Hello, and welcome to day two of the Jenni Bowlin kit week! This is Amy and I have to tell you: this kit thrilled me. It was the perfect bunch of supplies I needed to scrap some photos of a trip that I've been wanting to scrap for more than 18 months.
Nearly two years ago, my two oldest kids and I went on a pioneer trek with our church group. This involved dressing up as pioneers (which sometimes, honestly, felt a little bit silly!) and pushing handcarts along the Oregon and Mormon pioneer trails. We learned about our ancestors—some of whom walked those same trails—as well as a little bit about ourselves.
And I took a whole bunch of photos!
But I haven’t scrapped any of them. That’s because I’ve been waiting for the right spark. And, you know? The JBS kit was exactly what I needed!
The soft colors and vintage patterns brought my trek photos instantly to my mind and I had zero hesitation: my mini needed to be a combination of those photos and the supplies in the JBS kit.
Confession: my absolute favorite item in the kit was the alphabet stamps. I mean, I am already an alpha-anything addict. But these stamps? Swoon!
With over 500 photos from that trip, I knew I would need to make a fairly-large mini, so I chose an 8x8 post-bound album. I also knew I’d need to be super-selective for which photos to include. I let the organization of my mini determine which photos to print. Here’s how I organized it:
I divided the trek into eight different sections. These covered the different experiences we had on the trek. For each section, I printed a 6x8 photo and adhered it to an 8x8 layout, then stamped the title: (The section page from the time we spent at, obviously, Independence Rock, Wyoming)
Then I chose the best photos from the rest of that section and made as many layouts as I had photos for. Most of my sections have 3 or 4 layouts, along with the section page. I had most of my photos printed as 3x4s, but the most dramatic or memorable ones I printed as 4x6s, 4x8s or 5x7s. Here’s an example of a layout from the album:
I also used the main supplies in the kit to organize each section. I used one pattern from the kit in each section. I used punched circles, small strips, and chunky squares to give pops of color and pattern. I also used all of the labels on the back of the Magpie Accessory paper for journaling spaces, as well as the label stamps.
Speaking of journaling—each section had a lot.To keep the words from becoming overwhelming (and taking up a lot of space), I made journaling booklets for each section: I used the corresponding smaller prints from the Magpie Mini Pattern Sheet to make a pocket to hold each journaling booklet, and then decorated each section's booklet using the supplies in the kit.
(Some journaling booklet details from the section one booklet. I swiped the JBS Malted Milk ink pad across the paper to age it a bit.)
(the journaling booklet from section 5) (please note: covering the spine on a journaling booklet with washi tape is one of my favorite ways to use it!)
Here's another layout:
(The section #5 page and its corresponding right side.)
Finally, I added an extra mini to the album using the hodge podge album that came with the kit. One of the amazing things that happened before we left on the trek was that we discovered the travel journal of my great-great-great uncle, Samuel Openshaw.
(His brother, Levi, was my great-great-great grandfather.) Since this document proved important to the personal knowledge we gained, I wanted to include it, but again, it was a lot of words (perhaps that’s where I got my penchant for writing?). I printed the journal on 4x5 squares, double sided, and then spaced them in between the little bits and pieces from the hodge podge kit.
This breaks the diary up and gives it a visual impact as well as the emotional one it already packs. I keep this in a folder in the back of the album.
It's fair to say that I'm a pretty slow scrapbooker. So I was completely surprised at how quickly this entire album came together. The supplies were the perfect ones to enhance this project. In fact, aside from the 8x8 base pages, a little bit of washi tape from my drawer, and two pens, I didn't add anything extra to the album that wasn't in the kit. And that makes for some happy scrapping on my part. Thanks, JBS, for a perfect kit!
