Category Archives: 2014
2014: Taku Japanese Steakhouse
We discovered a cool Japanese Steak House in Kokomo, IN called Taku Steak House. We went early on a Saturday for lunch, which meant that the restaurant was not very busy, and we ended up getting a grill table all to ourselves which was fun. We had to wait a little bit to see if anyone else would show up, but it wasn’t a long wait before they decided to go ahead and start the entertainment. At this restaurant you order your food, which is then cooked in front of you in a very creative and fun way. Some of our pictures show the flaming volcano of onions!
The color scheme for this layout is based on the colors in the restaurant. If you look at the top left hand picture you can see the stone wall and purple painted wall. I duplicated this design with two different scrapbook papers, and it is my favorite part of this page. I then used orange borders to match the menu and chopstick paper wrapper that are the ephemera on the page.
2014: Fall Farm Visit
The Fall is a perfect time to head out to an apple orchard and get some fresh cider! We were up in Michigan for my Grandmother’s birthday and during nap time we decided that we would go to a local apple orchard! There was a wonderful festival feel complete with a pumpkin patch!
I used the wooden slat background paper to mimic the pallets used for squeezing the apples, and an orange accent for the borders for the photographs to represent the pumpkins in the picture. I had a piece of background paper with a large pumpkin on it, but it wasn’t the right color for this project, so I cut out the pumpkin and then used Modge Podge to affix it to a piece of sturdy cardboard. This gave the pumpkin a really cool texture which feels like a real pumpkin skin. I then used thick sticky tabs to affix it to the page so that the pumpkin was raised off of the page.
2014: Mississenewa 1812
Mississenewa 1812 is one of our local events that we like to attend each year.
Wikipedia explains the Battle of Mississenwa as “an expedition ordered by William Henry Harrison against Miami Indian villages in response to the attacks on Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison in the Indiana Territory.”
When we arrived we discovered that much of the reenacting was not a reenactment of the Battle of 1812, as much as a display of the different kind of troops from various areas and Nations that were involved in the Battle of 1812 all around the country. This didn’t matter too much to us as the whole experience was informing, exciting, and delicious!
I chose reds and greens for the color scheme of this page to highlight the colors in the photographs that I took, and used simple borders for the pictures. Something fun on this page is a candy wrapper from some candy that is wrapped to look like it is ammunition.
Hint for this event: We always arrive early – besides getting to see the reenactors wake up, and watch the morning color raising ceremony, we get there before the crowds do and are able to navigate the event before it gets crazy and it is hard to move.
2014: The Loft
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One of our adventures in 2014 was a trip to the Loft Restaurant which is part of the Traderspoint Creamery, near Indianapolis, IN in Zionsville, IN. We had lunch upstairs and then took a tour of the farm. The meal was amazing, and the atmosphere was rustic, but comfortable. They have an amazing cheese “cellar” that you can see into from the restaurant which is pretty cool.
I chose a rustic wood theme for this spread to match the wood of the barns and the restaurant. On the left hand page are pictures of our meals, along with some brochures and a menu from the restaurant. I used some card stock to create a holder for the brochures so that they can be removed, and fastened it down with two brads.
The right hand page has pictures from inside the barn that they rent out for weddings, the cheese “cellar”, the cool brick wall of the barn foundation, and the entrance sign to the property. I finished of the page by using some wood veneer tags for decoration.
2014: Football Stadium Sunset
At one of my son’s football games I messed up on the time and arrived extremely early. But I was so glad that I did when I saw what the sunset was doing. There was nobody at the field when I arrived, and so I was able to use the panoramic feature on my cell phone to capture these incredible pictures. The main picture in the center of the spread is actually one large panoramic shot which I had printed (cost me $10!) and then I cut in half to be able to put onto this spread. I choose fairly bold purple background for this page to complement the sunset colors, but I also felt like it helped the green of the field to stand out as well.
2014: Football Sophomore Year
Now that I have finished the series from our Summer 2015 Europe trip I need to go back a little bit in time and show you the spreads from the 2014-2015 year. It was a fairly uneventful year for us since I was saving up for our trip to Europe, and therefore there are not a lot of pages for me to show you from this time frame. But lets start with football!
This was my son’s sophomore year playing football and he was the kicker for the varsity team. At the end of the season he earned his letter jacket which was cool and you will see a spread about that later. The reason I mention that is that you noticed the big “HILL” at the lefthand side of this spread. We ordered his name for the back of his jacket and it cam back with a white background instead of a dark blue one. I didn’t want to waste these letters, so I used them on this first spread of the football season. It makes the page a little bit bulky, but it looks really cool! Also on the spread are the professional pictures taken on media day.
In this spread highlights pictures taken at the various games during the season. I lost track of which pictures where from which games and so I picked the best ones from the collection to put in this spread.
This spread showcases newspaper articles, tickets, and other ephemera from the the football season. The helmet at the top of the right hand page is a picture that I took of his number on the fence and cut to shape. The “Oak Hill” was actually cut from his practice jersey which was a mess at the end of the season and I used modge podge to affix it to cardboard with I then cut and put on this page. At the bottom of the page are two rubber Oak Hill Pride bracelets that we wore all season in support of the team.
This spread shares the Fall sports awards program, a picture from the awards ceremony, and a color copy of my son’s letter. I used strips of cardboard to create a holder for the awards program so that it can be taken out and read. The strips are held in place by two brads at either end.
This final spread, is one that I am fairly proud of, not because it looks terribly cool, but because of the ephemera that I was able to save on this page. The left hand page has all of the stickers off of my sons helmet. I used an exacto knife to carefully remove all of the stickers and then I put them on this copper/gold metallic paper. It is important to use a metallic paper so that the sticker will stick without picking up the paper threads from a normal piece of cardstock.
The right hand side is actually part of my son’s practice jersey that I cut to make this pocket to hold the programs from all of the games. I had to slice about 1/4 inch off of each side of the 12×12 background paper so that I could wrap the shirt around the edges. I used normal scotch tape to affix it to the back of the cardboard and some brads to help make it a little stronger. It slide into the plastic protector sheet very well, and allows the viewer to take out the programs to look at them.
2014: Exchange Student Letter
For the last page of the albums that I created for our exchange student I made a page to hold a letter that I wanted for him to read once he had returned home.
The letter contained personal remarks and sentiments for him, and things that would encourage him once he was back at home. I put it in an envelope because it is a private letter for him from us, that I did not want other viewers to read. Because of the way that it is placed on the page, and then within the plastic sheet protector, it is hard to get to to keep curious eyes from taking the time to pry.
I did the same thing for our previous exchange student –> Final Page. This page, for some reason, is one of the most popular and re-pinned Pinterest pins that I have – See Pin. My guess is that people like the concept of putting a personal letter in a scrapbook, and are less interested in the design of the page.
2014: Medieval Times
2014: Medieval Times
Another one of our favorite places to visit in Chicago is Medieval Times. I have scrapped several of our trips to Medieval Times –> Medieval Times 2007 – Buena Vista, CA, Medieval Times 2008 – Chicago (1), and Medieval Times 2008 – Chicago (2).
So we took the Reichman family to see what all the excitement was about. We were assigned to cheer for the Black and White Knight which we dutifully did. Since the arena is dark, it is hard to take pictures inside, and there are not many pictures in this spread. I decided to focus instead on the ephemera collected at the event. The back ground paper for the left hand side is the place mat setting that I removed before they started bringing out the food. The brown paper bag on the right hand page is from the gift store and inside is a napkin from the event. I also carefully cut Luca’s “Crown” to put on the page as well.
2014: Chicago SkyDeck and Ledge
Another favorite place in Chicago is the Willis Tower Skydeck and Ledge. So, or course we made sure that the Reichman family got to experience it as well! TIP: Click on the Chicago City Pass graphic to the right to get discount tickets ahead of time.
I chose a background paper that looks like stamped metal to highlight the steel structure, which is one of the tallest buildings in the world. The left hand page features the two brochures from the experience, which are affixed to the outside of the plastic protector sheets so that they can be opened by the viewer. It also has a dog tag that we bought at the top of the tower. I used a brad to hold the top part of the chain, and used a sticky tab to hold down the tag.
The right hand page has 4 pictures from the experience, and the 4 tickets we had to purchase to get to the top. Since I printed these pictures in 4×6 size, the stretched from the bottom to the top of the page, which helps to emphasize the height of the building.
2014: Blue Man Group
Part of what is hard about hosting exchange students is that at the end of the year we have to say goodbye :(. During the last week that Luca was with us his parents came to visit as well! This was a treat to meet his family, and while they were here we took a trip to Chicago. One of our family’s favorite things to do in Chicago is to go to the Blue Man Group (as can be seen by these pages from an earlier trip –> Blue Man Group 2012).
What was fun about this time was that our exchange student got invited to be a part of the show! The bottom right hand picture shows Luca standing by the piece of art that he “helped” to create during the show. Notice the blue paint on his face!
You know by now that I love ephemera and this page contains several pieces. The white strips across both pages are pieces of string confetti used during the show, and the left hand page is covered with the plastic bag from the gift shop (the 3 blue men and the words “Blue Man Group”). The pictures and the blue thumb print are behind the plastic bag. The blue thumb print was lifted carefully from Luca’s face after the show and then turned into a sticker using my Xyron Sticker Maker in order to protect the oil based blue paint that takes years to dry!
I bordered the pictures, the ticket and the playbill in blue and rounded all of the corners on the photographs. The playbill is affixed on the outside of the plastic sheet protector so that it can be opened by the viewer.
