An Unlikely product pairing - the perfect Family Album

When I first saw Teresa Collins "Documented" and "Family Matters" product lines, I knew I had to have them. I so firmly believe in journaling the family moments for those generations to come to better know who we, their ancestors, were. Her crisp and clean designs were designed with journalers in mind. AMEN!

When I first saw the 7Gypsies "Gypsy Market" product line, I knew I had to have it. I was so in love with the colors, patterns, Asian prints, and vintage appeal of it.


When I got both of these lines in a new order - together - I
realized how much I liked them mixed in with each other. Each is a very different design style but both have a lovely rich camel color in common. That started the wheels churning for this book.

One of the first ideas I had was to laminate the covers. I used Beacon's Liquid Laminate that you brush on and it gives this almost-instant-dry shine to the paper. LOVE it on the covers (inside and out) as well as the chipboard dividers inside.








I used TC bracket album covers and the Zutter
bind-it-all system for the book. I used some of TC's 8x8 page protectors, die cut file folders, envelopes, tags...











... also used TC's 8x8 transparencies - LOVE these.














Of course, since I'm a distressing fiend, I had to give a distressed look to the TC products to give them a vintage feel similar to the 7Gypsies products.










The book has three sections to it. I separated each section with a chipboard page. The first section will be my immediate family - me, hubby, and our four kids.









Second section will be my hubby's family. We're having a family reunion late this summer so I plan to be frantically snapping photos of everyone.










The final section is for my family. We are also conveniently having a family reunion late this summer so that will be another photo opp. This one will be a bit tougher though since I have about 45 people in my family. Whew!










The plan is to have all photos be in Black/White to better show off the colors of the book but also because I just love how B/W photos look.










I will plan for plenty of journaling spaces,













some family quotes,













and of course some extra embellishments after the photos are in place.

The Gypsy Market line has some super cool vintage tags, brads, and chipboard numbers that I KNOW will land in this book somewhere!












I love how the book came out. It looks beatiful to me now - even though it's empty. But, man, I can't wait to get it full of photos.

Hopefully my photography skills will sharpen a bit for me this summer so I can capture a few good ones.

Unfortunately I'm "blessed" with camera-shy family members. I'll have to get a bit sneaky to snap everyone. There may also be very little "posing" allowed too.

Will also have to keep a notebook handy to make sure everyone is accounted for.

Hope the book is big enough to hold everyone!

Can't wait to fill these cool file folders.

Thanks Teresa Collins and 7Gypsies for coming out with such MARVELOUS products!!

I'll share a few pages when the book is more complete with pics and embellishments. Hopefully that will be before spring. With the move and all it's a lofty goal, believe me.

Thanks for letting me share my stuff.

Jill