Sharing October 2025 In My 10x8 Album

This past week I spent some time getting my October 2025 stories into my 10x8 album.

For most of last year I roughly followed these steps to document each month:

1. Look back through my photos and identify the stories I want to tell. While looking back through my October photo archives I made a simple, general list of stories that helps me stay on track. This month as I looked through my photos to determine the stories to tell I ended up grouping "like" photos together that didn't all happen on the same day: a bunch of flower photos, a bunch of volleyball photos, a bunch of new cat photos. It's more of a broad-brush approach vs. giving every photo its own story and it helps me identify the bigger themes in this particular season of life.

2. Print photos. After choosing what general story themes I want to focus on for the month, I decide the sizes for my photos often depending on the number of photos I want to include. I generally print some 2x2's for my intro page (usually craft projects and/or flower photos) along with some photo enlargements (often 11 inches x 8.25 inches or 7 inches x 8.25 inches) and then the rest are printed in either 3 inch x 4 inch or 4 inch x 6 inch and I select the corresponding page protectors.

3. Copy and paste my Story Threads onto a 11 inch x 8.25 inch cavas. Last year I started writing down a list of things happening around here (facts + feelings) each week and have been haring these most weeks over on Substack. This worked well for me last year so I'm continuing.

4. Think about how crafty I want to be. For October I decided to mostly use elements from the October Stories By The Month™ Kit with not a lot of extra embellishing or an emphasis on "designed" pages. I relied mainly on the combination of full page photos and 3x4 inch pocket pages to tell these stories.

Here's a video taking a closer look at my process:

Here's a look at how I documented October in my album:

One of the things I did this time was collect similar photos in order to capture a few different events vs. telling a story for each of the specific photos. There isn't a right or a wrong - it's simply one approach among many. Sometimes I might feel really excited to dive deeper into a specific story and other times I might take a more broad approach.

I really loved these oval journal cards from the October kit (shapes for the win). I used two to add context to the photos of Anna and her boyfriend and planned that I would use the shapes again for the next story on the back side of the page protector.

My next story was a collection of flower photos I took during the month. I ended up printing them small and pairing them with a photo enlargement to create a spread (this ended up being cropped to the same size as the next story in the album which was one I put together previously about my cat Sam).

I took two of the 4x6 cards (one vellum and one paper - same pattern) and cut them in half to create a home for my small flower photos. I also used the vellum quote card from the October kit and cut it into the oval shape.

One more "remember this" oval was added to my photo enlargement. Along the outside edge I added an Avery Index Tab and stamped the "tiny good things" sentiment from this stamp set.

Another fun item I found in a pile of good stuff on my table were these postage stamp story cards from this One Little Word® Mini Kit. I paired them with the stars from the October 2025 Stories By The Month™ Kit, the old "Make" Story Stamp, small number stamps, and the current Stamps Are Fun stamp set. I ended up adding it all together in a row on white cardstock before adhering it to the full page photo.

There were lots of good basic cards in the October Stories By The Month™ kit including these three "short story" cards. I used them to document three different volleyball adventures in October.

I added one of the strips from the Watercolor Scrapbook kit to my 4x6 photo.

One of the things leftover on my table from December Daily® were a few labels from the Cardstock Label Pack. I ended up adding four of them to a full page photo of our new cat Frida and then cut up the last two to add to my 3x4 photos.

Each month in 2025 I've ended the month with the back of a 6-pocket 3 inch x 4 inch page protector. I generally have been picking a random selection of photos. This time I stapled the "this October moment" to three of the photos and added a sentiment card.

I hope seeing this inspires you to print some photos, write some words, and add it all to some pockets.

SUPPLIES

• 10x8 Album

• 10x8 Page Protectors

• October 2025 Stories By The Month™ Kit

• Stamps Are Fun

• Make Story Stamp

• Watercolor Scrapbook Kit

• Cork Hearts

• Cardstock Label Pack

• Mini Numbers Stamp Set

• Tiny Attacher Stapler

• Avery Index Tabs

• MACO Sticker Paper (another option I like is from Avery)

• Epson XP15000 Printer

• Basics via Amazon Storefront