Today I want to show you one of my
all time favorite mini albums. It features my boys when they were around the ages 7 and 8. In this album, I tried to capture what my boys were like by sharing many funny stories and photos about the things they said and did.
As any of you who are moms to boys know, little boys can be mischievous. . .especially when you have more than one.
I wanted this album to look like a police case file, so I used a file folder.
I trimmed it's length down to 12" so my pattern papers would fit on it.
I covered the front and back with kraft cardstock.
I used a photo of the boys wearing fake moustaches. (We didn't actually take the picture for this book, but I thought it matched the theme well.)
I used some Confidential and Top Secret stamps, then used ink to make it look like there were coffee stains on the file.
This is what it looks like when you open the front cover.
You can see I added lots of "evidence."
I've told you before that ever since my boys were little, I have kept a notebook to record stories of the cute things they've done and said. I was able to use lots of these in this album.
On the left side, I used
this paper by Creative Imaginations to document a story about my oldest son cutting a lock out of his hair. He didn't admit to it until I found the lock on the floor of the playroom closet.
The first page flips up to reveal more of the incident and a photo of the two culprits-because when one did something, the other was usually involved.
Underneath those two pages, I added a page filled with funny stories about things the boys had done. I titled it "Incident Report."
My boys have always been super creative and just plain cute (I may be a bit biased!), and I never knew what they were going to say or do:)
Here are a couple of my favorite stories:
Sam was trying to break a twig off of a limb that Daddy had just cut down. He said, "Mom, I just wish I had big buck teeth so I could chew it off!"
In church, Ethan was laying on my lap playing with the ties on my dress. As we stood for the closing prayer, I realized that Ethan had tied his head to my dress. The harder he tried to slip the strings over his head, the tighter the knot got! After we finished praying, I untied the knot and set him free.
Sam was out back on the swingset. He held something up to show me.
"Is that the pepper?" I asked.
"No, I think it's the salt," he answered.
"Why is the salt outside?!" I asked.
"Ethan thought he found a bird skin and he wanted to salt it to lure a cat!"
On the right side, I adhered the photo and two tags to the fold of the binding on the folder.
When you flip those over, you can see that I added another photo and two more tags to the backs.
Attached to the right side of the folder is this cool envelope that I had in my stash. It's labeled Valuables Envelope.
I wrote a couple of funny stories on it and added another "Confidential" stamp.
I sealed the envelope shut, then cut the right side of it so I could place this stash of photographs.
The envelope flips up to reveal several more photographs of my silly boys.
The pattern paper from Creative Imaginations worked great with this project- this sheet in the background is covered with the words, "It wasn't me," "I'm innocent," "Alibi," and "I was framed."
This file folder wasn't the normal type- it actually had an extra flap in the center for business use which gave me an extra two pages to fill.
Here on the left are more photos, and I adhered another photo and two tags to the binding.
Here's a close up of the left side.
In the top left photo, my older son is wearing a cowboy hat with a long rubber snake coiled around his shoulder and my camera case strapped across his chest doing his impression of Indiana Jones.
The top right photo is my younger son with two dinosaurs sticking out of his ears. I just happened to look away from him for a second, and when I turned back to him, that's what I saw looking back at me! The sticker in the upper right hand corner says, "Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting."
I used stickers by 7 Gypsies and Creative Imaginations.
Here's a close up of the right side.
The photo and tags flip over and are backed with another photo and two tags.
On the right side, I happened to have a plastic bag that says biohazard. (I brought this home from work.) In it, I placed a gum wrapper, a candy wrapper, a tiny toy gun, and a Lego piece- just little tidbits that I routinely found in my washing machine!
The bag flips up to show photos of "Suspicious Activity" like marbles in their dad's shoes, a plastic alligator eating a little figurine, and a door that is "booby trapped" (tied closed from the outside with a dog leash.).
Whenever I happened across something that made me shake my head, I always reached for my camera before making the boys clean it up!
You can see that each tab in the folder is labeled Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C as I tried to stick with the police file theme.
Finally, the back is covered with kraft cardstock and ink stains.
The stickers at the bottom say, "Created by your very tired mother" and "Dedicated to Sam and Ethan. Live as if bedtime will never come, then dream of mischief."
I like to think that someday they'll look at this and laugh at the little stinkers they used to be! Or they may look at this and think that their mom was a goofball with too much time on her hands! Either way, I get a kick out of reading it! Every time I look at it, I smile and realize what a blessing my creative and mischievous boys are.
Thanks for stopping by and God bless.
Behave courageously, and the Lord will be with the good.
2 Chron. 19:11
This post is linked to
Skip to My Lou,
The Dedicated House,
Shabby Creek Cottage,
Sunday View, and
Craft-O-Maniac.
