how to create a most special photo journal

Create a one of a kind photo gift journal.

We all know it's that gift giving time of year. December is upon us and it's time to either find or make that special gift for that certain someone or someones on our list.

I am in the middle of preparing gifts and making albums and calendars and all the traditional gift making that is part of my December. And I love every minute of it.

One of the gifts I am working on is for a family member that we do not get to see often. As I was thinking through gifts for this far off kin, it came to me exactly how to 'invite' them into our life by way of an album. The idea was to create an epic album of random (and some not so random) photos mostly of our everyday moments found together.

To make this happen I opted for the beautiful Heidi Swapp Instax Vintage One Day At a Time Photo Journal.

This Instax Vintage album is going to make the perfect gift for this family member. A candid look into our fun-filled adventure. OK. Well. It may not be fun-filled everyday. But it is indeed an adventure.

Here's the plan:

I am taking one page spread and creating a page layout for each month of 2017. The inside of this album when laid flat is a graph page, a vellum page, and then a third blank page. Each of those sections will be for one month of the year.

Come look at January to see what I mean.

For example, this is what January looks like. It's sort of a day in the life kind of look at our life. 

The left side is a graph page. 

The next page is vellum.

And the last page in this spread is a solid white page. The three pages will equal one month in the album. While I am not actually sharing a One Day At A Time look at our life, this look into our lives gives a pretty good idea of the crazy, the events and the moments that do make up our every day.

The WeRMemoryKeepers Typecast is used to add all the months to each page spread.  This was done by typing up the month and the year, and then trimming that out to create a word strip.

Take a look at February.

This next page spread is February. It was great fun to pick out these photos. The attempt was not to try too hard. When I would search out a month, if a photo grabbed my heart, then I knew, that was the one to choose.

You will see throughout how I used Instax Vintage Filler Cards make interactive elements with extra photos behind. 

Notice how Heidi Swapp Stationery Buzz Words plus Washi Tape are also put to use in this epic album. 

As I walk you through images of the rest of this book. I will point out how I used Instax Vintage, the Stationery Collection, plus plenty of Heidi Swapp Washi Tape to create an album that is a look into our everyday. Our One Day At a Time.

Some photos take up the whole page. I used a template here to create a 4x6 collage. I like to use the Filler Cards to add sentiments to these stories.

The Filler Cards come with clear gold and silver foil stickers. A trick I like to use is to adhere the sticker to cardstock and then add to the page or photos. I like them to stick up a bit more rather than lay down flat.

The Instax Vintage Mini Journal Kit comes with a stamp set. It was used to create this title page for the month of April.

A photo is clipped to the top of the vellum with a clear sticker plus the month and year typed out using the WeRMemoryKeepers Typecast.

Striped washi tape gives this page a bit of a border.

The 'celebrate' is part of the Stationery Buzzwords. I also used Glitter Alpha from a Stationery Embellishment Kit to add the word LIFE. This was a very special page which needed a bit extra glam.

I created my own circle embellishment.

I adhered clear stickers to a journal card from one of the Filler Packs. Then that was die cut to a circle shape.

One of my go-to techniques is to take a sentiment journal card from the Filler Cards and trim it out to fit my page in a bit more creative way.

More Buzzword Stickers. Trimmed out journal cards. Journal strips created in the Typecast. Photos attached with Washi Tape.

These are definitely a few of my favorite things.

This takes us up to August. Showing off all the back to school photos.

The Filler Cards include glitter frames.

They are fun to adhere to the vellum page and frame the photo peeking through from the next page.

This album includes some Instax prints. But I didn't feel like making all the photos just that size. I took the liberty to use photo templates to create collages as well as use square Instagram images and include them in the coil spine of the book as well.

Journal card attached at the edge with Washi Tape.

Hidden journal found underneath.

And that's what I call an epic photo journal. All brought to you by this lovely One Day At A Time Photo Journal from Heidi Swapp Instax Vintage collection. Plus a little look at our year. A most special gift to give someone far away. To show them our love. To show them our moments. To share with them our story.

supplies | Heidi Swapp Instax Vintage Collection available at Michaels Stores.