Story Play Read | Special Guest Pam Baldwin

Hey friends! I’m really excited to be here with you today, sharing 3 projects inspired by the “Story Play: Read” theme. I have loved reading for as long as I can remember and try to get a little bit of quality time in with a good book on a daily basis, even if it’s just a few minutes. These 3 projects are just the tip of the iceberg for story ideas, but let’s take a look.

Project 1: Year in Review!

The chipboard pieces from this collection were the starting inspiration for this 2-page 6x8 spread + shaker pocket. My intention is to add this to my 9x12 pocket page album when I finally get around to documenting December in there. It’s got 3 distinct parts.

Prompt cards from the Read kit help capture some details about how I read and my top 5 book picks for this year. I paired them with a reading selfie and the colourful quote card also from the Read kit.

Books by the month – I borrowed a digital paper from the recent “Fan” Story Kit and made a few modifications (removed the titles from each box and moved the page margin to the left). I used the 12 squares to write which books I had read for each month and added the colourful month tabs from the Read kit to the top of each square. December’s blank at the moment, because we’re not done with it yet. At the end of the month, I’ll print my titles onto clear sticker paper to finish the last box.

Mini book shaker pocket – THIS. IS. AWESOME! It turned out better than I could have imagined!! I usually track my reading for through Goodreads, which came in very handy for putting this spread together. It was also the source of the book cover images for all of my books this year. I made them all mini and printed the images onto glossy vinyl sticker paper. I cut out each cover and stuck it to thin white craft foam to make the miniature books. 

I then created a shaker pocket using the “book love” transparency from the Story Play collection and plastic from an extra page protector. I used my sewing machine to create a pocket and slid the books inside before completing the last bit of stitching. I also used the 2024 digital word art to create a vinyl sticker for the front of the pocket. So very happy with how this turned out!

Here’s the process video for how this project came together.

Project 2: December Daily – Currently Reading

I’m working in the 4x6 album this year, and while I had it in mind to use the Read theme for one of my days, the timing of this story was pretty magical. I’m currently reading “The Mystery Guest”, a cozy mystery that’s the sequel to a book by Nina Prost called, “The Maid”. I’ve got to tell you, the first week of December this year was a rough one. I very much needed some down time by Friday night, and reading is like a form of self-care for me. As I was reading, I came to a part where the main character (as a child) was answering a question about why she likes to read, and her answer was perfection! I took a screen shot (I do most of my reading from my phone) and was able to include it in this story. Three components for the second story:

Reading selfie! I read from my phone, so the glow from the screen always lights up my face, but I’ve got to get out my big camera to be able to get the shot because I can’t use my phone as my camera if I’m reading from it, ha! Also!! I saw a great trick to be able to mimic the same capture when reading from an actual book. Tuck your phone with the flashlight on (or a bright screen) in the pages to light up your subject’s face before taking the photo. The demonstration was with kids reading books in front of a Christmas tree and it made the whole scene magical. I printed my photo to be a full 5x6.25 page and added a large green felt number + a wood veneer star from the 2024 December Daily collection + the chipboard “book love” circle from the “Read” Story Play kit.

My book passage – It took me some time to figure out how to include all the elements I wanted to in this spread, and I REALLY wanted to make sure this text from the book was here. I printed it on velum, used my sewing machine to underline the words I wanted to highlight, and added a bit of rick rack + a wood veneer star. It would have also looked lovely with nothing extra at all. 

Library pockets seem like such a natural fit for stories about books and reading! I made some of these in the 2024 Prep Day classroom as well. Here, I constructed the pocket out of the kit packaging envelope. I also used a digital version of the “currently reading” card to write about my book. 

I still wanted to be able to explain more of the context of the day, so I added additional journaling on the back of the card too. 

There are some really fun Christmas book icons out there this year!! I was enjoying a bookstore wander in November and took a few pics of some of the imagery that was inspiring me at the time. Geralyn Sy from In a Creative Bubble has also recently released a new Christmas digital collection, which is where the little tree bookstack die cut is from!

Here’s the process video for project #2!

Project 3: “Books are life”

Some of my favourite reading memories are of reading to my kids when they were little(er). I wanted to capture at least one of these stories and made a really simple 8.5 x 11 scrapbook page using the Read Story Play kit and some fun stuff from my stash.

I opted for a simple grid using the 3x4 kit cards. I printed my photo as if it were an instax/polaroid, and used a cardstock diecut clipboard (Heidi Swapp product) to hold my journaling. 

I used dimensional foam tabs to life some of the edges up off the page and give the grid a more layered look. I also intentionally placed the cards a bit tilted to break up the lines of a uniform grid.

I added embellishments from my stash including some fabric half circles from a previous AE kit, cork alpha letters, a paper clip, and ran some stitching around the outside to frame it, leaving the extra threads loose for a little more texture. It’s a super simple layout, but it’s also another story captured!!

Last but not least, process video for project #3!

 I hope you’ve found some inspiration here for your own stories about reading!! Definitely let me know if you have any questions in the comments below, and thank you for being here!