Scrappin' Patch Scrapbook Supplies NZ: October Afternoon

Hi again,

It is time for me to share with you the finished pages of my mini album I have been working on over the last few weeks. I am not a big mini album fan usually but can I say WOW... I think I may have been converted by the October Afternoon Here & Now Mini Album (OA MA).

It was so easy to pull together but today I wanted to share with you how I go about creating an album like this from it's conception to the finish project. Not a blow by blow way of 'doing it' but more of what sort of things I think about when I am creating a mini album.

Album Concept

Sometimes I get layout or project inspiration from the photos themselves but other times creativity flows from the product itself which definitely happened with the OA MA. I specifically, loved the 'word' themes that are on the front cover 'today' and 'play' and liked how these words worked in with capturing the moment.

I also loved the colours in the October Afternoon Woodland Chapters that accompany the OA MA. The colours in this collection were perfect for outdoorsey themes and specifically in this case for 'the beach'. When I am creating a mini album - I like to use a specific event such as a family holiday where I usually take lots of photos that tell a story rather than beautiful portraits which I may prefer to highlight on a layout.

A mini album is the perfect way to 'document' an event and a mini album provides the perfect backdrop to tell stories and traditions which is why I chose to document our last family holiday in Hahei.

The goal of the MA

Next step in the process is to think about what I want to achieve in creating the MA. Firstly, it is to hold all those photos but secondly as we travel and spend a week camping at the same spot each year, I wanted to document what happened on this specific year. This year we had four members of our family on holiday so I thought that the chapter dividers would be perfect to record the favourite aspects of our holiday. The lined pages of the mini album were perfect to use as a journalling page for each family member. I used alphabet stamp to write the journalling prompts.

Organising Supplies

Next, I gathered all the supplies I thought would work with the album colours. I really liked the OA Here & Now Chapters as they had really cool patterns and designs which I thought could be used as embellishments as well as background papers. This makes the chapters and the OA MA good value for money as I had a lot to create with. Some of them had beautiful detail on them, like the butterfly page above which I decided to leave blank to create white space and I felt it didn't need anything else on that page at all. Other pages I fussy cut out pieces of them to use as embellishments on other pages.

Once I have my supplies, my photos and everything in one place then this is sometimes where I have trouble taking the plunge... but honestly, just get started.. there is no wrong way to put together the album. To create flow and a story I have grouped my photos into different mini themes - like getting there and camp set up, different aspects of general camp life and beach scenes. In fact, one of the telling aspects of the whole holiday which was highlighted when I put together the OA MA is that there were less photos of Liam in general because the main thing he did on holiday was hang out with friends and not with us... slightly awkward! But another important aspect for me is to create balance of pages between the different family members that were on holiday. Something I need to work on for next time is taking more photos of ME!

Putting the Album Together

Right, now the fun part, I have used a mix of photo sizes in my OA MA from teeny tiny to 6 x 4 inches. I wanted to create lots of texture, layering and interest on my album pages. To do this, I have layered some of the busier patterned papers with the ruled lined paper and incorporated little plain tags to create pockets of interest and depth. A lot of the time, it was working the colours in the papers in with the colours in my photos. The bluey tones were perfect for the beach shots and I just loved the greens and pops of colour with the greenery of the campsite and our tent colours. The sunshiney yellows remind me of the lovely weather we had and also worked well with the shots of the beach too.

I also used a lot of 'word' embellishments instead of journalling throughout the album. I love how you can buy sticker sheets with lots of different words and phrases which make summarising my thoughts super easy without having to actually journal on the pages. This is super fast and of course great for someone who doesn't like to write a lot on their pages.

So that is pretty much how I created it! Here are the rest of the pages...