Mini book for Constance Lake

Starting to put together ideas for what I want to do for a mini book/journal for when we go to Constance Lake this year. Each time we have gone I have wanted to do something. The first year I was able to do a huge album with many pictures and journaling from each day. But it was a lot of work and overwhelming for people to sit down and look through and takes up a lot of room. My second year I went with the thought to do something similar but didn't really do a lot of journaling and then as September rolled around life got crazy and it just never happened. I have many photos in an album but no journaling to go with them - I'm disappointed with it but also don't know what to do to make it come together - just not feeling it right now. And when we went at Christmas - it was a shorter trip and personal life issues kept me again from really doing any journaling/scrapbooking for it.

So moving forward I'm starting to think about how I want to document this trip, this huge time in my life as I prepare, organize, bring together a team, work alongside my friends and husband and then travel into another culture and learn stories, tell God's story and embrace what God is having me do in this time of my life. Its a lot to document. And yet I know if I don't make it simple and plan ahead I will lose the ambition, the focus, the thoughts to really document it.

So I was thrilled when Ali Edwards put together an affordable online class called "Scrapbook on the Road". Perfect! Sign me up! She provides pdf's and videos to walk you through her process of putting together mini book ahead of time, while travelling and when she gets back. I finally got to start watching those videos and reading through the material this week. WOW! Love all of her ideas. Made me start to think ...

This year will also be the first year we will actually have a team member responsible for taking photos and video. THis always me to be more present with the kids and still have the great photos afterwards. Thrilled! So as I start thinking about this process and knowing that we will have hundreds of photos I'm loving the idea of doing a mini book with some photos, much journaling and a place to include "stuff" from the week. And then also doing a photo book - with the great shots from the week - best of both worlds and allows for others to purchase the books as well. So I'm still in the planning stage but enjoying the process