Yesterday I looked up at the mountains (like I do every day) and I realized: the leaves are starting to change colors. This is a Utah thing, the mountains’ trees just barely sliding from green to orange by the end of August; the nights get chilly here even though the days still feel like summer.
But it’s definitely the end of summer!
I confess that I still have photos to scrap from our family vacation to the Tetons, the relay race I ran in June, my son Kaleb’s summer birthday party, my kids’ antics at the park and the swimming pool and, well...nearly all of the photos I took this summer are still waiting to be scrapped.
(Tell me I’m not the only one.)
Enter the seasonal summary layout. I make one of these (for each of my kids) at the end of nearly every season. It’s a synthesis, a place to gather some of the little stories from the preceding three months. Not only does it capture the small details, it quiets the "I must get this scrapped ASAP" feeling, because I know that while maybe not all the moments are scrapped, and definitely not all the pictures, I’ve at least written some of the stories. The seasonal summary layout also leaves me summer photos to work with in the dead of winter, when warmth seems so far away.
The concept behind the layout is simple: jot down as many of the season’s moments as you can remember. It helps if you do it at the very end of the season, as the details are still fairly fresh. Sometimes, when I’m at the peak of organization, I keep notes for the seasonal summary layouts while the season is passing. If by chance I’m disorganized and don’t do that (ha! Me? Disorganized? Never happens...), I use things like my credit card statements, Facebook updates, journals, and blog to help me remember. Quite often this journaling ends up in a list format, but sometimes I do paragraphs, too. It just depends on how many little stories I can remember to tell, and how well they connect.
Combine this journaling with a photo or two which illustrates that season’s emotional feel and some scrapping supplies that do, too. (It's a great excuse to use a few previously-horded supplies.) And voila! You’ve summed up your subject’s entire season. Don’t limit yourself to the summertime, though. This is a useful layout concept for any time of the year. But here’s a summer example to get you started:
Do you do summary-style layouts too? Tell me about your approach to this concept!
