a long time ago. They were selling sheets of paper with the squares on them, but I realized I could make them myself and print them out for a lot cheaper, plus I'd be able to include any category I'd like for the kids to fill out.  I am so extremely happy that I did these pages when the boys were young!  The answers they gave, and their handwriting preserved forever make these pages priceless!

To make the pages for the boys to fill out, I just created some text boxes in Word and filled in the categories.  I left the black outlines on the squares and had them fill out the pages before I cut the squares out so it would be easier for them.  I actually love the misspelled word "tooth" with the extra h crossed out--it gives it more character.

The only thing I asked from them is that they write within the box--no input on answers or even suggestions--I wanted it to be their genuine responses.

The stickers for the red page came from Pebbles, Inc; the blue ones from O Scrap.  These pages were super simple--all I had to do was piece everything together to make it all fit and glue it on.

A lot of times I go overboard and make my pages complicated, so the fact that these are so basic but so fun makes them extra special.  I really love them, and in retrospect I wish I'd done this with my kids every year and created an entire album of just these school pages.  Sadly I didn't, and there is no going back.  If your kids are little, make the sheets for them to fill out.  Even if you don't do anything with them right now, one day you'll be glad you have them.