Journal Cards Created with the Silhouette Cameo

Hi there everybody!  Today, I decided to share with you a little bit about how I am documenting my baby’s life.  Let’s keep a few things in mind:

1.  I am NOT a scrapbooker.

2.  I don’t have nor WANT to dedicate a lot of time to keeping his book.

3.  I only have about 5 years of my life documented, and I wanted something that I could do to keep his life documented, and not feel overwhelmed if I get behind or need to stop at some point.

4.  I won’t be sharing layouts because my husband and I don’t like the idea of our pictures out on the internet, BUT I will show you the journal cards and the type of book/layout I am using.

Alrighty.  I had seen this idea on pinterest over a year ago, and it stuck with me.  I played around for awhile on doing project life, but with as expensive as it was I decided not to.  I also didn’t like the idea of only having ONE book for the family.  What’s going to happen WAY down the road and my kids only have 1 book between them to have our memories?  I want all my kids to have their own books.  I will also do one for our family with trips/holidays, etc.  So, I scrapped that idea.  I do, however, LOVE the way Project Life looks.  I love how there are different cards, and designs, and places to journal with your pictures.  So I imagine I will get more creative as I go, but this is what I’ve done so far.

 

A sample of my journal pages made with the silhouette cameo.

The Book: Recollections Photo Album.  400 4 X6 spots (40 pages).  I found it at Michaels.  I paid $18 with a 40% off sale, but remember they always have 40% coupons floating around as well.  I loved this books because they have places for pictures to go vertically AND horizontally on both pages.  They have nearly every color of the rainbow, and I plan on getting myself a purple one to catch up on my life once my baby’s book is well established.

(Don’t bother going to Joann’s. They didn’t even know what I was talking about, and all they had was scrapbooks or silly photo books with horizontal spots only.)

My Layout:  I use 5 pockets on each page for pictures, and 1 for journaling unless the material requires different.  The journal cards change positions each page, depending on how many vertical/horizontal pictures I have.

The Journal Cards:  Here’s what I did.  I created a rounded rectangle in silhouette studio.  I sized it just under 4 X 6.  Then I chose my shapes: T-Rex, Moon, Gears, Wrench, etc.  I placed the shapes on the rectangles where I wanted them.  Then I grouped the shapes, and cut out the cards.  After that, I had cards with cut outs.  I grabbed scraps and glued them behind the cutouts (see picture below).  I kept the shapes that had been cut out for future projects.  I could glue these on plain journal cards, or use them for complete different projects.

Backside of journal cards so you can see how I glued my scraps to fill in the cutout.

The cards were generally easy to do, and I had them cut out and some written on all in one nap time on a Sunday afternoon.  So, there ya go!  That’s how I am memory keeping, and journaling along with the pictures.  If you have any questions about specific shapes, or anything else, feel free to leave it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

Lynette