With the Summer Holidays all over, and piles of photos to scrap, it can be quite daunting. I made an 8" x 8" album to document our family holiday last year to Provence, France. Sometimes a layout just isnt enough.
I am a huge fan of sketches, and am the founder of Pencil Lines, the sketch challenge blog, so I have used my love of sketching, photography and writing to bring you this 8” x 8” album I made from our holidays last year, when we visited the South of France.
When starting to work on a whole album, the first thing is to choose a colour scheme, or range of papers that you like, to use throughout your album. I chose a Basic Grey collection that I hadnt yet used. I also had stowed away, chipboard and alphabets that matched.
I also decided to use 1 photo size, 7” x 5”. The photos were to be the main focus of my album; my page design was to be kept simple.
This simple sketch is seen on all the pages of my album, with slight variations on photo orientation and embellishments; this is the beauty of sketches. Flip, turn, add!
Within the pages of my album, I have made a simple “mini book” to house extra photos and journaling. Pages have been cut to size and scored at ½” and bound together using brads. I always have way to many photos from the Summer, too many for this album; making extra books within my album was the perfect answer to my dilemma.
When photographing holiday photos, remember to photograph signs of the town/village you are visiting. It can be difficult to remember all those wonderful places you visited and how to spell them, when you return home.
I was in awe of the beautiful painted murals on the walls in Provence, and photographed many a wall.
One year when in Barcelona, door knockers became an obsession.
Find something that inspires you from your travel and photograph. Maybe the colours and design will inspire a future layout.
Provence was a wash of colour, from the market stalls to the ochre walls, and I wanted to remember this colour when I returned to England.
Finally don’t forget to get “you” a photo or two! My self timer and a rock became firm friends when on holiday. Also don’t be afraid to ask other holiday makers to take a photo of you and your family, pay the favour back, I am sure they will appreciate it as much as you.
I love writing and my online journal, “blog” has been a great source of information for me, from when one of my daughters lost her first tooth, too how I felt when my Dad passed away. When it came to journaling in my album, I went back to my blog where I had kept a diary of what we did on each day; this has been invaluable for this album.
Don’t bypass your blog for day to day journaling, you will be surprised on how much information you store!.
Finally, when it comes to decorating the front cover of your album, keep it simple. Use a few select papers/embellishments that you have used in your album, a simple title and call it finished.
I hope you have been inspired to scrap your summer memories in an album. Remember to:
- Keep to a theme/colour combo
- Choose one photo size
- Use a simple page layout throughout
Leave me a comment telling me what your favourite summer memories are, and 1 lucky reader will win a RAK from me to make a summer mini album.
Anna x
Supplies :
Album - American Crafts
Inserts : AMM
Pattern paper - Basic Grey
Cardstock : Bazzill
Chipboard - Basic Grey
Alphabet - Basic Grey and American Craft thickers
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My favourite memories from this summer will simply be being together as a family. My elder daughter is going to uni in a fortnight, so it feels as if it was our last summer all together.
Gorgeous album Anna, I was just needing some ideas for my camping trips and majorca hol!
Mmmm, favorite summer memory is tricky as there are lot's, but this is the first year we had a two week holiday together which was wonderful and I will always remember Evie being sooo excited watching what she calls the 'flamingo' dancers!
My favourite summer memory was my back slowly getting better and being able to move pain free for the first time in months.Roll on a painfree Autumn.
Love the album Anna - I have all my photos of Portugal to do 'something' with and may use your idea. My favourite memory from this summer only took place yesterday, but it is extremely special. We spent the day on the beach, me, Hugh, Ben and Penny, going back to Widemouth where we used to go when the children were young. We did everything that we used to do - dug holes, rock pooled, swam and paddled, had a picnic and had such a wonderful family time. Tomorrow Penny goes away to board at college and a week tomorrow Ben goes back to university, so this is an extremely poignant memory for me -happy and sad.
Oh becky thats sounds bliss, i dread the day my girls head of to uni
Fun album!
Favorite memories from this summer are all of the new things we saw on our trip to the west coast of Michigan! (and a jaunt over to Grand Rapids for Meijer Garden which featured Chihuly glass!
My favorite summer memory is getting together in Disney World with my husband's family to celebrate their mother's 80th birthday. They also surprised me with a cake as my birthday was the same time. The entire family had our photo taken in front of Cinderella's Castle by Disney photographers.
P.S. I just picked up the UK Scrapbook Ideas here in the States and saw your beautiful LO. Congrats!
thanks Pattyo,
we visited Disney World in April and we all loved it, especially my girls!
You have just given me the inspiration i need to create a book of our first trip abroad in over 12 years (since having the boys!). Their excitement was over whelming....from their first trip on a plane to trying their hand at talking Spanish!
A super book with great memories....i also take photos of street/place signs!!
Love the clean design, and the black background! I love that it keeps so much of the focus on the photos and story... :) I do the same when I putting together an album - choose a format and stick with it! It goes so much faster, and looks more cohesive when finished. ^_^
beautiful album! Favourite summer memories are lazy days spent on a beach building sandcastles and eating icecreams before they melt!