2023: Packing up the Family Home

In early August 2023, my father’s sister—my aunt—passed away. My parents had been visiting her in July, and they decided to stay through August when they realized that she was nearing the end. While I did create a scrapbook spread for her funeral, I felt it was a deeply personal piece and chose not to share it on this blog.

However, this spread is about something meaningful that happened a couple of weeks later when I traveled to California to help my father finish packing up her house—a home that had been in our family for 53 years. It was a bittersweet experience, filled with memories of past generations, and I wanted to preserve a special moment from that time.

One thing I decided to do while I was there was recreate an old photo. I remembered a picture from a baby album my mother had made for me—an image of me sitting on the floor in front of a couch in my grandparents/aunt’s house. I couldn’t recall the exact angle, but I asked my dad to take a new picture in the same spot. On the left-hand page of my spread, you can see both images: the newer photo on the right and the original photo on the left. The couch in the background is the same one from my childhood, though my grandparents had recovered it in vinyl, changing its color from blue to a golden hue. This visual contrast inspired my scrapbook design.

As I worked on this layout in Cricut Design Space, I decided to include a couch graphic beneath the photos, splitting it into half blue and half yellow—symbolizing the transformation of the couch over time. Above these images, I placed the title “52 Years”, marking the time difference between when the two photos were taken in the exact same location.

The right-hand page of the spread documents another part of this journey: packing up my aunt’s belongings. The images show the boxes we planned to bring back to Oklahoma, which I had sent to my mother so she could see just how much we were transporting. This side of the layout was also designed in Cricut Design Space and cut out using my Cricut Maker.

One of the most meaningful elements of this spread is the background paper. Every piece used came from my aunt’s craft room, making it a fitting tribute to her and ensuring that a part of her creativity lived on in this project. To add dimension, I created a double torn-edge border, making it wide enough to add interest and texture to the page.

This spread holds deep sentimental value for me—not just as a scrapbook layout, but as a reflection of family history, time, and connection. It’s a reminder of how places and objects carry memories, and how scrapbooking allows us to preserve them in ways that are both creative and deeply personal.

Have you ever recreated an old photo in your scrapbooking projects? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

To watch the creation of this spread please click on the video below:

Categories: 2023

Tagged as: box, boxes, couch, creative, Cricut, design, ideas, MASCrapping, masculine scrapbooking, moving, packing, photo years apart, saying goodbye, ScrapBook, scrapbooks for men