After reading and contemplating Nicki's question about page size, I've decided to scale the book down to a size of 5.5" x 8.5" The reason is largely cost-related for processing the many pages. Still using full page photos, but have added a couple other page formats to keep it interesting.
I've been really inspired by the beautiful polariods I see on flickr, and I think their nostalgic look lends the right feeling to this album. To create a polaroid-type image from a digital photo I used poladriod; a free software upload, then added a drop shadow in photoshop. These are inserted onto my page at the correct polariod size (3.5 x 4.5) to look authentic. Try it. It's fun!
I think I'll be adding a little paperclip-type craft tag to a couple of these simple pages to add details like dates and such.
These images look a little fuzzy, but it's just because they're a temporary file.
On several pages I'm using the 'everyday twill' element (by Ali) which I have had for a while and I love, and could see myself using on so many projects. Also used Ali's 'Hello Summer" words in spots throughout.
I'm still noodling around with the whole thing. (I tend to do that.) But I'm happy with the way it's coming together. My goal is to be up to date with the story portion before this coming weekend when we attend one of our big annual summer events: the County Fair. We always get tons of photos then.
As far as number of items right now, looks like somewhere near thirty five. Sounds like it could be a challenge to reach 100, but I'm breaking it down into small things, such as 'cotton candy' and 'ferris wheel', so 100 is reasonable. I need to include more pictures of myself.
Still to come: the book/binder enclosure mechanism. Maybe in two weeks.
Are you documenting your summer? If so, please share.