End of School Year Synopsis

Before I begin, I'd like to thank all my dear commentors. I just love to hear from you! Thank you for your sweet congratulations and your kind words. And please, keep them coming!

After reading Stacy Julian's Big Picture Scrapbooking, I was totally inspired by the way she handles scrapping her children's school days. She collects all their work, photos, etc and waits until the end of the year to scrap anything. Then, she goes through all of her stuff and scraps 5 pages per year per child. So for child A, she has 5 pages devoted to kindergarten, 5 for 1st grade, etc. She places these pages in a School Days album specific to each child. Since Sweetpea started kindergarten last year, I followed her advice and I loved it. I didn't feel stressed about keeping up with everything and at the end of the year I was able to see the growth that took place. Here is the first page that I made for Sweetpea's kindergarten layouts. My purpose was to fit a wide range of photos from the year onto one page. Pretty simple, but quite effective.

And here is the page that I devoted to all those scanned images of artwork. Again, very simple. I saw the idea for a grid on Jenni Bowlin's site and put it to good use here. As you can see, any project that is too bulky to fit in the scanner, gets a photo with the child.

This year, I handled Toodles's work a bit differently because she is still in preschool. I won't start her School Days album until she's in kindergarten, but this could easily change with the other children when I get busier. So here is a photo of her last-day-of-school ceremony. As you can see, I incorporated her report card and various projects.

Now, to get a bit technical. When I scan my images, I save them in a folder devoted to each child's year in school. Then I fiddle with the colors to make sure than my scan is accurate. When I print the image out, I do so in a 2x3 size so that I can fit more photos onto a page. However, I usually make something like a report card 3x5 so that I can read it. After I've scanned all my images, I toss the original and once I've printed out all my photos, I delete the folder. I know that this could later be a problem, but with all the sweet babies I have, I need to simplify.

However, at times, a very special project merits an layout. So I'm not adverse to breaking the rules. In fact, I just found a bit of staff paper upon which Sweetpea composed her first song, so of course, that will be part of a layout devoted to her love of piano. And I think that Toodles's recent picture of our family will be in a layout because she has Big Man in a bow tie and that, is precious.

I also have an album that I started as part of my design position on Scrapbook Circle in which I experimented with using my children's sketches as the basis for playful paper doll doodling. I'm not sure what the technical name would be for this technique since I believe it is all new. So if you have a better title, please leave me a comment! My directions will be posted on the Scrapbook Circle blog, so please go there if you'd like specifics. Here is a photo of the cover.

And the first two pages. The journaling on the left states: He loved her because she kept dancing even when her hair got a little messy. The journaling on the right states: It took her two years to fit back into that size 4 pencil skirt and after she got it on she remembered why she never wore it much before. It was just a bit uncomfortable. I know that the crown's position is inconvenient, but artistically, it just didn't work on the other side so I sacrificed beauty for practicality in this little album. (As I do most Sundays when I wear 3 inch heels while chasing Snukie around.)

And finally, the back. The quote is from a Judith Viorst book called Super Completely and Totally the Messiest. Such a great book that we loved it to death.