Trevor at the Gate

I got a new computer about a week ago and it's taken quite a bit of time to get things set up the way I like. I still have the same high-end large-format scanner (affiliate link here and below) as before, but I'm struggling trying to get the settings just right. It was perfect before, so it's just a matter of tinkering. I'm not fully happy with how this layout scanned, but I did the best I could to fix that in PicMonkey. I absolutely love the layout itself and didn't want to wait any longer before showing it off. 

 

Trevor at the Gate

I did a now-and-then layout with those first two photos back in 2010, but I like this version with the two later photos added so much more. The main reason is because I made the effort to properly scale and collage the photos so that the gate stayed consistent and Trevor's growth is highlighted. I didn't know how to do that back in 2010, so I solved the problem by offsetting the photos so that it wasn't as obvious.

Incidentally, I didn't look back at the 2010 layout until I scanned the 2020 version. While there are plenty of differences between the two, they both feature a dotted background and a colorful border of vertical stripes! It's a very Cindy combination. 

NSD Challenge #6: Stripes, Chipboard, and Large Circle

The sixth National Scrapbook Day challenge was to combine stripes, chipboard and a large circle on a project. I made another Then-and-Now layout with pictures of Trevor and my mom processing pistachios in 2008 and again in 2014. It's something we do every other year (more about that here).

I used a stencil to make a dotted circle, added a strip of striped paper, and then inked raw chipboard letters with the same ink I used on the dotted circle. I punched three smaller circles to guide the eye and house my journaling.

One scrapper played along with this challenge. I absolutely love her layout that combines her son's photo, artwork and writing. I never would have thought to use a self-portrait as a large circle! It's fabulous.

AllAmy

Coincidentally, I have another then-and-now layout to share tomorrow. I didn't complete the challenges in order, so I hadn't realized that there were two back-to-back.

Little Chef

Remember back in January when Trevor cooked dinner from a mystery basket? I loved watching him. Seeing him using a real knife and cooking on a real stove brought back so many memories of him as a toddler playing with his toy kitchen. He spent hours "cutting" fruits and vegetables, "cooking" food on his stove, and serving it all up on plastic plates. I found a photo of him when he was two wearing the same apron and toque that he wore for his Chopped Challenge and put them together to make this layout.

Time flies when you're having fun! And being Trevor's mom is always fun.

More 'Then and Now' Layouts

As you all know by now, my absolute favorite scrapbook pages are Then-and-Now layouts, or any that show growth or changes over time.  Today I'm sharing two that I made on National Scrapbook Day.

Back in November, Trevor and I did a major cleaning and donated a bunch of toys and clothes he'd outgrown.  One of the items in the giveaway pile was a Bob the Builder hat and tool belt that he'd LOVED when he was a toddler.  I found some pictures to show him... and the next thing I knew, I'd talked him into recreating one of those pictures.  I love this layout.  It's amazing to see and remember how much he has changed in 5 years.  I used my own Sketch #4 for this page.

 

This next layout isn't quite the same as my other Then-and-Now pages because the two photos aren't of the same people.  The first picture is my nephew Timothy holding my son Trevor on the day he was born in 2006.  I didn't take that picture; I'd had a c-section two hours earlier and was so focused on the itchy tubes up my nose that I barely registered that we had visitors.  I did take the second picture; that's Trevor meeting his new cousin Allison (Timothy's sister) the day she was born back in February. 

 

This was for a Scrapjazz.com sketch challenge.  I love how it turned out.  I don't think I could have come up with a design like this for these pictures without the sketch inspiration.  

Then-and-Now

As I mentioned yesterday, I am a huge fan of layouts that show people doing the same thing over time.  Then-and-Now, or Young-Me-Now-Me, or whatever else you want to call it, I love them!  I just started a new one, but since it isn't done, I'll show you some of the ones I've done in the past.

The first Then-and-Now layout I ever made was Big Boy.  I showed 4-year-old Trevor a picture of himself holding onto our baby gate at 10 months, then snapped a picture of him doing the same thing at age 4.  Thanks to Trouble, we still have our baby gate up, so I'm going to continue to take pictures of Trevor at that gate every few years!

My biggest Then-and-Now undertaking was at my 20th high school reunion.  I brought a picture of seven of us from 8th grade graduation, rounded up 6 of the 7 (the 7th didn't go to our high school), and had another friend take a picture of us in the same position as we'd done 24 years earlier.

Here are two that are more recent.  In Trevor & Grandma, the pictures were taken 5.5 years apart.  In Family Movie Night, the pictures are 4 years apart. 

 

 

While Then-and-Now layouts with a huge timespan between pictures are really fun, you don't have to wait years for an effective Young-Me-Now-Me.  Here's Trevor on the first and last days of kindergarten.  Even though the pictures are only 9 months apart, you can see a lot of changes and growth.

 

The pictures in "Homework" were taken during the 1st and 34th weeks of kindergarten.  Not only can you see a lot of change in Trevor, but if you look closely you can see that the homework has gotten more difficult!

 

 What do you think?  Are you a fan of Then-and-Now?

Trevor & Grandma

I had so much fun with the Family Movie Night layout that I put together another Young-Me-Now-Me page.  I started with a picture of Trevor, age 5 months, playing with my mom.  She'd put him and his toys in the laundry basket and he was grinning from ear to ear.  I asked Trevor if he wanted to take a picture just like it and he was enthusiastic.  He asked my mom to wear the same Disney sweatshirt during her next visit, then he emptied the laundry basket, filled it with stuffed animals and climbed in.   

 

I used a sketch from Sketchy Thursdays.  I love the simplicity.  And I love that I have a page about the special relationship that my mom and Trevor share.

Family Movie Night

This week, Trevor had a Cub Scout assignment to make a family scrapbook.  We dumped out my big container of printed-but-never-scrapped pictures and he dug through them to pick a bunch for his scrapbook.  (I'll show you his completed scrapbook soon.)  While Trevor was focused on looking for pictures from his favorite vacation spots, I did some digging of my own.  I set aside a picture of Trevor at age 2, squatting beside our popcorn popper with a quizzical look on his face.  It was from our very first Family Movie Night, which was also the first time Trevor had tasted popcorn or seen it being made.  

As I've mentioned before, I am a HUGE fan of Young-Me-Now-Me layouts.  I absolutely love combining an older picture with a recent picture of the same person doing the same thing. So when our next Family Movie Night rolled around, I took a picture of Trevor, exactly 4 years later, next to the hot air popper.  He tried squatting and staring at the machine curiously just like in his 2-year old picture, but he kept cracking up and falling over.  So I settled for a picture of him just smiling.  

The day I picked up the newer print, Heather Landry posted a sketch that I knew would be perfect for my page.  Here's my layout:

  

And here's Heather's sketch:

I stayed pretty true to the sketch.  As you can tell, I was especially inspired by the gold scalloped border!  It went really well with the background paper I'd selected, a random piece that's been sitting in my stash for at least 10 years!  

Young-Me-Now-Me

I wrote this post as a member of the Design Team at Flamingo Scraps and wanted to share it here.

I absolutely LOVE Young-Me-Now-Me on zefrank.com.

Contributors select a photo of themselves from their youth and try to replicate it using the same location, clothes, positions, and/or facial expressions. Both the original picture and the current picture are then posted side by side. Some are impressive in their attention to detail and many make me laugh out loud.

A few months ago, I attempted my first Young-Me-Now-Me using a picture of Trevor at 10 months old, cruising along the baby gate at the top of our stairs. I posed him in the same location and position at age 4. Here's the layout I made:

I love the result! It's so fun to see how Trevor has changed and grown in the past 3+ years! I'm going to try to remember to pose him at the top of the stairs like this every few years.

For my second Young-Me-Now-Me, I followed the rules and actually used a photo of myself. My 20th high school reunion was last fall. I went through the old photo albums at my parents' house and found a photo of my friends and me at our 8th grade graduation in 1986. We're sporting some excellent feathered hair and pastel dresses. Too bad you can't see our white hose and pumps! I brought this photo with me to the reunion. With the help of friends who weren't in the photo, six of us posed in the same positions as in the original. What fun!

Emma's Shoppe was perfect for the layout!

I've got lots of plans for more Young-Me-Now-Me layouts in the near future. There are so many possibilities and they make such fun layouts. I'd encourage all of you to give it a try!