August 9

CAPTURED MOMENTS
BY JASIA
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades -





Here it is August and back to school time again. This is the perfect time to put together some digi-scrap pages of your school days. Pull out your class pictures, yearly portrait pictures, and those stick-figure drawings your mom kept from your early years. And while you're at it, why not include an old report card, photos of your school building, and maybe pictures of a good friend or two. All of these things will make for very interesting scrap pages of your school days!

If you want to scrap your high school years, there are even more ephemera items to consider: tickets to prom, playbill from a play you were in, the cover of your yearbook, athletic roster, school icon/emblem, class ring, varsity jacket, etc. You'll need to photograph or scan your items of course.

Once you have all your photos and ephemera gathered, look through them to see what you can put together. Do you have a class picture and a report card from the same year? Or maybe your 4th grade photo and the Valentine you made for your dad that year? What's that you say? Your mom wasn't a pack rat and didn't keep all your report cards and handmade greeting cards? Not a problem. Use a photo of your school building, even a current one will do. Or use whichever of your ephemera is most suitable.

Did your school have official colors? You may want to create your background papers with your school colors in mind. Or you can always just add a ribbon or banner in your school colors. The key is to make it is as personal and memorable as possible.

Since the school years covered the majority of your youth, it's always a great idea to do a few pages to show how you grew and changed over those years. If you don't have enough photos and ephemera to create several pages you can always show a progression of your youth all on one page.

Don't forget to journal (text) some of your favorite memories on your scrapbook pages too. Pictures can tell quite a story but journaling can fill in the details.

Your children and grandchildren will make wonderful subjects for back to school digi-scrap projects too. If you know a youngster starting school soon, be sure and get a picture of them at the bus stop on the first day of school, with their new teacher, and meeting up with their best friend(s). Don't miss out on a golden opportunity to get those pictures!

If you're like me and you need some inspiration to get yourself in the mood to think about school days during the heat of summer, check out the Back 2 School blog train. Once again a very talented group of digi-scrap designers have put together a terrific collection of free kits. Lots of wonderful background papers and school-themed elements are available to make your digi-scrap pages more fun. Head on over and download some now and in no time you'll be whistling, "School days, school days, good old golden rule days. Reading and writing and 'rithmetic...", and the scrapbook pages will practically put themselves together!

Here's a digi-scrap page I put together using pieces from kits I downloaded from the Back 2 School blog train.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer and can find some time to digi-scrap your back to school memories!