Stuck in the middle with you!

What a great day! I feel like I accomplished a lot, and had fun with my daughter, too! I didn't get to scrapbook, although I really wanted to. Last time I was scrapping, I had gotten stuck on a page of us snorkling in the Bahamas. AHH.. blue water, white sand, little fish swimming all around, sweet memories..OH sorry! Where was I ?
that's right, I was just about to share with you my tip of the day!

Tip of the Day: If you are stuck on a page, and can't find an idea for it, leave it! Sometimes when you come back to it later, the idea will POP right into your head. If that doesn't work, call for backup! Ask a scrapbooking buddy what you should do with a page. Sometimes it's easier to see a page idea on someone else's pages than your own.

Scrap Happy!

Support the front line!

I'm putting together a care package for my brother, who's in the army. I had so much fun finding things to put in the box, which will probably cost more to mail than it did to buy the goodies! Of course I had a few doubles printed up of my favorite pictures to send him. I don't know where he sticks them, but I'm debating on whether I should put double sided tape on the back of them, or send push pins or what. I might just have to e-mail him to ask. We keep in regular contact, now that I have My Space, and although he doesn't tell me ANYTHING about what's happening over there, it's enough for me just to know he's alive. From the start of his Army career, he had asked me to put together an album for my daughter, depicting his life in the Army. I was able to snag one of the last "glory" albums, which was discontinued. It has an American Flag on the front and is perfect for an American soldier. I included pictures of his experience at Training Camp, graduation, and candid shots that he took around camp with his disposable camera. He will be in there for years, and while he doesn't take a whole lot of photos, I know that we will still be adding to the album from time to time. I look forward to the day when I can put his retirement photos in there to end the album!

Tip of the Day: It's a great idea to send a soldier a disposable camera. It's an even better idea to include one of those mailer envelopes that you can get from the companies that develop film such as Snapfish. I know there are others, but I use Snapfish and know that they have plastic mailers.The way that Snapfish works is that you (the sender) are automaticly charged for the developing(provided you remember to include one of the forms with your address label on it). They would send them to your home. This way your soldier isn't charged any postage at all. If your soldier has e-mail, you can go to the company's website and send him the pictures. This has worked especially well for my brother and I, since I am doing his album. Even if you didn't know the soldier, but are sending him care packages, wouldn't it be nice to write to him, explaining your idea for him to use the camera to document his time there? You could put it in a little album for him once you got them developed. Then send it in his next care package along with a black pen for him to journal his experiences.

Scrap Happy!

History Lesson 101

I must be getting tired of My Space, because I have made writing this blog more of a priority lately. My brother told me that I would get less addicted to My Space as time went on. Scrapbooking, now that's something I will never get tired of!

Today I drew out a little family tree for my daughter. It's hard to know how all of these relatives are actually related to you when you are 4. I drew each stick figure and wrote their name underneath while explaining who they were and how we were connected to them. She loves this little chart. I have always been interested in my family line. Even when I went to visit my Gramma, I was asking both her and Grandad about names of their parents and grandparents so that I can try to trace my history. Someday, I hope to make an album for Jaelyn of all of her relatives. The hard part would be finding photos of all of them!

Tip of the Day: Write the stories, too! One of my newest clients, Pat, was showing me a copy of a book she created for her brother. She had written interesting things about their family, rumors and truths from the past, and even had some old pictures to go along with whomever she was writing about. That's what I want to do. Not only include photos, but the stories my Gramma's have told me. What a rich heritage we all have if we only ask in time for the information!

Scrap Happy!

Tears

My second cousin died 2 days ago. He was only 4 months old. My heart breaks for my cousin, the father. He is a dear, sweet, lost soul. I can only imagine how much he is hurting. What a sadness. The little one is in heaven, I have no doubt. But it was so sudden. I don't usually get too personal in my blog. A girl has to keep a wall up in this computer crazed age! But this was on my mind today as I sat down to write. My aunt is sending an album to the family in hopes that they can create a memory book. I know that it can be beneficial to create such an album. It's a way to keep those treasured memories, put them in a safe place so that you will be sure not to forget a moment. And then, the healing process can begin as you step forward, one step at a time.

Quote of the Day: "Give me the things that burden you, and I'll sustain you. Over time I'll transform your tears to joy, if you'll let me. You'll discover that the memory of the righteous truly is a blessing." God said this in Psalms 55:22, 126:5, and Proverbs 10:7

Scrap Happy :(

Ramblings from a scrapbooker

It's summer! I just love that fact! I took 2 rolls of film to get developed today! It's never ending. I heard a rumor of sorts yesterday. It was at my CM meeting. In a magazine someone had been reading a list of jobs that will be obsolete in 10 years. One of them was a film developer! Has everyone switched to Digital but me? That just makes me sad. It is true that you can now buy a digital camera that takes good quality pictures, but they are sooo expensive. I'm still not quite ready to give up mine. Creative Memories has a photo developing center, and I hear they do a great job. There are also lots of rumors flying around about the program that CM has for playing with your pictures on the computer. I think it's called Memory Manager. They are making us consultants believe that this is going to be a mind blowing difference, changing scrapbooking as we know it, and all that! But what exactly is changing is not revealed to us just yet, but soon it will be. I am one of those people who doesn't jump on the bandwagon until I'm sure it can support everyone. I'll keep you posted, although we won't be finding anything out until August.
I haven't done any scrapping since I last wrote, but I am thinking about it all the time and I can't wait to steal away and "go away" on my cruise for a little longer!

Quote of the Day: "There can be no happiness equal to the joy of finding a heart that understands." - Victor Robinson

Scrap Happy!

Recharged

Wow! I feel recharged! I stayed up last night until 4 am, not realizing it was so late. I scrapped and the ideas were coming for the pages so fast I could hardly keep up! I had such a great time, by myself, just scrapping! I have been feeling so stressed lately, and frustrated because I'm not getting to do the things I enjoy because I'm so busy. So, now I'm saying "no" and I'm skipping things if I need to, such as my daughter's summer reading program at the library today. I just wanted to run away to the pool with her instead. I asked her which she wanted to do, and she picked the pool. It was so relaxing and nice to just watch her play and even be encouraged to get my head wet. It was so hot today! I feel like I want to scrap all night tonight,too! I can't because I have a meeting. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I only have about 12 more pages to complete in my cruise album! I need to do all of the journaling yet, but I can't wait to show my trip to everyone!

Tip of the Day: Just say, "no!" It's hard, I won't deny it, but sometimes it needs to be said!

Scrap Happy!

Still on that cruise of mine!

I finally got to scrap last Friday! Hurray! I am so far behind now. I have 3 books to do for other people, and I'm working on my cruise album. I find myself using a lot of the aqua paper packs, to mimic the carribean water that was so gorgeous. The library has asked me to do an album for them, and I had to tell them I couldn't at this time. I felt so bad, because the librarians there are so great, and I would love to help them, but I simply can't. I had just told my mom that I needed to start saying "no" to things, because I can't do everything and I am worn out from trying. What I need to do more often is scrap, because when I do that, I feel like I am accomplishing something that matters and it's a stress reliever as well.

Tip of the Day: In my quest to leave more room for journalling, I have discovered something I'd love to share! When you are using the 12x12 or larger albums, you don't really want to leave the entire width of the page open for journalling. It's simply too difficult for the album reader to follow. Even when reading with your finger underneath the print, it's so easy to lose your place on the page when you go to the next line. I think this must be why most paper, books, notebooks and such is no wider than 8x10.

Scrap Happy!
Congratulations to Missy on the birth of her second boy, Alex! We miss you at workshops, girl!

Is it over yet?

The fourth of July has come and gone, and I hope yours lasted as long as mine did this year! Last night, the 8th, we went to our friend's for a 4th of July party and I think that should be the last of the fesivities! Whew! I think the fireworks were better than our hometown's were this year! I have several rolls of film centering around this year's events, starting with the day before the 4th when we went to Idlewild amusement park. It was so much fun! I have dressed my daughter in red, white and blue almost everyday for a week now, so the pictures should have some continuity! This year, I attempted to turn my flash off when taking pictures of fireworks, and I hope it ends up working out. It was dark and hard to tell if I was taking the flash off, or putting my camera on a different setting altogether. I hope the pictures I took of my daughter watching the fireworks go off turn out, too. My husband did buy a digital camera of sorts: It's part of his new video camera. His first picture took 4 shots to get the perfect one, so now I hope he understands why I take so many of the same shot! I might end up making a page of a mixture of all the pictures I took, with Independance Day as the theme that ties them all together. (all of the mentioned pics turned out great! Feel free to turn your flash off when taking fireworks pictures, but hold the camera very still! April 2007)
Scrap Happy!

Beach in your own backyard

Vacation, Vacation! Where are you planning to go this summer? Even if you don't plan to leave the state, you can get a lot of picture opportunities right here in your own hometown! If you are aching to be at the beach, pretend! Get a kiddie pool, pull the sandbox nearby, and put on some suntan lotion! (that smell always does the trick for me!) Drag your radio outside and put on some music! (Beach Boys?) I like to read at the beach, so this should be easy for me to recreate! Most importantly, don't forget your camera! That evening, take a shower and get your sundress on, and have your man wear his Hawaiian shirt to go out to dinner! Show off that tan! Whatever you do, I hope you have fun!

Tip of the Day: When we really go to the beach, I keep my camera in a ziplock bag to stop the sand from getting into it. I pull it out to take a picture and put it right back!

Scrap Happy!