Photo Album Scrapbooking {PAS}

Recently in the class Finding Photo Freedom, Stacy Julian challenged us to make a photo album scrapbook over the weekend.  I had actually been thinking about making an album like that anyway, and already had a scrapbooking weekend scheduled at my house so I went for it!  Today I want to show you the process I went through to make the album and tomorrow I'll show you what it looks like now.

While my husband is overseas (as a civillian contractor) I wanted to document our life here at home.  I plan to do it a little bit like Project Life.  Each week I'll include some highlight photos and a journaling card.  I will also add in some email/facebook interactions between my husband and I.

To house my project I bought this adorable photo album at Target.  It's a standard 2-Up 4x6 album and it was less than $10.

I  bought these little 6x6 designer paper pads from My Minds Eye.  I love the bright colors and knew they would be perfect for this project.

I picked the papers I wanted to use and cut them into 4x6 blocks, leaving a 2x6 strip.  At first I thought I would mix and match and spent some time pairing the small strip with a larger piece.  But when I started laying it out I wasn't as thrilled.

So I tried putting the 2x6 strip next to the matching 4x6.  The choirs started to sing.  :) I loved it!  So I printed out some date cards. I accidentally did the math wrong and didn't make them long enough.  But it's ok, I have an idea for how to fix it.  :)

The date cards include an Ali Edwards bracket and year overlay.  LOVE IT!

So each week will have a title page with patterned paper and the date.  See that little 2x2 empty space?  I plan to put a highlight photo there.

After each title page there will be 4 blank spots for photos and journaling. Sometimes it will work like this with the title page and then a 4 page spread, but sometimes the title page falls on the left and then the 4 pages are front to back.  I'm ok with that, it's what I had to do to make it all fit.

To make this project more feasible I made up all the title pages ahead of time and printed out all the journaling cards.  Then as we go along I can just stick in the pics and write a bit about what happened.

Here are the rest of the spreads.

Here is where I stopped, mostly cause the book is full.  Once he returns I'll make a spread about the reunion.

Love how easy this album was to throw together.  And honestly, I LOVE looking at it.  The papers just make me happy.

Can't wait to show you what the album looks like after the first week (maybe 2-we'll see how productive I am today!).














Have you ever made a photo album scrapbook?  Like to make minis?  Spent some time separated from a loved one?  Tell me all about it!