Those Geeky Teenage years

Everyone, I don't care how cute you are, goes through those awkward years! I have, too. I even did a page in my "Childhood Album" entitled "Those geeky teen-age years". I used to wear Knee high socks, floral dresses, have huge New Kids on the Block pins on my jean jacket (with padded shoulders), posters all over my walls, and a home perm. (NOT ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!) I still look back at those pictures with a little bit of nostalgia! I guess I hope to one day show them to my daughter and have her see that I was once a teenager, too! Hopefully, I'll be a cool enough mom that she won't lose all respect for me once she sees those pictures!

Tip of the Day: For this page, I simply cut my pictures into perfect squares. I then put them on the page along with different colored squares of paper in this order, picture square, paper square, picture square, paper square...alternating the whole page. You will have 5 pictures and 4 paper squares on a 12x12 page. Add a few stickers and a page title and you have a colorful page that probably took you 5-10 minutes, tops!

Get together

A "Get Together" is the new name for a Creative Memories Party. I was able to go to one; to learn how to do it. It was surprisingly fun! What you do now is make a 7x7 sized card, and your consultant supplies some paper and stickers and a journaling mat for each guest. There is no cost to you or your guests. I used some doubles to make an actual card for my friend, Hailey. The cool thing is that you could put the finished card right on a page! I still have to try that! I had a good time, and even with the same supplies, I was surprised how different everyone's finished cards looked. Now that I've experienced it, I can't wait to share this with other people. If you would like to host a get together, please e-mail me directly. Or leave a comment below.

Tip of the Day: Make sure to take pictures of everyday life. Posed pictures are nice here and there in your album, but your child's love of wash off tattoos is what you're really going to want to remember.

ABC Albums

For my daughter's 2nd birthday, I gave her an ABC album. I decorated the pages with a mish mosh of stickers, all starting with the correct letter. I used alphabet stickers to make both a large A and the small a. I included pictures on each page and some were even 2 page spreads. In the pictures, I had people that's names start with that letter as well as items that start with that letter. I made it like an I Spy book because I want her to enjoy looking at it for years to come. For example, on the Gg page I had Gramma standing on the porch by the grill (with a giraffe magnet stuck to it), wearing a green shirt, gloves, and googles. On the table in front of her is a goose mug, globe and some grapes. I was even more clever in some that don't even seem posed! But I had fun and she loves to look at the people she loves. Grownups enjoy looking for the different items in the picture! The funny thing was that I procrastinated and didn't get going on the pictures until a month before her birthday! I was calling people and asking if I could come over to take their picture and asking them to wear certain colors and I think that a lot of them thought I had a screw loose! Once they saw her album at the party, I think everyone understood why I needed to get that picture of them!!!

Tip of the Day: This is such a great gift idea for kids you know! You don't even have to put pictures in it! Use the smallest sized album, the 7x7. I usually just decorate the pages with the alphabet letters and a sticker or 2. It is a personal present, created just for them, and the kids really love it! I often like to include a photo of my daughter with the birthday child on the Jj page. Nn is a tough page to do! In My daughter's book, I just used the square punch and punched out pictures of all different people and character's noses, and this is fun for her to look at and try to guess who the noses belong to.
You can include as little or as much as you want to. I've done a book where I had an animal theme, one where I included all die-cuts on the pages, and one where I made sure to include every shape and color that started with that letter. I like to include numbers as well, one starts with O and zero starts with Z! I have done at least 7 books for my daughter's friends. They have always been a hit!
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My Challenge

Using this as a way to keep myself accountable, I am going to try to complete 50 pages this week! I'm starting with last Friday, and going to this Friday, the 30th. It's a big challenge, but I have a lot that I need to accomplish! I already completed at least 10 at my workshop on Friday! I'll let you know if I complete my mission!

Tip of the Day: A simple patriotic page idea: Take a strip of red paper about 1 1/2 inches wide and 12 inches in length from top to bottom and rip it from top to bottom. Do the same thing with a strip of blue paper. You have just made a border. Use one half of each and place the flat side of the red along the side of the page. The torn side will be facing in. Place the ripped side of the blue facing the ripped side of red. Leave a small strip of the white page showing in the center. You might use the leftover strips to do the same thing on the facing page for a 2 page spread. This is so easy, but it is very patriotic!
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Autumn is here!

I have tried unsuccessfully to write this blog at least 3 times over the last few days! Computer problems! I have been watching the changing leaves, fearing that I'll forget to look for a couple of days and they will have all fallen to the ground! I want to get some pictures when they are at their most brilliant this year!

Tip of the Day: Cm has a new leaf punch, although I did hear a rumor that they have run out! I have one, and let me give you some page ideas I like and have tested! I punch leaves in the various fall colors and pile them in a corner of the page, or I create a huge tree out of brown paper, it can even be a 2 page spread, and attatch the little leaves to it's branches. I made a painter's pallet, and punched out leaves to put on it as if the leaves were the paint puddles normally found on a pallet. I used the page title," The colors of Autumn". Attatch leaves directly to the page and use a pen to make it look like the leaf is falling. Simply use thin dash marks in a light path from the top of the page to the leaf. Don't make a straight line from the top of the page to the leaf, make it look as if the leaf is lazily floating to earth by adding some loops.
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Days go by

The title of today's blog is a little shout out to my favorite musician at the moment, Keith Urban! "It's all we've been given, so you better start livin' right now. 'Cuz Days go by."
I've been livin' and not doing any scrapbooking!

Tip of the Day: (as it goes by!) Have you ever done a calendar page? What better way to capture life on paper? I did one a month for the whole first year of my daughter's life. You can buy calendar pages, which have squares, like a blank calendar for the whole page. You number them yourself. I used the square punch and included pics of my girl here and there to fill up the spaces. On days we went to the Doctor's, I wrote down her height and weight. I wrote down which friends we went to visit, when she took her first step, when something happened in the world. I filled the calendar up with stickers and decorated each month differently.
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Black and White

The first pictures I ever took using black and white film were of a friend's kids. I used white sheets and had the kids on them and had the baby in a diaper and the older one in a t-shirt and jeans. The pictures turned out so great! I took a whole roll, picked the best and put them in a black frame with a white mat for my friend as a gift. When my baby was a newborn, I took pictures of her and her Dad for Father's Day. The pictures captured her tinyness, without any distractions, one of my favorite features of B&W! One Easter, I had 2 cameras going and was able to take pictures both in color and black and white and put them right next to each other on the page! Black and white pictures can really soften a scene.
I've used B&W film to take pictures of my daughter on her birthday. I had her in a patriotic shirt and had a flag behind her. Black and White pictures can have a timeless quality to them. A friend has taken beach photos and even Christmas pictures with B&W film, with amazing results!
Tip of the Day: Make sure you have good lighting, but not direct sunlight. Keep the background as plain as possible. You want the focus to be on your subject anyway.
Something you may not know: Black and white film doesn't really cost much more than regular film and can be developed anywhere! It does not cost more to develop and you don't even need to tell them that it is special! If you have a digital camera, you may be able to get black and white pictures from your color film. Ask the person who develops your film. You can always purchase a computer program to enable you to change your pictures. Even pictures taken with a regular camera can be played with if you have the proper program. Just ask for your pictures to be put onto a CD when you drop them off for developing. There is a new program from CM like this, but I'm not sure what all it does!
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The fastest way to shed those unwanted pounds

This involves no dieting and no physical exursion other than the use of some of your scrapbooking tools! When I have been unhappy with the weight on myself or others, I simply find a way to avoid seeing it! At my daughter's dedication, I was still carrying quite a bit of baby weight. One particular picture from behind was extremely unflattering to me, yet it was a nice picture of our little family and I really couldn't leave it out! With the clever placement of a die cut church placed with the steeple at my back, you can't even tell what size my behind is! Another time, another person: With this picture, the subject was facing the camera. To crop the photo just below the subject's chest would have cut out important background that I didn't want to lose. Instead, I used the cutting system to cut an oval out of the picture, right around the person. Then I used the cutting system to cut a slightly larger oval out of a complimentary shade of paper.I put the photo (with the oval cut out of it) onto the page, attatched the paper oval in the blank space where the person had been, and then put the person in their oval shape right on top, like you would stack a cake! Now the person had a thin, oval frame around them in the picture. This served both to highlight the person, as well as hide their tummy. It turned out better than I'd hoped!
Sometimes the best way to get rid of unwanted weight, is just to crop it off!!!
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Fall in all it's glory

I know that most of the leaves haven't started to change colors yet, and the weather has been perfect for close to a month here in Pennsylvania; but I was thinking about how near Autumn was! It officially starts this week! Pretty soon, the wind will have a bit of a bite to it, and everyone will dig out the sweaters and jeans. I myself will have to give up my flip flops for an agonizing 8 months. But, I do love fall! It is without question a beautiful sight to see the red, orange and yellow leaves. And they make beautiful backgrounds for pictures! (You had to know I was going there!) Pumpkin patches, with their different sized orange pumpkins dotting the field make for great pictures, too. A great color to offset orange leaves or pumpkins is a bright blue! Think of dressing yourself or the kids in that color when having pictures taken with these outdoor beauties. Or use bright blue on the page to bring out the colors.

Tip of the Day: If you don't have trees of your own to use as a fall backdrop, toss the kids in the car and take a drive. There are plenty of trees around, now you just need to find a spot where no one will mind your little photo op! I went up a long driveway of a house that was for sale, and stopped right in the driveway, where no one had cleared the leaves, and took some incredible pictures of my little one. You might see a picturesque spot along side the road, or in a park. Back roads are great! Or take the kids on a hike in the woods, but watch out! They might get a little muddy!
Happy Autumn!
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My daughter's first pictures

NO, this isn't about baby pictures! Although that is something I could write about at another time..Hmmm (lightbulb!) I had such a blast creating a 2 page spread about my daughter's first attempt at photography! I used a black page and a white page and made squares (using the square punch) in a strip of paper , as a border along the side of the page. It resembled a negative. On the black page, I used silver paper, and on the white page, I made the border black. It really turned out cute! I stuck some camera and film stickers in a few of the squares , and matted 2 of the pictures. I hardly cropped them at all, but angled them on the page so that they weren't straight. The pictures she took were really cute. I even included the really close up of part of her face, the shots of my sister's feet, and the side of the porch! I had taken 2 pictures of her, one of her taking a pic of me, and one of her from the back taking a picture of my cousin and sister. She took a really great picture of my sister! It was one of the ones I matted actually. It is a totally different view since she's so small, and my sister is really smiling, I mean really! So often people smile for pictures, and it's just not their geniune smile. But since the photographer was so charming, my sister is smiling with the happiest smile!

Tip of the Day: I talked about it a little bit, but contrast is a really cool thing to do in your album. I like using different colored facing each other every once in a while. Sometimes, I use the exact same paper on both pages and sometimes I have done what I talked about today, using white paper on a black page and black paper on white pages, facing each other. It can really have a striking effect. Cm now has white, black, natural and spargo pages.
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Birthday Ideas

Having succesfully photographed 3 of my daughter's birthdays, I have some ideas you might like. Please feel free to add your own in the comments section! I'm always looking for more ideas!

I like to save an invitation to my daughter's birthday party and include it on the first page of her birthday party pages in her album.

I try to get a picture of everyone attending the party.

For her first birthday, not only did I include a picture of everyone, but I had everyone write something to the birthday girl on little journalling blocks that I predecorated with a pen and a mickey sticker. This way, I could just stick the journalling block in the album next to the picture. A word of advice, don't let people say that they want to take the journalling block home and will give it to you later!

I get her picture professionally taken for each birthday. I buy the 3x5 proofs and put them all in her album, along with one of the largest sized photos, on a 2 page spread. I think having several professional pics of her together helps to show her personality.

Her party is usually not on her actual birthday, so I take pictures on her actual birthday as well.

I put all of her birthday cards into her album by using pocket pages.

I like to get a picture of the cake by itself and I usually cut it out in profile to place on the page.

This year, I was especially happy with my pictures of my little girl blowing out her candles. I seated her in the yard and asked everyone to stand around behind her, and beside her. This way, a lot of her friends and family are in the pictures as well, but not blocking the camera.

Even when I'm decorating for her party, I'm thinking of the pictures I want to take. I try to get as many of the decorations in pictures as I can, but usually in the background.

At each of her birthday parties, there are certain pictures I always take. A Picture of the birthday girl by herself, a picture of our little family of 3, pictures of the games being played, pictures of her opening her gifts, pictures of her being sung "Happy Birthday" to and eating her cake.

I'm a theme person, so I always dress her to go with whatever she is into, which is the party theme that year anyway.

Happy Partying!
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My own little book

My daughter was disappointed yesterday that there weren't any pictures of Donald duck in her room. She told me that she wanted to get a picture of her and Donald to hang in her room. I told her she already had a picture with Donald, but it was in her Disney album. Last year, when we went to Disney World, we did a character hunt. We took pictures of my little girl with all of her favorite characters. When we came home, I put together a little kid-sized album for her with all of those pictures in it. It was so easy and fast to do, because there usually is one picture to a page, and I just decorated using the character's colors or stickers that had something to do with either the character itself or the movie they were in. It's one of my favorite albums, but of course, it's really not for me! I'm so glad I did it, because it's perfect for her to be able to look through, and take with us to keep her occupied. Best of all, she really likes it!

Tip of the Day: If she had been older, I would have had her use the album (the 7x7 size I used) as an autograph book. I would have had the characters use Creative Memories Pens and sign either a seperate square of paper, or right on the page. If you use a precut piece of paper, you can control how big they make their autograph so that you can fit both it and a photo on the page.
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What time is it?

Last night I started scrapbooking and worked straight through the night! I was shocked when I heard my husband's alarm go off! That happens to me when I get inspired! I was working on the 10th grader's album, and I got to a trip she took to Disneyland in 1997. It was a lot of fun to do Disney pages, my favorite place by the way! So...I worked on it all night! I accomplished 11 pages!
Tip of the Day: Last night I did something that I don't think I'd tried before. I was punching out stars with the Star Maker, and instead of just sticking them to the page, I decorated them a little bit, using the same color pen as the paper. I simply outlined the star shape and put a swirl inside of some of them. It turned out looking like a neat die cut!
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Watching their faces

I love to show people my albums! I've worked hard on these pages and every one has a part of me in it. That's why I like to sit on the couch next to my family and friends and enjoy their reaction as they remember living what I attempted to capture in my photographs and journalling. When I visit family and friends whom I haven't seen in a while, I bring my daughter's album to show them. Looking through it helps them to catch up on our lives. My daughter and husband love to look through the albums and remember favorite vacations! When I scrap a family vacation, I won't let anyone look at it until it is complete. My favorite thing is showing those certain friends and family members our vacation pages for the first time!

Tip of the Day: Don't show your photographs to anyone until they are in an album. I get ribbed unmercifully for this, but I think it makes people look closer at your completed album pages. Making them wait makes them want to see the pictures all the more! And lastly, it encourages me to complete the album pages faster, because I want to show them to friends and family!
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Little footprints

My little girl is growing out of her shoes yet again! I don't know what I'll do if it gets too cold for her to wear her flip flops before I go shoe shopping!
Tip of the Day: Every year on or around my little one's birthday, I take pictures of her little hands and feet. I stamp her hands and feet and put them on the page as well. Looking back, I can literally SEE how much she has grown!
Second tip: When inking, have a wet rag or wet wipes handy to wipe your child's hands and feet as you finish one. Try to recruit help! Try to do this whole process as fast as you can. I usually stamp her feet twice, and use the best on her page. I always stamp on a seperate piece of paper and apply it to the page. Even if an ink pad claims to be scrapbook safe, I don't totally trust it, so I feel safer using a seperate sheet of paper!
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Looking ahead

I haven't been scrapbooking this week at all, but I'm busy planning for the immediate future! I did finish off the 6th book of my daughter's, and I'm starting July of this year next. I'm waiting for some pictures my cousin took when he was here. You know how that is!
I am planning on having an all day crop in October. I call it Croptoberfest, and no...I didn't come up with the name myself! I have gotten all these cool things for gifts to those who come and scrap the day away with me. These things are so cute that I have already taken some aside for me! I'll probably use them before my Croptoberfest, too. (Just some perks of being a consultant!)
I have a Friday night workshop in my home tomorrow, too. I didn't have my workshop area looking like a workshop area until today! We had taken everything down before our vacation, and I haven't had a workshop since! I'm hoping that these events I have planned get a large turnout! There's a consultant who has been doing this for less time than I have, and she has 14 people coming to her workshops! I have a much smaller number! Hey, I'm competitive, what can I say!

Tip of the Day: I had 2 pictures from dinner at Easter, one from each side of the table. I cut the picture into strips, with one person in each strip, and set the 2 pictures together side by side on the page, with a little space between each strip. The result is that it looks like one long photo of all of us at the table!
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I love my Job!

I am so glad that I'm getting my scrapbooking supplies and tools, and albums at 30% off! I don't know if that's my favorite thing about being a consultant, but it is a HUGE help! I'm trying right now to earn a trip to California, all expenses paid. I am having no problem getting sales, and I'm so close to this trip that I can taste the salt air! All I really need is to convince other people that being a consultant is so rewarding, so fullfilling, and fun, too! It is, I swear! If you are interested in signing up to be a Creative Memories consultant, please e-mail me! I would not be doing this if it wasn't something I loved! Give it a try. There isn't a contract, you can walk away whenever you want, no strings attached. You pay only $195 for the start up kit and it's worth $500 and then some, and you can sell most of it, so you can make your money back right there. There are so many benefits. I make my schedule, I work as little or as much as I want to. I can get all the exclusive things that I want, the stuff customers can't buy! That alone is worth it:) ! I've made friends, been able to give gifts we couldn't have afforded to give, and helped with vacation costs. I'm not going to write a book here, but I love it, and if you like to make albums, this might be for you! Talk to me! aleasalbums@yahoo.com

Tip of the Day: Vellum is so cool, but a lot of people aren't sure how to use it! My favorite use is to make a journalling block. Use a patterned paper to make a square, cut the vellum to be a little smaller than that, so the paper underneath will act as a border, but also show through somewhat. Write directly on the vellum. Another use is to make a pocket out of vellum, so that you can see what's in it. You can save confetti and make a shadowbox of sorts on your page, with vellum over the confetti. Simply punch a square (or any shape with one of the CM makers)out of any sized paper, and make a window by adhering the vellum to the paper. Place the confetti underneath the vellum and adhere to the page. When working with vellum, I like to use clear photo mounting strips underneath, so that they don't show. You can place vellum right over a picture to soften it. The picture will be very hazy, but I like to journal right on top of it, and it creates a real neat effect. Colored vellum is even more fun!!! Punch out stars, flowers, leaves. Long strips overlapping a little run neatly along the side of a page. Layer colored vellum over other shades of paper to change the hue. Ther are so many ways to use vellum!
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Pet Pages

Before I had my daughter, my puppy was my baby. I had at least one picture of him on every 2 page spread. Sadly, now that isn't the case. He only makes it into the photo album every once in a while. That said, I do think it's very important for us to take pictures of our pets! To many of us, our pets are family, and they are definitely remembered! I love this one picture I have of me holding Elmo on my lap! He's a golden retriever, so that shows how small he was then. And he has his tail in his mouth, which reminds me how crazy he used to be! Another picture that stands out is the one of him in the bath tub. His little face reads, "Save me,please!" and you can see how sad he was. (He still hates baths!) He has always loved the snow, and it made the perfect lighting for pictures!

Tip of the Day: Did you ever get your photos back and get totally freaked out when you saw your sweet doggy looking like a devil with it's weird, green, lit -up eyes!?! There are pet eye pens that can fix that. I sell them! E-mail me!
Pet Page Titles you could use: Dog Days of Summer, Cat Nappin', Puppy Love, Furry Friends and Family, Puppies are People too!, Man's Best Friend, Canine Companions, Talk to the Paw, Pets with Personality, New Kitten on the Block, Reigning Cats and Dogs, Purring Princess, Did I do that?
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Cutting corners, but without a corner rounder!

I just went to get my film developed yesterday from the month of August and the beach. I opted to save money on gas and just do the one hour film developing. Instead of getting doubles, I decided to pick up my photos, look at them, and pull out the negatives of my favorite ones, just enough to do a 2 page spread. I then had them processed (it only took another 15 minutes). I'll do an extensive "trip to the beach" in my daughter's album, and the 2 page spread doubles will be for my own album. I am so far behind in my personal album, that I still haven't gotten to the beach photos from last year! I may start doing this more frequently, especially when I am getting 4 rolls developed at a time, as I was on this occasion!

Tip of the Week: With Gas prices as they are, you might want to send your photos away to get them developed. My favorite company is Snapfish. If you go to their website, they will send you the plasic mailers, so that your film will stay safe. I haven't ever lost film using them. I like how they put your pics on line for you to send to far off friends and relatives. The only problem I have found is in ordering copies without sending in the negatives. I'm often disappointed in the reprints. Snapfish does take a week from sending them in to getting them back. However, they come back to you, you don't need to make a special trip to pick them up, or spend an hour shopping while you wait! I think the quality is better than others as well.
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Pictures that POP!

Since I'm scrapbooking to show my daughter's life, I want people to notice the actual PICTURES when they look through the book! Sometimes, I think we can get so obsessed with the cute stickers and all the nifty page elements out there, that they take center stage on our page! Everything should compliment your pictures, make them really stand out! One way I do this is to mat my favorite picture on the page. Sometimes, I carefully cut the person right out of the picture and put them on the page without all that background stuff, I think that's considered profiling! Cropping the distractions from your pictures are the way to go, even if you skip the fancy shapes, and just keep everything square or rectangular. Sometimes, I've discoved that a picture, cleverly placed over a corner of another picture, conceals the underside of the dog just perfectly. Other people usually will never even notice! Place the pictures you don't want anyone to miss on the outer half of the page. People's eyes are naturally drawn to the outside, rather than the inside half of the page, especially the upper, outside quarter. Don't cram too many pictures on a page either. Use colors that compliment the red rocks in the picture, or show the baby's rosy cheeks. Remember, it's all about the pictures!

Tip of the Day: There were a lot of tips in this day already, but along the same line of making your pictures stand out, If you have a picture that you really want everyone to notice, spend a few bucks at Walmart, and get it enlarged. Even just having it 5x7, hardly larger than the 4x6 I always get my pictures developed in, makes a huge difference!
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Grabbing the time to scrapbook

It's a common thing to have people tell me that they just don't have the time to scrapbook! Well, there are ways of getting albums accomplished. The easiest thing is having a table or desk that you can leave the album pages you're working on out on. Clean up takes away valuable time. But if you stay organized, it is possible to scrapbook right out of your bag. That's what I have been doing lately. I keep my cutting templates for the cutting system (the plastic things!)in the memory mate case(a canvas bag that you can see through. It's the size of a purse.), along with all of my pens. I have the blades for the system in the drawer of my personal trimmer, and I use the 12 inch trimmers right out of my bag. I also keep my papers in the memory mate carryall. I just throw these things back in the Carryall as I use them which really makes cleanup a sinch! I keep a garbage can to my right, and toss the cuttings as I cut them. I have an accessory binder where I keep my stickers and die-cuts organized, and as long as I replace each sheet after I use a sticker from it, I don't feel like I have an hour long clean up after I'm done! The 2 side pockets of my Carryall hold my Makers (some call them punches) and my personal trimmer. Everything I use, including extra pages and protectors, fits into the Carryall, except for the accessory binder, which has it's own handle anyway. I really have gotten into the less is more kind of scrapbooking! Can you believe I used to use stamps, embroidering floss and so many things that it was difficult for me to go anywhere to scrap! It used to take me an hour to pack up because I couldn't fit everything into my bags, so I'd have to figure out what I needed for the pages I was going to do before I left home. Simple is the wave of the future, girls!
Tip of the Day: If I am taking my daughter to the library reading program, sometimes I'll take my newest pack of pictures, the case with my cutting system in it, my personal trimmer (blades in drawer)and I'll crop my photos as the program goes on. I finished cropping several rolls of film of our trip to the beach in one reading program! Cropping on the go!
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Lessons from Katrina

Every scene I see about the damage from Katrina seems surreal. How flippantly I wrote, "Welcome to PA, Katrina!" I felt sick when I watched the news a few hours later. I held my breath listening as a father told a crying reporter about his struggle to hold on to his wife's hands. I was angered by the looters, amazed by the devastation of the homes under a lakeful of water; I felt the helplessness of the thousands of people living in the metrodome. One young lady sat on a pile of rubble and said with regret, " You think of what really matters to you, and you try to fill your car with everything you really want. And now, looking back, instead of trying to save my plasma TV, and jewelry and furniture, I wish I would have saved my pictures. Because I didn't, and now I have nothing. Everything's gone."

Tip of the Day: Help for water damaged photographs. It should go without saying, that water is harmful to your photos! Even moisture in the air can be detrimental to your photos, and your completed scrapbook albums. Creative Memories paper is colorfast, so it won't run onto your page, but other brands will, and have. As long as you write with a CM pen, your writing should be able to withstand some moisture, as well. But your pictures cannot! You can protect them from water by keeping them out of the basement, kitchen, bathroom and any rooms with a leak! If you should happen to have a flood and your pictures are exposed to water, the best thing to do is to try to air dry them as soon as possible. I have seen photos stuck together that were able to be saved. There are things that you can try that don't cost anything. If you have photos that have water damage, there may be hope after all. Contact me aleasalbums@yahoo.com or go to Creative Memories website for more help.
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