Well, we made it through another week of self-isolation.  Congrats to us!  At this point, it’s somewhat beginning to feel almost normal.  Below is an excerpt from a post that I made to Karyn’s Croppers earlier in the week.

There’s no denying it – we’re living through a historic event. I like to think of my personal scrapbook albums as my diary, and I need to include the Covid-19 Pandemic in my scrapbook. There are different ways that we could approach this topic in our albums, and I encourage you to think about how you are going to document this time. After all, we are the memory keepers and storytellers.

I decided to do what I always do – take photos of my life. These photos will be of things that I’m doing now – photos of me and my husband and what we’re doing, photos of my garden, photos of food that I’m cooking, photos related to my CM business. So my photos and journaling will be a reflection of how the virus is impacting our daily life. These photos will show how our daily life has changed. Instead of photos of us out and about, there will be photos of us doing things at home. There will be photos of us wearing masks, washing groceries, and having zoom calls with friends and family. Absent will be photos of us with the kids and grandkids. I decided not to create a dedicated album to the virus but to rather just incorporate it into my annual chronological family album.

So with this in mind, my next challenges for our Home-Bound Throw-Down  feature layouts that you can use to document the Covid-19 pandemic in your albums.  But the layouts are versatile enough that you can use them for any of your photos.

My example for this layout features a photo of my window display for #aworldofhearts.  A few weeks ago, a world-wide movement called #aworldofhearts was created to encourage everyone to decorate their front windows with hearts as a display of love, hope, and unity and also to thank essential workers.  Search for #aworldofhearts on Facebook, and you’ll find a page devoted to these creations.  They range from sweet and simple to incredibly elaborate.  Some are using sidewalk chalk and decorating their driveways and sidewalks too.  I wanted to remember this huge heartwarming gesture and created a layout to document it in my scrapbook.

I used designer paper, tone-on-tone paper and stickers from the very lovely Spring Medley collection from Creative Memoriesto create my layout.

1.  Cut a hollow frame from the floral paper.
2.  Cut the cloud paper to 11″ x 11″.  Rub the round-tip edge of a Dual-Tip Pen around the perimeter of the paper to create dimension and definition.  Adhere to the floral frame.
3.  Use the Custom Cutting System with the smaller heart pattern from the Gemstone Cutting Patterns and all three blades to cut and create balloons.  Use the old Small Heart Maker punch to create the bottom pieces of your balloons.  Rub the round-tip edge of a Dual-Tip Pen around the perimeter of the hearts to create dimension and definition.  Use the 12″ Decorative Trimmer to cut 1/8″ balloon strings.  Adhere the top balloon with Foam Squares.
3.  Add a title with White Sans Serif ABC/123 Stickers.  Add Spring Medley Stickers using Foam Squares and journaling to complete your page.

When I get over-whelmed with the stress, anxiety and major disruptions that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused in my life, I like to remind myself that “things can always be worse”.  This has proven to be true in most of the bad times that I’ve experienced.  And despite the awfulness, there are always blessings to be counted.  So when I start feeling a little down about the current situation, I just remind myself of all the things for which I’m grateful.  I created the layout below as a reminder of some of my blessings during this pandemic.

Again I used paper, stickers and embellishments from the Spring Medley collection.  I printed my photos on my home computer in wallet size – 2-1/2″ x 3-1/4″ and matted them on Navy Cardstock.

1.  Use the Custom Cutting System with the larger heart pattern from the Gemstone Cutting Patterns and the Red Blade to cut hearts from the paper.  Use the Green Blade on the outside edge to cut hearts from Navy Cardstock.  Adhere the pieces and add faux pen stitching with a navy pen.
2.  Mat photos with 2-3/4″ x 3-1/2″ pieces of Navy Cardstock.
3.  Cut White Cardstock into 2-1/4″ x 1/2″ strips and add your blessings.
4.  Add a title with White Sans Serif ABC/123 Stickers.  Journal on a tag from the Spring Medley Embellishments.  Adhere the tag and floral stickers from the Spring Medley Stickers with Foam Squares.  Add faux pen stitching around the perimeter of your layout.

I hope that you have many blessings to count and record!  You may purchase any of the materials that I used on my Creative Memories website.  I’ll be back next week with two more layouts.

Have a nice weekend,
Karyn