Hamilton

Amy Cunniff-Bleau
May 7, 2023
4 min read

I had so much fun not only making the memories for this layout but also creating the layout. My boys are huge theater buffs, and the girls enjoy it too - especially Alyssia! They love going to plays and shows and the three younger kids have been or are currently actively involved in school dramas. In addition to theater, they also enjoy history, so it wasn’t a surprise when the show Hamilton sparked their interest.

When Zach was in 7th grade he came home from school so excited to tell me about a King George play and I had no idea what he was talking about. His social studies teacher had shown a clip of Hamilton and he couldn’t wait to show it to me. It was the song "You’ll be Back" where King George sings his catchy song. Pretty soon everyone in the house was singing “Da-da-da-, dat-da, dat, da-da-da. . . .”

When Hamilton came to Disney Plus, the boys and I watched it. I’ll be the first to admit I did not like it. I was confused and found the rapping distracting. The boys however loved it! When I saw it was coming to Proctor’s theater in Schenectady, I actually thought about getting the kids tickets for Christmas. Then Alyssia approached me. She thought Zach would love going to see it and wanted to get him and Caleb tickets for Christmas, but they were so expensive and she asked if Jim and I would be willing to go in on the ticket.

Jim and I decided to get tickets for all four kids and when I told my mom what we were doing, she said that she and dad would like to go. Knowing there would be lots of rapping, I asked them if they were sure, and she said yes. We both agreed that the kids were going to enjoy it so much it would be fun watching them experience it. So I created a sheet with the Hamilton logo and wrapped them up so each kid had something to open Christmas morning. They were all excited!

March 16th came quickly, and we hit a few bumps. Alyssia had double booked herself and was unable to go that night. So, two days before the show I asked my niece Olivia to go. On top of that, I was recovering from double pneumonia. I had been sick for a good 10 days and though i was starting to feel a little better, that day was my first day back to work. I was exhausted, I remember thinking to myself, “I didn’t even like Hamilton!” but I wasn’t going to miss going.

I’m so glad I went because I LOVED it! It was so much better seeing it live and I grasped the plot so much more after listening to some of the songs so many times. Parts of the plot I hadn't understood now made sense. But the boys went nuts! I had to tell Zach multiple times to stop singing along. They were clapping and hollering. They soaked in every minute. Alexis and Olivia enjoyed it just as much, but they were a little more reserved in their excitement.

All in all it was a fabulous night and a great experience! I was thrilled to “be in the room where it happened!”

Scrapbooking Tips

Before I even left the theater, I already knew exactly what I was going to do for this layout, and I knew I had memorabilia to incorporate.

I was inspired by the logo of Hamilton and decided to make a star shaped pocket to hold our ticket stubs and the flier I had made up for Christmas. I die cut a large star using my Silhouette Cameo and cut off the top point. To create the pocket, I stitched all the edges of the Star onto the base page, leaving the top edge open. I find stitching makes a more secure pocket than just adhesive. I also found a font that was similar to the font used on the program to create my title. I added my only vertical photo to the star pocket, but the 4x6” photo covered the title, so I reprinted the photo as a 3x4”. It was a perfect fit!

I had so many photos I wanted to use, and seeing as most of them were horizontal I decided to create a page of photos. My solution to adding journaling was to create a flap with one of my photos and write my journaling directly on the card stock underneath a picture.