Guest Designer Tuesday: Jenn's School Days!

Wow!  August has flown by so quickly.  I have enjoyed sharing some of my scrappy projects with you.  So here it is, my last entry for the month.  Since we're gearing up for back to school I thought I'd share this project.

I've designed this school album to track my granddaughter Eden's school life.  She is seven, and going into second grade.  I created this album using the Simple Stories Elementary line.  In addition to the papers and other elements of this collection, and Glossy Accents, I used a Bo Bunny 3-ring album, Sizzix stars and flourish dies, Stampin' Up! bird punch and Marvy Uchida scalloped circle and EKSuccess scalloped circle punches.  I've inked with Distress inks in Vintage Photo and Shabby Shutters.  Bakers twine, buttons, Sassafras alphas, and white envelopes from Staples complete the list so far.  After all, she is only just going into second grade, I have lots of years left to add onto.  :)


To give the apple a bit more distinction, I covered it, the stem and leaves with Glossy Accents.  I also popped up that panel.

I paper pieced the owl in the front, which I drew freehand.  Since owls are featured in some of the papers I thought it was a fun design element to add.  I also like to use up scraps and these types of embellishments allow me to do so.  Right now, you are seeing all the layers in the first few pages.  The album didn't have enough pages for preschool so I added some page layers that you'll see more of in the following photos.  The photo of Eden is one of my faves from her pre-day care days, when I was one of a group of people who took care of her.

I used the Pre-School & Kindergarten panels as pages here, dropped a photo off of the Pre-school side and embellished the overhang on the back.  I also used a bingo card panel as a page.  When I asked Eden who her Kindergarten teacher was she quickly spouted off a name.  I asked if she was sure that was her name and not her first grade teacher's name and she said, "Yes."  As I finished writing the name she corrected herself and gave me the real name of her Kindergarten teacher.  So I covered it up with a fun strip with the correct name, and decided to use a sticker 6 on her first grade panel to carry through.  I'll pop one of the deets on each panel as I go along.

First day of first grade!  Here is where the white envelopes from Staples figure in.  They are 6x9" and the width fit perfectly in my album.  I cut off the top to measure the same size as my pages.  You don't have to do that.  You could leave them if they fit into your album.  These envelopes serve two purposes-they become another page and you can stash report cards, awards, additional photos, anything you might want to save into them.  It's all in one place.  You can layer papers over them to decorate as I did, or use them plain, or stamp lines onto them for journaling special memories.

I interviewed her for her top 5 faves of first grade.  Somehow recess managed to be at the top of this list.  lol

Thank you, Jenn, for all your beautiful inspiration this month!!