Now I don’t necessarily think that stickers are just a girl thing - my boys liked stickers and we had our fair share of Thomas the Train, Toy Story and Star Wars stickers, but they didn’t love stickers the way that Azzy does. This little girl will sit with stickers for the longest time and patiently peel them off and stick them any and everywhere!
My mom had given her window cling stickers knowing how much Azzy would enjoy them. When she realized she could put these special stickers on the wall, she went to town. She stuck them all on our door and then moved them around, and this kept her busy and quiet for the longest time! She was oblivious to me until I said, “Azzy, say cheese!” Then I got the biggest smile.
So many people would probably think that these photos would not be worth scrapbooking, but one of my absolute favorite topics to scrapbook are the everyday life moments that would get lost to time. Even without photos depicting certain things, I remember the big events from years ago - the year I had a birthday pool party in March at the YWCA, or the Christmas I got the Brides of Montclair book series I had wanted FOREVER, or the annual summer trips to Minerva Lake. You tend to remember the big things - good and bad - but the majority of life is made up of the little things.
It’s the little things I really don’t want to forget. Grief has shown me that. When Caleb was diagnosed with a serious neuromuscular disease I wanted to remember the little things the boys did or the things that would make me smile because I knew we would have many big things that weren’t so happy - like scary doctor appointments and spinal fusion surgery. The little things that made the boys smile and laugh became a way for me to count my blessings despite the trials.
Then when Dave died, I became desperate to record the little things that the boys would not remember if not for a scrapbook page - the things that made Dave laugh, the ways the skin around his eyes would crease when he smiled big or laughed, and the funny facial expressions he would make when playing the guitar.
I’ve become more diligent about recording those things of the family around me - Jim has a hunting album, and I’ve made layouts of him and the kids that showcase the little memories. I’ve got a layout in progress of my mom and I smiling big when I was waiting for my surgery to remove melanoma and I had just found out that the second biopsy came back negative. Just looking at the photo I can feel the relief and gratitude we felt.
So, while this may be just a layout of a little thing, it’s a little thing that brings Azzy joy and makes me smile, and is a memory worth recording.
Scrapbooking Tips:
I let the pattern paper do all the heavy lifting on his layout! I used the smiley face pattern paper from Echo Park’s Have a Nice Day collection because, although she is not using them in these photos, Azzy had packs of happy face stickers that we were pulling off our clothes, furniture and carpet. This collection even came with similar Smiley Face stickers!
I used another Allison Davis sketch and followed her suggestions from my photo size to placement. I loved the pastel color palette as it matched the pale pink of Azzy’s shirt, so I used the darker pink to be the largest accent color and matted my photos in dark pink pattern paper. I used the complementary solid to die cut the title.
The title was actually the hardest part of the layout! I played with different fonts on my silhouette before settling on Mean Ones. I wanted to keep the pink, but it blended into the background too much, so I took my white gel pen and carefully free hand drew a white border around the letters. This is a great way to make a custom title and have it really pop off the page. I used thin foam adhesive to attach my letters and stars. I did add a quick stitched border on each star for some additional texture.
When I’ve taught scrapbooking classes one question I am often asked is how long it takes to stitch on my layouts. It definitely adds extra time to the process. I love the stitching so I don’t think twice about the time, but out of curiosity I timed myself for how long it took to do the simple stitching on this layout. Not counting the time it took to pick out my colors, it only took three minutes to stitch on each star. I think it is worth that time for the added interest it brings to the overall page. I also realize my page would have been perfectly fine without the stitching, but I enjoy the relaxation and stress relief it brings - especially when I have bigger stitching projects!
In the end, here is a little moment recorded in our family archives, so years from now I can show Azzy and tell her just how much she loved playing with stickers, and how much I enjoyed watching her play!
Supplies Used:
Cardstock - American Crafts
Pattern Paper & stickers - Echo Park
Letters for Title - BFC Mean Ones Thin Version font Silhouette Design Studio ID 455906
White Gel Pen - unknown
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