Mix & Match Album: My Favorite Photos 2012

Welcome to the Simple Stories Mix & Match blog hop!  You should have arrived here from Liz Qualman's blog.  Today a few of my fellow teammates and I are sharing our projects using the Mix & Match albums that debuted at CHA Winter this year.  I could go on and on about how very cool these little albums are, but I have a feeling you already know!

Just in case you are not familiar with them, here is what a basic album looks like and includes:

The album is designed to hold 6x8 pages and you can use either page protectors, which come in a variety of designs, or the page inserts that correspond to each Simple Stories collection.  Or you can use both!

For my album I chose to use the Year.O.Graphy collection, and I decided to make an album that includes my favorite photos of 2012.

When this album is completed, I want for it to sit on the shelf with the rest of my full-sized scrapbooks and so I purposefully designed the cover to be rather flat; the only dimension is from the buttons.  The first page on the inside of the album serves as the title page:

I plan on putting most of the photos into the divided page protectors,

but I also plan on mixing up the design, and using the 6x8 album pages that match the Year.O.Graphy line (they are so cute by the way! I love the designs).

Some photos from the first week that Samuel was at home:

I used my Silhouette a lot for this album (really, I am using it a lot for everything these days!)  I thought this 4x6 Home Sweet Home card was perfect for this little spread.  Here is a closer look at the right-hand side:

This was Nathan's first year to color eggs, and he absolutely loved it:

He had a smile on his face the whole time, and was very patient and good about following our instructions.  Which is notable, since patience is not really one of Nathan's virtues...  we're working on it. =)

Sometimes a photo is a favorite whether it is technically perfect or not, it is the moment that a photo captures that makes me love it.  And sadly, sometimes those not-so-perfect photos never get scrapbooked.  Really, there is no way I could scrapbook every photo I take anyway.  I thought this album would be the perfect place to hold all of my favorite photos whether they are great or not!  Here are some favorite snapshots from life around here:

Nathan has loved Samuel from the moment we brought him home.  He often wants to give him hugs and kisses.  He likes to sing songs to him, or in this case, read him a story to keep him company:

And these two, of course, already have a special bond.  Lately, they bond over Star Wars...

Seriously, they are obsessed!

You might have noticed the journaling cards in the pages above.  One of my favorite pieces of paper from the collection is the Orange/Grid paper.  I used it to make 3x4 journaling cards and then customized them using washi tape, stamps, and simple embellishments.  Here is what they looked like before I added the journaling:

This album is definitely a work in progress, and I've only shared a few of the pages with you today.  As the months go by I'll try to make a point of sharing my completed pages with you, so check-in periodically to see how the album is coming along.

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Now for the fun news!  Simple Stories is giving away two album assortments.  One to a reader on the Simple Stories blog, and one to the design team member who gets the most comments today.  I would be thrilled to give away an album to one of my readers, so please be sure to leave a comment on this post! 

The next stop in the hop is:  Kellie Rabideau

And just in case you get lost, here is a list of all of the blogs in today's hop:

Liz Qualman

Kellie Rabideau

Kay Rogers

Yuki Shimada

Shellye McDaniel

Wendy Morris

Guiseppa Gubler
Rebecca Keppel

  Good luck and thanks for stopping by!!