Photo Friday- First Communion

My second oldest celebrated his First Communion almost three weekends ago.  He was so excited and was such a handsome boy.  As no photos were allowed during the mass these are from after the wonderful celebration.  It's always a challenge to take photos with everyone else doing the same.  I don't really want other people in the background.  This corner has become our little 'spot' for taking our First Communion photos and it works great.  Enjoy and thanks for stopping!

Sitting Up Layout

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  We have been busy here.  My second son celebrated his First Communion a few weekends ago so we were preparing for that.  I'm hoping to have a few pictures from that up tomorrow.  With that celebration came company!  That kept us busy.  We had five extra people in the house for a total of 11!  We all survived even with only one bathroom!  Last week my husband had hip surgery.  He had a tear fixed and some excess bone shaved off.  He is doing well and is in recovery mode so that has changed our schedule a bit.  Enough of why I haven't been on here.  Let's get to the fun stuff!

I have really been thinking about my scrapbooking style and getting those pictures on pages and in my albums.  If you've been following me you know that I'm WAY behind (in scrapbook land it's 2006).  I'm OK with that but I do want to start making a dent in getting those memories in our albums.  Soon I'm going to be starting a current Project Life album and I can't wait!  I'll post more about that soon.  In the meantime, these older photos need to be scrapped and put in their albums.  If you remember one of my New Year's goals was to use up supplies I had before buying more.  I will admit that I have purchased a few supplies here and there.  I just can't help myself!  I've also started a subscription to the Studio Calico monthly Project Life kit.  I will be using this for the above mentioned current album to be started soon.  I tend to keep supplies around for the 'perfect' page.  I don't want to use up the good stuff on photos that aren't so great.  I've decided to change that attitude.  Even if the photos aren't stellar if I printed them to go in the album they are worthy of great paper.  That's where today's layout comes in.

I'll be the first to admit that these are not great photos.  They were taken at a weird angle, have not so great lighting, and have my head in the corner (my husband took these).  These photos do, however, tell an important story of my son sitting up for the first time on his own.  This is the same son that just celebrated his First Communion!  Also, when working with these older photos I tend to just order 4x6 prints as is.  No editing or cropping.  This makes the ordering process easy but can lead to some strange sized photos.  I would have preferred one of the other photos to be large and have the looking away photo smaller but that's not what I got.  I guess what I'm saying is embrace even the not so perfect photos and treat them with the same love you would with your favorite photos.

I've been watching a lot of The Adventures of Glitter Girl recently and love the way she uses layers and patterned papers.  I challenged myself on this layout to do some layering and use patterned paper as my background.  I think I succeeded!  I knew I wanted the black grid paper to anchor my photos but was having a hard time with the photo placement.  That's when I turned to my Pinterest Sketches Board.  I found this sketch that had the photo sizes I was working with and changed it a bit.  I love using sketches to give you that little bit of a jump start. 

Now that I had my photos placed I needed to add some of those layers.  Using scraps of patterned paper from another layout I made with the Oliver collection was perfect!  I used up paper and made a great layout.  I inked all the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink to make them all work together.  Using a paper collection makes this so easy.  

I used the letter stickers that came with the Oliver collection and some from Lily Bee Design to make my title.  I love the look of different fonts, sizes, and colors in titles.  It adds some interest to the page and makes the title fun.   

Here's a closer look at my journaling.  I love when a collection has a lined patterned paper. It's the perfect match and a great place to add your journaling.  

I used some of my newly purchased stamps from My Mind's Eye and Heidi Swapp to make some cute embellishments for the page.  I used my Distress Ink and some paper from the collection and then fussy cut them.  By using the Distress Inks I got a little bit of a distressed look to my stamping which is perfect for this layout. 

Here's another look at my title and one of those stamped images.  I also added a few sequins in a couple of spots for some added interest. 

I'm happy with the way this page turned out even though the photos aren't the best.  I hope this inspires you to scrap even those not so perfect photos and create a great page for your album.  Thanks for stopping!

Supplies:

• cardstock- The Paper Studio
• patterned paper- Basic Grey (Oliver Collection)
• stamps- My Mind's Eye, Heidi Swapp
• ink- Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Black Soot)
• alpha stickers- Basic Grey (Oliver Collection), Lily Bee Design
• tools- Perfect Layers, American Crafts (Project Life pen- 05 Black)
• misc- pop dots, sequins, Ranger (Glossy Accents)