Hi! Donna here, wrapping up our week of JBS minis. Even before my kit arrived in the mail I had already decided what my album topic would be. You see, just under three weeks ago, we welcomed a new member to our family, baby Samuel. I had a feeling that the vintage feel of Jenni Bowlin's products would be the perfect fit for an album about our little guy. Once I opened the box, my intuition was confirmed. I was fortunate enough to receive the March papercrafting kit, along with an "Open" Hodge Podge mini book, and together they formed the perfect foundation for creating a picture album of Samuel's first month.
The kit had everything I needed to make this simple mini album and I didn't need to add very much from my own stash in order to complete it. I did rearrange a few of the pages from the Hodge Podge book and replaced the "Open" bingo card with one from my stash that reads, Adore.
As for the design, I followed a concept very similar to the one I used for my gallery contribution this month. I went with a more free-form style and cut papers at various sizes and tried to mix and match the patterns without thinking about the structure too much (because I am guilty of thinking about these thing too much). Sometimes the key to getting things done quickly is to come up with a structured design, and then sometimes you need to just let go and let the products and photos stand on their own. With a predesigned kit this is easy to do.
As for the details, you might notice that my pages so far don't have any journaling. That's because I don't plan on including any journaling. At least, I don't plan on including it on every page - tucked into the envelope on the left-hand side of the image below is a letter I've written to Sam, and it will be the only journaling for this little album.
Basically this mini is more like a decorative photo album - somewhere to keep these first photos of Samuel so that they are all in one place.
As we fall into a routine, and I find time to scrapbook more, I will very likely make full-size layouts with these photos to put in Samuel's baby book.
Here is a simple page that divides the photos from the hospital from the photos at home:
And you might notice that all of these pages are single-sided; another thing I've done to keep this mini super-simple. This way I don't have to over think my designs, and I can add pages or move them around within the album easily too.
I loved the mix of masculine prints and colors, like in the patterned papers shown above and below,
combined with softer colors and elements, like the polka dotted vellum paper, and the label stickers which came in a more pastel color palette.
This kit worked so well for documenting our sweet little boy, but I think it'd work equally well for little girls too.
Or any topic for that matter.
This was a truly versatile kit, and on behalf of myself and my fellow teammates I want to thank JBS Mercantile for sponsoring this week of mini-albums!
I admit that while my layouts are definitely more structured I find this format lends itself to playing a bit more with my style. How about you, do you like to make more structured mini-albums, or do you aim for an eclectic look? Do you approach both layouts and mini-albums with the same mindset? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Also,remember that tomorrow is give.away.day. so be sure to stop by!!
