Create a scrapbook of my exchange year in Thailand

Well, it took me a few years, but I finally printed about 100 photos for my scrapbook. I was going to print a few at a time from home, but I work in a photo lab, so a pretty good sale + my employee discount = a price much cheaper than printing at home (given the cost of ink). It feel so nice to finally have these photos printed. This feels like such a weight lifted off of my shoulders. Now I can and will actually work on the scrapbook. I have set a deadline for myself of the beginning of July.

It’s amazing how setting deadlines can push me to do things that I have been procrastinating on. I swore that I would have this scrapbook completed before I left for Japan. I mean, it’s been 5 years since I returned from Thailand, so it’s about time.

I also printed some photos of my graduation and my brother’s graduation for my mother’s photo albums. I made her a large photo collage for her birthday that she loved, so I figured that she would like this too.

I’m on a roll! I think I am over my creative and procrastination mountain… or at least making some headway to the top. I’ll take it! :)

This scrapbook has been over 5 years in the making and I really need to get moving on it! I have decided that each night (no matter how tired I am or ashamed that I haven’t written to my families) I will print out letters and/or photos to place in my scrapbook. I think it will be easier for me if I decide on themes for the pages/sections, so here are some broad ideas:

-Pre-depature correspondence (letters/e-mails) etc… (I have printed some of these) packets that I recieved etc…

-Host families (already two pages) This could be grouped with my letters…

- Phu Krandong

- Southern Trip

- Northern Trip

- My city/ My school

-Exchange student stuff

I am not thrilled with the way the e-mails look against the checkered background… I think it’s the way I cut out the e-mails which I dislike… I might reprint the e-mails and just paste them over the old page. I LOVE the faily portrait with the checkered paper and the letters to spell their last name. I also like the culture-gram (a pamplet I received about Thailand) which is opposite to the portrait. I only glued down part of the photo so that I can lift it up and read the inscription on the back. I am not done yet, but I am loving the way it looks! Just have to glue. :)

So I made another page that is basically just a blank canvas colour with black ink to balance the funky page before it with sparkly paper. I attached a map to it with a paper clip, so that I don’t have to glue it down. I went to a scrapbook store which is going out of buisness and got some really great paper for a dollar and a bag of trinkets and letters for a dollar…. I have started printing my e-mails (YES SAVED FOR OVER THREE YEARS!!!) and I will continue to print them everyday until they are all printed (atleast all the ones I want to keep… Some of them I realised are Al yelling at me to get stuff in on time… But I might just keep those anyway hahaha. ^_ 555+) 555=hahaha…

So my second page is mostly done… I’ve also mapped out in my mind how I would like some of the other pages to look… I have tons of pictures and other scraps I found to put into the book! It’s coming along slowly, but surely!

The first page is complete… It was made using a brown paper bag and the Punchat bag, which is a bag from my 2nd host family’s store. It is really beautiful, it has a print of a traditional Thai painted scene on it.

Today I painted the inside front cover with a black background and a white, withered tree… I put part of a phonebook along with the binding and glued that to the back-inside cover of the book. I will attach construction cover pages to the phonebook pages and that is how the inside of my scrapbook will be constructed. :)

Today I looked at my scrapbook cover and thought that it was beautiful and I had pride in myself and my creative abilities… it felt good… as well as sitting on the porch with my mum and just talking about philosophy and theology and life… she too admired my work… it made me feel good.

I made a faux wax seal out of glitter glue with a faux feather for an accent…

I’ve decided I should plan out which ‘scraps’ I want on each page so that my book is cohesive and nice looking and everything isn’t just thrown onto a page… a little planning is what the doctor ordered! :)

Some page ideas:

- In the airport/leaving home/on the plane…
- Arrival
- The palace/Bangkok/Ma Lek’s family/first 4 days
- Ubon Ratchathani (around the city)(a few pages)
- Nari Nuken + Friends (maybe a couple of pages)
- Phukradung Camping Trip
- Northern Trip: Chaing Mai/Chaing Rai
- Southern Trip: Phuket/Krabi/Similan Islands
- Ubon girl trips with Prapart within/near Ubon
- Cambodia
- Laos
- Exchange Students
- Gelasee (sport day) parade
- SongKran and Chinese New Year
- Phujongnioy Trip
- Typed versions of my hand-written journals…maybe?
- My on-line journals

So I decorated the outside, I painted it and used some newspaper and old phonebook pages as well as beads and faux feathers to embellish my design… OF A SEA MONSTER!! I’m in that stage in which I am in love with my design… That feeling of pride when a project has just been completed… atleast the front cover. Tomorrow I will decorate the inside cover and the back cover.

I’ve decided that for the inside I will glue the back part of the old phonebook to the back cover and rip out most of the pages and then glue/attach construction paper to the binding of the phonebook…

Today I found some more old papers from my exchange… I had forgotten that my mother had made me a binder with important medical papers and travel documents and such in it… :D