Ladies and gentlemen, I am back in the saddle again -- the scrapbooking saddle, that is. I have been super busy with preparation for Christmas classes and haven't touched my albums in several weeks -- probably months.
But now that the big projects I've been working on are under control, I decided to take a gander at where I left off many moons ago with my chronological family albums.
Oh, yeah...2006.
I've been finishing up YEARS of incomplete scrapbooking.
I had no idea how much scrapbooking I had done on that year, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the answer was...A LOT! This was a relief because 2006 spanned our daughter's 8th and 9th grade school years and marked the beginning of a very busy period in our lives.
Fortunately almost all of the major family and school events were already in the scrapbook, with the exception of just a few odds and ends AND the great Iowa State Fair, which I hadn't even printed. So I quickly uploaded a "reasonable" number of photos to Walgreens and picked them up later that same day.
With everything gathered, I got to work. Within just about three days time, I had finished everything on these albums, growing the existing two albums into three to accommodate all of the school programs, certificates, newspaper articles, and several state fair pages.
My memorabilia folders included several newspaper articles. I normally copy them onto acid-free paper but I'll admit that, since I'm trying to move this process along, I didn't do that in every case. Guess I'm living on the edge!
For some reason, there was a lot of newspaper coverage of our marching band that year and I saved EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE. Since Spouse helps with marching band, I decided I should keep them all.
I just interspersed them with the scrapbook pages I'd already done.
I had also skipped over quite a number of "everyday" photos like pictures from my garden. I added them in.
In 2006, I attended a great class with Ali Edwards in which we started an 8x8 "Today You" album. I kept all the components hoping to finish it someday but unfortunately, I never did. So I recently dismantled the box of papers for other uses, and I decided to add the small pages into my 2006 albums. That worked just fine and made me feel better about not finishing that album.
A lot of time was spent adding in programs and certificates between existing scrapbook pages. This task is super easy with 3-ring binders!
Finally, I put together several pages from the state fair. Back in those days, I took a ton of pictures...and of course, I'm glad that I did now that both of my parents are gone. Fair pictures are always hard for me to work with, but I'm really glad they are safely preserved in an album now.
For this set of pictures, I picked up several sheets of coordinating paper and used it throughout the fair pages.
The 2006 albums actually have very few pocket pages, since most of the scrapbooking was already done on traditional pages, but I did use several for the fair section. That particular year, Bailey entered multiple contests and came home with a red and blue ribbon. Spouse also served as a judge for the chili cook-off.
The "good" thing about working with old photos is that you realize how much you really DON'T remember -- or is that a bad thing? I had totally forgotten that we took Lily, then just a few months old, to visit at the fair campground that year. In retrospect, this seems like a particularly BAD idea. She's actually sitting outside in the photo below WITHOUT A HARNESS. I would never, ever do that today! What were we thinking? LOL
In looking back at my photos, I noted that 2006 was the height of my obsession with Sheep in Spandex. Well, actually I'm still obsessed with Sheep in Spandex, but sheep aren't wearing it as much these days! So I decided to make a collage of the many sheep fashions I documented at the fair that year.
I also made a quick little pocket to house competition results, which can be pulled out and unfolded.
I remembered that I actually started my blog that year and, conveniently, I had written a post about why we love the fair. I printed it out for the album, too.
I'm very happy to have another year of scrapbooking "in the books" -- LITERALLY! I really lucked out on 2006. A quick peak ahead makes me think that 2007 won't be be nearly as easy to finish up.
But before I move into 2007, I will be tackling two trips to Washington, D.C. -- a school trip and a family vacation taken in 2005 and 2006. I think they'll both fit into a single album and can be created with similar materials.
Washington, D.C., here I come! Wish me luck! 😉
jp
