Alyssia's Last First Day of School

I loved the photos of Alyssia’s first day of 12th grade! Being a blended family with kids in two different school districts meant that I was never there to witness her first day. Jim would drive out and be there to take pictures and wish her well, and I would look forward to seeing the pictures. When I saw these, I immediately started planning a layout.

Of all our kids, Alyssia is the most willing to pose for pictures and she has a great eye for photos and what she envisions, so I was not surprised to see typical "first day of school" poses mixed in with some really cute shots! I especially loved the umbrella pictures. Even though it might have rained that morning, Alyssia’s smile was so big and bright - just like her senior year!

Scrapbooking Tips

I honestly had so much fun putting this layout together! As usual, I started with a Scrapbook Generation sketch. I had so many great photos to work with that I knew I wanted to include most of the poses Alyssia took, so I sized my pictures down to 3x4 using the Project Life app. That meant I could include eight photos and not sacrifice any design.

The inspiration for the color scheme came from Alyssia’s outfit. The orange in her pants matched beautifully with a Simple Stories school collection that I had sitting on my shelf. I chose eight different papers and arranged them on the top of the photos. I tried to keep the busier papers to the sides because I did not want my title to get lost in the patterns.

I pieced my title together and love how it came out! My starting point was the "First Day of School" sticker. I really wanted to include it, but it was too small to use as a title, and it also didn't tell the full story - it was Alyssia’s last first day. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out “Alyssia’s” and “last”. The “school” were stickers from that matched the collection and the fact they were in the orange was perfect. I adhered the whole title with foam adhesive to lift it off the page.

Following my inspiration sketch, I created clusters on either side of the title. I built them up using stickers and die cuts that came with the collection, some I adhered directly to the layout, and others I attached with foam adhesive to add dimension. I also included some enamel dots to each cluster which helped to tie in the polka dot paper.

I knew I didn’t have to add journaling because it’s pretty self explanatory what is going on in the photos, but I wanted to add the date. That notebook sticker was perfect! Once I figured out where I wanted to place it, I adhered it flat so I could write directly on it.

I really wanted to add another cluster to help even out my layout, as there was a lot going on in the top left. When flipping through the paper collection the graduation sticker caught my eye. Then I saw the “Class of” stickers. That's when I took a blank journaling stickers and used that as a base to create the Class of 2023 cluster. I adhered the graduation cap first, and then added the rest with foam adhesive.

I love how this layout turned out from the photos, papers and stickers. Everything worked so perfectly together! I was really honored and excited when Creative Scrapbook Magazine published this layout and noted it was a great way to document a last first day!

Scrapbooking Supplies:

Cardstock - American Crafts

Pattern Paper, stickers and enamel dots - Simple Stories

Embroidery Floss - DMC