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When you make a conscious choice to be happy, no one can take it away from you because no one gave it to you: you gave it to yourself.

A quote from April Green's - Bloom For Yourself Journal

Friday 4 May 2012

Sharing Memories

So today I'm sharing with you a start of a journey - recapturing memories and collating them so that in years to come others may look at them and see what memories I had. I've never been into Scrap-booking, didn't own a digital camera until maybe 2007 so all of my pictures, memories, are in boxes in the loft. It's only as I've got older that I've realised the need to do something with these pictures.

I've recently (like many customers of Create & Craft) got my hands on Serif Craft Artist software, my mind is positively exploding with things I want to do, like photo books of holidays and special times etc, but this has only fuelled my ideas for a more hands on approach.

A recent visit to Paperchase saw me buy my first album. It's ring-bound with black pages and has black and white union jacks on the front. My plan is to fill it with snapshots of memories, whereas the photo-books will hold the whole event, I want this album to show different memories, or have pages with my thoughts and feelings say about my mum and dad or my brother or my son. A mix of Scrap and Smash I suppose!

So here's my first double layout, capturing memories of one of the proudest days of my life, my Graduation -





I used some papers I had that came with a digi-kit bundle from Daisytrail - fab old paper and book spines - perfect for Graduation to be the base. I took snatches from Tim Holtz Crowded Attic papers for the lettering, journal note and clock. Finally I matted and layered the photos on to Navy and gold to match the colours of my gown.  We took so many photos that day but these are the best ones to show me and my parents and Keagan. And the fantastic Cheltenham town hall where the ceremony was held.

I loved doing this, choosing the right photos and then the papers, a real sense of history in the making, as I hope in years to come further generations will be able to look at this album and get a sense of who we are/were. I'm really into family history too so hope this will make it easier for others further down the line to add to the branches of the tree!

Take care Zo xx

9 comments:

lisa said...

Your pages are stunning, Zoe. It's great to capture memories in scrapbooking and now you've started you won't stop. I've been scrapping for years now although prefer paper and ink to digital but love capturing even little things that happen in daily life.
Your photos are great. You all look very proud, as you should be.
Hope you have a great weekend and can't wait to see some more layouts.
Hugs Lisax

emma mitchell said...

This is fabulous and looks amazing , so nice to have special photos and memories to hand rather than looking through a box and thinking who , when , where . Can't wait to see your next pages.
Hugs Emma xx

Emma Williams said...

What a fabulous idea...your pages are fantastic and capture the moment perfectly. Wonderful layouts and can't wait to see what you do next!!!
Have a lovely weekend.
Love Emma xxx

Anonymous said...

Fantastic Zoe! A wonderful keepsake and what lovely memories. My graduation was one of the proudest days of my life. I must dig out the photos and do something like this - they've been in a box somewhere since 1995!
xxx

SandeeNC said...

I love my scrapbooks, and enjoy going back and seeing the way I felt or what I was doing, kind of like journaling for me. I figure when I am old and senile, I'll wonder who was that person and why do I have so many pictures of her? lol waving hi from the hills of North Carolina :)

Deb's Pen Pot said...

Lovely pages, hon - the backgrounds perfectly highlight the chosen photos, which showcases a fantastic day that you rightly are proud of! It'll be great to see other pages you create, love Deb xxx

Wendy Fraser said...

Such a stunning project xxx

Dee's Craft Room said...

These pages are really fabulous Zo and I can tell you are hooked on scrapbooking.

I love capturing memories in this way and often make wedding albums but my first album was my family tree. I collected photographs of my great grandparents and grandparents from relatives and I interviewed them about what they could remember of those people. I then wrote a potted history about each one and created a page for each person.

I then moved on to my parents and my sisters and their husbands. I am now working on a second album of my nieces and nephews and their children. I even have volunteers to take over the task after I die(very reassuring) but it has turned into an epic project.

I hope you enjoy your project as much as I do mine.

Good luck.

Dionne xxx

Cass said...

Fab page, but I should warn you that scrapbooking is highly addictive. I've filled 6 albums so far. But it the perfect way for capturing memories.

Cassidy