Friday, September 23, 2011

Scrapbook Layout: Elk Camp

I've been thinking this week about Elk Camp since my extended family has been there the past few weeks.  This is a two to three week camping trip out in the woods in northern Arizona.  Those who want (my dad, uncle, brother-in-law, etc) apply to a state drawing to get to do an archery hunt for elk.  We have gone in the past but did not go this year since Zack is in school now.  It's quite an experience!  you can read about the last time we went here

While I was talking to my family members on the phone and hearing about the crazy hail storms and incessant rain they've had, I realized I hadn't ever shown my layout about our previous trip.  I thought I'd go back and pull it out to show.

One thing that made this layout a challenge was that I had SO many pictures and so much journaling.  There was no way I could get down to just two or three pictures.  I managed to narrow it down to 16 photos - and that was hard enough!  Then I needed to have room to tell the main story of the trip plus some notes on each photo.  To me, the challenging thing about having so much is that the more you have, the more whitespace you need for the eye to be able to make sense of what is there.  I settled on a design that allowed me to include all those pictures and all that text and still have plenty of empty space (green space functioning as whitespace this time). 

To do that I really had to rely heavily on the structure provided by a grid, so I made several small collage photos in Picasa, printed them as 4x6s, and cut them apart to be used in a long strip of images.  I put them at the bottom of the page since the block seemed so weighty.  That allowed space for some featured images at the top. 

Finally, I used number stickers to number each image and journaled it's corresponding note below the grid.  This has given me a formula I can return to when I have tons of pictures for one story.  You make recognize I used it again here in the Kindergarten year-in-review layout. Give it a try if you need a design for lots of photos! 

4 comments:

  1. Gorgeous layout! You are so clever with the numbering. Didn't realize you had done that. But more than that, I still can't believe how you guys can survive in campers with your little babies for two weeks! Very impressive!

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  2. We certainly missed you at elk camp this year!!

    I was just re-reading the post from last time- you make it sound so fun! Maybe I could tell you more stories about this year and you could write about it and then it'll sound better when I look back and try to remember it???? B would really appreciate it when it comes time to decided if we want to go next year.

    Maybe when I finally finish the laundry and get my house cleaned up and am caught up on my sleep it'll all seem like it was more fun...

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  3. I just noticed my comment on the post from 2008: "Maybe, just maybe, I'll be willing to do it all again next year- a walker has got to be easier than a crawler, right?"

    Next year both boys will sleep better, right????

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  4. RIGHT! Mine are already sleeping better in hotel rooms (though not perfectly) so the same must apply to campers.

    I think you definitely should record some stories once you get a little rested! How about how the boys played with their friends or how crazy the hail was or how you used the red tape to rope off a wandering area for them? You don't have to craft them into "real writing" - just jot down enough to remember!

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