Scrapbooking on a larger scale

A few months ago I found a post over on Skrap N' Chat about Storytelling Frames. The original was a guest post by Elizabeth Kartchner on Ali Edwards' blog.

Anyway, I've been planning one of these ever since, and finally this week, with my son away with the grandparents, I re-painted 2 walls of his room and made him his own storytelling wall!



Knowing how little boys are about change sometimes, and how some of them are about moving their things around when they're not home, I told him about it in advance, or at least the idea of it, describing it as a wall all about him and the things he likes, and he seemed excited about it. I even consulted him about what subjects he would like me to include on it. This one ended up more as a collage or mural than Elizabeth K's did, but I wanted to incorporate his license plate collection and his Cars wall decals as part of the embellishment, as well as his Ikea star night light and a hubcap I found him. He's been asking for car parts including hubcaps ever since Christmas time for his collection.



Cars were the obvious subject choice. I used a Kinder Surprise Lightning McQueen for the frame (it was the only one that fit under the glass) and did the tracks with black Color Box ink and one of his Johnny Lightning cars (they actually have rubber tires, which make excellent tracks). The picture is of Antonio a few years ago, showing off his Lightning McQueen collection.



Drawing was another obvious choice, not just as a typical childhood must-have but because it's actually something he's really good at and enjoys. I cut 4 spaces into the frame and put a favourite picture of Antonio drawing, along with various excerpts of different things he's drawn. Narrowing this down was probably the hardest part. I also included a paper plate he'd drawn as another round element, and a clipboard where he can display any drawing he feels like at the moment.

Money and currency is another of his recent interests so it had to find a way on there, with some cut-outs of different Canadian bills and some coins and bills he's collected, and a picture of him getting a $100 bill for Christmas last year.

He also loves flags so I did one with a Canadian flag (left over from Canada Day) and a picture of him on Canada Day 2009.

Another frame has a picture of Antonio swimming, another favourite of his, with 2 of his swimming lesson report cards and some beach rocks. Once I find his old Mont Cascades season pass it'll go in too (I think this pic was taken at Mont Cascades).

One more thing, and this was actually at his request (and my delight), was his newest obsession, Mega Man. For those who never played late 80s Nintendo, Mega Man is a series of super awesome video games which has recently been revived and added on to by the Wii. Mega Man II was my favourite game for much of my childhood and teenage years (oh, it probably still is). and now Antonio has re-discovered it and we're both enjoying playing it together. I had some action figures so I put one in the frame with a picture of him playing. I was skeptical about this at first since you can't find Mega Man action figures anymore and he may not want any of them "on display only" but after hearing he found some in a retro toy store out in BC, I went ahead anyway. If he wants me to take it out later we'll worry about that then.

And that's it! With any luck he'll be happy with it, and if he wants to change it himself, well I guess it's his room. But here it is, as I conceived it, thanks for looking and sweet dreams!~