Albums, Albums and more Albums

Last December I decided to make an album just about December. This idea did not come to me in the wee hours, or of my own accord in any way; it came to me because of Jessica Sprague (jessicasprague.com)  Jessica was doing an album for the month, had provided a great template pack and paper pack.  How could I not do it too?

The concept of an album for just one month rather horrified me. I think in a very linear fashion. You go from A to Z straight through. No shortcuts. No leapfrogging. You plug away and soon you're at Z. That's how I scrapbooked.  I'd look at where I'd last left off, and move onto the next photos. No exceptions, although I did do two holiday albums and one for Disneyland.

Could I do just one month totally out of order with my chronology?

I did the month and I loved the outcome. December 2009 has been captured in far greater detail than I could have imagined. Plus, I loved the immediacy of doing the album. By mid January I'd finished the album. I was thrilled to have worked on the photos and pages within days of the events.  I decided I would definitely do another one.

More importantly, my views that I had to scrapbook chronologically flew out the window and released me from my own imaginary prison.  Oh, the freedom.

Fast forward to July and another blog, but this time by Anna Aspnes (annaaspnes.typepad.com).   Anna is all about albums and has this whole concept in her mind as to how they should be done. I can't do her process justice, but her albums are cohesive, fantastic works of art.  When Anna announced she was doing a summer album, so was I. This time there was no templates (well, there were, but I chose not to use them) and no paper pack, but I was going to make an album just for July and August.

I've come no where near one of Anna's albums or her layouts, but that's ok. I'm making my own to represent our summer - the last summer before we head into the seemingly never ending school system. For the first time ever our summer will end abruptly as Meaghan enters Kindergarten.

I'm just about done - a few more pages to go.  But here's a quick peek at a couple of the layouts:

Canada Day at Fort Edmonton

A couple of days at Grandpa & Grandma's place

Random photos around the house

I rather like this album idea. Actually, I'm hooked. The pages are quick, yet still capture the photos and our stories.


Next up - our summer holiday and then Meaghan's preschool year.