2016 Pocket Life Intro Page Inspiration

Hi guys! This is Pam Baldwin and I'm so happy to be here in my very first Citrus Twist Blog post :) Those lovely fussy cut numbers...don't they make you so happy?! (They didn't make it into my spread, but I really REALLY love them. I'll have to get them onto a layout some other time).





Today, I thought I'd share my 2016 Pocket Life intro page. I think sometimes covers can really stress people out, not knowing what to include or wanting it to be "just right". I don't really have a formula but for me, my intro page MUST include a photo of our family, whether it's a group shot or individual ones, and the year....and that's pretty much it. The rest of the page is an opportunity to play and challenge myself creatively, because so much of the focus on the rest of my album is on making sure the stories and photos I treasure most are the stars.


I've totally got a thing for tags and I think they're a really fun element to include in a pocket page spread. I decided to go with photo tags for my intro page, one for each member of my little family. (I had to bribe them with brownies and promises of crafty/stamping time (for my littlest daughter...that's my girl!) to get them to let me take their photos. Small price to pay really :) )





Photo tags are super easy to make. Here's a quick run down on how they came together...





1) You're going to want to get a few basic supplies. I cropped the photos down to about 2.75 x 4 (because 3 x 4 didn't really give me the long looking tag I was hoping for). You'll want to grab a real shipping tag if you've got one handy, some scissors, a small circle punch, a standard hole punch, adhesive, some twine or rope and whatever embellishments and patterned paper you like to pretty up your tag.





2) It's a bit tricky to see in this photo, but I used the shipping tag as a template to be able to cut the photo to the correct shape.





3) I used the small circle punch to make the hole reinforcement for the top (because I wanted it to be black and I couldn't find any black hole reinforcements locally...but you could totally use a self adhesive hole reinforcement instead OR patterned paper would be really cute).





4) Adhere your little punched circle to the top of the tag with whatever kind of adhesive you have handy (just make sure you get some near the edges too or it will get punched out at the end and fall off your photo tag).





5) Use a standard size hole punch to punch through the reinforcement and photo.





6) Loop through your twine and decorate away! The twine in this picture is from the kit packaging, but I actually used the cord from the muslin bag for my intro page tags. I also added some patterned paper and little number stickers for our ages and the wood veneer letters for our first initials :) I totally lucked out that the correct letter was there for each of us!!


So that was the photos taken care of. Then it was time to play around with some fun ideas for the filler cards.





I used a variety of elements from the January Pocket Life kit and the January Embellishment kit, but my FAVOURITE might just be the canvas tag in the middle :) I loved opening my box this month and seeing that "A New Year" patch stitched onto the bag and I reeeeeaally wanted to use it in my album.


Here's how I did it:





1) I used one of the cards from the kit as a template and a pencil to trace the 3x4 card onto the muslin bag.





2) Cut it out with a  good sharp pair of scissors...





3) Pick a stamp and start stamping!! "2016" was perfect for my intro page, but ANY of them would be so awesome to include in your album :)





4) I repeated the pattern to fill in the entire 3x4 canvas and used foam dots to attach the "A New Year" patch to the middle of the card. I think it turned out really really cool :)


That muslin bag came in super handy!! I used it to embellish a few other projects this month as well:





A giant letter "P" cut from the bag and stitched onto patterned paper worked wonderfully in this 3x4 pocket.





I did some more stamping to create a canvas "together" banner, which I think is a lovely little embellishment on the journaling card for this story :)





And just one more piece of packaging inspiration...I totally cut a card out of the kraft paper bag for my intro page because the neutral colours were exactly what I was looking for. "Make it work for you!" is one of my favourite pieces of advice in all things crafty.


Thank you so much for stopping by today and I'm really looking forward to sharing more from my album throughout the year!


Pam