Love Letters

Around this time every year, I write a letter to my daughter. I call it a "Love Letter from Mama". In it I write how I feel about her and the little things that we do together that no one else shares, like princess kisses and praying in bed each morning before we get up. I'm so glad that I write these things down because they change from year to year and even from month to month! These are the things that I don't want to forget! I create these albums mainly for my daughter, but in a big way, I create them for myself as well. I love to look back and see the things she used to say and the little things she did . I love to read the different nicknames we've had for each other, and remember the way her dark little eyes used to look at me when I'd come into her room in the middle of the night to comfort her when she was a little chubby baby.

Tip of the Day: In years past, I have changed the way I do my love letter, but in general, I have a photo of us on the same page as my letter. You can make lines on the page or use lined paper from Creative Memories. Last year, I had a professional photo taken of the 2 of us looking at each other. I put the 8x10 photo on one page and the letter facing it. All I did to decorate the letter page was to use heart stickers and create a little envelope with a piece of heart paper sticking out of it. In mini red letter stickers, I wrote the title, "Love Letter from Mama."

Scrap Happy!

The future

After all this talk about preserving the past, I thought it would be timely to put some thought into the future as well. Our children are the future, as everybody knows. Even if you don't have children yet, you can write down your hopes and dreams for them to read later. For grandparents, write to your grandkids. Aunts can write to their nieces and nephews. This is a personal part of yourselves that you are leaving with them. It's always good to have goals. When I think of what I would dream for my daughter, I think of both serious things, like saving herself for marriage, as well as silly things, such as her becoming a violinist. It's important for you to write down the hopes and dreams you have for your children. A good place to do this can be on a page where you put just one picture, of the 2 of you snuggling, and fill the rest of the page with journalling.

Tip of the Day: another idea that goes along with this is to ask your children to either dictate or write down what hopes and dreams they have for their own future. This can be as simple as what they want to be when they grow up. For instance, my daughter wants to be a singer and a ballet dancer! You could pair this with your hopes and dreams for them. Write it on the page and include a picture of them singing with a michrophone, or wearing their little tutu. (See, I just got a page idea for pictures I'd already taken! Whoo hoo!)

Scrap Happy!!!

Save What's Behind You!

I've praised the merits of cropping your photographs in this Blog before. But there is a time and a place for everything! I love looking at the background of old pictures. Is that really what carseats were like when I was a baby? Looking at what's behind your subject can tell you a lot about the time of the year, the occasion, even the decade that it was taken in! So, don't be too quick to crop those old pictures! Even now, when I am cropping current photos, sometimes I leave things from the background in because I want my daughter to be able to look back and see how the carseats looked in her infancy!

Tip of the Day: When I am sorting photos for other people's albums, the backgrounds often help me to determine where or when it was taken more than the people in the photo! If you are doing an album of someone elses, or even your own photos, make sure you search the background for clues. Some things I've found in the background that help me determine when pictures were taken have been a calendar, Christmas decorations, the color of the leaves on the trees through a window, a pack of diapers, balloons, and framed photographs.

Scrap Happy!

An Album for Daddy

A couple of years ago, my Dad came back from a visit with his parents carrying a scrapbook his mother had made for him. It contained pictures from his childhood through his adult life. She had collected articles from the newspaper and everything. The pages were now amber, and she had used glue to secure them to the page, and sometimes ordinary tape. I loved looking at that book and seeing drawings he had done as a child. I had never seen most of the photos. Of course, I didn't waste any time getting them out of there and into a Creative Memories album! Judging the amount of photos, I decided to use an 8 1/2 x 11 album. I used black pages because most of the photos were black and white. I also used black portrait sleeves to hold the newspaper clippings and things that he had made out of construction paper, just because I didn't like them being next to the photos. If you don't know what a portrait sleeve is, it's a page that has a clear pocket the same size as the page on both sides. It has a piece of paper in it, which you can remove. I gave my dad the finished album for Christmas, and he loved it. I like it because I know that his pictures are safe!

tip of the day: use subdued colors to compliment your photos, especially when working with sephia. You probably won't want to use a bunch of cutesy stickers if you are trying to keep it true to the time the photos were taken. Of course, CM has packs to help you. Heritage stickers, all different decades, starting in the 40's, and a legacy paper pack.

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Welcome to the Family

My brother got married a year ago to a girl we had just met! They had a quick courtship of 4 months! But when you know it's the one, and you are about to be shipped off to war at any moment, there isn't any reason to dilly dally about it, I guess! We are lucky, because she is great! She is better at keeping in touch than I am. We can and do talk on the phone for an hour a week, if not longer. They had their baby in November, and at her request, I sent an address list of the family so that she could send out birth announcements. She saw the names, but being so new to the family, she didn't know who the people were and how they were related. She mentioned this to my cousin, Rachel.Instead of telling her who they were, my cousin decided to make her a "Welcome to the Family" photo album! What a great idea! For instance, she will have a page with a photo of my Aunt Cricket on it and write who she is and how she is related to my brother. (Mom's younger sister) On the pages following, she will put my cousin, Kelly and his wife and kids, as well as my other cousins on the pages after that. I love that idea! I think it would be nice to give that to any new member of the family! What a wedding present! I would love to have one of these for my daughter, because our family is spread out across 6 states, all the way across the country! I like her to know who I'm talking about when I talk about family members, even ones that she has never met.

Tip of the Day: If I did a book like this I would start off with a family tree. If you use a 7x7 album, I would put Aunt Cricket on one page, Kelly and Sara, his wife on the next. The kids would be on the next page. If you use a 12x12 album, you could probably make a 2 page spread with Aunt Cricket and her kids and their kids. Using a 7x7 might make it easier to add on if someone has a baby.

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Tracking down the pictures

When I was younger, professional pictures were a luxury for our family. Sometimes, when my mom would get a picture taken, she would send it to the grandparents, because they lived so far away, and she wouldn't even get to keep a copy! As the years go by, some of the pictures have made their way back to us. It's so neat to see photos of yourself that you don't even remember! My Aunt JoAnne made us a calendar one year filled with photos of the family. Since she had taken the pictures with her camera, we had never seen them! How cool it is to remember the birthday parties and backyard BBQs that went with those pictures!

Tip of the Day: Don't limit yourself to the pictures that you have been given. Ask around to see if you can get your hands on any more photos. Take them to get photocopied or scan them on the computer. Then return them! Who might have possession of these photos? Aunts, especially great-aunts, grammas, even cousins. Send out a letter to everyone letting them know what you are looking for, why, and include your promise to return the originals promptly. They might know of someone who has pictures that you never would have even thought to ask!

Scrap Happy!

Memories of my Grandfather

My Grandfather has been getting increasingly more senile. It's so sad. The last time I talked to my Gramma, she said that he had found pictures from his childhood. They both have saved photos from when they were young. If they ever were to leave me anything, the photos are what I would cherish the most. Sadly, my gramma found Grandad's photos on the floor, torn in half. I never was very close to my Grandfather, but I always wanted to be. He just didn't know how to relate to children. We didn't hug until I was a teenager. His side of the family is shrouded in mystery, to me at least. All I have are the bizzare stories that my Gramma has told me. I would like to have a photo album filled with pictures and what little I know about these people I call family. Someday, I am going to make an album like this for my daughter. I'll include photos from both sides of her family, if I can search some out. I think that she will really appreciate that when she has kids of her own.

Tip of the Day: When working on a heritage album, like the one I just described, be very gentle with the photos! Removing them from an original album can be tough. Creative Memories has a tool called the Multipurpose tool, that works great at getting Photos out of albums, even if they were glued in there!

Scrap Happy!

I think the reason that I'm having so much trouble thinking about what to write is that I haven't been scrapbooking this week. I really want to get to that today, but I have so many things I have to get done just to keep my house organized. Don't think that all I do is run around cleaning, though! I have friends over, go to meetings and lately I've been reading and knitting more than I've been scrapbooking.
I am trying to organize a special contest for my friends and customers to earn free scrapbooking supplies if they participate in my Spring Fling Contest. The main goal is to complete pages and attend workshops. I am still figuring out all of the details, which I hope will be done soon, as my contest starts on the 1st of March! Wow! I can't believe that spring is almost here!

Tip of the Day: So, what can you do with those albums that would hurt your pictures? My Aunt covered an album for me as a wedding gift. It's beautiful, but I can't use it for my photos! Instead, I have placed my engagement, shower and wedding cards in there, very lovingly, so that I can look back through them if I want to.

Scrap Happy!

The last picture

I watched Sky Captain and the World of Tommorrow, a very cute movie. Gweneth Paltrow plays a reporter, who gets to tag a long on the story of a lifetime. She is clicking away with her camera, taking pictures of robots huger than buildings and other amazing things. She ends up losing her extra film and then is extra cautious of the shots she has left. She is seeing all of these absolutely incredible things, and she lifts her camera up to take a picture, and then she sadly lowers it without taking one. Just 2 shots left and she doesn't want to waste them! How often do I feel like that girl! Those of you using digital cameras probably never have that prediciment, but I look at my number of shots left all of the time. I think it's important to always take extra film with you, just in case! I'll leave it to you to find out how she use her final 2 shots. It's as if she realized what was the most important thing to remember, and after all, isn't that what taking pictures is all about?

Tip of the Day: A fun way to make letters: I have used the circle punch, a hole punch and a few creative rounded cuts to make letters. For example, making an "O". Punch a circle, use a smaller hole punch to punch the center, turning it into an "o". Keep your cuts rounded. This has worked best for titles, since the letters tend to be on the large side.

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Trains

Trains are loved most by little boys, and often big boys, too! I myself have a train that travels high around the living room on a suspended track. This train was given to my daughter for Christmas in 2004 by her Pap Pap. When she opened it, I think she was only half as excited as her daddy was! So, I thought I'd share a few ideas dedicated to trains and the boys (and girls) who love them!

Tip of the Day: Train stickers are sold in the toddler trinkets and toys pack, but you can even make your own train on a page pretty easily. My friend did a page for Christmas entitled Babe in Toyland. She created a train out of different colored rectangles of paper, using the circle maker to punch wheels, and connecting the train by hand-drawing connectors. She added a personal touch by punching a square in the engine and putting an extra photo of her son there! She then filled the empty cars with toy stickers found in the pack mentioned above. It looks so cute!
Another idea is how I decorated my daughter's page of her opening her train present and watching it get set up. I used a black page instead of white. I had only 3 pictures, so I saved room for journalling. I drew a train track along the bottom of the page and put a train on it. (using stickers) I wanted the train to have smoke coming out of the stack, so I used some leftover cloud stickers for that. I then used black and white letter stickers to write "CHoo CHoo CHoo" coming out of the smoke stack. I used the white letter stickers to write on the black page and the black letters to write on the white clouds. Result - ADORABLE.

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Worker Bees

Last night's workshop was very productive! We all completed pages, and I personally completed 18 pages! There were only 3 of us, and we were on such a roll (no doubt fueled by the snacks we were munching!) that we kept right on going past 2AM! It was fun! Oldies was the music selection of choice, and except for a few commercials that we could have done without, we all were singing along from time to time! People don't know what they are missing! This is the cool thing to do on a Friday night!

Tip of the Day: My favorite page last night was also my simplist! I had 3 photos of the baby playing with his toes, and I adhered them to the page, drew an outline around them which acted as a mat, and then made a little rectangle decorated with hands and feet stickers, inside which I wrote, " How neat, I found my feet!" That was it! So simple, so cute! By the way, Thanks goes to Hailey who came up with the little ryme to put in the journalling block. Just one of the perks of scrapping with a group of women! Everyone's input is so refreshing and no one gets hurt when you don't take their suggestion.

Scrap Happy!

Workshop night

I have a workshop tonight! I'm excited because I'm really in the mood to scrapbook! I wanted to scrapbook with a friend today, but when her plans changed and she couldn't make it, I just cleaned, baked and watched a Veggie Tales movie with my daughter. So, tonight is my excuse to scrapbook! I may end up working on someone else's album tonight, because I need to get these other albums done, and because I'm still in the laying it out phases of our Disney vacation and I am so weird about doing these pages with other people around. I just want them to be perfect!

Tip of the Day: If you ever decide to do albums for other people, have a list of items you need to start, such as a couple paper packs, stickers, tape refill and the book and page protectors. Add them up and this is what the down payment will be. Decide how much you want to charge per page and give them a written cost sheet. This way, they won't be surprised at the end. This is what I am going to do from now on!

Scrap Happy!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day has come and gone! This year, we kept our daughter with us for our crab dinner, and we all went to the Mall for a special dessert, ice cream! We have given up keeping ice cream in our freezer at home, so ice cream is now a special treat! I took a picture of my husband giving my daughter a rose, and I took a picture with the automatic timer of the 3 of us. This is when a digital camera would come in handy! I can only hope the picture took, since I can't look at it right after I take it. I took so many pictures of my daughter at the parties she attended this year! We made a really cute backpack box for her valentines, so I took a picture of her wearing that, and looking in it for valentines. She enjoyed Valentine's Day immensely this year!

Tip of the Day: Last year, I took just 3 pictures of Valentine's Day. One of her writing valentines, one of her outside the library in her little red dress with her box of valentines, and one of her with some friends from the library party. I used the extra space to keep her valentines. I used an empty CM sticker pack and filled it with her valentines. Then I stuck it to the page, punched out a few hearts in pink and red with the makers and stuck them all around the bottom of the page. Very simple and really cute. Did you know that you can use the CM sticker packs to keep memorabelia in? Well, you can, it's photo safe!

Scrap Happy!

scrapbooking with kids

Yesterday, I had the chance to teach scrapbooking to almost 20 kids and their parents. I love watching kids scrapbook! They see things so differently than we do! As with any craft, they love doing it! Girls of all ages take to scrapbooking right away. The funny thing to me was that while the boys had to be strongly encouraged to participate, once they started, they loved doing it! They didn't ever admit it, but you could see how much fun they were having, especially when it came to using the tools! Boys of all ages catch on to the tools naturally faster than girls. I'm always impressed by the occasional male scrapbooker I come across. Guys are just as good at scrapbooking as girls and they have such a unique perspective!

Tip of the Day: Teach a kid to scrapbook! I have old supplies that I can give to my daughter and let her go to town while I get some scrapbooking of my own accomplished. Save your photos that aren't quite good enough for the album you're working on, or give them the doubles. When working with the kids yesterday, I used the clear photo splits instead of a tape runner. This controlled their tape use, and kept my tape runner from getting all messed up! Watch them as they use tools. Corner rounders and makers are fun for them to use, and pretty sturdy. Most importantly, don't confine their creativity to what you think a page should look like!

Scrap Happy!

Scrapping Something New

As I mentioned yesterday, I have Disney on my mind, since I'm working on that right now! Most people have a favorite vacation spot and go there over and over again. Sometimes it's nice to get the same comfortable pictures, to show that nothing has changed, or on the other hand, to show that tree that used to be a sprout, which now shades the whole pool area! But if you look around a little bit, I'm sure you can find things to catch on film that you have never taken pictures of before. It might even challenge you to try something new! We try something new each day of our Disney vacation! We were challenged to do this because we use the Passporter, a book that includes an area for us to write down little things that happen every day. It prompts you to record your most magical moment, the worst moment, and others as well as "Today we tried_________and the result was______."If you're looking, it's easy to find new things to try! Do a little planning before you go, or pick up a brochure that looks interesting.
We try new rides, (at the beach this year, we rode a speedboat for the first time!)
new restraunts,
fishing, (or anything else that you don't do that often back home)
hunts, ( at Disney, we hunted for all the characters, at the beach this year we hunted for lighthouses.)
and new locations. (one year, we drove to a tiny town nearby O.C. that had been used in a few movies, at Disney, we like to visit and stay at different resorts.)
Well, I think this even doubles as a tip of the day! Scrap Happy!

I'm going to Disney World, well...in pictures!

I am currently working on my Disney pictures, laying out pages so that I can tell how they will work. When I do my Disney vacation, I combine chronological order as well as themed pages, so it can get tricky. I create themed pages for different parks, usually Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, where we spend a lot of time and take the most pictures. I also do themed pages of our resort. I do this because a lot of times I end up taking just random picture here and there, on different days. Since we went during the Christmas season, I took a picture of each park's Christmas tree, so they will all be together, and I took a picture of the gingerbread creations they had at different resorts, so those will all go together. You would think that I would run out of pictures to take, since we go to WDW yearly, but I never do!

Tip of the Day: When working on a trip like this, I first lay out the pictures by pages, then I work on one page at a time, starting from the beginning. On the individual page, I first lay out the pictures, then I crop them, and then I design the page, picking out which stickers and paper I want to use. Finally, I adhere everything to the page. Lastly, I journal. I often save the journalling for another day and just work on designing another page or more. I never show anyone, including my husband, any of the pages until the whole trip is scrapbooked.

But that's just me! Scrap Happy!

Phantom of the Opera

My Mom and I were given Phantom tickets for Christmas and we really looked forward to the show. It was worth the wait! As I watched this beautiful production, I kept catching myself with my mouth open! I kept getting chills, and my mom was crying! "How did they do that?" was the question of the night! I love the music, and I managed to watch the whole show without singing. I have the night locked away in my mind, and it will always be a special memory.

Tips of the Day:
Don't bring a camera! You can't take it in! If you must get a picture, have someone take one of you outside of the theater in front of the sign or marquee.

You can save your tickets and the program and write down your memories so that you won't forget a thing. The programs are thick, so here's an extra tip; if you want to include them in your album, go through them and remove the advertisements, and unnessesary pages. Then use photo tape to stick it to your page, or make a pocket to hold it in.

Scrap Happy!

One month down...

February is here and I have a chance to look back and see how I have been doing with my resolutions. Surprisingly, I have kept up with them pretty well! I'm excited to tell you that I lost weight and fit into my jeans! (all except one pair!) I can wear jeans that I never was able to fit into. I'm happy, but still not satisfied. I have been tackling one thing I want to change per week, and I think it's easier that way. The last week, I ate more snacks, and didn't work on any particular thing I want to change. I think it's important for me to write my goal for the week down.
As for scrapbooking, I have been working on my daughter's album, and am caught up to our trip to Disney World in December. I spent hours last night organizing the trip pictures so that I can start on them. I'm always a little nervous when working on vacation pictures, because I want the pages to be perfect.

Tip of the Day: Do you ever have just 2 or 3 photos from an event, but not a whole lot to journal about? I often make a page combining all the different photos and a rundown from the month. One of my recent combination pages was of 2 of my Aunts who ended up visiting us from Arizona with in a month of each other. I made a page which I titled, "Aunts from Arizona" and I'm so happy with the result! The hardest thing was deciding which color paper I wanted to use. The colors in the 2 groups of pictures weren't the same and I had to use something that would compliment all of them. I used a 3 inch wide strip of paper right across the center of the page so that I had the 2 photos of the one aunt on the top and the photos of the other on the bottom. This helped to gently separate the 2. I used letter stickers for the titling and just 2 southern stickers. It's a very soft page. I love it.

Scrap Happy!

Sick Days

Last night and today, my daughter and husband were sick. Last night was the longest night of my life! While I didn't take any pictures today, I have in the past taken pictures of my feverish little girl. She just seems so sweet and vulnerable when she's sick, and it hurts me, as her mom, to see her like that. But taking photos is my way of recording her life, the good and the bad times. I remember when my little sister was young and my mom took pictures of her in the hospital. She had little bandages over her eyes and she looked like a bug. The pictures are sad, but they are exactly what I remember my life being like at that time. I'm glad she recorded that.

Tip of the day: My mother took the photos of my sister with black and white film. I think that they capture the feelings and hopelessness we felt looking at her in her hospital crib better in black and white, because there are no distractions.
On the other hand, when I took the picture of my daughter, I used color film, and that's what I would recommend. You wouldn't have been able to see her severely flushed cheeks had I used B&W film, and that would have taken so much away from the picture.

On that note, Scrap Happy!

Scrapbooking the Steeler's Super Bowl Win!

I'm so happy that we won the super bowl! We have a group of us that watch the game together every week, so it was really special to be with them for the big game! I decided to let my daughter stay up for the whole game. We usually try to have her in bed with the lights out at 8pm, so I tried to get her to take a nap right after lunch. I held her, read her a book without pictures, and even took her on a car ride. But she never closed her eyes!
Her little friends left to go home to bed around her usual bedtime, and that's when she came in with us to watch what was left of the game. I'm so glad I let her stay up! I now have some wonderful memories of her really watching the game! I was able to get some pictures, of course!!! I have a picture of her with her arms up in the air cheering at the end of the game. I didn't get it on film, but tucked away in my mind is a shot of her pointing at the TV and yelling along with everyone when her guy, Polamalu recovered a fumble. She really does understand a lot more than I realized about football and the Steelers. The general consenses is that Jaelyn won't remember the Steelers winning the Super Bowl, but I disagree. I think that with the help of pictures, she will remember and be happy that she was there when the Steelers took the Bus to the Super Bowl!

Tip of the Day: During one of the games, I took all the kids outside and took their pictures next to a bunch of golden mums we have in our yard. I then made a journalling box by punching out squares of the mums from extra pictures, and making a frame of them in a rectangle shape. I journalled inside the rectangle. It gave a girly feel to a sporty page!
To make it even more personal, I also punched squares of the kid's faces out, one kid to a square, and put one in each corner of the rectangle instead of the mum squares. I get a lot of compliments on that page.

Scrap Happy!

Here we go Steelers!

I am so excited that our hometown team is in Super Bowl XL! I'm a Steeler's fan year round, I'm pretty attatched to certain players, and I love seeing the black and gold all over town! Being a scrapbooking freak, I have to document it! I have been taking some pictures of the fans we cheer with weekly during the playoffs, in fact I was blamed for Jerome's fumble! "Who took that picture?" I also was able to get some pictures from the pep rally at Heinz field. My daughter still isn't old enough to understand exactly what is happening. She recognizes some jersey numbers and players, knows that they are in Detroit, and sings an adorable rendition of "Here we go", but I know she can't possibly understand what the super bowl means! Someday, when she is older, she will. Then she can look back at the photos and see how cute she looked in her Polamalu jersey, and remember all the fun she had playing with her friend Zack while the adults all watched the game.

Tip of the day: Over the years, I've done many pages of us being fans.
*One idea for pages are to copy the black and yellow bands that are on most Steeler jerseys and use that either running across the bottom or top of the page, or lengthwise along the outside edge.
*I saved confetti from the last home game at Three Rivers stadium, and included it right on the page. I often save my ticket stubs and include them on the page of us at the game.
*CM has football stickers, as well as metallic paper, which has a true gold I love to use. I also like the metallic pen set's gold used on black pages.
* Freehand draw your team's logo. I also copied the label of a Heinz ketchup bottle for a page title.
* Titles: Sports fan, Tiny Football Fan, The Love of the Game, Defense-Offence-Fans behind the fence, Cheering for the Home Team!, Luv our Black & Gold!
* places to take pictures of your favorite team or fellow fans:
the stadium, they let you bring in a regular camera, but not a video camera!

Training camp

autograph signings, often there will be a sign or someone telling you that you can't get photos of you with the athlete. However, you are allowed to take pictures while they sign their autograph, so do that. You might even be allowed to go around behind the autograph table and have them take a picture of you as the autograph is being signed. The key is to being fast! They are only trying to keep the line moving!

Charity events

Wherever you normally watch the game

Scrap Happy! Let's Go Steelers!

Starting the new year off right

Happy New Year!
I usually don't make or keep resolutions in the new year, but this year is different! I have the feeling that this year is a clean slate, and a new start. I'm very excited about my resolutions, which I keep adding to! It's easy, because the list is in my head! I of course want to catch up on my daughter's album, get more organized, lose enough weight that my jeans will fit comfortably again.... the list goes on! I have already completely organized my daughter's room, even the closet. I have not eaten any junk in the new year, yet! It has been a whole entire day, though!
I am starting a new project. An album for a friend of mine's son. She has 2 boys and feels that if I just help her get caught up on one of the 2 albums, she will be able to keep it up from there.

Tip of the Day: Have a friend help you when you are sorting a large amount of photos. They won't know the month or events like you will, but having an extra set of eyes might catch things that you missed. If you are alone, sort your photos and then go slowly through them one more time to make sure that none of them are out of place. I hate finding a photo from Christmas in with my Easter pictures. Chances are, I found it as I was getting ready to scrapbook the Easter pictures and I have already scrapbooked the Christmas pictures pages and pages ago! In that situation, I end up trying to squeeze it onto an already ccompleted page, or just pitching it altogether.

Scrap Happy!

' Tis the season!

I haven't written much lately, have I? I'm sorry, but these last few weeks have been insanely busy! We are finally leaving for our vacation tomorrow, a day late due to a death in the family! I have finished my Christmas shopping, created a few of the Christmas gifts I am handmaking for family, sent the presents for out of state family members, decorated the whole house, packed, baked all of this year's Christmas cookies, had family Christmas photos taken, signed and sent all of my Christmas cards, and hosted my Christmas Open House!
Leaving for 2 weeks in December is harder than at other times of the year, as evidenced by my list above! Can you believe that I actually have found some time to scrapbook?! I have! I have been working on the album pages that I give the grandparents and my sister. This year, I'm also making one for my little brother, who is leaving for the Army in the new year. I have also decided to make 2 of those do-it-yourself calendars you can buy. That's just like scrapbooking a 12x12 page for each month. I have to finish all of this by Christmas and I will have one week to do it in! So, yes! I have been scrapbooking every spare minute, and often late at night.

Tip of the day: Don't buy vegetable spread to use as butter in your Christmas cookies! OH! Sorry! You say you want a tip that has to do with scrapbooking?
When making 4 albums for different family members, I'm often working with a lot of the same pictures for all four of them. In order to keep from getting bored, doing the same layout 4 times, I choose a different theme for each album and stick to it as much as I can. One of my close friends, Bekah, is making sister albums for herself and her 3 sisters. In her case, she has chosen to make the books identical so that no one will be jealous or cry "favoritism!" But she has confided that this can be very monotonous.

Scrap Happy!

Thankful heart

I had a great Thanksgiving with my family today! It was so special, because it was the first time in a long time that my mom was able to be there. She usually has to work. We had my family over, (minus my brother and his little family,) and my husband's family, which consists of his Mom and Dad. My husband is an awesome cook! He made a very memorable meal. We all loved the sweet potatoes, even those of us who HATE sweet potatoes usually. We all ate in my workshop area, since that's the only place we could fit everyone! We don't have a dining room. With the carpet and faux fireplace, it was really cozy!

I'm thankful for so many things! When I start listing them to myself, I end up going on and on for 20 minutes! My newest blessing is my new niece! She made me an aunt for the very first time! She is a tiny, little bundle, weighing under 5 pounds right now! Alas, I haven't seen her as she lives all the way in Texas! Thank God for pictures and the internet! I have already gotten to look at photos from this very Thanksgiving day! Even through the computer, I can see that she has changed so much the week since she's been born!

As I celebrate my birthday tomorrow, I look back and marvel at all the changes that have happened in my life this year, and thank God that I don't look as old as I am!

Scrap Happy!

Breaking albums

OK, here is my confession...I bought albums on sale at Michael's right before I committed to being a consultant. This is just 2 years ago. I bought these albums and gave them as gifts to my Mom, Mom-in Law, and my sister that Christmas. Every Christmas, I get copies of my favorite pictures of my daughter from that year, and I make pages for them to add to their albums. I'm the "professional", so they always have me put the pages into their albums. This means I'm not constantly taking pages in and out of these albums, they have only been touched 3 times at the most. Can you believe that these books are literally falling apart?! Sure, they were cheaper, but no wonder! They are junk! I was putting some of the pages in this year, and the strap that runs along the back of the album ripped! This strap is made of paper. Creative Memories makes an album that looks just like that one. Their straps are plastic. They don't rip! Another pet peeve of mine is the plastic straps in the cheaper books. These straps are part of the binding and hold the album together. The plastic sticks to the page and warps the page protector. Creative Memories uses plastic straps that are buffered. I never knew why they were buffered, but it must be so that they won't stick to the page protectors. Creative Memories costs more, BUT you get a better product, a lifetime guarantee, and they test their products extensively. It's worth it to me! Anyway, I had learned my lesson, and knew to be very careful when putting the other paper strap on. IT BROKE, TOO! AAAAAG! Now I have really learned my lesson, and I am just going to buy a Creative Memories album and replace it!
So, let's review. I bought the albums to save money, and ended up having to replace them in 2 years. I ended up spending more money than if I had just purchased CM albums in the first place!

Tip of the Day: If you want to save money on albums, ask your consultant to give you a call any time she has specials. Buy all the albums you will need over the coming year at that time.

Scrap Happy!

Busy weekend

This weekend, I had a poorly attended workshop, (hey, it WAS light up night!) and a vendor fair. I've only done 2 vendor's fairs, and I've come to really enjoy doing them! I set up my table with some supplies, and then my cutting tools and everything I've brought for me to use. I sit there and I scrapbook! Sometimes I get so engrossed that I don't even notice that someone is at my table. This is actually a good thing, because they don't feel like I'm watching them. I figure this also shows people how easy scrapbooking is! Best of all, I get to scrapbook! I'm now almost done with August. Since it's now the middle of November, this means that I am still quite a ways behind! I want to try to get all caught up before my trip to Disney World in December.
At the Vendor fair, I booked 2 parties and had several people interested in my making their albums for them. I also was able to meet several scrapbookers who didn't have a CM consultant. I felt like it was a day well spent!

Tip of the day: It's always a great time to sign up to be a consultant! The sooner you do it, the sooner you start buying your supplies at cost! Most of the "work" I do as a consultant is done at home. I hardly do parties or shows at all. I just love my job! Does it show?

Scrap Happy!

Grown-up scrapbooking

I realize that not everyone who scrapbooks has children. So, I thought I would think back to three years ago, (which seems a long time ago) and think about what I was scrapbooking. I remember being completely caught up! I wasn't really however, because just when you think you are caught up, you realize that there is another album you could be working on! My goal in the year I was pregnant was to scrapbook my whole life up to that point. I completed 2 albums, as well as keeping my current album caught up. I scrapbooked my childhood, and did an entire 12x12 album of the years my husband and I dated. I left work a whole month before my daughter was due and spent a lot of that time finishing those albums. I also had insomnia, so I often scrapped through the night. I finished my goal just prior to her birth!

Before I had a child I took pictures of our everyday life. My friends, sporting events, home improvement projects, vacations, my dog, my friend's kids....Pretty much the same as I do now! Now the difference is that most of my everyday life revolves around my daughter, so she makes her way into almost every picture! And I've found that I often don't bring my camera with me if I didn't bring my daughter with me! That's not necessarily a good thing! I take photos to remember these times and events I'm living. When I look back, I should have pictures of the events that she wasn't a part of! With the way I'm losing my memory, I'll probably look back and not remember that I often left my camera at home, and I'll think that I didn't do anything without her!

Tip of the Day: Take your camera with you the next time you go out without the kids!

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Sports!

This year, we have been blessed by getting to go to a Pirates game, a Pens game and 2 Steeler games, the latest one being this week's game! And all but one of them have been absolutely free! Over the years, I have taken photos at all 3 of these venues and created layouts highlighting these pictures. I have a few tips on how to preserve these photos. These tips can also be modified for theater and concert fans. Be creative!
Remember, if you are going to any sporting event, act with class, come dressed to support your home team (even if you have to borrow a jersey or team shirt from a friend. It will make you feel like a true fan!), and cheer at the top of your lungs!

Tips of the Day:
* Use the team colors to decorate your page.
*Use the team's symbol to inspire you, using the colors in it, or even drawing the symbol right on your page!
*Include the tickets in your page layout.
*Make a little pocket by using a CM sticker pouch and fill it with confetti, either from the actual game, or make some of your own!
* Write down what the weather was, where you were sitting, any crazy things that happened and don't forget to include the final score!
* Be sure to capture the whole day, from tailgating to where you went to celebrate after the win.
* Ask someone outside of your group to take a photo of all of you together.
* Take pictures with the field behind you if possible.
* Take a photo of the stadium! You might feel like it will be around forever, but it won't!

Scrap Happy!

Christmas Cards

It's almost time to start addressing those Christmas cards! Are you looking for a different idea for your Christmas cards this year? I was! I found several ideas in the Family Fun magazine. I decided to make a collage of pictures showing our year. I laid out the photos and some memorabilia on a flat surface and simply took a picture of it. Some photos I included were photos of Daddy and daughter in the snow, our family at the beach, my daughter and her best friend, tickets from some of the sporting events we went to, a picture of one of the newest members of our family, Aunt Sara, a sea shell, Mickey trinket, and a picture of our dog, Elmo. I took this to the store and had photo cards made. These are our Christmas cards this year! It's similar to the idea of writing a Christmas letter. I liked it because I was able to incorporate pictures and trinkets, giving it a 3D feel!

Tip of the Day:I used at least one photo from each season to show how my daughter had grown during the year. For the best result, use close ups. Use photos that are very clear and bright. No dark pictures! Set up your collage outdoors for better lighting, but don't have it in direct sunlight. I set my collage up on the floor of my porch and stood over the picture to take it. I zoomed in a little so that the photos would be easier to see.

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the once a week scrapbooker

Lately I've been feeling that if I haven't scrapped, what is there to write about?! As a result, my blogs have been here and there, nothing very dedicated. I finally scrapped yesterday! I had a call from a customer who's more like a friend, and her and another friend came by to scrap with me! I got caught up in what I was working on, and couldn't stop, even after they left! I am pleased to announce that I have finished the second book for the 10th grader! It feels like I've been working on it for a long time, because I have been working on my daughter's as well. I like it and I hope the family loves it! Now on to book #3!

Tip of the Day: I'm forced to admit that often when I want time to scrapbook, I just start an endless parade of DVDs for my 3 year old. She is only right in the other room, but I feel guilty when she watches more than one video a day. Another option is for me to let her "scrapbook" right alongside me. She has her own scrapbook; an inexpensive paper one with a leopard print cover that I bought at Walmart. I give her stickers, markers, scissors, paper and sometimes doubles of my pictures, and let her have at it. This way we're spending time together and she is doing something somewhat productive.
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My 50th blog!

HI! I just had a day filled with scrapping! Today was the second of my Croptoberfests and I was able to meet my goal of having 12 people attend! Four of the girls came to both, because we had so much fun! Today, I made muffins and my mom brewed coffee to start everyone's day off right at 10am! We accomplished a lot in the 9 hours we were all together. The conversation was awesome! I love hearing the stories of how everyone met their husbands! Some shared pictures of their kids 20 years ago, and pictures of them going to their first dances and the prom. We praised the work of artists able to tie the right colors together, use scrapbooking tools in unique ways, and finding that perfect page element to tie it all together! We helped each other with page ideas, and shared our supplies. We ate together, laughed together, and congratulated the mother who didn't even shed a tear as she completed the pages of her youngest daughter's first day at college! My daughter "scrapbooked" with us for awhile, even sticking a few surprise stickers on Gramma's page when she wasn't looking! Through the door, I had the most beautiful view of the neighbor's tree in all of it's golden-orange splendor.
(sigh!) It was the perfect day!

Tip of the Day: I'm stealing this from a friend who was doing this at my Croptoberfest today. She is just starting a photo album for her daughter. She is alternating every page with pictures of her daughter on one page and her daughter's husband on the facing page. She'll do this as they grow up, until they meet. It is very sweet, and something you may have heard of, but I just wanted to remind you that you don't need to worry if your kids are already grown and you haven't made them an album yet! It's never too late to start!
Scrap Happy!

Croptoberfest

HI! I had my Croptoberfest today, the first of 2 if you are counting, and it was a lot of fun! It was hectic at first, and one person showed up an hour early, thanks to the time change. Over all, I think it was a long, but productive day!
Of course, everything happens all at once! My Aunt JoAnne from Arizona is in Pennsylvania today, but it was her last here day in a short weekend. (she just came in for a funeral) She and my Mom stopped by, and that was really special because I got to show her my business, and my workshop room, "in action"! She is actually a fellow consultant! That's not all! She is the person who got me started with the whole scrapbooking obsession! So, it was exciting, but hectic, and I wouldn't have changed a thing!

Tip of the Day: Take a second to thank the person who introduced you to scrapbooking. That first little 3 ring binder and tape tabs , and photo-safe tips my aunt sent me changed my life! It was years before I told her that she was the influence that got me started on what is now not just a major hobby for me, but a career! Thank you, Aunt Jo!
Scrap Happy everyone!

My Workshop Warmover

It has been awhile since I've written! I have done some scrapbooking this week and I have planned out my pages through August. Since I use Cm albums, it isn't hard to insert the pre-vacation pages I just completed this week. I would have done more scrapbooking, but my dear husband has been busy winterizing my scrapbooking area and I don't want to get in his way! My workshop area is in the garage and can get pretty frosty! So he bought me one of those fireplace looking heaters and put up insulation this week! He also dropped the ceiling lighting and now it's so much brighter! I'm excited to show off my new, warmer workshop area this weekend at my Croptoberfest! Croptoberfest is an all day scrapbooking event with prizes, and other special activities. I'm having 2 this year. One this Sunday the 30th of October and one on November 5th. My goal is pretty modest! I'm hoping that a combined 12 people attend. I'm also hoping to get some pages done myself!

Tip of the day: It's the time of the year when your hands need lotion 24/7. However, be very careful when you are scrapbooking, to have clean, unlotioned hands! Wash your hands before scrapbooking, and then dry them thoroughly. Make a habit of applying lotion to your hands upon the completion of the days scrapbooking. Before I go to bed, I put a liberal amount of Jergens Ultra lotion on my hands and I wear clean socks on my hands! You can buy fancy mits, but socks work at keeping the lotion on your hands all night.
Scrap Happy!

scrapping through the night

I had another one of those nights on Friday! You know the kind I mean. I could not stop scrapping because I just kept having ideas for pages! I have days where my creativity flows like a rain-flooded river and other days where I feel like I'm looking back at my own reflection from a dirty puddle of water. I was afraid to stop scrapping for fear that Saturday I would wake up without the great ideas. I ended up scrapping on Saturday, too. My pages still turned out great! It was perfect weather for scrapping; rainy, dark and cold. Better yet, I'm working on pages of SUMMER! So, for a little while at least, I was warm and still dressed in my bathing suit!

Tip of the Day: Lately, I live by the less is more when it comes to scrapbooking. I like clean lines on my pages, no clutter, few embellishments. But for my 4th of July page, I did something different! I covered the page with 2 different sheets of paper , one a patterned red and the other a star covered navy blue. I tore the blue, so that the tear showed white. These 2 large triangles of paper cover the page making a nice background for the 3 photos. (one is matted in black) I also made a tag out of white paper, trimmed in black. I punched a star-shaped hole in it, and shredded some paper to make the ribbon for the tag. I wrote right on my finger, and used my fingerprints to make a border to decorate the tag. I placed white letter stickers on more of the navy paper and cut around it, so that each letter has it's own mat. I used star stickers to dot the "i"s and to decorate the tag, which said "July 4th, 2005". I am so pleased with the end result! I think that some days are special and your page should reflect that! So for special days layouts in your photo albums, don't hesitate to go all out!!!
Scrap Happy!

The trees are falling apart!

Fall this year has been beautiful! We in Pennsylvania have had nice weather, and the leaves have only recently started to fall. Yesterday, my mom and daughter spent a lot of time outside, and they gathered up acorns, pinecones and leaves of red and yellow. My daughter was shocked to find the leaves all over Gramma's yard! "The trees are falling apart!" she said. Ironically, I had just finished my pages of our beach vacation that morning. Remember how I said I was going to try to use only certain sticker packs and paper? Well, I ended up using the ones I had planned for most of it, but using paper from several packs and adding a few stickers from different packs as well. I'm very pleased with the end result, and even my husband didn't seem to notice the error I had made, skipping an entire page and using it for a completely different day! If he didn't notice, then I think I'm safe, because he and my daughter were the only other people there!

Tip of the Day: Something my mom seemed to like in my beach pages: In a journaling area on one page I wrote the date, put a sprinkling of sea shell stickers to break up the page, then wrote a little something else, added another sticker, wrote...you get the idea.

Packing up the beach vacation

Well, all good things must come to an end! I am working on the last 2 pages of my beach vacation. It has been so nice...At least I now get to show other people my vacation, through my pictures! I love that part of scrapbooking, too!

Tip of the Day: I always put my pictures in chronological order, always. Well, I made a mistake with my beach pictures and ended up putting an entire page out of order. I mean, it's several DAYS behind, and I just couldn't go back and figure out how to squeeze it in. Fortunately, no one will ever know besides me. That's the great thing about a beach vacation! You are wearing a bathing suit in every picture! My tip, don't sweat the small stuff! In this case, I was able to let it go.
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Re-living my beach vacation

I've been scrapbooking my beach vacation, and (sigh) it is so nice to remember! I've been getting my pages done so fast, because I did page layouts ahead of time, and I have been doing simple pages; some cropping, a matted picture here and there, some stickers and paper for a splash of color, and plenty of journaling. There was one walk on the beach that I really wanted to remember, so I just have 2 pictures on the page, and a lot of writing. I went into great detail, so that I won't forget how the moon looked on the ocean waves, and the sweet things that my daughter said, and the cute things she does. Some things you just can't capture in a photo!

Tip of the Day: If you are going to be sharing your scrapbooking tools with other scrappers, make sure to label them with a sharpie or sticker. People don't mean to take your things, but it can easily happen when everyone's things get mixed.
Scrap Happy!

Pumpkin Patch

Over the weekend, we took my daughter to the pumpkin patch. I don't know why I never took her before! The drive was long, but it was in mostly rural areas, so we were able to enjoy the changing leaves. Once there, we took the hayride to the pumpkin patch, all 3 of us, sitting on bales of hay. My baby girl sat between her father and I, with one hand on each of our knees. It couldn't have been more perfect! Walking through the pumpkin patch was a treat, too. She was very particular about the pumpkin she wanted. The criteria was that it had to be small, like her, spiderless, and clean. This was a tall order, and she did adopt several pumpkins along the way. Mom and Dad were enlisted to carry them of course, but she eventually chose "the one", and to my amazement, it isn't near to perfection by a long shot!
I took almost an entire roll of film there! I just wanted to capture the day. It was so much fun!

Tip of the Day: I take great care to watch what's behind my subject when I'm taking a photo. It was killing me when I saw a mom take several pictures of her daughter with her chosen pumpkin, because she had the gravel road in the background. If the mom had taken the picture from a different angle, the whole pumpkin patch would have been behind her daughter; clearly a better background! Train your self to look at the whole picture!
Scrap Happy!

If you find yourself in a desert, make a beach!

I'm Back! I decided to just skip July and most of August in my daughter's album for now and go straight to scrapping our beach vacation! I am loving it! I don't want to tear myself away! I'm using Spargo pages, which is something new for me, but let me tell you, it looks so good with sand and ocean pictures! I'm also using the new wave paper from the Aqua paper pack, and Nautical Beach and Canada sticker packs. I'm going to try to do the whole vacation using just these products. I like to challenge myself, what can I say? I am probably going to end up using other paper colors as well, to compliment my photos. I've done 3 pages over the weekend, and I'm having a ball!

Tip of the Day: Every Beach vacation, I write the year in the sand, and sometimes I'll write "Ocean City" as well, and then I take a picture of my little one with the writing.

Scrap Happy!

A scrapbooking desert

Hi! It's me again, and I hate to admit that I haven't scrapped in over a week. My challenge didn't get the desired affect, and I failed miserably! I just don't seem to have the desire right now to scrapbook! Don't be horrified, it's probably just a phase, and I'll get over it as soon as I make time to scrapbook! Until then, here's a tip!

*.:Tip of the Day: Dots can make such a difference! :. Sometimes, I like to sprinkle a little pixie dust, if you will, all around a sticker, page title, even my pictures themselves.*. Here's what I mean. You have completed your page, but it just looks so blah! Using the fine tipped pens, draw some tiny dots right on the page, here and there. I like to use the round tip pen as well, but a little more sparingly. You can use as many colors as you like, or just one. Stop when it looks just right! .:
:*:Scrap Happy! :.*

Take me out to the ballgame!

For someone who often pretends she is playing in a go-go (baseball) game, my daughter really didn't pay much attention to what was happening on the field when we took her to her first Pittsburgh Pirates' homegame. It was the last game of the season, and a toasty 79 degrees in the stands! But the Pirates actually WON, and they even hit a couple homeruns, so we were able to see some fireworks! Best of all were the shots I got of my 3 year old, eating ice, wearing my too-big baseball cap, crawling through the pirate ship, and smiling with her mom and dad before the game. She loved the pirate music and the players turned into pirates that they showed up on the Jumbo tron. She ate the meat and tomatoes out of my gyro, loved having a huge pretzel, and made her dad and I crack up when she threw her arm up in the air and yelled to get the lemonade vendor's attention! These are the memories that I didn't get captured on film. But through the power of the pen, they will be remembered!

Tip of the Day: Save your tickets and put them on the page next to, but not touching your pictures.
Scrap Happy!

Why I Scrapbook

I want the same things that almost everyone else wants. I want acceptance and love. I want to be able to say to the world, "This is me. This is who I am, this is what I like, this is why I am the way I am; this is me. " Hopefully, people will still like me for me. If they don't, then I can find others who do. This is a new way of thinking for me!
So, why do I scrapbook? I like that creating these albums for my daughter helps to remind me of all we did together, and all that she has learned, and the cute things she says...OK, everything! I like that these albums will give her a good self-image, show her how loved she was, and let her relive all that she has already experienced. But I don't know if this is the only reason I do scrapbooking. I think I do it because I love to do it! Now that I'm grown up, I don't really get to paint and draw and play with clay. But doing these albums is the way I express my self now. It's my artistic side, unsuppressed! I'm not bragging, but I'm good at it! Seriously, there aren't a whole lot of things I can say that about!
I've changed some things in my personal profile. If you want to know more about me, feel free to check it out. My e-mail is listed in my profile, in case you'd like to write to me! Thanks for reading my blog!
Tip of the Day: Although I've never done this myself, I told my friend about this idea, and it turned out looking so cool! Take one 12x12 page and use the square punch to punch out the faces of everyone who came to your event. ( My friend used her snapshots from the cameras placed on tables at her wedding.) Using the squares like tiles, place them in neat rows covering the whole page. You might want to put a picture of the guest of honor in the center.
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Baby Shower

I have a baby shower to go to today and I'll be giving her baby scrapbook supplies from Creative Memories! I love to give album making supplies as gifts because it gives people a great start. This friend is an avid scrapbooker and when I asked her what she needed, she told me, "Give me any of the baby stuff, I need it all!" I don't know if she's having a boy or a girl, (I think she's having a boy, personally!) but that's Ok, because most of the baby stuff is neutral. I'm sure that she is going to be excited to start an album for her baby, I know I was!

Tip of the Day: The way I started my baby's album was this, I put her hospital picture on the first page along with some information about the birth and what her name means. Then I did a 2 page spread on me being pregnant, with a picture from each month. A page of the ultrasound and ultrasound photos, and us getting ready, (painting the nursery, choosing names, hanging little dresses!) and then a few pages about her shower. Then I went to the birth and so on. I want her to know how much we were anticipating her, and how she was such a big part of our lives from the moment we knew she was on her way!
Scrap Happy!

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!
Scrap Happy!

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!
Scrap Happy!

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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