Mini Album For My Cousin

Hey there everyone.  I just finished an 8x8 chipboard album for my cousin, Travis.  I had already made one for his older brother Daryl for Christmas but didn't get any pictures of it.  I took pics of Travis's though. 

Warining:  A Long Post

History:  The 3 of us grew up next door to each other.  Our maternal grandparents lived in the house next door on the other side of my cousins.  We are a tight knit family.  Our grandfather passed in 1982 after an extended illness.  My grandmother cared for him with the aid of a nurse who visited every day.  Then around Christmas time, 2005, my grandmother fell sick at the age of 91.  She turned 92 in January.  She passed away the day before Memorial Day 2006.

In 2008, tragedy strikes again.  In May of 2008, Daryl, at the age of 41, got luekemia.  He has been battling it every since.  He had a couple stem cell transplants which didn't work.  He is home now, but he has been bouncing in and out of the hospital.  He lost so much weight.  I almost can not recognize him.  He is now 43 and will turn 44 Sept 4.  Please do keep him in your prayers.

With all of that said, this past Christmas, I decided to create mini albums of the 3 of us growing up from the time we were still in diapers through our teen age years.  I finished Daryl's Christmas Eve and gave it to him.  He teared up over it and was really thankful.  I promised one to his younger brother Travis.  I finished his today and will post the pictures.  I will be doing one for myself as well.

Here is the album..............

This is the cover.  I used a crinkled card stock, cut the title from Platin Storybook Cricut Cart, used a scallop punch and circle punch for the round pic matting with blinging the cover with some stickles. Ohh..  the small border I used a martha stewart border punch.

This is when Travis had just come home from the hospital in July of 1970.  The paper used for the border I created myself and printed.  The rattle and title are svg files which I have available here on my blog. And I used a small flower punch.  I made a boo boo and the paper ripped in 2 places, so I covered the rips up with the punched flowers.

Left:  Just some pics when we were real little

Right:  A pic of Travis and me with Santa.

Again, I used my cricut with Make The Cut for the Titles and the Christmas Tree.

The mat with the holly was a print and cut.  I cut slits around the inside of the holly in upper right corner and tucked the picture behind.  I used gel pens and more stickles.

Easter pictures on the left and halloween on the right.  I cut the flowers on my cricut plus the easter eggs and title.  I used my cuttlebug and embossed the photo mat with devine swirls I believe.  The halloween page...  that year we were in a parade and we were dressed like Raggedy Ann and Andy (me and Travis and my mother) and Daryl dressed as an old lady.  Another neighbor girl was a witch.  We won first place.

The left is some birthday parties as we got older.  The right is Travis (in the window) and Daryl with the football helmet in a toy clubhouse.  I thought the title "Boys Rule" fit perfectly.  The title was cut out of chipboard and covered with paper.  The stars also cut on my cricut out of card stock.

Every year as youngsters, we all took an annual trip to Fenwick Island, Delaware.  Our families rented the same beach house each year. This trip was in 1975.   The lower right corner we were standing in front of Mt Vernon in VA.  This is probably my favorite out of the whole album.

On the left are just some misc pics as teens.  I stamped a floral image and heat embossed it and I had drew the border with a gel pen then went over it with stickles (love that stuff .. like you can't tell).  The right is a picture of Travis and me when we were in the high school marching band.  I got lucky and found our Alma Mater on the internet.  The paper for the pic mat and border I created and printed.  The paw (Leopards) I cut in MTC on my cricut and used 3D foam squares to pop it off the page.

This layout features Daryl in 1984 when he went off and joined the Army.  On the left is when he was either on leave or just after boot camp I think.  On the right was at Fort Dix, NJ at boot camp.

This is the final page.  I dedicated it to our beloved and greatly missed grandparents.

I hope I didn't bore you too bad.  Thank you for taking the time to view my book.