One of the projects I vowed to work on at the
retreat last month was my Disney photos. We've been going on and off for the last 8 years. We only live 20 minutes from the CA location and whenever we visit my in-laws in Orlando, we stop in there. It helps that my Father in Law is a Disney employee. He chose to work there to supplement retirement income when they moved and retired down there. Works for us! (Have you SEEN the admission prices these days?)
Anyway, I took both
Simple Stories themed lines, 8 years of photos and all the memorabilia I had saved up. I never planned to document Disney because I don't use the overly themed papers available. I was thinking I could get a Snapfish photo album done one of these days. Until Simple Stories released these lines. OMG how cute are the Disney lines now? I love that they are themed but also generic. The colors match everything because they're basic. I love it. (Say Cheese I and II)
I started the album using a class kit from
Layle Koncar. She used to work for Scenic Route and Basic Grey but now she works for Simple Stories. Her style is perfect and I love her classes. Since I couldn't be physically present, it was awesome of the store holding the class to sell extra kits. I was able to get my hands on one and it was the *perfect* jump start for this album.
A red American Crafts cloth album altered with the Simple Stories papers and items from the sets.
Page 1 - Part of the class kit from Layle. I made a few minor changes.
Back of page 1. I like how she altered (cut) the size of this first page down to 3 4x6 slots. There are small details like this throughout her kit/class that make the album fun.
Page 3 is actually a 12x12 layout.
Page 4 is another layout designed by Layle. Super simple but perfect for those one off photos that I don't want to try and fit into the pocket style.
And here is where I veered off on my own. I used the same pocket pages that Layle used but my own designs and cards. Like I said, her pages were the perfect start to this album and they got me in the mood to do this. Its going to be a major undertaking. (These first pages are all from my sons first time at DL. He was barely 9 months. His favorite ride was the teacups.)
Or maybe it was the Jungle Cruise. Nope, the teacups.
By this point, I was having too much fun mixing and matching. I wish I had a photo of my table at the crop. My entire 6 foot table was covered in the product line.
I even snuck in some flair from the
A Flair For Buttons Easy shop. Shelly designed some basic Mouse Words flair.
The next time we went, he was a little older and could ride more of the big kid rides. While I love Dumbo, Peter Pan etc, there are some fun rides that have height requirements. (The last time we went, he was finally tall enough for the last ride - Indiana Jones!)
I love throwing memorabilia in there. I realize now, that I stuck this in the wrong spot. The next section was his first trip to Florida. I think I switched the maps. :)
A tip for anyone doing this kind of album and its not a new trick that I invented, just something I do. When all but 1-2 of my photos work for a specific pocket layout, or if I particularly like that pocket layout, I go with it. I make my photos work. This last page (and some others above) have a split photo. I really didn't plan this album out - its strictly on a whim. So when I printed out photos before the retreat, I went with 4x6's and either cut them down to fit pockets or split them. It works. It doesn't disrupt the flow of the photo either.
** all products are from Simple Stories. I purchased mine at either
Scrapbook.com or
ACherryontop.com. Sticker letters are all Simple Stories. I'm addicted to their sticker letters and they come in ALL colors. I buy them whenever there is a coupon and have at least a 6 inch stack of them. Sadly the local stores to me do not carry these lines so I did order them online. If your local store carries them, I envy you. Simple Stories is one of my favorite brands and they are hard to find in my area.***