One of the things I love the most about scrapbooking is: There are no rules. Once you've made sure that all the materials you are using are "photo safe" ~ anything goes! The point is to preserve the photos and to let them tell the story! And while I love new stuff - the latest papers and embellishments - I also enjoy challenging myself to use all the paper and scraps that I already have to make borders and cards and even entire albums. A couple of years ago I took all the "extra" photos of my kids that hadn't really fit in any other scrapbook and all my "leftover" paper and stickers and made two ABC books.
It was great to take an otherwise random collection of photos and organize them by following the alphabet ~ this way I could use photos from different ages and stages on the same page, and tell the stories of their personalities, their likes and dislikes, and different events and places. Best of all, I didn't buy one new piece of paper or one new sticker or marker to make this album....literally made a book out of scraps!
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| D is for Disney ~ one of our favorite places! |
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| E is for Easter! |
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| G is for Goofy! |
It's also meaningful to add in other scraps ~ ticket stubs, maps, a lock of hair, postcards...any little "scrap" that helps to complete the story.
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| Ticket stubs! |
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| A page from my favorite page a day calendar! |
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| Note cards from my birthday flowers! |
Sometimes I think there's such an emphasis put on the layouts and the extras that we add to the photos on the page, that we forget it's the photos (and our words) that are at the heart of the story. So, I say...keep it photo safe, and keep it simple. But, those are my "rules"...that's my style. And, as I said, with SCRAPbooking ... anything goes!
Please tell me you don't have a scrap of hair in a book somewhere...
ReplyDeleteAlso, you never told me that's how you made those. You're impressive, as always.