For The Boys

Yesterday was all about the girls and today is dedicated to the albums I've been working on for boys!

Alexander's album was made to match his nursery. I was given the name of the paint for the room and asked to match the papers. It's fun going on a hunt for the perfect paper and embellishments for each album!

Trysten's nursery is decorated in Tonka Trucks and I was asked to make his album to match this theme. What fun! The primary colors worked well with all the colors of the trucks!

Okay, this Grandma album obviously isn't for a boy, but it is for the Grandma of a little boy :) This grandma loves to play outside with her grandson and take him fishing. Together with my customer, we decided on a hunter green and brown color combo and lots of fishing embellishments. What a lucky grandma :)

And I can't wait to show you Samuel's album that I'm working on right now! Stay tuned for a post about it soon!

Scrapbooking Your Man

I know many people think that the men in our lives are just too hard to scrapbook for and about. They don't like pink. They don't like frills. They don't like flowers. They just aren't that much into scrapbooking.

Well, I just got done doing same pages for a client and they happen to be of her son. A teenager even! I thought I would share some pages and tell you my tips for scrapbooking those guys.

Sports pages are great because you can just use the team colors as a starting point. There are TONS of sports related embellishments out there now as well that make it easy to dress up a layout without making it too frilly. Here is an example:

I used the school's colors and mascot and even added some memorabilia. Not girly at all :)

Here is another idea for sports pages. I used more of a general color scheme here that would work for any sport and any team colors. I used basketball themed embellishments and basketball textured paper (so cool). I even made it personal by adding his jersey number.

Here is an example of how to scrapbook your man for any occasion. This is my boyfriend's 30th birthday present from me. I definitely wanted this page to stay manly and not turn into just another birthday layout. Here it is:

For this one I used guy colors and kept my embellishments to a minimum. I just got the basics across. The bottom smaller photo has hinges on it and opens to reveal my journaling. I wanted to keep it covered in case my boyfriend thought it was too corny to share :)

Tips for scrapbooking your man:

• Keep it simple...don't over do it or he will think it's too much.
• Keep the colors to a minimum and use greens, blues, grays, blacks, and other non-girly colors.
• Use general embellishments like eyelets, numbers, simple quotes, monograms, brads, etc
• Keep your patterned paper graphic. Lines, squares, checkered, some swirls, etc. The last thing you want to use is anything floral! Keep it graphic and it will speak manliness to your man :)
• Hide your journaling if it is a private matter. You know how guys are about sharing their feelings. They don't want you sharing yours about them on a layout either.
• Most of all...have fun creating a layout for your man :) Don't get too worked up over it being perfect. Guys are usually just happy you're thinking of them...even if it is on a scrapbook page :)