August Five on the Fifth

Wayne’s the oldest of four boys. I know…poor Wayne’s mom. But once she survived the growing-up years, I think she took as much delight in reliving all the stories of the wild and crazy antics that went on in a house full of boys as they do.

And that’s just what struck me as I sat listening to Wayne, Dean and Maurice recount the stories of their childhood when we were all together in San Antonio a few weeks ago. It was the same earlier this summer when it was Bradley there instead of Dean, but the stories were slightly different then as he is younger by seven years. Nonetheless, the reaction was the same…faces lit up at the memory, words tumbled out with the excitement of supplying a detail long forgotten, and laughter punctuated it all. The story being told didn’t matter; the reaction was the same.

I knew right then that I wanted to capture that time, both the memories they were sharing and the magic created in doing so. If I were a scientist, I could probably give you some technical explanation of how the benefit of reliving happy memories does positive things for the body but I’m not. I’m just a scrapbooker who could see and sense that was the case, not only for Dean who is working his way back to wellness but for his healthy brothers as well. Thus, the theme for this month’s Five on the Fifth is Stories.

 

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
Patterned Paper: BasicGrey, EK Success, Scrapworks, Stamping Station and 7gypsies
Chipboard accent: Maya Road
Frame: Making Memories
Letters: Collage Keepsakes
Ink: Clearsnap
Pen: Staedtler
Fonts: Arial Narrow and Gnuolane Free, Microsoft
Other: Corrugated paper

This layout documents five of the stories told when the three brothers spent the evening together. I still laugh thinking of them telling about melting the LP record by putting it on top of the floor lamp (imagine that mess!) and being surprised when Pansy knew as soon as she walked through the door that they had redecorated the tree after knocking it over. They were so sure it looked just like it had before. These stories are paired with five photos of the three of them growing up. Using a grid design like this one meant I didn’t have to match a photo with each story; the pictures are just representative of the brothers in their youth. Then the page is anchored by a larger portrait of the three of them as children and balanced with one taken that evening in San Antonio. The sixth (and longer) journaling block documents the fact that stories like these make their way into conversations whenever these brothers get together.

Muted blues and browns give the page a masculine, vintage feel. Vintage might also describe the supplies used here too as there’s plenty of old product. If it works with the design, I’m all for using it, old or not. Embellishments are fairly simple as there’s enough going on with the patterns in the paper…Scrabble tile letters to reinforce the childhood theme, a chipboard house accented with the house number of the home where they grew up, and a meaningful 143 reference. It’s a family shorthand for I Love You dating back to Gene’s letters home during WWII but I also saw it as 1 family, 4 boys, 3 brothers reminiscing.

The pictures and squares of patterned paper are all 2.5x2.5 and the larger photos are 5x3.5. The corrugated paper helps anchor the primary pictures and give them more weight in the design. You could easily make this into a single-page layout by centering all the blocks and adding more journaling or patterned paper in the space below (or above and below) the larger photo. Here’s a layered .psd template you can use for your photos.

Download AugLayeredTemplate

This month’s freebies include the boxes I used to hold my stories and journaling, in both sizes and in lined and unlined versions, as well as a quote, a title option and some word strips. You can open the .pdf file in Adobe Photoshop or Elements then use the rectangular marquee tool to select and copy any of the items individually. You can even copy the blank boxes into MS Word then add your journaling. Just insert a text box on top of it. The word strips are only 10.5” long so you’ll need to cut them apart and either hide the gap behind a picture or element, if you want it to span a 12” page, or use the phrases individually.

Download AugExtras

Everyone has childhood stories to tell but if that topic isn’t striking a creative chord with you right now, here are five other variations on the theme of Stories you might want to scrapbook:

An Unfinished Story: Document five things that remain in your “bucket list” and explain why they’re important to you.
Tell Me A Story: Take stories literally here and record five stories your children loved for you to read to them, five books that are meaningful to you or even five dramas you regularly watch on television. And it’s OK…you can confess to watching soap operas.
The Story of Us: Take this beyond the traditional tale of how you met your spouse/significant other and tell the story of your relationship with a best friend, your pet or even your boss/co-workers.
Ghost Stories: Create a layout about someone in your family who passed before you were born but who lives on in family lore through the stories about him/her.
Everyday Stories: Here’s your chance to document an ordinary part of life…five things you can’t live without, five things you do every day or maybe five things you love about your job.

Storiesis such a wide-open category because that’s what a scrapbook page is all about…an illustrated story. There’s nothing complicated about this challenge: Create a layout and use a list of five things as the basis for your journaling. Get to it…it’s too hot outside to do anything else anyway.

Comments

[Pat]

Thanks for the downloads, Brenda. Love the quote.

[Rhonda H]

Brenda,
I love this LO of the brothers!!! My dad had 3 brothers (poor Mamaw!) and, yes, the hair-raising tales they tell are legendary. I must do this. What a good example you are! Both in capturing the memory AND in styling it so, well, STYLISHLY! It's good to see a "big" LO from you!

HONK!HONK!
Rhonda in AR

[MilliD]

YES!! I made it in time! lol I really wanted to do August's 5 on the 5th, but wasn't sure I'd get to it because of my mom's move. I didn't exactly do the "Five" part, but I did do the "stories" part. :-)
Here's my take:

http://www.scrapadilly.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=3315&c=20

[MilliD]

Yikes!! I forgot to give credit for my layout to Elizabeth Dillow because it is a scraplift of one of her layouts. My apologies!