2015: Michigan Fall Farm Trip
One weekend we decided to take a quick day trip up to Michigan and we visited a farm that allowed you to self pick pumpkins and apples!
So obviously I had to pick pumpkin background for this spread. I used an orange plaid paper to border the photographs on the right hand page, but I did not use any border on the left hand page. You will also notice a peacock feather on the left hand page that we found in the farm yard. I really struggled with how I was going to attach the feather to the page. I ended up using tape to tape down the spine, and then used thick mounting tabs to attach the photograph over the spine. This means that this photograph sticks out from the page, but it also adds some nice depth to the page.
2015: Trip to the White House
I was fortunate to be invited by the President of Indiana Wesleyan University to attend the Fifth Annual President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge meeting at the White House. The meeting was actually held in the Eisenhower Executive Office building, but it was close enough for me (I have actually been inside the White House on an earlier trip to Washington D.C.). President Obama did not attend the meeting, which was a little disappointing, but it was fun to be in that setting.
For this spread I chose to use a patriotic theme, and used stars and stripes. I then double bordered the two photo sets with two shades of blue to mimic the Whitehouse.gov screen that was in the room.
The pictures on the left hand page are from the meeting, while those on the right hand page are taken outside of the White House after the meeting, and from a tourist shop that has recreations of the Oval Office and the Press Room – so don’t think that I got in that far!
2015: Johnny Appleseed Festival
We discovered The Fort Wayne Johnny Appleseed Festival purely by accident. We were up in Fort Wayne playing Laser Tag and asked the desk worker if there was anything else to do in Fort Wayne, and she suggested the Festival, which turned out to be a great experience.
The festival is held in the park that holds the burial site of Johnny Appleseed (left hand page), and features a farmers market, antique market, and a host of reenactors and old time food and ware. We bumped into Abraham Lincoln while we were there!
I choose a cream background to match the soda bottle label on the left hand side of the spread, but because it was a Johnny Appleseed themed page I had to use red accents for the apples! I cut the apples out using my Cricut machine, and then used the left over from the cutout to make the border on the left hand side of the page.
2015: Bowman Boat Race
The Bowman Boat Race is an annual tradition at Indiana Wesleyan University, where I work. The boys and I decided to attend to see all the fun. Each Residence Hall unit must build a boat entirely out of cardboard and duct tape, and then there is a race to see which one is the fastest. Usually though it just ends up being a contest to see which one actually just floats!
I continued the beach theme from the previous Luau page into this spread and placed the photographs tightly together. I used my Cricut machine to cut out the boat. I cut the boat so that it could cover both pages of the spread. If you think the boat looks familiar – it is! I paid $0.99 for it when I was scrapbooking out trip to Sweden! (See HERE).
2015: Luau
This spread actually showcases two different events. The left page contains pictures from a photo shoot that we did at a local park, and the right page are pictures from a Luau event at Indiana Wesleyan University, where I work.
I used beach flower background paper for this spread to highlight the flowers from the garden, but also the feeling of beach paradise from the Luau event. My favorite part of this spread is that I used the drink umbrellas, and the petals from the leis as ephemera on this project. Since the petals were transparent, I had to place them in a way to hide the sticky tab that is affixing them to the page. I very carefully pulled the stick from the umbrellas, and then cut off the top part of the umbrella as it was too thick to put on the page. I then used a brad to put through the center of the umbrella to hide the hole that was left, but also to affix it to the page.
2015: Indiana State Fair 2
This is the second spread from our trip to the Indiana State Fair. I combined two parks of the Fair into one spread – on the left we have the animals – including the World’s Largest Boar, and on the right we have the amusement park rides.
For the left hand page I used a weave patterned paper, and placed the photographs tightly together. I used brown strips to add dimension to the page, but they also helped to tie the two pages together through the brown color. At the bottom of the page is the amusement ride bracelet which allowed the boys to ride the rides. I got a kick out of the sheep in the bottom right picture – he looks like a knight from Monty Python!
The right hand page has a roller coaster themed background paper, and I also placed the photographs tightly together on this page. The boys enjoyed the rides – I enjoyed sitting down and watching them.
2015: Indiana State Fair 1
The day after the Colts game we went to the Indiana State Fair. This was actually my first time going to the fair and it was a lot of fun. We got there early, which was a great idea for parking, and for seeing and doing a lot of things before the place became crowded.
This page has so many things on it! So lets start with the background papers that I used – a bale of hay and burlap! Both things that make me think of farming – and the theme for this year was “The Year of the Farmer”. Starting on the left we have the program cover – the book was too thick to put in the album, so I took the cover off and mounted it directly onto the plastic page protector so that the viewer could open it to read it.
Next you have a deep friend Oreo – which was delicious, and a massive pumpkin! On the right hand page there is a sculpture carved from cheese, a picture of Henry on a tractor, and a picture of Henry with a massive truck, which he thought was awesome. The coin at the top right hand side was stamped by an old steam powered press, and the paper at the bottom right was from a pad of paper that was given to me in one of the pavilions.
2015: Colts Game
This was my second time ever at a professional football game – and the first for Levi and Henry! Attending the Colts game was part of the birthday present for Levi and I. I don’t like to pay a lot of money for sports tickets so our seats were really high up!
I used a blue background with white picture borders to mimic the Colt’s uniforms. As usual I got the tickets onto the page as they help to show the date and time, so that I don’t have to write.
Something fun that happened was that I Instagramed a picture (the bottom right hand one) at the game and it ended up being used on the big screen during the game. The picture of the screen is in the middle of the right page, and I used an arrow to show that it was the same picture!
Something else that is fun on the page is the small NFL sticker in the bottom right hand corner. We went to the pre-game tailgate party and they were handing out rally flags. On the bag was this “Official NFL” sticker and I carefully peeled it off of the bag and placed it on this page. One of my favorite things about scrapbooking is figuring out how to get unique ephemera to fit on the page.
2015: Rodeo
We love taking our exchange students to the rodeo, as it is truly an American tradition in the Midwest. It is always interesting because in our area they are also very patriotic, and this is too is a new experience for them.
Henry looked great in his plaid shirt, and my borrowed cowboy hat – so I decided to border the pictures also with a plaid paper. I was also able to get a newspaper article from the local paper and added that to the page as well.
The horse was cut using my Cricut machine, and the hay border helped to bring balance to the page.
Click here to see our 2012 trip to the Rodeo.
2015: Soccer Golf
One of the first activities that we did together was to try out a sport that was new to me – Soccer Golf. Basically there are large holes in the ground that you are trying to kick your soccer ball into. I took pictures while the boys played.
I used soccer background paper from an athletic stack that I have, which played beautifully with all of the green in the photographs. I bordered the photographs in white to help the white from the net and the ball in the background paper to stand out, and with the white score card I used a green background.
