Step into Your Shoe Selfies & Create a DIY Mini Scrapbook
I'm a huge believer in telling your story. You are an amazing person, and you deserve to shout your story from the rooftops.
Creating art about your story has proven to improve self-confidence. As a scrapbooker, my favorite way to tell my story is with pictures, pretty paper, and crafty supplies.
Today I'm sharing a quick DIY scrapbook crafted out of a single sheet of 8.5x11 paper. I'll teach you this simple method for creating art to share your own story. The topic of this mini-album is 'Shoe Selfies'. For this project, I've teamed up with Famous Footwear and their #stepforward campaign. We are both huge believers in championing women to be the best versions of themselves.
The inspiration for this album is rooted in my life-long struggle with pictures of me. Since I was a teenager, I've loathed photographs of myself. I look too fat in that one, I look too awkward in that one, I hate that one for some other reason. Suffice to say, when you're passionate about scrapbooking, it's not great to hate all the photos of yourself.
I started thinking about how I could take photographs of myself that I would be happy with. One of the first projects I started was taking photos of myself and my shoes to help tell the stories of my life. I absolutely loved these photos. I had a picture of me in Times Square, a picture of me apple picking, a picture of me at work. It was the first time in my life that I really felt confident in photos.
Over the years, I've gotten more and more confident with myself in photos. Right now, I'm in a place where I love photos of myself. I love taking selfies, I love seeing myself in photographs, I love seeing myself enjoy being in front of the camera. It was definitely not an easy journey, but it was definitely worth it.
Throughout this journey, I discovered so many other women who felt similarly. As I became more confident in my own photographs, I wanted to help others with their own photo confidence. I founded a weekly selfie challenge, Thursday3, which reminds women to snap a photo each week and share three right-now facts about life. We have a really supportive community on instagram under the hashtag #Thursday3.
I'm so grateful for that first project with shoe selfies (as I've come to call them). It was the first step on my own personal journey to loving myself in photographs. To commemorate this journey, I created a scrapbook of shoe selfies with journaling about what these photos mean to me.
Famous Footwear sent me a pair of Chuck Taylor All Star high-tops (these have been on my wishlist for so long) and I snapped a few shoe selfies when I was out and about this month. On my list of places: the MSU Surplus Store, our favorite local take-out joint, my driveway, and more. I had such a great time putting together this project. I encourage you to grab your favorite pair of kicks and go on your own shoe selfie photo shoot and create your own personal shoe selfie scrapbook.
How to Create Your Own DIY Shoe Selfie Scrapbook
Supplies Needed:
8.5x11 sheet of white cardstock
Scissors/Paper trimmer
Washi tape
6-10 photographs size 2x3 (I printed mine with a Polaroid Zip)
Black pen
Your favorite stickers
Start by trimming the 8.5x11 sheet of cardstock into three 3.5 by 11 sheets. It'll look like this:
Then, you'll fold each sheet of paper in half width-wise, so that it's 3.5x5x5 when folded. It'll look like this:
Next, unfold the sheets and stack them on top of one another, so the seams are in the middle. It'll look like this:
Starting at the front of the book, flip open the first two pages. Secure the pages with a strip of washi tape slightly larger than the 3.5 inch seam. It'll look like this:
Repeat for each set of pages. Trim off the excess washi tape and you'll be ready to start decorating. It'll look like this:
Decorating Your DIY Shoe Selfie Scrapbook
The decorating part is entirely subjective. You can use whatever mix of photos, paper, and crafty supplies that you like. I kept this album simple, and only used photos, a black pen, and some puffy star stickers on the inside pages.
Scroll to the top of the page to flip through the entire mini-album gallery. Looking for more detailed instructions? Click here for the full step-by-step photo tutorial.
Even though I'm currently comfortable with my selfies and other photos of me, I still have bad days, just like everyone else. Sometimes I wake up and I just hate how I look in every photo. No matter how I change it up, it just isn't working for me. Whenever I'm feeling like this, I take a deep breath, point the camera downward and snap a shoe selfie. It's the best way to jumpstart my self-confidence.
Do you take shoe selfies? What's your favorite pair of shoes?
Thank you to Famous Footwear for kindly sponsoring this post. All opinions are 100% honest & completely my own.