Memorabilia

I first want to apologize that most of these pictures are sideways. Blame Blogspot! That said, I don't have time to mess with them, so tilt your head sideways a little and you should be fine!
I don't save everything, but there are little things that I want to keep in my daughter's scrapbook, and there are several ways to do this. Above is a page I did of our trip to Disneyland. I wanted to show off our cute little daily passes, so I laid them out on the side of the page. In the mickey punch, I wrote which pass was whose. I also made a neat shaped pocket for our fantasmic passes. We saved our cute driver's licences because that's something you don't get at Disney World. I also included a picture of us since this is the final page in the book.

The pages above show my daughter's birthday invitation (I always save one) and some of the decorations. (part of her pinata and some streamers.) This is the first time I saved decorations in an album. I just added it right to a CM page. With Creative memories, you can add things like this to the page because their pages are buffered and that stops the acid and lingin from traveling to photos that might be on the same page. That said, on the page below, I didn't want to include the actual invitation to my daughter's graduation because they smelled so strongly and also had glitter on them. I don't like mixing glitter with photos. So I scanned and printed the invitation onto scrapbooking paper. It looks just like the original.

On the picture below, I wanted to include a "baseball card" , so I made a little pocket out of a sticker packet. Creative Memories sticker packets are supposedly photo safe, so I use them to keep little things in.

Here is yet another idea on how to make a pocket for brochures and things. I used an alphabet sticker packet and cut it into a large pocket. I put this right on a page and covered it with a page protector. To dress up the sticker packet pocket (try saying that 3 times!) I simply added some stickers to it.

Here is another example of a sticker packet as a pocket. This way, if I need to get this program out to look something up, I can. Before I put the program in this album, I scanned and printed the song title and list of the girls dancing with my daughter onto bright pink, photo safe paper to add to the pages of her dancing. The bright pink was so that it would match the page design I had for her dance pages.

One more way to hold your tickets or other small things, is just to adhere them directly onto the page, as I did with this circus ticket. I can only recommend that if you are using a CM album though.

Creative Memories used to sell big pages (good for certificates and drawings) and also pocket pages (which I liked for birthday cards and brochures.) You still may be able to find them online. Before Ebay, I would check the CM website under clearance or while supplies last. Pictures of portrait pages and pocket pages are shown below.

I hope this has encouraged you to keep those small tokens that will fit into an album. It can be hard to know how to contain them, but with a little thought, you can!

Scrap Happy!

We are all unique

I took this picture on Easter Day. I wanted a picture of her looking at this glass trinket because it means a lot to me. I loved to look at it when I went to my Great-Aunt's, and one day, she gave it to me! I only bring it out at Easter now. This picture won't be going into her album, but I do like it. It tells a lot about my daughter. How silly she is for one! Can you tell she's smiling? Her smile reaches her eyes. The other thing is the stickers all over her hands! She just does that! The "bracelet" was a set of beads we found for sale. They had them at the craft store in the beading section. They have them on clear bands all grouped together. Her wrists are so tiny, that it fit her! So, she wears it as a bracelet!

Here's what's going on in my life, as far as scrapbooking goes! I did finally get started on my vacation in December, but I just keep stalling out. I have everything laid out on the table downstairs in the basement, ready to go. My husband is working on a project for our kitchen, so he has started to bring items in for that and lay them on the table right next to my pictures. So, now they have wood dust all over them. I have to move my scrapbooking area for now. I have brought a table up to the office on the 3rd floor, and now I just need to move my supplies up here. The only problem with scrapping up here is that it's right next to my daughter's room and I may keep her up. Yes, she's an only child and not used to a lot of noise when she sleeps! But I need to have a place to work, a place where I can lay everything out and leave it out until I get caught up! My goal is to be caught up by June. By then, I'll have pictures from my daughter's birthday party that will need scrapped, so I won't be comepletely out of things to scrapbook, don't worry! Not with the amount of pictures I take!

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Blossom

I created this page with the new blossom pack. It's paper fits perfectly on a 12x12 CM page, but I cut it to fit just half of this one. I made a tag with the matching stickers, which are thicker than your average sticker. I matted the sticker with a piece of paper and cut it out with zig zag scissors. Then I punched a hole in the top and threaded thin strips of paper through the hole. I used it as a title by using letter stickers. The tag was really the only page element, and I love how it turned out!

These pictures came about because my mom always used to take our picture in front of her Azalea bushes in the spring. She took my daughter's picture there last year and wanted to stick with the tradition. So this is a sentimental page!

What you mean to us

At my Mom's 60th birthday party, I made sure to get a picture of every guest. This is something I always do at my daughter's parties. Next, I handed journaling blocks and a CM pen to them after taking their picture, and asked them to write something to my mom. I've learned that people like to have some kind of guideline with this activity, so I asked them to write something they had learned from her, or something sweet about her and how much she meant to them. It's very important to collect them before people leave the party. They always want to take the paper and write later, but in my experience, you probably will never get that person's completed journaling box back, so strongly encourage them to finish it before leaving that day.

I then put together a 7x7 album for her, including the pictures of the party first, and then placing the journaling boxes with a picture of the person who wrote it. It's one of my favorite albums I ever made! It was relatively easy, too. I used the Paradise Storybox, and it comes with paper and journaling boxes that are perfectly coordinated.

I gave it to her for Mother's Day, and she loved it!

Scrap Happy!

P.S. I answered your questions as best as I could in my own comment. See the comments in the blog below this one!

Once a Year

Once a year, I take pictures of my daughter's little feet and hands. I also stamp her hands and feet to put on the page. Looking at the first set of footprints I have of her, and comparing them to the way her feet look now just blows me away! She has gotten so much bigger! I love her little hands and feet! I time this page so that it's right after her birthday.

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A Flower from my Girl

Hello! Isn't this a beautiful tulip? When my daughter gave it to me the other day, I thought it was so gorgeous, and would live so much longer if I took a picture of it! It's currently my profile picture on My Space. What a sweet little gift!

After I put my daughter to bed tonight, I grabbed an hour to work on her album. I didn't feel like starting with Christmas, so I skipped ahead to March and did a fun 2 page spread, using journaling boxes, matting a few of the pictures and using a couple stickers. It's cute!

Tips of the Day: The pages I did today were of an event that my husband took my daughter to. Since I wasn't even there, I simply added the journaling boxes, and I have asked him to fill them in. I'm really into using journaling boxes lately, especially since I have been journaling later, rather than at the time I do the page. Each pack of perfect fit paper comes with coordinating journaling blocks, and you can find them in the storyboxes as well. I like that they have different sizes, so that I can fit them to my page.

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My Wish

When I heard the words to Rascal Flatts' MY WISH, I knew that I wanted to include it in an album for my daughter. While at the beach, my husband clicked pictures of us here and there, and I ended up doing a 2 page spread with not much more than a few matted pictures of her and I, and the words to this beautiful song. That was all it needed. It brings people to tears. (me especially!)

Gramma's letter

A letter from my gramma had me quietly reflecting today. That is, after I bawled my eyes out. I seldom just burst into tears, although I tear up pretty often. I just love my Gramma so much and she basically was telling me that this was her last letter to me! Not because she is angry with me, but just because she is finding it so hard to write letters now. Since she moved across the country when I was in elementary school, we wrote to each other to keep in touch. We wrote often when I was younger, and after I had my girl 4 years ago, a lot less. Besides by that time, writing had already become difficult for her, due to her hands shaking and her eyes failing. But I just cannot fathom the void I will feel all the way across the states, because I only see her every couple of years now.
After I burst into tears, my daughter came to my side and she was crying, too, even though she didn't know why I was. I tried to tell her that I was just afraid my gramma wouldn't be around for very much longer. She went to get me a tissue, and we cried together for a minute. Later, I was replacing the pictures in the living room frames, putting Christmas photos in them and I came across a page of my gramma's last visit to Pennsylvania. So I showed it to my daughter, who probably doesn't remember Gramma, since she is so young.

The end of the letter was what got me. She wrote for me to save this letter, so that I'll have something to remember her.

My mom, an avid scrapbooker, is currently working on an album of Gramma's life. I'm so glad! I think that my gramma will really enjoy looking at it, and finding herself again in the black and white pictures of that young girl.

Will I save the letter? Absolutley. And I will most likely cry every time I read it. Will I need a letter to remember her? Not at all. She is in my heart. :)

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Please come home soon

In a lazy moment today, my 4 year old went over to the cabinet where we keep her albums and chose one from among the 10 I have made chronicling her life. It was no easy feat for someone who weighs just under 35 pounds to pull out her 12x12 album, so I helped her and asked if she wanted to look through it together. We read it like a storybook; a storybook all about her. What better way to build a child's self esteem?

We turned to a page from April of this past year, 2006. It is a happy page, done in various shades of brown. The title, made to look like dogtags, reads," Fuzzy/ Hero". This is the page about my brother's homecoming from the war in Iraq. It was just a short visit, but this was the very first day of that leave, and you know how full the days look ahead on the very first day of a vacation or visit! The pictures show my brother and my daughter interacting, completely blissful to be together again. I didn't have much journaling on the page, and as I finished reading, she leaned over and gave his picture a kiss.

I don't have to tell you how it felt to witness this. There has never been a period of shyness when my daughter sees her Uncle, although they really don't get to spend much time together. I credit this to the pictures she has of them together, having a good time. They keep her familiar with him. The reason he joined the Army in the first place was because of her existance. He wanted her to be able to look up to him. He wanted to make something of his life. Well, he has made something of his life. And not only is his niece proud of him, his whole family is proud.

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Harvest Party

Yesterday evening, I took my daughter to a harvest party! It was so much fun! I couldn't believe how big it was. Thinking that we would only stay there for a little while, and get home for bedtime, I was greatly mistaken! We were there until closing, and my little one still didn't want to leave!

I took along my video camera, knowing that with all of the running around, it might be impossible to get a good picture of my daughter, and that I could toss whichever pictures didn't turn out, rather than wasting my film. That is exactly what happened, although I did find myself taking even more pictures than normal, knowing that I could pick and choose from the best!

The party had carnival style games, such as basketball, ski-ball, fishing and pick a duck. At each booth, they also gave out candy. They also had candy hidden in a huge amount of leaves, which the kids took turns going through! On top of that, they had air filled giant slides, and bouncy houses, bingo, free food, drinks and funnel cakes, and face painting! They had separate sections for preschoolers and older kids, but since my daughter is 4, she was able to participate in many things. My favorite thing there was the life sized Candyland game! Kids drew giant, colored cards, and moved themselves instead of a token, along a game board by jumping from one colored square to the next! The candy props were higher than my daughter's head! Best of all, near the end, the cards all say to go to the candy house, where of course, the kids pick some candy. Since my daughter was first, I think she felt like she won. It was created in a way to make all the kids playing feel like winners! When I asked my girl what was her favorite thing about the party, the answer was not at all what I expected to hear! She said," Eating chips with you, Mommy."

Editor's note! All these pictures were accidentally erased by my husband with one wrong push of the button! They live on only in my head!

Tip of the Day: Christmas is near! This is the time to beat the rush and get your personalized Christmas cards printed. Sam's club prices look pretty good, and I have used Walmart in the past, and was pleased with both the quality and the value.

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Please respond!

Because I take so many pictures and do so many albums for my only child, I find myself thinking," What am I doing!?" Is there a point where you must realize that you can't save every moment? Am I taking too many photos? What am I going to do with all of these albums? We will need a U-haul just for her albums when she moves out if I continue to create 2 (or 3 like last year) for each year of her life. She will have 24 albums when she is 12! What do you think? I love to take pictures of her, and I admit, I am trying to keep track of everything. I also love to scrapbook them! But when is it too much? Is she going to think the world revolves around her? When is she going to have the time to look through all of these albums? I'm happy with the one album I have that covers my entire childhood, from birth to graduation! Sure, I don't know when I said my first word, took my first step, or funny things I said as a kid. But is all of that really going to matter? I know that having these albums is bound to give her a sense that she is loved. However, I don't want her to forget anything that didn't make it into the album. Meaning, I don't want her only memories to be the ones in the pictures. I hope that she won't ever be embarrassed that I made so many and wrote down everything. I hope that she will know how priceless she is to me. I realize that eventually, the pictures will slow. She will go off with her friends and I will be lucky to get a shot of her on her birthday and Christmas. I know that this time won't last forever. Maybe that's why I'm holding onto it so tightly!

Please let me know what you think!

Scrap Happy!

childhood moments

I couldn't help but take pictures of my daughter playing at the creek with her friends yesterday! They found a frog and everyone got a chance to touch it's slimy, wet skin! The look of delight on my daughter's face as she pet it, was priceless! Then there was the log that everyone walked across one at a time. She did very well in her flip flops! Sometimes I wish that I could go invisible, to take pictures without letting the other person know I was taking them. She tends to either turn away or stop what she is doing to pose for me. I wanted to get that look of pleased concentration that her face showed as she held her arms out and crossed that log, all by herself!

Tip of the Day: I have been toying around with the idea of doing a page with cartoon- like qualities. I'm not sure how to go about that, but it is a novel idea, and one I have never used in my album before!

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To a Beautiful Person

If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.

If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.

He sends you flowers every spring.
He sends you a sunrise every morning.
Whenever you want to talk, He listens.
He can live anywhere in the universe, but He chose your heart.
Face it friend, He is crazy about you!
God didn't promise days without pain,
laughter without sorrow,
sun without rain,
but He did promise strength for the day,
comfort for the tears,
and light for the way.

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!

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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

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First Bike

Who doesn't remember their first bike? Mine was green, well, not just green, this thing was bright green, with a banana seat. I named it the Green Sparkle. I learned to ride it right away, the first day I had it. I can still remember learning how. My Dad had me out in our slanted driveway, and I could ride to the end of it, but had to watch out for the road. I was older than kids that get their first bike these days. I bring this up because my daughter recently got her first bike with her birthday money. She insisted upon a bright pink Princess Bike, that is really tiny! It has training wheels, of course and we bought the matching helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. We took her to an empty parking lot to try it out. It was evening, but still plenty light, just right for taking pictures! I was able to capture that look of sheer determination on her face when she had to step on those pedals with all of her might to get herself over a bump! She was stopping every few minutes to use her new water bottle, and I captured her very first bike induced boo boo as well. These pictures really do hold that night in my memory. She was so proud of herself and I believe the pictures show that. She wore herself out, and that close up of her all flushed and sweaty shows that.

Selling Gramma for Pennies

My friend is in the E-bay business of buying stuff from yard sales and the like, and selling it for much more. She had purchased the contents of an abandoned storage unit and was surprised to find letters and photos of the family. Getting drawn into this family's story, she was wishing there were some way to contact them, so that she could return the photos. Of course, there isn't. She goes to estate sales, flea markets, and other places really regularly and she told me that she often comes across boxes of pictures, selling for a quarter because no one knows who the people are in the pictures. If you are reading this, you are probably doing something to preserve your pictures and the memories of the people they have captured. Good for you! There are so many people out there who are not doing this, just taking pictures and leaving them in a box that will one day be tossed out or sold at a yard sale. If you happen to be in a conversation with someone and they talk about their pictures being in a box or the envelopes they came in, please refer them to me, or help them get started yourself at preserving their pictures. It's so sad that they have taken these pictures and no one is enjoying them!

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Princesses on Ice

Originally written on the 15th, but not published until the 21st!

We took our daughter to Princesses on Ice today. It was so beautiful! I'm so glad that I have an excuse to go and see these things! My daughter gives me that "in"! My fave part was when Gaston sliced the ice, sending up a spray of shaved ice at some of the observers! It was a 2 hour show, and included every single princess. Aladdin and Jasmine flew on the magic carpet and all of the princesses skated with their princes. It was really nice. We drove all the way to WV to see it because we missed it here. It was so worth it! Our seats were terrific! My daughter dressed as Snow White, who was her favorite of the day. My only regret was that she had to go to the bathoom at the end, right before Cinderella tried on the glass slipper! So, we missed that! We got back and I didn't want to walk in front of everyone at this point, so we watched the end of the show from the floor. But this was actually a blessing in disguise, because my daughter was right there when the characters walked around sayng hi to some of the kids, so she got to meet some royalty today. I hope my pictures turn out!

Tip of the Day: The Frosty Prints paper pack, which is being discontinued, has some paper in it that looks just like cracked ICE! I can't wait to use it on these pages! Vellum would also make nice ice! Does anyone else have suggestions on making "ice"? I know that there is a kind of stone that you can use, but I wouldn't want to use anything that bulky on my pages since I use my real photos!

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Family togetherness

Today, my little niece was dedicated at church! I was able to take some cute pictures of the new family and our Pastor. I also was able to capture a cute picture of my daughter holding her tiny cousin, and I caught her before she slid off her lap! It was also a special Sunday because it was Palm Sunday! Our church hands out palm fronds, and I got a cute picture of my sister holding my daughter as my sweet little girl swatted her other aunt over the head with her palm frond!
My brother, fresh from Iraq, regaled us with stories of getting smacked by palm fronds still very attatched to the trees as they drove by! Best of all was having the family in church together. I'm telling you the truth, our section of the church sounded good this morning during worship! I miss singing with my family in church.

Tip of the Day: At this last workshop, 3 of us did the same page design on completely different pages, and it worked out great for all of them. The idea is taken from a french style bulletin board. It is a board with ribbons criss-crossing it, and the place the ribbons cross each other is usually secured by a pin. Then you can stick the corners of papers and photos under the ribbon to display them!
Changing this for scrapbooking; We used 1/2 inch thin paper strips and criss-crossed the page with them, all of us using different things instead of the pins at the crossings. I used buttons the first time, one of us used flor'de france for her stay at the Port Orlean's Resort at Disney, and the other used snowflake stickers for her page of her son because it matched his pajamas.

Scrap Happy!