The Christmas Ball

I was on vacation and I dropped my camera! It was enough to dent it and enough for my camera to start fading away to retirement. At this point, I have barely used my camera in the last month. If I use the flash, it usually washes my pictures out. I'm asking for a camera for Christmas! Here are some pictures from the Royal Christmas Ball I gave last weekend. It was for my princesses from Princess Camp and their daddies.
God blessed me big time with a professional photographer that was there throughout the whole event taking both posed and candid photos.

It was such a fun time, in spite of the snow. Actually, the snow went perfectly with our theme!

Right now, I'm trying to get my son's online album ready for printing. It is at it's maximum 100 pages already. I'm just finishing that up. My son's first birthday is just weeks away and I want to have his other album with the professional pics in it done to show at his party.

I am also making a paper album for my cousin for Christmas. You can buy paper albums from Creative Memories. It's great for gifts. I started this one just yesterday, ordering pictures at home to pick up at Sam's Club in one hour, and then spending time scrapbooking it after the kids went to bed last night.

Scrap Happy!

Fall back into scrapbooking

Once you put scrapbooking at the bottom of your list, it can be so hard to get back into it!

Here is my advice: Don't overwhelm yourself by thinking you need to sit down and start a big project. Start with an achievable goal. Take those envelopes full of pictures out when you are watching TV one night and try to put them into order. The next step is to bring out a tray table and your cutting tools and crop some photos. This could be a different day entirely. Just doing this will get your feet going in the right direction, and you'll be back creating amazing pages in no time!

I like to pull out some of the books I've made and look through them. This often will give me a craving for scrapbooking!

Now, I'm not bragging, but I have been scrapbooking. I am working on my daughter's science and art fair pages from last spring. I'm doing all of my scrapbooking at night, when the kids are asleep. I had laid these pages out months ago and it feels so great to be down to the last few pages I have laid out! WAIT! Before you think that means I'll be caught up........(OH! Sorry, I had to catch my breathe as I was laughing so hard I nearly passed out!) Yeah, I have a long, long way to go until I'm caught up! When I get done with these pages I have laid out, I am going to lay out more pictures on more pages. I'll fill this power layout box up twice more before I am caught up with the pictures I have printed out right now.

That said, I know I take too many pictures, but the other day my 7 year old sat for HOURS and looked through the albums I have made for her. I know that seeing pictures of herself lovingly displayed gives her a sense of how much I love her.

Scrap Happy!

They Don't Make Stickers for That

After I put my kids to bed at night, I often sneak into the schoolroom, where my desk is so covered with scrapbooking supplies all within easy reach. Some nights, I only get 2 pages done, because I'm not inspired or I'm making them far too detailed! But other nights, I can get 5 pages done. There's nothing like an upcoming vacation to make me dedicated to completing my kid's albums!
You just can't find stickers for some of the things I scrapbook! For instance, these pages I have posted are ones that I did in my recent ongoing scrapbooking marathon. Early last spring, we had some bad weather, which blew over one of the 2 massive pine trees in our back yard. We needed to have it taken out and decided to have the other one taken out as well, because if it were to fall over, it probably would have fallen on our house. It was leaning that way already. It was so much fun to watch the men take the trees out with their huge equipment. We even called our friends/ neighbors to come over and watch. The kids loved running from window to window to watch the crane take the huge hunks of pine branches over the house! My daughter even took notes. She also named each of the men names such as "the pirate". The pages above actually go after the pages below.
I used a picture she had drawn of the Pirate climbing the tree. I scanned it onto acid free paper before placing the copy in her album. I also included the note she wrote and taped to the window for them not to take the wood. I thought that was pretty cute. Thankfully, they did take the wood! I had to go through my Christmas stuff to find the pine stickers and for the stand of pine trees. I cut the group of pine trees out of a journaling block. I used the pink gingham to mat the picture of my daughter because A. it's checks reminded me of lumberjacks! B. The pink matched my daughter's shirt. Above: I included the paper my daughter wrote on the experience from her point of view.

Below:
Punches often save me when it comes to embellishing pages that don't have stickers to go with them. In this case, I used the paisley punch (Maker from Creative memories) and made half of pine trees. Since the paisley pines take up more of the page than a usual border, I found that I didn't have enough room to journal. I didn't want to completely give up any of my pictures and that's why I chose to put a piece of vellum over the one photo. I titled it with letter stickers and I will write on the vellum at a later time.

Here is a close up of the paisley tree, which I made just by punching a whole bunch of paisleys and overlapping them, cutting the edges straight and adhering them to the page with the Creative Memories glue pen. Notice my journaling block?

I can hardly believe I took enough pictures for 2 two page spreads, but it was a big day for us! I actually took a lot more pictures, but didn't get them all printed. I had taken pictures of my daughter with each tree before it was cut down, and that's why I wanted to end the story with the picture of her and her friend standing on top of the logs. Be creative! Use that paper! And Scrap Happy!

Everybody loves school pictures!

Actually, I am embarrassed by most of my school pictures. But my daughter's school pics so far have been so cute! I haven't gotten to scrap this year's yet. We had fun bringing props! She wanted her pink poodle and it ended up being an adorable addition.

I bring props for several reasons. The ones that the studio provides are often worn and tacky. I'm sure they're covered in germs as well. Yuck! But really, I like my props to be realistic. Bring things they like, such as their favorite pen or pencil. I always bring my daughter's bookbag, and the books she really uses that year. Another plus to bringing your own props is that you can compliment what your kid is wearing.

As always when bringing props, remember that you are there to get pictures of your kiddo, so don't get hung up on having to order a picture just because it has that prop you lugged in. I brought a manger scene and Christmas cookies along with a mug (among other things) to my daughter's Christmas pictures last year. But I just wasn't loving the pictures that they were in, so I opted not to get them. I'll bring them again this year.

Kindergarten was the first year I could add school pictures to the list of professional pictures I get taken throughout the year. Since we homeschool, my daughter isn't getting her picture taken at school, so I can take her anywhere. I was so happy with these pictures, that I had to buy most of the poses! When it came time to design the pages for these precious photos, I chose a soft pink backround. As you know, I'm a think outside the box person, or I try to be, so this backround paper is actually from a baby girl kit . It's the back of pages with prompts on them for journalling baby's first year. I bought the paper pack because I use a lot of pink, and I liked the colors in this pack. I have also bought the "I Do" paper pack for the same reason, I knew the pastels would look good in my daughter's book, and I figured I'd eventually find a use for the stickers. I actually have already used some of them on my cruise pages. But... I digress!

I want a memory of how she writes her name each year, so I have her write her name on a tag to include with her school pictures. ( I had her do this before I stuck the tag in the book in order to be sure she didn't accidently write on the page!) My mom did this with me when I was little, and it is amazing to watch handwriting change from year to year. Be sure to include the name of their school and their grade. You might also want to add their age. I also used letter stickers to personalize a tag sticker with the school year. The close up of my daughter's hands clasped in front of her was taken by me in the parking lot as soon as we left the studio. The photographer had taken this shot, and I loved it, but no way was I going to pay for a sheet of this picture. I bought them by the sheet, so I had to figure out how many wallets and other sizes I needed to send to all the relatives and I couldn't think of anyone but myself that would want a picture of a close up of my daughter's hands!

Scrap happy!

Busy Living

I tired without any success to get an appointment for my son, and ended up taking his 8 month pictures myself. I have no regrets. They turn out so cute! It cannot be easier. I simply wait for the right time, when he is rested and has a full tummy. I also make sure the lighting is agreeable. I took these pics during the day, but in the shade. It was overcast.

Here is proof that I am taking pictures of life as it happens. This is my daughter literally pulling out her second loose tooth.

I have had the chance to get all caught up on ordering my pictures. Lately, I wait until Snapfish has a sale (this time it was free shipping) and make it my goal to order all my photos by that date. It is so easy to let your pictures sit on the computer or on your memory card forever. I need to motivate myself to get the pictures printed and sales work for me!

I feel so far behind in my scrapbooking. I know that I need to focus on my kids right now since they won't be little forever, but lets face it. I have a limited memory store. The reason I remember so much about my little girl's baby years is because I have it written down. I don't want to scrapbook these pictures years from now, I want to scrap them now! I am scrapbooking February for my daughter, am caught up on my son's professional album where I proudly displayed the photos I took the last 2 months on his "monthday", and I haven't looked at his online album in awhile, but I'm probably only a few months behind. You don't understand how much it kills me to not be caught up!

I bought some cool plastic-drawers-on-wheels and organized my scrapbooking supplies. I have my own desk, and now I have my wheeled drawer thing that scoots in under it, very organized! Yet somehow, I feel like I don't have enough room on my desk to scrap comfortably. So I still need to fix that. It isn't conducive to scrapping.

Beach Days

When going on a vacation, I often have a mental list of shots that I want to get. Pictures of my daughter's footprints in the sand, Her hands with the surf in the background,

My son playing on the beach for the very first time,

the ocean in the sunset ( and I am really into shooting pictures of people's backs right now),

and my little girl's face the second she sees the ocean when we first get to the beach.

Especially on vacation, I like to get candid shots as well as posed. I like candids because they show life. I also like not having to make my kids stop what they are doing and look at the camera. I don't want to pause that moment unnaturally, I want to capture it happening! When I show my photos, there are probably about 150 that you'll see. But I have taken so many more. I usually take at least 2 of the same shot, sometimes more if I can. Some cameras have settings that will automatically take more than one shot. I'm going to play with mine and have it set to do that.

TIP! At the beach, we made sure to have a shade umbrella everyday. My camera was in a gallon ziplock bag, in a pocket of the backpack (we leave it in the same pocket so that it's quick to get to) under the shade umbrella. It's hard to keep sand and moisture out of your camera, so be sure to have it out as little as possible. If sand gets on the zoom lense, carefully wipe it off. I took several tissues to the beach for cleaning my glasses, camera and my little boy's runny nose (not all with the same tissue)! I usually went through 4 tissues a day.

I took some shots in the surf, making sure the camera band was around my wrist and that I kept the camera high enough to stay out of the water.

I know that I had mentioned taking my scrapbooking supplies on vacation to get some scrapping done at night, but I ended up not doing that. It was a lot to travel with, and by the end of the day, I could barely stay awake long enough to jot down the day's events. Also, we took my husband's truck and I don't trust that my supplies would stay completely dry in the back, if it rained.

We had a nice, relaxing vacation. I was able to get most of the shots I wanted, and really made an effort this trip to read less and play with my kiddos more. The more years we go to Ocean City, the more treasures we find! With going to the beach every day but one, (the day we go outlet shopping) eating at all of our favorite restaurants, playing at the world's greatest park, walking the boardwalk and the marsh boardwalk, playing at the coolest putt putt course we know of, and driving through Assateague to see the horses, we are tired at the end of the day!

Scrap Happy!

Who needs professionals?

I take my baby boy to the studio to get his picture taken every month as close to the 9th as I can. The last 2 months, I had the same photographer, who had the hardest time getting him to smile! So, this month, I decided to just take the pictures of him myself. I waited until the sun was going down, made sure he had a full belly and enough sleep, and took him out in the backyard. I was armed with a toy, my camera, and my wonderful mommy powers. I know his very favorite songs, and the funny voices that will make him look at me in adoration. But none of that mattered. Once I had him in the great outdoors, sitting in the most interesting of grass, he was totally sidetracked with God's creations and hardly noticed my cute little songs and I were even there. Long story short, I took him out twice overall this week. I clicked just over 60 photos. The second day wasn't planned as a photo shoot, but since he looked so adorable I had to leave him in the care of his sister for a few seconds and run in to get the camera. I was able to get a few more keepers the second day. A big part of that is because I had the help of his sister, who I positioned behind me.
So, will I take his picture next month. Oh, undoubtedly! But it won't be his "monthly" photo. I'll leave that to others. Why? Mostly because I already know that it's going to be impossible to choose between all these pictures I took. I'm already envisioning several pages with a collage of pictures taken those 2 days. Yawning, making his angry face as he pulls out the grass, (he was mimicking me pulling weeds. He thought that was the funniest thing!) leaning to look around me at his sister, his serious expression as he looked at the world...yeah, I think this is going to be more expensive than Penny's.

Scrap Happy!

Princess Camp and scrapping

Last week was my 3rd Princess Camp. I started this from an idea my daughter had when she was 4 and now we have camp once a year. I always take a lot of pictures. I have a system where I clear my memory card before camp, so that I have enough room. I have learned a lot in 3 years of hosting camp, but I still make mistakes. This year, even my new rechargable batteries ran out and I didn't have my backups charged. I had to use regular batteries, which of course don't last as long. Although I had put my pre camp photos onto a disk, I hated to erase them and figured there would be enough rooom on my memory card. I ended up filling up my card during the photo shoot on Princess Dress up day! Then I ended up hurrying to clear my precamp photos while the girls waited to get their pics taken. Poor planning!

Besides that, it was a great week! A lot of planning, a lot of work, but worth it all! I had a lot of help. It seems like the longer I do this, the more help I have needed and received. I am very, very thankful.

Now that Princess Camp is over, I have a little more free time, and was able to catch up on the baby's album that I have for his professional pictures! The last time I went in to get pictures, we did over half of them in his diaper in their tub prop. They turned out so cute, that those are the ones I ended up getting! So much for the cute 4th of July outfit I brought him in! I was able to use bath stickers and make a really cute 2 page spread. It just so happens that I had paper that perfectly matched the background in the picture, so this is one of my favorite pages in a while. I would post it here, but it has his name in the title "Rub a dub.....in the tub!" and I'm funny about posting my kid's names online. I won't do it. I used up every bath sticker I had, bubbles galore. It was a lot of fun since I am usually a sticker miser.

I'm starting a princess camp digital album, and now to get caught up on the kids books! Whew! I took albums on our beach vacation once and got all caught up in the evenings after I put my daughter to bed. Unlike at home, I don't have a million things to do in the evening on vacation, and if I were going to choose the one thing I love to do, that's what it would be. So why not spend my vacation that way?!

Scrap Happy!

Be Discreet!

Ok, so every mommy has taken the photo where you see the baby bum, right? My daughter went outside when she was 3 or 4 in nothing but a pair of rain boots. You better believe I took a picture of that! But I had her turn her back to me and place her arm across her bum, so she isn't showing anything. When I put it into her album, I made sure to use the photo corners so that we can remove it from her album and put it in a safe place if we need to. In the future, I'm aware that she might be embarrassed of that photo. My mom has a photo of me dancing around in nothing but a pair of sunglasses, which I am wearing on my waist! I was 2. But I was so mortified of that picture, and always kept it hidden away. It wasn't until I had children that I could see how innocent and funny that picture is.

I've been like this from day one with both of my kids. I didn't want their gender showing in photos of their birth! I just don't think it's necessary! Even when I take pictures of my cuties in the bath tub, I always make sure I cover their gender. I used a washcloth up until now, but found that a rubber ducky worked well for this picture of my little guy totally relaxing in his bath.

I don't know if many parents take pictures of their kids on the big potty, but for me that was a HUGE milestone in my daughter's life and I couldn't pass up a shot of her going to the bathroom like a big girl! Once again, nothing is showing, but her proud little face has a big smile on it. She knew she was making mommy happy! (It's in her album, but probably has corners.)

There is also the classic photo of baby lying on their belly, sans clothes. I took my infant's photo from the side, and she isn't in focus. All you notice about the picture is her adorable smile!

There are a lot of weirdos out there. Be careful what pictures we take of our kids. Be considerate of their feelings as they age, and think of how they might feel later if someone comes across that picture on your camera.

And to the loving relatives out there who might not think a thing of taking pictures of their nieces, nephews, grandchildren, etc. while they aren't fully dressed. "They're just cute and little!" you might say. Of course you would never want to offend your loved ones, so ask the parent before you click that photo of the children playing in the tub. I personally feel that people should ask me if they want to take a photo of my kids fully clothed! (Not relatives and close friends, but anyone outside of that circle.)

Scrap Happy!

Vacation

Last summer, we went on a vacation to California. Here are some of the photos, sideways and regular, of pages that I completed. No, these are not all of the pages I did! Not by a long shot!

Lombard Street : When getting photos here, I noticed that a lot of tourists were stopping and getting their picture taken at the very bottom of the street. In fact, I took a picture there as well. Once I did, I realized that you couldn't see the road at all hardly! So, we walked across the street and had our picture taken by another tourist. If you feel bad asking someone to take your picture, then just offer to take theirs. Usually, they will immediately offer the same. I wanted to put all of my photos of Lombard St. onto one page. How did I do that? Clever cropping! I drew my own wiggly road and used a wedding sticker for the car. Sometimes I crop my stickers to fit what I want. This is one of those times.

I'm trying to show the textured paper which I used to cover most of this page. I also had taken a pic of the street sign, and cut it out for the center of my page! (My placing of the road sign also cleverly blocked a bright, red "Wrong way/Do not Enter" sign that was at the bottom of Lombard.)

The Golden Gate Bridge: This was such an easy page! I didn't even use a sticker! I just used a page from a vacation pallet from CM, and wrote my title with two contrasting colored pens.

The Redwoods: I had PAGES of photos from the awesome redwoods. To keep them all tied together, and because I didn't have "redwood" themed stickers, I used natural pages, and some vellum with leaves on it. I have had this vellum literally for years. I had no idea what to use it for until this. It pays to hang on to your papers. On each page, I didn't use much else, just leaf stickers, and I matted pictures here and there. I fixed up this title, by using a tag sticker, cutting a green paper "leaf" and putting a title sticker over it all.

The Beach: This focuses on a page element, rather than the whole page. I added some letters, stickers and embroidery floss to this tag sticker to make my title.

Here is another pic of a redwood page. Very simple. Simple gets pages completed! Remember that! "Simple Pages, Completed albums."

Scrap Happy!

Patriotic pages

Happy 4th of July! I put some patriotic page layouts on here. I apologize that they are not straight , but blame blogger. I tried 3 times, and I guess you will have to tilt your head! I didn't include some pages, due to the fact that they were upside down!

Here is a title. Using letters of different sizes.

Above and below is a page I did when my brother came home on leave from Iraq. I made dogtags from silver paper and used the inside of silver letter stickers for the chain. To make the camo, I simply tore up paper and fitted it along the side of the page to make a border. I trimmed one edge of it to make it even.

For a trip to an amusement park around the 4t of July, I used scraps of red white and blue paper (and vellum)and punches out stars of various sizes to make borders for each page. I also had a few stars to the center of the page and here and there. I had 5 pages of the amusement park and used this idea throughout all 5.

For this BBQ on the 4th page, I kept with the red, white and blue theme, but used a red check instead. This gave my page a picnic feel.

I used black pages for this last layout. The way the pictures are slanted makes it fun~! I took the sparkler pictures during the day, and I think that's why you can see them so well. These fireworks are die cuts, but you could easily make fireworks out of paper. I decorated my fireworks with a pen to make them a little more exciting.

God Bless America! Celebrate and Scrap Happy!

Amusement Park Pictures

Tis the season for amusement parks! We went this week, and I have some picture tips and ideas here for you! I always like to get a family picture. This means I have to ask a random stranger to take it. First, I have us stand in the area where I want the picture taken. If you have time to be picky, look for one with a huge camera. This shows you that they must know what they are doing. I like to get a picture either right as you enter, full of excitement and hair that is not yet windblown, or towards the end of the day, when it's still pretty light out but the lights have just been turned on. This makes for a festive picture.

I like to play with my camera in lines. This picture was taken while in line, by my husband.

Here's an action shot of my little girl, hanging on tight! I took this shot almost every time she came around to make sure I'd get a keeper.

Here's a posed shot. The lighting was favorable and she looked so cute!

I zoomed in on my husband and baby boy for this one. I was in line to ride with my daughter. I don't even think they knew I was getting their picture. I liked how they were interacting.

Here is my daughter in line, and in her own little world.

While waiting for the ride to start, I had taken a couple pictures of my daughter and husband smiling at me. For this one, I had the brilliant idea to make it look like they were actually RIDING on the ride. They were good sports, and it made them laugh for the picture, too.

This isn't even a ride, but doesn't it look like my boy is waiting for it to start and zoom off?

The cutouts. Ok, what is the point of this? Well, last year, we took a picture of Daddy in the "Andy" cutout. Once you take a picture, my daughter thinks it's a tradition, and runs to pose as soon as she sees a familiar prop. It did turn out to be adorable!

This picture actually IS a tradition. I take this picture of my daughter every year. It's cool to look back and see how much she grew. It was so much fun to take my son to Storybook Forest and hear his excited little noises as we walked through. He liked it more than the rest of the Park.

Other tips:

When an attendant comes around to check your seat belt, don't hesitate to ask them to take a picture of you on the ride. I've never had one tell me no.

Carry your camera and extra batteries, film, memory card in a small case right on your person. Make sure it's hands free.

If you want to plan ahead, have your family wear colors that will go together and not clash. This makes it easier to scrapbook later and you all look like you belong together. One year, we wore red white and blue. This made for fun pages and amusement parks are the epitome of summertime, as are the patriotic colors!

On the other hand, I like to wear bright colors on my daughter so that she is easy to spot when she is climbing up tall nets and running across bridges and the like. These make for fun pictures, too. (especially with cotton candy in the shot!)

Scrapbooking amusement park pictures can be a challenge, since it can be hard to find stickers that match your theme. You will probably have to think outside of the box. I know for a fact that Creative Memories doesn't make amusement park stickers any more. Try to match your clothes, and remember that stars always work with amusement park pics.

Scrap Happy!

Live, Love and Leave a Legacy

A friend of mine went to heaven this week. She was a mother, and not much older than I am. I find myself staring and thinking. It's hard to grasp the loss of her, since she was such a presence. I can still hear her laugh! She has left a giant Krissy sized hole, especially to her kids, who are in their young teens. Kris was an awesome scrapbooker. I enjoyed looking through her albums, as she had a gift. She was also very up to date on her kid's albums, even though she started scrapbooking I want to say less than 6 years ago. She has left countless memories in those books for her children, and they have already realized what a treasure that is. I have to say that this has been another life lesson on sharing your love, because you just never know how long you have left on earth to tell people how much they mean to you. I don't know how long I will have with my kids to leave an impression on them how important they are to God. I care that they have scrapbooks to enjoy now, and cherish later. I want to do my best at continuing that for them, so that they will have something that they can hold after I'm gone. It's something that will remind them how important they are to me.

I realize that this may be a bit of a downer, and I'm sorry. But while I'm sad, I'm also inspired and I hope that you will be inspired to create lasting memories for your kids, as well as capturing those memories in photos and laying them out like a story of your life that needs to be told.

Try to Scrap Happy!

Step by Step Scrapbooking

I decided to take the day off today and scrapbook. I asked my husband yesterday if he would mind being in charge of the kids so I could. After church, and grocery shopping, Oh...and lunch, I finally sat down to scrapbook. As you may imagine, I was not able to scrap uninterrupted, but I still managed to get 5 pages done. The hardest part was just starting! While I scrapped, I thought of my blog, and took pictures of my work in progress. If you follow these simple steps, you can get your photos into albums eventually! 1. I lay out all my pictures on pages, to see how they fit and which pictures will go together.

2. I crop, usually just cutting off background things that take away from what I want the focus of the picture to be. If it distracts, it's out of there!

3. Now I go through my stickers and papers and pick out any that I think I may want to use on this page. I kind of get an idea of what I'm going to do either the step prior to this, or as I'm looking at embellishments. I usually chose my papers based on what my daughter is wearing in the photos. However, this is my daughter meeting my son, so I went all blue!!!

4. It's time to put it all together! I use my tape runner to secure the papers I've chosen and my photos to the page. Use enough tape so that the pictures won't move around. For a 4x6 photo, I like to use tape in 6 places.(as shown here.)

5. Paper and pictures are on. Now it's the fun part! Stickers!

6. You don't need too much. I just used a title sticker and pins. I used my pen to draw stitches around what will be my journalling block.

I dressed up my title sticker by punching out a circle of the dragonfly paper and putting it under the title sticker.

7. It is really important to journal. I like to save all my journalling for later. One quiet day, I just sit down and journal all the pages I have already scrapped. Sometimes it takes several days, but I like doing them all at once so I don't forget what I mentioned and end up repeating myself.

If I were to set aside an hour a day to scrapbook, I know I could catch up on my daughter's album .

Scrap Happy!