Father's Day and a Piggy Tales SNEAK PEAK

Good Monday morning to you!

It's the first day of summer here, meaning the first day that I don't need to get kids up and ready and out the door and I'm so loving it!!!!!

Yesterday was an awesome day. We celebrated our Dad, attended church, enjoyed sunshine and a walk along the river with our good friends, the Jensens. As I drifted off to sleep, which takes all but 3 1/2 minutes, I had an amazing sense of overwhelming satisfaction -- life is so good.

So, this morning I get to share what I created for Geof for Father's Day and I also get to give you a sneak peak at a very cool, new interactive album debuting at summer CHA.

This is the Piggy Tales Drawbridge Book, a 6x6 white boardbook with four flaps that fold out to reveal hidden photos and/or journaling, with extra space built into the spine, so you can include dimensional extras and still close the album when you're done -- see, very cool!

You can see more below, but please be sure to check out three other Drawbridge creations, by upcoming Big Picture Scrapbooking teachers ...

Lisa Damrosch (Product Playground 2)
Amy Sorenson (Write NOW!)
Lisa Day (Perpetual Happiness)

I love products that inspire a story -- and that is just what this album did for me ...

The inside cover reads:
Dedicated to the man you are and the boy you were, through the eyes of your sons.

The front of each fold-out features a photo of Geof with one of our boys (Clark, Chase, Trey and Taft) and the inside highlights their responses to these questions:

1. How are you like Dad?
2. What do you want to know about Dad, when he was your age -- what would you ask him, if you could?
3. What has Dad taught you that you are grateful for?

I included a current photo of each boy alongside a photo of Geof at the same age.

I also included a few quotes, and Geof's favorite scripture.

I used The Frog Prince collection of paper from Piggy Tales and the whole thing came together in about 3 hours on Saturday afternoon. As I was putting this together I thought about my creative process, how and why I choose to do  projects vs. pages and what conscious things I do when I have limited time to finish something -- insights coming soon!

The Real Story
I set out to make a gift for Geof and fulfill the deal with Ryann at Piggy Tales, to share this cool new album with you. I finished the gift and we had a great little moment as Geof looked at it and read through each boy's words -- but once again, the one who benefited most was me. I had the amazing opportunity of calling each boy into my studio, to hear them rattle off connections and questions and grateful expressions for their father. As I paired these pictures and words, I was able to reflect on each individual boy and the miracle of families and parenthood -- my boys are so very different and yet each shares traits both physical and emotional with their father. Each boy's personality is a piece of Geof and I now have this feeling of peace regarding their future -- as I engaged in the process of creating this little book, I was reminded that as imperfect parents, we are perfectly suited to raise these boys. They are a part of us and we (with a good dose of inspiration from Heavenly Father) have exactly the ability and insight they will need, so that they can reach their potential.

and this, is the part of scrapbooking I most want to share.

This is the outcome that you can know only when you decide to fully engage and open yourself up to reflection and gratitude and let the resulting insight change you. 

great little book and a new, better me.
beats a trip to the mall and soap-on-a-rope any day.