you may not know this but....

....I'm pretty crafty. Even as a kid, I always wanted art sets, beads, and paints for Christmas or birthday presents. My mom's jewelry box still overflows with my "beautiful" creations, whether they be earrings, rings, pins, necklaces, or bracelets for her to wear to work and show off to her friends. (As an adult, I found out she used to wear them out of the house, leave them in car while at work, and put them back on to come home. It's the thought that counts.) As L said a few weeks ago, jewelry is still fun for me and I often attempt to accessorize my friends and family members. (These days, mom actually wears them to work for real, though.) While I do love the instant gratification of making a piece of jewelry that I can put on with a cute outfit and it matches perfectly, this is not my first arts and crafts love. That will always be scrapbooking!

As you can probably tell, I LOVE PICTURES! Scrapbooking allows you to put all of your favorite ones in one place, in a beautiful way, rather than stuffed in a box; memories sitting idle, waiting to be released into the world again. I have slowed down in my personal scrapbooking endeavors recently due to another project I have been working on. Last October, my brother got married and guess who was elected to be the official wedding historian? Yep, the scrapbook queen. It is FINALLY just about finished and I am so excited to share it with my brother and sister in law. Here is a sneak peek for all of you in blog world:

Thier wedding colors were a dark champagne color called latte, chocolate brown, and light pink. I like for my pages to sort of match the most prominent colors in the pictures, which was a little difficult in this case. I started out fearing that the entire book was going to end up a brown and browner blob, but in the end I think it turned out really well. The neutral color palette allows for the viewer to focus on the photos a little better, I think. It also makes it look pretty classy, if I do say so myself!


My favorite page ended up being the best man and maid of honor toasts. At the wedding, my brother really didn't want to hand over the typed speech his little brother, and best man, made at the reception. After a little coercing, and some "eyes" from his new wife, I finally got them. I made copies of both speeches and used them as the background for the page. That way, my brother and sister in law can look back and remember the beautiful words thier best friends said to them, but it's not just a folded peice of paper in a box underneath the bed. I also used my Top Secret method for creating page titles. I don't know where I thought of it, but one day I decided to use the discarded background of pictures to cut out letters. One this particular page, when you look at the letters closely, you can see table centerpeices, wine glasses, and even a few beer bottles. (Because we're a classy group)

The cake cutting page is probably my second favorite in the scrapbook. I found some amazing stickers and had a great idea to make an argyle-esque pattern with some square paper I had. The couple had a pretty comical cake topper, of the groom running away as the bride grabs him by the collar. The lighting in the room the reception was held in was perfect for pictures, especially where the cake table was set up. I also was able to get some funny pictures of the pretty messy cake fight between the newlyweds!

After the ceremony and reception, we wanted to keep the party going so we all decided to go out to a really awesome piano bar in the area - still in our full wedding wardrobe. My sister in law even wore her wedding dress! It was a great opportunity to get to use colors other than brown, browner and pink. It was also a good opportunity to document my brother's extreme drunken singing/air guitaring that evening.


Even though I know that the album will be just down the road at my brother and sister in laws', I'm having trouble actually giving it away! She keeps asking me when it's coming and keep telling her I'm almost done. I know she will absolutely love the memories I was able to encapsulate in scrapbook form, which will make it much easier for me to say farewell to all my hard work. Either way, I always have my photos and my memories :o)