A Year with an Exchange Student: 2012-2013
2012 – 2013: Exchange Student Album Title Pages
Over the last year our family has embarked on a journey. We have hosted a wonderful exchange student from Sweden whose name is Jonathan. As my going away present to him I presented him with three albums of scrapbook memories from our year together. The next several weeks will showcase all of the pages from this exciting journey together.
Since I didn’t want to leave out my son during this year – I duplicated almost all of these pages for the two boys. From time to time I may showcase how I did two different pages for the events, but for the most part I tried to make the pages the same. I was amazed at how quickly I could create the second set after I had done the initial set.
Usually when I make multiple albums for a trip or a year I make the opening title pages all look the same to help bring the albums together. For these three albums I chose an American theme which I thought was appropriate for an exchange student visiting the United States.
I used a star background paper and then layered it with two torn layers – one is am American flag layer and the second is a handmade red paper. Next I placed a material banner flag on the page and affixed the right corner with a brad using my Crop-A-Dile Big Bite Punch to cut the hole through the paper and the material. I then layered a burlap printed ribbon to top of that. The “USA” in each of the pages are actually wood cutouts that I bought at my local craft store. At the top of each ribbon are three brads with the letters USA on them that were also placed using my Crop-A-Dile Big Bite Punch.
The 2012/2013/Vol titles were cut using my Cricut machine. I cut the first layer from a red and white striped page to look like the flag, and then created a second tan layer for a shadow effect to help them stand out on the page. For added effect I added brass bookmarkers to each page as well.
At this point each title page has a little uniqueness. Volume 1 has a laser cut “United States” with flags. Volume 2 received a cork “USA” and a flag sticker, and volume 3 got a star sticker.
Hosting a Foreign Exchange Student
I just want to put a little plug here for serving as a host family for a Foreign Exchange student. We had a wonderful time doing it – this was our first year – so much so, that we are going to do it again next year. My son loved having a brother and learning about new places, and it makes our home a little more active 🙂
We used International Student Exchange for our agency and we had a great experience. I encourage you to go to their website (http://www.iseusa.com/) and consider serving in this way.
Categories: 2012, 2013, Exchange Student
MASCrapping 