Here we go! My 6×8 adventures begin!
I’ve been inspired to make this change in size by the likes of Caylee, Kellie, Kelsey, Cay and Kristin who’ve made beautiful use of smaller formats. (Looking at this list, I’m wondering if you have to have a name that starts with an unvoiced velar stop to catch my attention as a scrapbooker!)
I feel like there’s a lot more scope to experiment in smaller sizes. Working on my 30 lists album was a great exercise in getting to grips with that, and definitely inspired the change to a smaller format too.
Here’s a peek at what May looks like in my album…
My title page, with sequins, vellum, veneer, and all good things. I cannot get enough of Crate Paper’s Kiss Kiss range, I feel like it was made for me, and I will use every last scrap of it ’til it’s gone.
When Arty and SJ came home from swimming lessons on a Saturday morning with flowers and a coffee for me I felt so loved. These are the little things I love to record. Looking back on them brings lets me experience that happy feeling all over again. And just quietly, that ‘I am’ stamp from Kellie Stamps is a very useful addition to my collection.
When my brother got home from Nepal after the earthquake we were all incredibly relieved. I wanted to document his homecoming, and used veneer and paper from Studio Calico’s Dean addon kit. I wanted to connect the story to the place, so I printed a map of Nepal onto vellum, and placed it in the centre of the spread, so that it overlaid the photos and the text.
A movie night with friends is always worth documenting. I love the geometric design from Digital Design Essentials ‘Evening Grace’ paper pack - to my eye it goes perfectly with the quote, and also kind of evokes the crazy lightning magic that gets used in ‘Big Trouble in Little China’.
I have a big folio folder thinger that I store most of Arty’s art in, but I felt like this hand print belonged in the album. The paint he used was quite bright, so I thought putting it behind vellum might help to mute it a little so that it would fit better with what’s around it. I sewed a piece of vellum to a piece of cardstock to make a pocket, and just slid it in there. Then I added that picture of the aftermath of his painting adventures, because it was just too cute. I love that you get a glimpse of both process and product this way!
These are a few photos that I wanted to include but didn’t know how to categorise. I just put them together as little random details. I used some of my favourite alpha stickers from Studio Calico as mini headings, and that brought the disparate images together a bit more.
Rather than try to make a different spread for every single cafe trip, play date, or friendly visit, I did a page of many of the lovely peeps we caught up with over the month. It gives a really nice picture of how social, happy, and love-filled our lives are at the moment. That hexagon paper is from Kikki K’s paper lovers book.
These photos needed no elaboration. The journal card is from the Hello Gorgeous range by Dearest Someday – I sampled the colour from Arty’s jumper and used it as an overlay in Photoshop to make it coordinate with the photos better.
It seems my love of vellum is showing this month! Here, I printed a photo of the flowers that Arty & SJ gave me for mothers’ day onto a piece, and stapled the card to it – I wanted to make both sides of the card visible as one side was letterpressed, and the other had their beautiful message on it. The
opaque paper fit the bill perfectly.
SJ is a May baby, and we had a couple of really nice nights with friends to celebrate her birthday. That little ‘yay’ label makes me happy, and is another Studio Calico job, and as you can see, I love those alphas so much that I bought them in a range of colours.
Arty and I had an impromptu city adventure in May, which involved lots of happy moments (most of which were about food, becuase that’s hoe Smith-deGraafs roll). I love exploring with this little guy, and doing it in our very own city is a special kind of exciting. Those little phrases are from Designer Digitals – I actually printed them, cut them out, and physically stuck them to the pages, because I prefer that layered look. It’s a little fiddly, but I think it’s worth it.
So, there you have some of my favourite bits of May. I enjoyed working in 6×8 so much that I’m already getting well stuck into June. I can’t wait to share it with you soon!