Technique Tuesday

This is not really a technique, but a fun and easy theme album idea.  I had taken a class at Archiver's that got me started, then I expanded the theme to work for me.  Every year for their birthdays, I have professional pictures taken of my boys.  Every year they have school pictures taken.  Every year, there is a first day of school.  Why not put all these pictures in the same place?

First, I keep it simple.  The only supplies I use are CS, 2PP a border strip, stickers letters or chipboard letters, and the occasional embellishment. That's it.  Every layout is a 2 page layout.  Same supplies on both pages.  One page has one PP 1 1/2" wide, the other has 2 PP.  The bottom one is 2" wide, the top one is 1 1/2" wide.  I don't even line them up to match.

Some years I have more first day of school pictures that require a 2 page layout.  Some years there are only enough for one page. I've still been able to arrange the pages, so they line up by year.

I begin with the birthday picture because it come first for us.  I try to pull colors from the shirt as best as I can.  I always mat the picture so it stands out more.  The PP is 1 1/2" wide.

It's companion page is the fist day of school because it comes next.  I only had a few pictures, so it was only one page, and worked nicely with the birthday picture.  Notice the addition of the second PP which is 2"wide.

and the addition of a quote sticker

Here is the 2 page spread. 

Next is the school picture layout.  I use both the picture and the class picture.  This is the original design from the class at Archiver's.  In both this layout and the previous layout, I changed the orientation of the left page from horizontal to vertical.

Here is a close up of the journal tag and the right page

Lastly, here is a layout of both pages horizontal.   I had more pictures of the first day of school this year, so it became a 2 page spread.

 another quote sticker added to the bottom, and 2 PP on the left side page.

I like having this album.  It's easy to keep up.  It's current and shows their changes and growth.  I usually work on it right after I receive the school pictures, then I put it away until the next year.    My older son likes to keep the class picture in his room until the new one arrives, so I leave a place for it in the album.

I hope I've given you an idea to use.  If not for school pictures, for something else.