I was worried I’d never get this project finished because I didn’t even begin choosing photos to use for it (let alone editing + ordering them, and then constructing the whole thing) until the first week of May, and I knew if I didn’t get this book made, photographed and posted well before my birthday I’d fall utterly behind and never catch up (I still have a birthday mini to make for Bri, which I haven’t even started (TBH, I haven’t even looked through the photos we took over her birthday weekend yet so I’m extra behind on that), and our May book). So when my photos arrived from Persnickety Prints on Saturday, I got to work right away.
I loved the Paislee Press inspired “month in review” page that I made for my March book, but I hated it as the cover. This month I kept the “MIR” idea but with a slightly different format (each date beginning on a new line v. one continuous running entry) and as the title page. For the cover I layered a piece of transparency over a piece of vellum (with white “APR” stickets affixed to it) over a photo I took of a fresh bouquet one weekend at DC’s Eastern Market (farmers market in the Capital Hill neighborhood). The handwriting under the pink glitter “APRIL” stickers on the inside flap reads “what had happened was:” – a phrase I thought especially appropriate since the facing page (the title page) is the April “month in review” page. I made the inside flap of the front cover a hidden pocket page and stuffed a few pieces of ephemera from the month inside it.
PS: the inspiration for the cover this month came from this page by Tina Aszmus. It’s gorgeous. But I don’t have any fancy equipment (like a Silhouette or anything else that can do perfect cutouts, or a sewing machine), so I went with plain white stickers over the vellum instead. It still has a stark contrasting effect. Kind of. I guess?
The next chunk of pages are full of outside-ness. April was finally nice enough for us to spend a pretty significant amount of time outside, which was indescribably fantastic.
A small collage of photos from throughout the month // A full-bleed layout of Madden riding his new bike (that Shannon gifted him for his birthday) // A spread dedicated to our first dinnertime picnic at the state park that’s a 5 minute drive from our house.
A brief review of the books I read in April // A colorful photo grid supplemented with a happy face/sad face photo of ketchup (Emma always asks for a happy smiley face with her ketchup, Madden always asks for a sad face with his…?) // A very accurate photo of a typical (see also: raging) night for us: kids sleeping, dishwasher running, Bates on the TV, snacks on the table and books in hand (or in lap).
I love capturing all these small, everyday things now (even though everyone I know thinks I’m crazy/weird for taking photos of the things I take photos of ), and I think it will be really…cool (? (“neat” seemed appropriate here but also too nerdy)) to look back on these moments and routines in the future.
Madden tells a very inappropriate (but also hilarious) joke to Shannon // The kids watch a storm roll in at bedtime (and are convinced it’s “a tornado coming”) // Another photo grid (supplemented with handwritten notes about some of the photos) // A page dedicated to the biggest happening of the kids’ lives this month: caterpillars. They were everywhere and the kids couldn’t get enough of them. They were out there catching caterpillars every. single. evening. I made the left side of this layout a hidden pocket page and tucked a note inside detailing and contextualizing this month-long childhood moment.
Madden’s catch phrase for April (an exaggerated “please” that sounds like a distinct “puh” and “layz” (and that he thinks will automatically get him what he wants because he’s saying “please”)) // A layout documenting “the daddy way” to school (daycare) using piece of vellum over a Google map (I traced “the daddy way” route on the vellum and marked the landmarks that the kids excitedly shout out every. single. morning. when we drive by them) // The Fart Trumpet – one of Madden’s birthday gifts that really does make fart noises.
A note about a conversation Madden and I had regarding him having to wear a shirt out in public even though he didn’t want to // Some thoughts on feeling all of the feels when we registered Emma for Kindergarten // A fold-out page documenting Madden’s 27-day streak of not saying a bad word at school (I modeled the idea off those workplace safety posters, and the inside writing talks about how the day before he got in trouble for saying “shit” at school he lectured me about how saying bad things at school isn’t allowed – oh, the irony) // Emma on her bike // cherry blossoms from our front yard.
Booze + books: so many options! // A note about teamwork making the dream work (Shannon mowing the yard while I tend to the garden) // A page documenting HY Q1 – or Household Year Quarter 1, the designation we gave the occasion of hitting the “3 months of living together” mark. Because 3 months is one quarter of the year and it fell on a random date (April 24), we decided to be clever (and a little nerdy) and give it that “Household Year (HY)” title. Cheesy. Whatever. #longhairdontcare
Madden being “a butterfly!” (not Superman) // Garden prep for year 3 of backyard gardening // A month of K+S selfies, supplemented with diagonally cut vellum, some stickers and journaling. The numbers on the page denote important numbers that happened for us on the same day – a date for Shannon and a weight for me. The date is work-related for a promotion (of sorts) that Shannon is set to receive, and the weight is the back squat PR I hit in April, a 20# increase from just four weeks prior.
Festivus. If you look closely at the photo on the right you can see it’s a hidden pocket page (See that strip of blue glitter card stock? The notes detailing my Festivus experience are slipped in there.) // Crystal City 5K Fridays. Another hidden pocket page there on the right (the seafoam glitter strip…) // A few words about the gym in April.
The final two photos are from our Easter. One of all three kiddos, and one of our entire six-person, hyper-modern family. The back cover is pink glitter card stock (with a transparency over it).
I love how this project turned out, you guys. LOVELOVELOVE. Last month was my first attempt at a monthly handmade mini and I realized after putting it together that I hadn’t included as many words as I thought I had – that I hadn’t provided enough context for the future (because these moments won’t always stand in the forefront of my mind and in 10 years I may have no clue why something is in the book if I don’t contextualize it at least a bit). This month I really focused on including “enough” journaling. I also focused on using some new-to-me techniques, like the fold-out and pocket pages (which I first tried in Madden’s birthday mini); I love the layers of dimension and interactivity they add. I also tried to mix it up with photo sizes, mostly with the grids, to spice things up a bit. Now, on to start work on May’s book!
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Size: 8″x8″
Photos: Persnickety Prints
Templates: Paislee Press minimalist squared 4×4 layered templates, manipulated to fit 8×8 pages + my own 16-photo grid template [here]
Pages: Michaels brand plain white card stock
Pen: Zig writer-for-vellum in black, size 0.5 mm
Front cover: Transparency over vellum over a photo
Title page: My own Month in Review design
Back cover: Transparency over glitter card stock (in an April-esque shade of pink, of course)
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