Hello, Eleanor here again with my latest monthly mini-book. This month I have used lots of random photos, the ones which don't really fit into any other categories, but which tell stories about family members, pets, our allotment, and dressing-up fun, and which document autumn/harvest time/Halloween, and so are ideal for this month's minibook..
This is my pumpkin mini-book, it's about 6 inches across:
and opens out into a pumpkin shape:
and even stands up on its own:
I painted, embossed, and inked the covers, but the pages inside are mostly quite simple, just patterned paper on cardstock, with a photo, but no embellishments. The reason for this is that sometimes I find a minibook incredibly time-consuming for its small size, and I've realised that I am trying to make each small page a miniature scrapbook layout. That is rarely necessary, and journalling isn't always essential either. Here I have just used the photos, interspersed with cutout pages, and I asked family members for short pithy comments/captions, which I then wrote on the pages. Exactly as they said it. Oh my, for some reason I found that hard! ;)
Five of the pages have a cut away section where I have used a die cut shape in keeping with the theme.
The tree:
The skeleton (the bat is a pipistrelle who flew into our kitchen one evening)
The owl (that's my dear little Buffy, who died suddenly recently)
The haunted house (my eldest with his tarantula, Dude)
and finally a spider on a web.
My favourite photo is that one of Richard with the first pumpkin he grew at the allotment. He was so proud. So was I!
The remainder of the pages (one has no caption, collective inspiration had run dry, but should you find it, it's Snowy the cat, with Richard the tiger, now why I didn't put just that I have no idea):
My little paper pumpkin now joins the other minibooks inside the tote.
See you next month.
Hi from Caz!
I can't believe we are showing our month 10 work! The other day I sat and did my November and December 2008 layouts, all ready as the year gets busier. Although I wanted to start this project last year, I just didn't get around to it, but thankfully i've been able to do 2008 and 2009 side by side, and i'm really glad I did. I've put both years layouts into one album, that is all fat and lush and filled with some great memories.
Next year and hopefully the year after, and quite possibly the year after that I will be able to grow my library of yearly albums.
I'm not sure if i've mentioned before, I love this photo of my mum and Roz. Although i've never met Roz, i've heard so much about her and I know what she means to my mum, that she's kinda like part of my family. So it seemed very natural to include the photo of the two of them on this layout.
haPPy haLLowEEn!
Caz
xx
Fabulous projects ladies, both look brilliant.
x
Posted by: claireliz | October 31, 2009 at 12:24 PM
Love both projects, the cut outs in the mini books must have taken ages Eleanor!
Lovely layouts Caz.
Posted by: Debbie Roberts | October 31, 2009 at 05:04 PM
Wonderful pumpkin project - love the shape and cover! great way of show-casing photos from a variety of topics for this time of year.
Posted by: alexa | October 31, 2009 at 10:51 PM
Love the pumpkin book and all of your cool photos. I would'nt have nearly enough Halloween type photo's, but could find other ones just to make the book..
Posted by: Alison Kirk | November 02, 2009 at 01:38 PM
I love this and will hopefully make one simular as i love pumpkins ! I'm not into Halloween but like dressing kids up and pumpkins ! Might have to put in a fair few years of Halloween to feel up the pages !
Posted by: jayne | November 06, 2009 at 04:03 PM
What a beautiful album! I love the cutouts. Can't wait to explore the rest of your blog. I got here via UKScrappers . . .
Evelyn
Posted by: Evelyn | November 08, 2009 at 02:45 PM