Albums for Early School Memories

It's that time of year when schools are wrapping up for the holidays. Some of our kids are going to middle school and others to senior school. My son has 4 friends in his carpool and I have become quite fond of these little ones. All 4 of them will now be entering middle school - going to class 1. My son still has a year to go but for these kids, it's the end of their play school years. I wanted to make something for them sort of as a goodbye present and I thought a school album might be just the right thing.

The album is completely made of ItsyBitsy chipboard - the cover as well as the inside pages. I like the idea of chipboard pages as they won't bend over time with the decorative embellishments inside. There are 3 girls and 1 little boy in this group of kids so I had to make 3 girly ones and 1 not so girly one. Here's a look at the girly one.

I started with papers from the DCWV All About Me Stack and I bound the album together using some pink felt from itsyBitsy. For the title of each year of school I used the Sizzix Alpha Bubbles Die to etch out the letters. It's a fantastic die that provides upper case, lower case and numbers. You can either use the die negative which is circular or use the die cut themselves which are thin alpha-numerals. Along with each title page I added a frame using the Sizzix Swirly Frame Die along with a rim of pearls. A few butterflies at the corners added to my girly album. 

I added a pocket on one page for each child to slip in any small craft work they had preserved over the years. I know I have preserved some of the things my son's teachers sent home so here's hoping they will have a few things to add as well. 

The third page of every section had a 'details section'. I used the Spellbinders Shapeabilities Office Supplies Die to create this note-page die cut and then provided space for the child to add her teachers names, friends names, sections and so on. 

Now on to the album for the little boy. I truly found it quite difficult to avoid girly embellishments but thanks to ItsyBitsy, there were plenty of sporty masculine accents to add to my project. I started with the DCWV Grade School Stack which is full of bold bright neutral colours as the paper scheme for my album. For the title, I used some green craft sticks from ItsyBitsy and created a frame with them. Some soccer ball stickers proved to be great embellishments for the frame. 

I followed the same scheme of titles and sections only this time, there were no swirly frames, pearls, butterflies or bows. Instead the frame was straight edged, the embellishments sporty and the colours bright and neutral. 

For the pocket for craft work I added some dinosaur stickers from the ItsyBitsy stickers range. I tell you with ItsyBitsy, you are certain to find something for literally any theme.

Well that wraps up this post. I have 2 more albums to make and hopefully they will be ready for presentation by Friday when school closes for the year.

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