My First Memory Files

Hello!
I sit here in a bit of a daze. I have a head cold at the moment. Stayed in my PJ's all day apart from when I had to fetch kids from school and zap into the shop!  Hubby took the kid's to school this morning and came home to drop off some hall lozenges for me. (sweet man).

I wanted to share a new craze of mine. I recently discovered memory files. I am so inspired by the ones Jamie of On Today creates. Of course there are also lot's of ideas on Pinterest.
I've been looking in our local shop for the Heidi Swapp memory files, but to no avail.
So in the meantime, with a bee in my bonnet, I made my own!

The first two were trial and error but I love how the third one came out.

This was the first one I did. I used brown craft board which I covered only the outside of both sides and the inner left hand side. I used a piece of brown craft board to make my own spine which I bent and then sewed onto each cover. I used a piece of scrap booking paper that had the bracket shape already to obtain the cool bracket shape which I cut out.

I first made a mini book by using only double sided paper (different lengths and widths) and some double sided Journal cards. then I stitched it all down the middle with my sewing machine.
This memory file was for January 2012 vacation when my family from New Zealand came to stay for a few weeks. I had a lot of photo's to scrap, and they were special to me, so I knew I had to a mini album and the memory file system worked out so well. I had all my photo's printed small, (2 or 4 on a 10x15cm)

Once I had my book done, I glued the back page to the back of the inner cover and began working in it.

I did some accordion books,

Flaps that open up

This flap had more photo's behind it and a hidden journal pocket.

The same with this flap. I wanted to give some interest to the album.

This is the second file I did. Made a bit of a mess with the stitching. I think I had it on the wrong setting.

This is the inside of the file. I put my mini memory book I made inside. (glued to the back inside cover)

This is what it looks like when the book is open. Lot's of photo stacks, accordion photos, and tabs.

My third attempt. I love how this one came out. I found (yes-found) a whole packet of unopened file folders in pink in my studio (I have no idea when I bought them or what for!)  I cut a piece of scrap booking paper in half and joined it with a middle section. Here is the front

and this is the back. To give a cohesive look to the whole file. Inside the cover on the back, I used the same yellow card.

For this album I knew exactly the colors, theme, about of pages I would need and so I made three different books for photos. This memory file would hold all my holiday photo's from September in which we went to stay half by family and half in a little cottage we rented by the sea! So lot's of color, vibrant and fun paper!
It was a favorite time of mine last year and so once again, I had a lot of photo's I wanted to scrap that a 12x12 scrap book page wouldn't hold!
The inside I didn't mind the pink so much as it fitted with my color scheme.
I cut out a piece of card I had been saving for "in case" and finally I could use it.
It says "a cottage by the sea...how sweet it would be"!

For the front of the book, I used a sturdy piece of plastic (perspex?) cut out a heart shape and stuck the plastic behind and sewed it on.

The heart I cut out of the paper, I turned over and glued to the next page.
I made my own edges on the papers by using gorgeous stickers pasted to the edge and cut around.

Some ribbon and lace trim on the bottom of the book.

Here is a little stacked book.

After with all my photo's in it and some embellishments.

I love layers!!

And lastly, the little photo stack booklet I made. I used some home made brackets which I sewed on just to give the booklet some interest.

Well That is it for now! I don't know how much the real memory files cost or the little already made photo-stacks are etc, but one thing is sure that it is a lot of fun making it all myself and also making it to suit my needs. I didn't buy a single thing for any of these memory files. I used supplies I had in my studio!

I would love to hear what you think! So do pop a comment in the "box" to say hi! and have a super day!
Happy creating!
(feel free to pin  but please link back to here)

Project Life 2013. {+ Free printable Journal cards}

Project Life...

A few weeks ago I didn't know what that meant.
I heard about it, I saw it on pinterest and read about it on some of my favorite blogs.
It looked interesting yet difficult, time-consuming, fiddly...

Until I tried it...

I am hooked...

I was behind in two years worth of photographs that I just had not gotten around to scrap booking. I am a traditional 12x12 scrapper. I have albums. I love looking through them and so does my family. It feels good to capture our memories, our life and document each year, every special moment so that they are not lost in the pages of time.
But let's face it, that thing called Life often get's in the way of documenting all we want to. So I slowly fell behind, doing the occasional page or mini album...

When I read up about Project Life, I knew that the big album size was not for me. The whole package cost an absolute fortune. (R990 or $110 or £70) Plus I knew if I went big I would once again "not keep up". I have come to realize I do much better with smaller projects, mini albums etc.I also didn't want something that was going to be bulky, heavy and take up a lot of storage space as I already have my albums taking up a large amount of space.

But I wanted to do Project Life...

So I went to our local scrap booking shop and found Simple Memories and OhSnap plastic sleeves that come in different sized pockets. Perfect! I then had 150 photo's developed. I first sat down at the PC, opened up PSE and set about cropping, editing and fitting sometimes 2 or 4 on a 10x15 size. So technically I managed to get over 400 photos printed. Bargain.
I started and within 4 days I had done 2011 and 2012!

I was amazed. It was a thoroughly enjoyable process-something new, something exciting, and of course wonderful to go back over the past two years and document things I had forgotten about!

I started on 2013 on Sunday and so far, so good! It's easy to keep up with this method, enjoyable and not at all time consuming! Me thinks cheaper too!

This is a good idea when you have more photo's you want to include, but don't necessarily want them to have their own front page spot. So you just stagger them underneath each other. They are also put back-to-back. So when you lift the photo and look on the back, there is another one. So you would stick another photo upside down in order to achieve this affect. I had 5 photos in this stack. (the bottom photo is stuck to the paper.)

Book-type flaps that open up to reveal more photos and journaling.

Some flaps to hold more photo's underneath.

Besides the plastic sleeves and pockets, I also make these "files" to hold more photo's and to add interest.

Lot's of flaps with more photo's




So that brings me to 2013. I wanted to be organized so that when I came to do each week, It wasn't a huge process trying to find everything first. I searched on pinterest and found this organizer that a lady had made.
It looked pretty easy to make your own using various sized box's. So I put this together. It's not meant to be a work or art and I didn't do it to look pretty. I wanted it to be presentable and functional. Besides it's only me seeing it on a daily basis.

I simply used masking tape and pieces of cut of cardboard from cereal box's to make the dividers.

 

I labeled the dividers for easy reference and put my Journal cards into the relevant compartments. (I know it's not the neatest project, ignore that!) I can't tell you how much easier it makes the process. Everything I need is within arms reach.

It's quite fun too making my own Journal cards using card stock and stickers.

Today I have free printable journal cards for you. I designed these myself. They are only for personal use. Feel free to print and use in your PL pages! Click on the image to download.