30 Memories Mini

My little brother turned 30 this week (!!!). When did we all get so OLD?? Ugh. He had mentioned wanting me to make him an album and I recently took Maggie Holme's mini album class at Studio Calico so I put together a little mini tag album for him.

A lot of the page designs are Maggie's from the class. I just copied her and used them as sketches with my own products since I wanted to make this a bit more masculine... it's still probably pretty feminine though... hehe! I can't help it!



I seriously love how it looks all spread out like this! One of my favorite things ever!





I LOVE this picture of Zachary and Chrystal dancing.







Putting my Fuse tool to work! I love that thing.











I love this photo of my brother and sister-in-law at their wedding. Feels like a billion years ago.



This was a scrap from a 12x12 sheet of paper that I cut into a tag, and for some reason, it's one of my favorite things in this album. Ha! I don't know why, but I always end up choosing the most random, simple things as my favorites in my projects.









Somehow I never took a picture of the front of this folder before giving the album to my brother, but you can see most of it in the photo before. Anyway, this genius little folder with a tiny photo album inside was one of Maggie's ideas. I've already used this idea twice! It's so clever! Leave it to Maggie!









Some photos and journaling that were tucked inside a pocket.



That is iconic Zachary right there. ;)



I had so much fun making this album for my brother and giving it to him.

Happy birthday, Brov!

A Pocket of Photos... Made From a Photo

Do you get ideas for projects when you're trying to fall asleep at night? I do... all the time. It kind of drives me crazy because it takes me so long to fall asleep. This is something Levi doesn't understand at all because he can fall asleep anywhere in two seconds once the sun has set.

Anyway, I got the idea to turn this photo of a tree in to a pocket one night when I was trying to fall asleep, and I think it looks pretty cool! This layout is about a family walk we took one afternoon at Cal State Long Beach (my alma mater). I have always loved all the gorgeous trees on campus so this layout seemed appropriate.

I used matte photo paper and printed two 6x8s of the photo. I cut one of them down (for the pocket) and stitched it onto the other, and there you go! A pocket made from a photo... to hold more photos. :) I typed the journaling onto vellum to tone down the vivid blue a little without distracting too much from the photo. I love how the wood veneer asterisks and the alpha stickers give the page a bit of a midcentury feel because there are lots of cool midcentury design elements on campus, which you can see in the photos inside the pocket.

Thank you for checking out my page!
xo,
Jasmine

These are a few of my favorite thiiiiings...

There's nothing like a happy list to put you in a good mood. Which is why I was pretty excited when one of my Instagram friends tagged me to share 10 things that make me happy. I liked my post so much that I decided to turn it into a spread in my June album... I like to do that... steal from my Instagram for my albums. That way, more than half the work (photo selection + journalling) is already done!

I love how this layout turned out... I keep going back to my album to admire it... haha!


I did the title on a transparency.


Flip flip!


I love stamping out long passages of text. Usually there's at least a handful of mistakes along the way, but I think that adds to the charm. This is my favorite alpha stamp set. I want to get a second set for when I wear these out because I use them all the time. I also love how you can see bits of my other pages through the page protector. Layers layers layers!




This picture is one of my favorites. Cecily's tiny ponytail curling under. Her cute little back and shoulders. Her Piggie Piggie tucked under her right arm. And those precious cheeks left over from babyhood. I love my girl so much. :)


I always love the reverse side of overlays with text on them. I think they it looks so cool!

Thanks for checking out my page! If you haven't already, take a peek at my March album too!

March Stories

Hello, dear blog! This year, I've been working on a little project I've been calling Monthly Stories. I create a 6x8 album for each month that tells my family's stories. I don't worry about going in chronological order. I don't worry about including something from each day. I just include the stories and memories that stand out to me, the things I think Levi, Cecily, and I will enjoy looking back on 10, 20, 50 years from now!

I took some quick shots of my March album today to share with you guys. I already shared a quick flip-through video on my Instagram, but there's just way too much in this album to fit in a small square for 15 seconds! I predominantly used Dear Lizzy's Fine and Dandy collection. I've been having lots of fun sticking to one collection with each album. It makes choosing supplies quicker, and it allows me to get my fill of the collections I love! Without further ado... this was March in the Myers household:





I include a calendar and a list of what we're currently into every month. Those little pockets are stuffed with journalling and tiny photos that go with each category.


I also include a list of Cecily's milestones, interests, pronunciations, habits, etc. I have a REALLY hard time keeping all of these one one page because I usually want to go on and on and on. This is where the question, "Do I really need to remember this?" comes in handy.




I play the dorkiest role-play games on my iPhone and think it's hilarious to include them in my albums. I know it'll make me laugh someday to look back on this.






I love how you can see through the pocket with the acetate piece. Looking through all the layers in my albums is one of my favorite things about these!










I included a tiny photo album in this little folder between a 2-page spread about Cecily walking with Mickey Mouse. I love how it turned out. I used my Fuse tool to create the pockets and stitched them to my paper with my sewing machine.






The page on the right is probably the simplest in this entire album, but it's one of my very favorites.


This spread is very layered. This is a piece of acetate with glittery alpha stickers. I love how it looks on the front and the back.


The photo of the rainbow is adhered to a piece of chipboard.


I created the little pocket of sequins with my Fuse tool, and the glassine envelope holds my journalling.


My journalling is typed on this tag that I embossed using the bow embossing folder from Fine & Dandy.


I love including large, full-size photos.


The doilies aren't part of the page on the left. I just wanted to keep that bit of journalling private.


I made the pocket on the right with a piece of vellum and my sewing machine. It holds several pages of private journalling. That little deer tag is one of my favorite things in this album! I've been saving that deer for ages. I used my sewing machine to ruffle a piece of eyelet ribbon onto a shipping tag.




I make a large pocket to include at the end of each album. They hold all the miscellaneous photos that I want to include but don't really warrant an entire spread.


I like to add a strip of typed journalling to each photo. If I have a lot to say, I include more on the back.


Thanks for checking out my March album! These have been so much fun to make, & I already treasure each & every page I've created this year. :)

My 2015 Memory Keeping Plan

I finally came up with a way to document 2015 that I'm super excited about, and I thought I'd share! I've been working on my December Daily album this month and am on track to finish by the end of the month, which was my plan. I've been loving going through last month's photos and stories and working a month "behind" so I wanted to do something similar throughout 2015... except I don't want to document every single day.

I've tried Project Life in the past, and it just doesn't work for me. I need lots of freedom, and I need to be able to include as many photos and as much journalling as I want without feeling constricted. I've also discovered that I don't really like using PL cards. I prefer cutting up my patterned paper and embellishing it myself. I also felt like my stories were getting sort of washed out when I did Project Life. I wasn't focusing on the tiny little moments that were actually fantastic stories. Instead I was focusing more on "this is what we did this day, this is where we went that day." And the whole thing was just super boring to me. I'm not saying Project Life, in general, is boring or that it's like this for everyone. Not at all! But for me, it didn't work.

So what AM I doing?? For now, I'm just calling it monthly stories and notes. It'll take up as many albums as it needs to, and within my albums, I'll have dividers or title pages that say "January Stories & Notes" or "January Stories." Something like that. My plan is to look through my photos towards the end of that month and start piecing together some ideas for what I want to include in my album. While going through January's photos, Instagram posts, and notes in my phone, I put together a template of some things I can consider including every month. Here is what I've come up with so far:

• various standout stories

• photo collages of anything recurring, if applicable (e.g. in January, we went to the same café for lunch a lot, and I took pictures of Cecily eating every single time. Instead of including these in chronological order with several stories, I'm going to just put all the photos together and make it one story. I think it'll be more interesting that way.)

• what we're eating

• what we're reading

• scrapbooking notes (things I'm into, new stuff I'm trying, collections I want, products I've purchased, any industry stuff I'm excited about, classes I'm taking, etc. Screenshots and packaging would be fun to include here.)

• bedtime story favorites

• Cecily notes (new words/phrases, funny habits, current favorites, etc.)

• what we're watching

• stuff going on at church

• what's in the news (I only plan on including things I want to remember and document or that are personally relevant)

• photos from the month that I love but that don't really have a story. I may or may not include a simple caption with these.

Knowing me, I'm sure I'll come up with more! A lot of these things will just be documented in the form of lists. I'm probably going to do this in a 9x12 album, but I may switch to my beloved 6x8 if I don't like working with that size. 

I think it'll all be really fun to look back on, and I'm really looking forward to documenting this way! I feel like my album(s) will turn out to be a scrapbook, diary, journal, and photo album all in one. And I love that! Switching gears frequently keeps me engaged and invested. I've come to realize that I am GREAT at starting projects but not so great at finishing them. This feels like a project that I'll be able to finish because I won't get bored or overwhelmed as I go. 

2015 is gonna be a fun year to play with paper!!