Not having posted anything for more than a week was deliberate on my part. I, unfortunately, had a very busy week with exams and it only promises to get worse in the next couple of weeks with grades due soon. But I did do something crafty this week and it had more to do with helping my nephew and nieces to get started scrapbooking. A few weeks ago, my sister and I had talked about little crafty things the kids can do, instead of each one busy playing games with an iphone/ipad when they spend their Sundays afternoons together (such a waste!). And we thought we'd start last Sunday, when we would also celebrate Jessica's birthday.
I thought it would be a little daunting ay first, and I guess it was right because it took me more than a whole day to prep for a couple hours' worth of craft time. Earlier in the week, I did a little bit of research about how to teach kids how to scrapbook and I needed to think of a layout that can be done within on hour or so. The kids' age range is from four to nine years old, so it shouldn't be so complicated that the youngest won't be able to follow, but challenging enough so that the bigger kids won't be bored. I saw this video on youtube of a girl showing how she worked on a simple layout, and so I made a sketch loosely based on that. I then made a list of materials that we would need and coordinated with my sister to get them ready so we can prepare individual kits for each kid. On the day before, I made a sample page that the kids can easily refer to.
Sample layout
It's a layout entitled "What's in a name?" with the child's name as the title in big block letters and its meaning as the journaling. Apart from the banner (which I've done in a few layouts and cards already), I kept the embellishments very simple. Although after doing the sample page, I had to change it a bit... instead of cutting the names by hand (it just took too much time for me to do), I printed them (in outline format) right on the cardstock. I also thought it would be fun for the kids to color them in. What kid doesn't like to color, right? Well, apparently, my youngest niece does not, and had her Mama (my sister) do most of the coloring :). Anyway, I also printed out a curved line beneath the name as a guide for placing the little pennants for the banner. The pennants are hand-cut pieces of adhesive patterned paper, this probably took me the longest to prep. I printed out the journaling (my sister researched her children's names) and cut them out myself. I also cut the patterned paper to mat the journaling and the photo mat. And finally, I just dug out a bunch of stickers from my stash that could be used to embellish their pages. Here are the kids' finished pages:
Jessica, 8 years old
The birthday girl
Jillian, 6 years old
A little bit OC about her work
(which is not a bad thing at all)
Jasmine, 4 years old
Had a lot of help from Mama
Jonas, 9 years old
The veteran, he's done this before,
so he didn't need much help.
I also prepared kit for my sister, so she can also work on her own page while the kids are doing their thing. Though she wasn't really able to finish it yet, since she was helping out her youngest. I also made another kit for me to do a demo:
And as I was helping the kids, too, I wasn't able to concentrate on
the page so the spacing (from top to bottom) is a bit off. But that's okay.
We all had a great time and the kids were proud of their work. Hopefully, we can do this on a regular basis (once a month, perhaps?). I already have a few ideas for next time. :-)
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