Coloring Eggs

A lot of times when people see my pages for the first time, they comment on how simple they are. There really isn't a whole lot going on, but then again, there doesn't need to be! I love straight lines, a well placed sticker, and descriptive writing. I also like titles, and pictures that tell the story.Last week, a fellow scrapbooker was looking at a page I'd just finished and she said, " See, that's what I need to do. Just make plain pages! Then I wouldn't be so far behind." Inside, I cringed! NO! Don't say THAT!!!! I still spend a lot of time choosing paper colors and matching stickers with the pictures. I hate to think of my pages as plain, but if you call them simple, that describes them just right!

Tip of the day: Want some ideas for different Easter pictures?

* take pictures of the kids facial expressions as they open the plastic eggs filled with goodies.

* take close ups of their tiny hands as they hold eggs in their hands to color them with a crayon before dying them

* Toss the colored eggs in a basket and have them hold it for a photo. (usually I do this in her Easter dress)

*Take unposed pictures of your kids looking for their Easter baskets, your toddler chewing on the only egg he found, and your angel pouring the cups of dye together to overflowing. Basically, take pictures as life happens

*I always take a picture of my daughter at church. One year, I made sure to have the stained glass windows in the backround, often I take her picture on the stage after service, in front of all the lovely Easter flowers. Sometimes I take a picture of her with her little friends, who are dressed in their Easter finery as well. If it's nice, get a picture outside of your church. The doors of our church make a beautiful backdrop.

*I always take a picture of my daughter with her filled basket. That might not be original, but I like to write down what is inside it each year, and I like a picture to go with that. Her tastes change so much from year to year, that I already get a kick out of looking back at what I got her last year!

*In Crayon, my friend writes her child's name on an egg, along with the year (07) and takes a close up of it every year.

*Any tradition you have should be documented. If you read the Easter story to your kids, have someone catch a few pictures of that. Take pictures of what you want to remember!

Scrap Happy!

Past Easter pages

Something I have always wanted to do is show you some of my past page ideas. These are from LAST year's egg hunt. It's hard to see from these pictures of pictures, but my daughter has some animal print on her dress, which gave me the idea for these pages. I'm always trying to think of something a little different!

Hunting for the best!

Happy Easter! Yesterday, I had an Easter egg hunt and Easter activities for my daughter and Daniel. I tried to get some different shots, trying different angles and such. I was satisfied with the results for the most part! I still haven't figured out how to take good action shots on this camera! I had a hard time trying to get pictures of my daughter finding eggs, simply because she moves so fast!

Now that I have my new camera, I have fallen hopelessly behind on my scrapbooking! I'm taking more, and I think better pictures, and photography has shifted slightly ahead of scrapbooking.

I was able to scrapbook this weekend, though! Two nights in a row, I met with friends and set aside time to scrapbook. My problem was that I can work for hours, not feeling like I am happy with the pages I'm making, and then I start to get better at them about 2am. Then I don't want to stop, even though I know I'll be sorry in the morning!

I am currently scrapping my Disney vacation pictures. This should be pure fun, but it isn't! For one thing, I made a mistake on my retreat, and it took me all of Friday evening to fix it. I had laid out all of my pages, planning it so that I have my 2 page spreads , and everything is just so. I have to tell you that I don't do that for everything, but Disney trips are very special to me! So, when I was on the retreat and combined what I had planned to make 2 pages, it threw everything off!

Another obstacle is that I decided I wanted stitch to be on every page. I couldn't get stickers that I was happy with, so I purchased a coloring book at Disney World, colored the pictures I wanted with colored pencils, and then my husband scanned them, shrunk them, and printed them out on acid free/lignin free paper. I then meticulously cut them out and have been adhering them carefully to each page with tape runner. I don't just stick them anywhere of course. I try to make them go somewhat with the theme of the page. (sigh) Yes, it's not easy, but I think J will like looking for the Stitches on every page. For those of you who don't like Stitch and wonder WHY I'm doing this: At Disney World, Stitch is supposed to be running all over; he even takes over on the wake-up calls! So, I have wanted to include him on every page for a while now, years! I just couldn't figure out how to do it! Also, I figured this year would be the perfect year to do that theme because we stayed at the Polynesian resort, "home" to Lilo and Stitch.

Tip of the Day: If you have a mild case of OCD like I do, you might find it helpful to write down a plan for your pages.On a blank sheet of paper, I simply draw little rectangles, each one standing for a scrapbook page. Using a pencil, I fill in each rectangle with a title, something that will let me know what is supposed to be on the page. This way, if I end up having 2 pages of pictures of the parade, I can make sure I put them facing each other. Pencil is important because I rarely get it right the first time!

Scrap Happy!

Scrapping with Mom

This week, I sat down with my mom and tried to start my disney album. I didn't get started, because I remembered something I wanted to add, and I didn't have it ready yet, so I got to work on "before the trip" pictures. I was really inspired, and did a 2 page spread on October, and one for November. Truthfully, I don't know that I did do November, as I have no recollection of it! My Mom laid out pages of her vacations, and then set about using the power pallet for the first time. It comes in a pack, with co-ordinating papers, stickers and titles. Everything matches, and once she got going, she couldn't stop! She said that after using this, she doesn't want to go back to regular scrapbooking, where you have to try to put colors together and hope that they look alright next to each other! I'm glad this works so well for her!

Tip of the Day: from Nick Kelsh's book!
Try to take a different picture than everyone else is taking. For example, at a wedding, everyone has a camera and they are clicking away. The bride and groom lucky enough to get the copies of these photos will have TONS of pictures of them cutting the cake. Maybe stand on a chair and take a different approach to the same picture. The author suggests standing on a chair to get a table shot, when you are trying to capture everyone gathered around for Thanksgiving dinner.

Scrap Happy!

Disney on the table

Friday night found me in my workshop room, alone, with 2 empty tables and a box of Disney pictures. I used the power sort system and with only one break, (to put my 4 year old to bed) I sucessfully laid out the whole vacation that evening. No easy task considering I'm going to have an entire album dedicated to this trip! I'm hoping to get a lot accomplished on my retreat. It's coming up soon!

Tip of the Day: How many nights do I spend sitting in front of my TV, wasting my life? I feel that way as I get up to go to bed. Lazy. I felt so good sorting those pictures! It was time I could have used to surf the internet, watch TV, waste my life. But because I used the time to sort my pictures instead, I felt that I had accomplished something! It's such a good feeling!

Scrap Happy!

Somebody Stop Me!

I love this picture! I am slowly learning the best way to use my digital camera. I have only had it 2 months, be patient! I took this picture without a flash. Sometimes, I think that makes the picture turn out blurry, unless my subject holds very still. I have also begun to send my pictures to Snapfish after I take about 100 pictures. Yes, I am taking OH so many more pictures now, and even though I'm not keeping all of them, I am keeping a lot more than I used to take! I'm into the "photography" part of picture taking like I have never been before! The more pictures I take, the more I learn. With film, I found that I kept track of how many pictures I took of different events, because you run out of film after 24 pictures, and that kept me in check. Not anymore! Now I take 100 pictures of one event sometimes! What I need to do, is start tackling that mountain of photos I have acquired!

Tip of the Day: If you have a digital camera, seriously think about getting the Memory Manager program from Creative Memories. It will store all of your photos and keep track of which ones you order!

Storybook!

Well, I finally took the time and did one of those Creative Memories online albums. You create the album online, and they send it to you all completed! It turned out so great! I can't wait to show everyone! The reason I decided to do this, was because I took so many pictures of the Holidays this year. I knew I didn't need to get all of them printed to scrap in my daughter's album, but at the same time, I wanted to have the pictures. They would have taken up so much space in an album, but in the book I did, I could put so many pictures on one page, just by using the collage format. Of course, I chose to make most of my pages less crowded. It took me hours to do this book, mostly because I am such a perfectionist! But I was so happy that I had spent so much time on choosing the different fonts and letter sizes once I was holding the completed book! I'm so glad I did it! I have tried to put one of the pages on here to show you, but it doesn't work! So here is one of the pics that I told you about in "Flash".

Winter

I finally dusted off the old photo album and did a few pages (minus journaling) the other day. I found that I had a lot of trouble getting back. I wasn't as able to make colors go together, and was only happy with one or 2 of the pages. Maybe that will change once I see them again. I do have to say that the ones I was happy with were the last 2 I did, so I might have been warming up!

It's been so cold and snowy here, and I think that other people have been scrapping a lot. I say this because I usually have someone contact me daily lately, wanting Creative Memories products!

I've been finding photographs more and more in everyday objects. Just the way the sun shone in through the window on my Valentine's roses, my daughter's handprints in the fogged glass on the door, close ups of the frozen bushes in our yard....I love taking several shots and then deleting the ones I don't need.

Tip of the day: I had pictures of a party we went to, and I didn't want to do anything more than a one page spread, even though I had more pictures than would fit on one page. I wanted to make sure everyone was pictured, but I made sure to put a shot of my daughter and her buddy right in the middle, matted so that it became the focus for the page. I included tabs to do bullet journaling, because that's really all I have room for and all it needs, since this is my daughter's album.

Scrap Happy!

FLASH!!!!

I love that I have a digital camera and can see my pictures as soon as I take them. This helps me to train to be a better photographer. I have been challenging myself to take specific pictures, to learn how to take the picture I want.

Tip of the day:One thing I really learned from this book was that you should try not to use your flash! It's so bright, stealing away from the feelings in the picture you're taking. You capture the mood when you don't use a flash. Try to use natural light, which is best. But you can even get good pictures just using the light from candles (with a tripod and a night setting) . I have taken pictures using the light from the Christmas tree, although I've never loved the result. But I usually am unhappy when I take a picture of the tree with a flash. It just sucks the ambiance right out of Christmastime.

The picture on the left is one I took without a flash several years ago.

A few days ago, I challenged myself to take a good picture of my daughter without the flash. I positioned her next to the Christmas tree, (very close to get enough light!) and would ask her to try and find certain ornaments, just to keep her looking at the tree. The hard part was keeping her close enough to the tree! She would back up to get a better view of the ornaments! I also opened the window to let in some more light.

Yesterday, I positioned my daughter and her friend at the window. I captured only 2 pictures that were any good, because when they moved, it would blur. I love the picture of them looking out of the window at the snow!

Scrap Happy!

The book, the retreat, the workshop

Workshop Friday was so thereputic! It's so hard to get back to scrapping once you stop, and having a workshop was just the punch I needed! Can you believe I finished 13 pages in the 10th grader's last album? I'm still not finished with it, but I will be soon! It felt really good to scrap.

My retreat is coming up fast! It's 7 weeks away now, and I still have a few rooms available if you want to come! Just ask me about it! You will have your own room and bath, and we can scrapbook in our pjs if we want. I plan on getting a lot done at this retreat. I want to be completely caught up before I go to Arizona to visit family!

I just finished that amazing photography book by Nick Kelsh.( How to Photograph your life)
Here are some tips from the book:

*take close pictures

*take lots of pictures of an important situation

* don't put your suject in the middle of a picture, rather place them off to the side

Scrap Happy!

Digital Christmas picture

Yesterday we dressed up, and sat in the living room, to use the auto timer setting on my digital camera for the first time! We took Christmas pictures in front of our tree and the stockings STILL hung on the mantle, with care! I know, it's a little late for all of this to be happening! Will plugged the camera into the TV, so that we could see how each picture turned out, which made it just like being at a studio! The setting we accidently chose, allowed us to get into place and took 3 pictures, a very nice feature!

Late last night, I was on the computer, attempting to order some of my Christmas prints, which eluded me! I finally gave up and went to bed! Oh, how I long for the days when I could just send the film in to be developed! It was so much easier! However, I just need to get the hang of this, and then I'll like it, I'm sure!

The artist in me

I just started reading a book called, "How to photograph your life" by Nick Kelsh. So far, it's really good. I like reading an expert's opinion, and all of the photographs in the book were taken with an ordinary point and shoot camera. Just a few pages into it, and I have already learned that I need to get to know my new camera better. I had the camera I just retired for 3 years and I never learned more than the basics.

Now that I have my digital camera, the hardest thing for me to get used to is the fact that I can take as many pictures as I want, because I won't be wasting film! I have better odds of getting the perfect shot if I take more pictures. In fact, this book encourages you to take as many pictures as you can possibly get in. Today, I took my camera out on the porch and clicked away as my daughter played in the snow. It feels so great to have the freedom to take as many pictures as I want!

The author told of a time he photographed Olympic swimmers, spending hours at the edge of the pool, just watching them swim. He said that after that experience, he found himself to be a much better swimmer . That is what he is hoping to do for the readers of this book. I have found that I can be inspired by all sorts of things in my scrapbooking. I can take ideas away from magazines, art on a commercial, other people's albums, even the grocery store! I once spent a wedding day with a girl I had just met. As she and I ran around snapping pictures, she seemed to catch the perfect shots! She inspired me to look outside the box, and I found that my photos from that day conveyed a lot of meaning, really captured the moment and took you there.

It wasn't until I watched this cheesy teen movie yesterday that I realized that I'm an artist! I have always held that term in high regard, but really, many of people are artists in their own right. I feel that my photos and my scrapbooks are the way I express myself artisticlly. Part of being an artist is to let other people feel what you are feeling. It's very personal to put yourself out there. If I can let my daughter feel some of the love I feel for her as she looks at the albums I've made of her life, then my work will be complete.

Christmas Day 2006

Christmas Day brought memories of family and friends and past years, delicious smells of gingerbread, cookies and ham, stories of truth about the savior born in a stable, and stories of fiction about the little animals who came to see him, and the jolly, red-clothed man known the world over. Along with all of this, came a new camera! I disliked it immediately! It wasn't fast enough, and I don't like to miss shots! My husband was upset that I was grumbling, and after he made a few adjustments to it, I found that it took pictures a lot quicker. Grudgingly, I started to appreciate that I could take picture after picture until I got a good one! It has only been a few days, but I have already taken over 100 photos. I enjoy deleting the ones that don't turn out, but I can already see that I'll have a problem choosing between photos of the same subject that just look a little different!

Christmas Scrapping break?

This is a picture of me, taken by my 4 year old while we were shopping at Disney World.

Well, I haven't done a thing having to do with scrapbooking since I've been back from my vacation! There is just too much to do to get ready for Christmas! I have been getting pictures back from being developed, and I am pretty disappointed with most of the ones I took at night. My camera is dying on me, and I am so sad to see it go. I love it, but it was acting very strangly on our vacation, trying to open when we would close the front, and even having to readjust itself, when it opened up. Sometimes, I don't think that it is it focuses properly. And right at the end of the trip, my daughter dropped it onto stone. Now the flash is eskew. So, guess what I'm getting for Christmas?

From Florida to BRRRRRR!!!!

I am just back from Disney World, where I took a lot of pictures! I really tried to get spontanious pictures, and I don't know how well I succeeded. I also discovered the negative part of having a digital camera, when in just a second, my dear husband accidently erased all of the pictures we had ever taken on his digital video camera. We will say no more about it, but I do have to tell you that we would remember yet another great picture that we had on there, and feel a twinge of pain as we reminded each other of it.

Disney has a new program that allows you to purchase a CD of all of the professional pictures you have taken during your trip, giving you the rights to those pictures. We decided to do this, and now I have plenty of pictures of our whole family from the trip, and lots of us with the characters. It's nice to know that I will be in a lot of the pictures for this trip!

We had a wonderful time, and I didn't want to come home! Our resort was amazing, we had a lot of magical moments, and had time to swim, relax and visit almost all of our favorite characters! It's late, and I'm tired, but I just wanted to stop in to say, "Hi, and I'm back!" I'll put pictures up here and there, and will start working on that album as soon as I get all of the pictures!

My husband/photographer

I have to say, that although my husband doesn't take nearly the amount of pictures as I do, he usually does get great shots! I am going to brag on him, and show some of his shots off! I'm the photo person, always asking people to take our picture as a family, so that I can be in the album, too. I also tell Will when I want a picture taken of a certain thing. I've learned that all I need to do is ask, because he just isn't thinking through the camera like I am! That is not in any way a negative thing! This love of taking an insane amount of pictures that I have is (to quote Monk) "both a blessing and a curse". I feel as though I should always keep my camera close at hand so that I don't miss a thing! If I go to an event without my camera in tow, I am seeing the shots I missed. If I do have my camera, I am always thinking of pictures to take!

These pictures are : My daughter asleep in my arms, watching the Indiana Jones Stunt show, and my "King of the World" moment!

Scrap Happy!

Gramma's letter

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

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

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

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

Scrap happy

my invention

When I look back over years of photographs, I realize that the ones I like the best are either close ups or candid moments, when I caught that honest, open moment in time on film. I think that I have become a better photographer. The more pictures I take , the more I learn. I feel as though I still don't totally understand how to use my camera! If only I did! If only I had a camera attatched to my eyes, and I just had to touch my temple to capture the life I'm viewing, with out having to run and miss the moment. I missed one such moment this weekend. While watching the Steeler game with good friends, my daughter begged me to get the nutcracker down from the mantle so that she could show him to everyone. She has this fasination with him, and I think it's because of the Barbie "Nutcracker" ballet movie. So, we took him down to share him, and we noticed that one of our friends has similiar facial features to Mr. Nutcracker! Seriously, we held it up next to his face, and their profiles were nearly identicle! However, by the time I ran upstairs to get the camera and back downstairs, the moment was gone, our friend was embarrassed, and felt badly that we thought his nose was as large as the nutcracker's nose. If only I had the head camera!

Scrap Happy!

Pies and pictures

To be truthful, my life has been too busy to scrapbook, so I haven't! I did make my famous pear pie tonight, as well as a pumpkin pie, and I have almost completed all of my Christmas shopping! I'm in a pretty good position though. I realized, while talking to a friend, that I don't want to get too caught up in my album- making, because I won't have anything to do on the retreat in March! I don't take many pictures in November, however I do take a lot in December, when we annually visit Disney World and celebrate Christmas! So, this is the time of the year when my pictures pile up fast, and this is when I get behind!

Tip of the day: Make sure to store the blades for the cutting system properly. If you don't close them up, the blades can get bent slightly, which will affect the cutting. This seems especially true for the 12 inch trimmer. If you do damge your blades or find that they have lost their effectiveness, you can purchase refill blades.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Scrapping! (if you get time!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Open House was this weekend, so that was reason to break out the Christmas decorations. Oh, yes. I have already started the decorating! I also listen to Christmas music already! I don't care what anyone says, I have to stop myself from singing Christmas songs all year long, and when Christmas is this close, I just can't hold back the flood of carols any longer! I love the new Christmas stuff CM has come out with this year! My clients think I'm a little extreme to be planning what to wear on my daughter for the holiday pictures based on whether or not it will match the new die cuts and stickers! But I think I'm just thinking ahead! Ok, I'm not serious here!

I was booking this weekend, particularly Friday! I completed at least 20 pages over the 2 days! I'm pleased with myself! This is the 4th album I have done for this girl, so I can even recognize her from pictures of her back. I have made this album her last. It consists of piles of photos that I couldn't put into order by the date, because I didn't know it. It is turning out terrific, though. I did a wedding page using teal diamonds as a border to match the colors of the bridesmaids, of course. I did a border of pink with circles punched in it and put circles of water in each circle to go with the pool theme. I have created simple pages, quickly. I'm also trying to fit as many pics as I can onto one page, provided they go together. I want to try to finish all of the pictures I have left, in this final book. The neatest thing was finding my yellow brick house way in the background of one of the pictures! To match the floral arrangement on one page, I used a bunch of flowers and clumped them together. I try to match the colors of the people's clothing because many times, I'm not even sure what is happening in the pictures! I wasn't there! But it is coming along. How I would love to have it completed and delivered by Thanksgiving!

Textured paper

Hey guys! I finished that album, yay! The last 13 or so pages were easy, and I like them a lot more than most of the others. This was a trip album, so the scenery changed often. Still, I found myself using a lot of reds, greens and browns. I managed to use only one full sheet of paper, and a lot of scraps. I probably used one sticker per page, and more on some than others.

Tip of the Day: I am so excited about this one! I wanted to try and design textured paper to match the wood on the one page I was doing for this book. I cut a wide border out of CM paper and used my 12 inch trimmer and multipurpose tool. I laid the paper on the tool, just as I would if I were going to trim it, and I used the multi-tool to follow the groove all the way from the top of the paper to the bottom. (just as I would normally use the blade to cut it, only I used the tool instead, so it merely dented it!) I did this every centimeter, giving the paper a ridged effect. The hard part was adhering it to the page! I found that I needed to use a lot more tape runner to keep it from arching. But it really looks cool! I can see myself experimenting even more in the future!

Scrap Happy!

Taking 3rd

Hey everyone! I'm very excited to tell you that I took 3rd place in the library's photography competition! It was my first photography competition, so I'm very surprised and pleased! Other thatn that, I don't really have much to report on the scrapping end of things. I haven't gotten to my album this week at all. I will this weekend, as I have a workshop on Friday and an all day Open House on Saturday!

Scrap Happy!

Please come home soon

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

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

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

Scrap Happy

Bursting with NEW!

Over this weekend, I was able to complete 14 simple pages of the album I'm working on. It is hard for me to think of ideas for it! This past Friday's cozy workshop was when I completed all of the pages.

I also have been creating a digital scrapbook, but one that I can hold in my hands, and flip through it's pages. It's the new Creative Memories Storybook, and it is going to make my job of scrapping other people's photos obsolete! I'm very happy about that!The Storybook program is relatively easy to use, even for an amateur like myself. I'm not the best at computers! If I didn't love scrapbooking so much, this would be the way to go. It is a lot faster, and the books end up being so much thinner and lighter than an album. Still, there is something thereputic about designing, punching, cutting, cropping and sticking those page elements and pictures on the page with your hands!

I know it feels like spring is really far away right now, but I have already opened up the sign up for the retreat in March! I have gotten a lot of favorable response, and one person signed up yesterday. If you have not been to a workshop, then you don't know a lot of the details about my very first retreat! I'm so excited about it! We will have our own building, which means we can scrap in our pajamas if we so desire! It's about an hour away, on beautiful grounds! It is the most peaceful place. (sigh) Each of us will have our own room and private bath. Each room has access to a balcony or deck. The retreat is from Friday, March 9th and all day Saturday, March 10th, 2007. We will discuss what to do about dinner on Friday later, but all of Saturday's meals will be provided. The retreat houses 9, and since I'm also going, that leaves 8 spaces! It's first come, first going! Once we fill all of the spots, (which I'm sure we will) the option of staying in the dorm style rooms will be there, but you will be in a different building. Reserving your spot in the retreat house is easy! Simply come by and pay the $85 and write your name down. Then you will be paid in full! There will be exclusive gifts given out, and I promise that you will leave with your soul uplifted, memories made and many pages scrapbooked!

Scrap Happy!

Make an album for yourself!

I got to work on the album I am making for someone else last night. Actually, I cropped pictures. Although she had given me the photos in order, with post its stating the date, I am still having trouble with this album! It is simply HARD to do someone else's album! For instance, when all of the photos don't fit on a page, I know which ones of my own I can live without and exclude them from the album. I don't know which pics other people could do without!

Secondly, I create albums in packages, starting with the most simple one which only includes the album and no extra pages. She has given me a box of pictures, but doesn't want to add to the page amount. When I told her they wouldn't all fit, she said that was fine, just to pick the ones to put in. This is hard, once again. It is just hard to make other people's decisions for them.

The good news is that I have only one book to do after this one! YAY! Now that Creative Memories has the Storybooks, I no longer feel that I need to provide this feature in my business. Now I can focus on my daughter's books and when hers are kept current, I might be able to get back to the albums I had started for my husband and I! I am actually thinking of using the Storybooks for us as well, and putting my favorite pictures into a Storybook, so that when my daughter takes her 45 albums with her as she goes, I'll have something as well.

Scrap Happy!

Harvest Party

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

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

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

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

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

Scrap Happy!

Life and scrapbooking

WOW! I am completely caught up! I have finally journalled my Disney pictures from last December, too! It feels really great! It took me until 5am on Friday night to get it done, but the lack of sleep was worth it! I also whipped out my pumpkin patch pictures. I opened up the perfect fit orange paper, and used the same stickers I had last year. They are the lazer cut harvest stickers, and I love them! I also used one of the gifts from my great gathering (mine was last weekend!) on one of the pages. I used the 12x12 paper from various packs, and completely covered all 5 pages of the pumpkin patch. I have now completed 10 albums for my 4 year old. (gasp!)

Other than that, we had a busy couple of days around this house! We attended an 80's party on Saturday, and that was something I had to capture on film! My friend Ann dyed her hair purple and had it spiked up in the air, all over her head! It was fabulous! I found that as I got dressed for the party, I found myself reverting back to that decade! I immediatly needed a stick of gum, and used words such as "like"and "sike" more often. It was fun to be with friends, having a lipsynk contest and making rinky dinks!

Our last big adventure was my daughter's princess room. My husband has been working on this room for MONTHS! In fact, I just came across the "Before" pictures yesterday! He has done such a great job, really! He's very good at painting. I wasn't really able to help with the labor until recently. He let me do a lot of the finishing decorating. It was nice to be up there working together to complete the room. We just showed it to her tonight, and she was thrilled! However, I found it near impossible to get a picture of her because she was so excited and didn't stay in one place for long enough to capture her on film! This is where the digital camera comes in handy! My husband was able to get some good shots with the video camera, and we looked at them right away, so I know that some of them turned out. As much as I take pictures, I still don't want to blow all of my film and not feel that I have gotten the perfect shot. (Or even a passable one!)

My new scrapbooking project is an album I'm doing for someone else. I hope to complete it pretty fast, as it will only be 30 pages.

Tip of the day: I often will get out of the habit of closing my cutting system blades each time I use them. Two reasons to close up the blades every time you are done using them are: you can get a nasty cut from those sharp blades and you can bend the tip of the blade if you don't have it protected. Both have happened to me. So, take the few extra seconds, and close up your blades!

Scrap Happy!

Autumn Layouts

Last year, I made sure to do everything fallish with my daughter that I could. I took her out to play in a pile of leaves, went for walks with her to find the most unusual leaves we could, had her dig the innards out of her pumpkin to make salty pumpkin seeds, and showed her how to make caramel apples! We had a great time, and the proof is in the album! To complete my pages, I opened up a pack of paper (shades of amber) and found that I loved it! The colors were just what I needed, and I liked that there were a few patterned sheets of paper in it. One page I was especially happy with was a page of her making carmel apples and digging out the pumpkin's seeds. I hate to combine the 2 activities, so I separated the page softly by covering half the page in paper. I covered the bottom half of the page, because I wanted it to look like caramel. On the top half of the page, which was still white, I placed the pics of my daughter making and eating the caramel apples. I cut one of the pictures into a circlular shape and matted it in green. I made a stick for this "apple" by cutting it out of paper. I had it just barely being dipped into the caramel of the bottom half of the page! The caramel half was where I did the journaling and placed the pumpkin gutting pictures. I love this page! I need to figure out how to get pictures from my digital video camera onto this blog so that you can see it for yourself!

Here is what I journalled on this page: I really want you to get to experience the different seasons and the fun activities that go along with them! We made pumpkin seeds by taking the seeds out of you and Daddy's pumpkins, soaking them in salty water & baking them. They were too salty, but we still ate them all!

Tip of the Day: Another page element I used last year, was this: I took a picture of a fall leaf and profiled it, cutting all the rest of the photo away, until just the leaf remained. Then I placed the leaf in the middle of the page. It's striking! I actually did this on a 2 page spread, with one leaf in the center for each page. One page was the usual white, while the facing page was black.

Scrap Happy!

Great Gathering and then some!

This weekend was a busy one! I had 2 workshops! Friday's workshop was well attended and I was able to complete several small pages (7x7 size) for books that I have made in the past and I am now adding to. Saturday, was my all day workshop! This year, I called it Autumn's Great Gathering. Everyone who came worked well together, and I was happy to listen to the conversations going on all day. We had a meal together, to which everyone contributed, and it was so yummy! As always, there were prizes and give aways, but we changed things up a little this year, and played a game. I will have to change things again for next year, since I found that most people like to know up front what purchases will earn a reward! Of course, the sales were mouth watering, and the crop talk was fantastic! It really was! The little handout was stuffed with ideas that we liked! Best of all, was the amount of pages we were able to complete. I was so proud of everyone! Thanks to everyone who attended! I appreciate the fact that you brought food to share, and that you came to spend time with me!

I'd like to share exerps from some e-mails I have already received.

thank you again for an enjoyable day with good people and creative input.
I hope you are not toooo tired.
Thanks again.

Hi Alea,
Just a note to say THANK YOU !!!! You did it again. Another wonderful gift you gave us, your friends and customers. You planned a wonderful day, put lots & lots of time and thought into blessing us. Everything was so nice, as always. You have a fun-loving heart and we get to benefit from it. Take care.

It is so nice to be appreciated! Thanks!

Upcoming events:

My next workshops:
November 3rd at 7pm $4

November 17th at 7pm $4

Don't miss my Christmas Open House!
Saturday, November 18th
I'll have specials, gifts, and let you scrap for free during the whole open house! Stop by just to shop, or get your free gift, or stay to scrapbook! It's up to you!
If you have been to my open houses, you know how much you get out of them. If you haven't stopped by, you don't know what you're missing!
check my website for times! www.mycmsite.com/alea

It isn't too early to tell you about my first retreat! I'm really excited about it! I just found and booked the retreat center this week, and it is adorable! I will be taking non-refundable, complete downpayments open immediately! It does seem far in the future, being that the retreat isn't until March 9th! With the way time is flying, it will be here before you know it! Space is limited, so if you want more details, please e-mail me at aleasalbums@yahoo.com .

Scrap Happy!

Changing Colors

On the latest beach vacation, I took both black&white and color pictures. I used black& white film and when I wanted to take color pictures, I simply used our digital camera that is in the video camera, or the water camera I had brought with us this year. Let me just say that I loved having the water camera, because I never had to worry about keeping it out of the sand and surf. Since then, I've discovered that it doesn't cost any more to get your digital photos printed in B&W, which is really cool! I'm new to the whole digital thing, bear with me! I like putting both color and B&W pictures on the same page. In fact, I have just gotten pictures printed in Sepia for the first time, and I can't wait to put those on a page with my color pictures. The Sepia pictures are from the train ride we took. I only had 2 printed like that, because it looks so old fashioned and works perfectly with the train theme! OH, I lOVE IT!

Pumpkin Patch Memories

Happy Autumn! The air is chilly, the leaves are reddening and falling from the trees, and the sweaters are coming back as well, so it really must be fall! I don't mind because I like Autumn! It's good weather for scrapbooking. I just got these pictures of our day at the pumpkin patch today, and I now have another roll of film to scrap. It shouldn't take me long. I am so happy with these pictures! Sometimes, you get a roll back and feel that you wasted it, only a few of the pictures came out. Even with a digital camera, sometimes you can't get the picture you are trying for. I know! This day was cloudy, which is good for picture taking. I wore yellow on my daughter, because I was thinking of how nice it would look with the pumpkins. I was seeing things in pictures, which I can't always do. I like it when I can. This way, I took the pictures from the perfect angle for the shot, and was able to capture things I usually just miss, because I had my camera always at the ready. It was a beautiful day of memories, and I'm just thankful that the pictures captured that.

YAY! I'm done!

I'm so excited to be all caught up on my daughter's album! You have no idea how good that feels! Well, maybe you do! I was just looking through the pages again today, and I had to take it with me to show people! I am in shock that I have almost filled up an album of only the summer months! But we did a lot! Her first bike, our road trip, beach vacation, first time playing putt-putt, swimming, ...(there are probably too many pictures of her swimming, but it just impressed me that she can do that now! ) and her first trip to the dentist. Like I said, a lot happened! I am really liking the pages though! I am especially tickled with the page I did in a cartoony way. I even dreampt about it the night before I did it! It turned out cute. I'm not sure that it looks like a cartoon enough, but I can keep working on this concept on other pages. I'd love to put a photo of it on here, but I can't figure out how to do that at this time. Challenge yourself to complete a goal! It feels so good when you accomplish it!

What I'm up to

One of my fellow consultants brought me the gold flecked pages I have been dying to use! I'm so excited because that means tonight at my workshop, I can scrapbook my beach pages at long last! I would be caught up after that, but I sent another roll of film in to Snapfish to be developed, so I will have that to do. I'm trying to catch up so that I can work on the albums I am doing for others.
October is usually a slow month for picture taking for me. The roll of film being developed is mostly of the pumpkin patch. I do plan on taking some this weekend, as Jae is going to her friend's birthday party, where they will be taking a train ride! How awesome is that?!

Tip of the Day: If you want to save the life of the battery in your camera, remove it from your camera when it isn't in use.

Scrap Happy!

Expand your horizons

Yesterday, as I was cleaning, I had a realization! People are forever telling me that they love this page or that one. I realized that a lot of the time the page elements on those standout pages are items that I didn't know what to do with when I bought them. What I am trying to say is this: Alot of people will look at a sticker pack, see stickers they think they will never use and say, "See, I would never use the _________ sticker, so I don't want to buy this whole pack." People do the same thing with paper packs. Well, maybe if you went outside of your box a little bit, you could find a home for those stickers on one of your pages, making something you never would have created had you not stretched yourself a little.

Scrap Happy!

Bright Garden

My local library is hosting a photography competition. Are you interested? It costs just $5 to submit a photo. I want to do it, mostly to support the library, because I use it so often. Plus, I think I take pretty good photos sometimes. That said, I did one page yesterday. Yeah, one. I managed to fit 8 pictures on a single page, and not have it look too crowded. I used an idea I think I've mentioned here before, but it's been awhile! The pictures are of my daughter and her gramma's garden. The colors are fantastic! Bright lime greens and Hot pink! I made a seed packet out of green paper and have some seeds falling out of it. The seeds are actually accent marks from the ABC stickers. I've been waiting for an appropriate place to use this idea for quite a while. I didn't have to journal much because the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. Plus, I didn't have a whole lot of room left! The seed packet doubles as a title. I used ABC stickers to write right on top of it.
Well, the library photo contest is soon! If you live nearby, and know me, call or e-mail me for info on it.

Scrap Happy!

Sandy pages

I did some pajama scrapping last night, laying out pictures for all of the pages I have yet to do. I ran into a slight problem, as always! Creative memories is coming out with gold flecked pages! I saw them and thought that they would look perfect with my beach pictures! My problem? They don't come out until October and I can't order right away because I am waiting until I get a few more orders. Soooo...I laid out the pictures and even planned out 2 pages, which was more time consuming than if I had just put them on the page to begin with! I'm just afraid of getting behind. I'm so close to being caught up with her album, I can taste it! I'm going to see if someone can order a pack of pages for me. Until then, I wait!

Tip of the Day: Did you know that CM is coming out with an album that you can make using pictures you have taken digitally? I have seen one, and it was beautiful! The quality was incredible! It's like a book, a picture book. You can fit more pages into it than you can in a 12x12 album, but it is smaller (8 1/2 x 11) and is so light to carry and show off! I might make myself a Disney album, since I had to stop scrapping for myself a while ago. I can use the photos I sent to Snapfish to make this. It's exciting!

Scrap Happy!

Please respond!

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

Please let me know what you think!

Scrap Happy!

childhood moments

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

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

Scrap Happy!

Red, White and Blue

It was workshop night last night, which means I actually got to scrapbook without feeling guilty that I wasn't washing clothes or dishes or cleaning anything! We had a nice little group of us, and it was business as usual, everyone adding ideas when asked, and small talk getting passed around with the peanutbutter cookies. We are somewhat like a support group of sorts, listening to each other's stories and venting about work. One of us, who spent most of the evening sorting her pictures, got so much joy from them, that she would randomly burst into laughter! We then pass the picture around as she explains the laughter. Those are the things you don't even need to journal, the sunglasses, the pointing at the bum, the weird expressions you see as a sibling looks at your album. Thanks for sharing! :)

I finished the 4th of July, with one minor bump! I skipped a page and didn't want to take the stickers off of the completed page, so I had to do one page out of order. That kind of thing drives me crazy. But it really doesn't matter in the long run, right?

Tip of the day: Patriotic page idea
I quartered a page using dark blue and red and cream checkered squares. I matted my center picture with a complimentary red and used copper to journal. It really seemed to give it a 4th of July BBQ feel to the page. My biggest problem turned out to be the title. I couldn't find letter stickers in a shade that would work, and the copper wasn't really what I wanted either. Oh, well. That's what happens when you are working with two strong colors.

Scrap Happy!

Be a Star!

I'm working on the 4th of July weekend. No, this isn't an old blog you're reading, it's brand new! What I mean is that I'm working on the pages of the fun things we did that weekend! I feel like I'm pretty much out of ideas of patriotic pages. But you never know when something you have seen or read somewhere will pop into your head and you will have your page layout! My inspiration came from the last crop talk I gave at my last workshop! At the time, I really liked this border they showed, made completely out of punched stars. With the 2 makers, there are 4 different sizes of stars to choose from and if you use the green micro maker, that gives you another style of star to choose from. So armed with the makers, I set about punching out stars using several different shades of red and blue, and plain vellum. I used scraps, too, so that was an added bonus. I then layered them in red, white and blue on the borders of 5 pages. Then I laid my pictures out and stuck some of the extra stars in the bare spaces as decoration. I am pleased with the finished result. It is close to an idea I used last 4th of July, but not identicle, so I think I can get away with it.

Tip of the Day: When you are doing something like this, (mixing red, white and blue) don't just pick out your paper based on color name alone. All of your different shades of blue should be in the same family. They should be cohesive, harmonizing, just like you want your family to be! If you use reds that clash with one another, it is taking away from your precious pictures. The thing that took me the longest was picking out several shades of red that would look good together, as well as fit my vision for the page, which was somewhat vintage, darker hues. I wanted my pages to look timeless. If you aren't sure if a shade works well with the others, don't risk using it!

Scrap Happy!

Power Pallets

Last night, I sat by myself and scrapped alone! It was Friday night, but I didn't have a workshop. That meant I got to scrapbook in my pajamas! Creative Memories has this new system that makes it easy to scrapbook many pages in a short amount of time. It's called the power pallet. The idea is that all of the paper and stickers fit together, so that you don't need to worry about things matching, that's all done for you. It's a great idea, but being a bit of a rebel, and needing my pages to be unique, I ended up just using one of the paper packs. I love how it turned out, very retro! I found the color, maybe it was just the particular paper I chose, to be hard to match up with older paper packs. I know that they have designed the paper and stickers to match everything in their "pallet", but I have to say that they should have done better! I plan on using some of the new stickers when I do some vacation pages from this summer. One thing I do like about the power pallets (there are 2 different ones) is that you can get large sheets of stickers for $2.50. There are so many different themes to choose from, too! However, since the power pallets are sold as a package, you can't see the individual sticker sheets if you look in the new catalog! They aren't shown in price either , instead are lumped together with the power pallet price. However, I'm telling you this now, everything in the power pallet can be purchased individually.

Tip of the Day: If you are disappointed in any way with Creative Memories or a product, let them know! They have a place for you to do this, via e-mail. Simply go to the website and look for the comment section. This is what I'm going to have to do about the power pallets not being marked in the catalogs. If we don't give feedback, they will never know!

Scrap Happy!

Ooops!

Just because I haven't been blogging, that doesn't mean that i'm not scrapping! I have been, lately. I'm working on my daughter's album of this summer. I ran into a little problem with my Disney trip! I didn't plan well enough and this is what happens. I have 19 pages in the album I wanted to add Disney to. Remember that I skipped ahead, because I knew that Disney was going to be time consuming? Well, now I can't possibly fit all of the Disney trip into one album, because I completed 28 pages on Disney! (if you count front and back, I did 56 pages on a week and a half trip!) I'm crazy, I tell you! Add the Disney pages to the album already in progress and you get 47 pages! It's recommended that you only put 35-40 pages in an album. So, what can I do? I can't do anything...but squeeze the pages in! The only other option is to make Disney it's own book, and I can't do that. I'm simply too thrifty! I have thought extensively over my options and can't think of any that will work. (I ended up making a whole album, just for Disney! It's worth it, and I plan on doing the same thing the next trip!April 2007)

Tip of the Day: Please! For the love of scrapbooking! Learn from my mistakes so that you don't have to make your own!

Scrap Happy!

Did I complete my goal !?!

I'm home from the beach! The weather was terrible, thanks to Ernesto. But I am happy to report that I finished journaling my cruise while I was there! Yay! Now, I am putting the last touches on it, checking some words I wasn't sure how to spell ( I forgot my dictionary !) and putting the page protectors on the pages. It is such a good feeling to be done with it! I was starting to forget things, and now I can look back at my album when I start to forget what I had for dinner at Palo, and which day we spent at Cozumel.
If you remember, I was also hoping to complete the journaling of our Disney trip from last November. Truthfully, I didn't even open that side of the bag! I was biting off more than I could chew hoping I could complete both! I am glad that I finished the Disney trip's pages in time to take them to the beach, and I'm very happy with the journaling I was able to complete!

Tips of the Day: Knowing I was going to be journaling the cruise, I wanted to take all of my notes, the pages of our passporter (a book we wrote in daily) and things like the Navigator (which we recieved nightly telling us about the next day's activities) and maps of the islands. These are things I wanted to save and will eventually put in my album in portrait pages. To keep everything orderly, I used a file mate. I simply put them in the file mate to keep them in one place as we traveled. It worked perfectly! I'd recommend it!

Another thing I did, was bring along a pack of post it notes. When I knew I would have to look something up later on, I wrote a short note, " date?", "spelling? (and then the word I was unsure of) " ,"name of Will's horse?"and "how many times?". Just enough to trigger my memory. This way, when I leaf back through, putting page protectors on, I can find the spots I missed easily. Watch that you don't put the sticky part on a photo. Don't leave it on a page for a prolonged period of time, either!
Scrap Happy!

I did it...almost!

Ok, people! I now have only ONE page to complete of my Disney Trip! I know I can finish it tonight! I am so proud of myself! I set this as a goal, mostly because I don't want to get any further behind in my daughter's album and we are leaving for the beach tomorrow. I'm going to take this trip's pages (there are many!) and my cruise pages, and hopefully journal them in the evenings. Those of you who live nearby will get to see them when I get home, because you know I will be attempting to show them to everyone I know! Happy last week of August, and as always...

Scrap Happy!

midnight snack

After writing my blog last night, I wanted to scrapbook so badly! Since it was already 11pm, I told myself I could only work a little while. That's what I did, just an hour's worth of work to complete the next page. Yes, I didn't accomplish much! I also realized that I had skipped an event, but there is no going back now, so I'll have to get over it! (Actually, I ended up going back and taking the one page I'd done out of order apart and fit in the pages I'd skipped. I would never have been happy with it if I didn't do it correctly!-edited 9/1/06)I have more to get done than I thought when I wrote last night! But I am still happy with my progress, and hoping to get it completed by Saturday, so that I can take it along to the beach and journal at night when there isn't anything else to do! I am taking my cruise pages as well, to journal them. When I come back, with several more rolls of film that need developed, I should only have to do all of summer to get current in my daughter's album!

Tip of the Day: Stickers need to be used with in 2 years of when they are purchased, for best results and stickiness!

Scrap Happy!

Disney scrapping

I have been scrapping our vacation to Disney (last December) and since I am making simple pages, I am really making headway. It's really fun to look back and see everything that we did! We had fun. I amjust getting to the day that my husband got food poisoning! Can you believe that we even have a photo of him in the restaurant he ate the ribs that we believe made him sick 14 hours later? Weird, huh? I must be nearing the end of our trip! That kind of did us in. We left early. The new Disney snap pack has patterned paper that I just love! I like to use silly little sayings and take them out of context as page titles. "Seeing Stars" -Disney Stars of course! "Parade with character" -Disney caracters! It's really corny, but I usually use the first thing that pops into my head! Hey, I'm having fun!

just a little note...

I didn't mean to not tell you how the tournament went! The team did pretty well. We didn't win, but we did get a huge trophy for winning the division, so it was Ok. I was able to get the pictures I needed to add to the album, and we had a great time fellowshipping together.
I was writing a little note to my cousin, telling her all of the things that we have done this summer. It ended up being a long note! We have really done a lot! I think we packed nearly every summer thing into this one summer! It has been great! The best thing is that it's not over yet! It might take me into the new year to scrap all of these moments, but won't that keep me warmer for longer!?!

Tip of the Day: Your kids can help you journal! Really! Jot down a few questions and ask them. Then put their answers in their album. What was your favorite animal at the zoo? What was the best thing that happened at the waterpark? What was your favorite dish at the family picnic? Write their memories!

Scrap Happy!

Vellum Workshop

Friday night at my house was scrapbooking night! We accomplished a lot! Well, MOST of us did! 3 of us stayed up until the wee hours of the morning. The DJ on the radio kept reminding us it was after midnight, and we would groan! I finished laying out the Disney trip, and started to scrap the pages! I was bookin'! I got so much done and it felt great! I am really trying to not make the pages so complicated, because I know that I won't ever get caught up if I do too much. I have been watching to leave adequate space for journaling, too.
We want to have a weekend get away, so that will be my next project! It would be so much fun to have nothing but scrapping on the itinerary for a whole weekend! Spending it with friends would be the icing on the cake!
If you are interested in coming to our get away, please e-mail me!
Keep on scrappin'!

Tip of the Day: We had a crop talk on vellum at this workshop. This prompted one of my friends to use vellum on her page. She had 2 black and white photos of her son, and wanted to put them by themselves on the 12x12 page. But they would have been lost on there by themselves. She had a sheet of patterned paper, but didn't want it to take away from her picture. It was a group effort! We all gave our input and she took what she wanted from our advice and decided to place vellum on the patterned paper, making it softer. All she did was take the patterned paper and size it to the black page so that she left black all the way around the paper. Kind of like a mat. Then she laid the vellum on top of the pattern paper, having cropped it so that there was an even amount of pattern paper showing all the way around the vellum. (Another mat.) Then she placed the 2 pics on, and added just a touch of color with a bucket of sand sticker and a shovel , both off to the inside bottom corner of the page. This way, they draw the viewer's eye in toward the page, and help them to notice the pictures. She added a phrase about dirt, and the page was complete!

Scrap Happy!

To a Beautiful Person

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

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

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

power me up!

Not to get ahead of myself, but I started to use the new power sort layouts for the vaca we took last November. I had just skipped over it completely in my daughter's album because I was getting too far behind. I love the power layouts! The guides you use stay flat, while having a pile of pages tends to curve. I also think pictures stay in place a lot better on the power sort guides. They tend to shift and slide when just laid out on pages. I have been using the power sort method for years, without the box. I just lay my pics out on pages instead. It's really nice to have the box there to keep them in. It keeps them from getting dusty (that is a problem I have had!) and it should keep them from shifting so that my pictures won't end up getting bent from sliding off the page when I move it. So, I'm really making headway! I'm cropping my pictures as I put them in the box, so i should just need to decorate and be done! If only it were that easy!

Scrap Happy!

the journaling begins

I hated to admit it, but I had lost all the notes I had written while on my cruise! I can admit it now, because I finally found them over the weekend! I had placed them in a safe place, that's why I couldn't find them!
Anyway, I began the long process of journaling my trip. I got out a pen and notebook, the memories I had written on the trip, and the list that we filled out daily, ( best, worst, we tried... and the weather was...), and I laid out the pages that I have already put photos on. As I write in my notebook what I will later write on my album pages; I look at the album and how much room I have left for journaling, and kind of plan out where I was going to write what. I am not always this anal about it, but I want this album to be as near perfect as it can be because it's really special to me! So far, I have only written in the notebook. It's a long process! I'm combining the notes I've written, the info from our daily lists, as well as things I 'm remembering as I look at the pictures! Whew! Who knew scrapbooking could be so much work!?

Scrap Happy!

We are the Champions!

I have a big day planned! I am going to be at the church softball tournament for most of the day. Yesterday, our boys won the division in the last regular game of the season! I'm very proud of them! Last season, some of the other wives and I made a little album for them, and passed it around at the softball tournament. This year, I haven't taken one pic, but of course I'll take a picture of the whole team, as always! This year they will have their trophy with them! How exciting! As the coach, this is all very important to my husband. He misses Weddings, parties and other numerous events if they are going to be at or around the same time as his games. He goes to the game hours early. Sometimes I resent softball for taking up so much of our life! But I may have gotten used to it. After all, he has been playing on this team since 1998! So, I'm proud of him, and the boys of Riverside.

Tip of the Day: When taking pictures at a sporting event, make sure that you use at least 400 speed film. Don't take close pictures through a wire fence or netting such as the one they have behind home plate. Do take pictures of your family watching the game. Ask someone you don't know to take it!

Quote of the Day: "I may be little, but I'm Daddy's biggest fan." - me (used as a page title in my daughter's album)

Scrap Happy!

New Stuff is here!!!!

I'm so excited right now! I just got my order today with all the new Creative Memories stuff in it and it was seriously like Christmas! It's already cool normally, getting a bunch of boxes, but more so when you haven't even seen pictures of the new stuff. I have to tell you the truth, guys. I have NEVER sat down and read the catalog cover to cover. Never! But I did this time! It's seriously like a magazine! I love the new catalog! I do! I ordered a whole bunch of stuff for myself this time, too. Every time I get a new consultant under me, when they place their first order, I get a $100 shopping spree! So, I got new stickers, a power layouts hickey, the new colors of pens, some of the new paper packs, just all kinds of stuff! I'm just so excited! I have been so Ho Hum about my business lately, and I'm sure my clients and friends are getting a little fed up with me, but I'm BACK! I don't know why, but this has just got me so excited, that I want to give everyone a new catalog, I want to deliver all my orders, I just want to be a good consultant again! Hey, summer's just about over, I guess it's time for me to get back to work!

Tip of the Day: From now on, if you pick up your order from me, you will always get a free gift. I ordered a whole bunch, and that's my new deal!

Scrap Happy!

Ready for deportation!

Yay! I finished all of the pages of my cruise! I can almost start sharing them, but I still need to journal. I dreamt I was on a cruise last night! I'm really pleased with the pages. I looked back over them again and I feel that they tell our story perfectly! As I created them, I was afraid that I was using blue a little too much. But in retrospect, I can see that I did a pretty good job of using different colors and tying the page together. I'm excited to get caught up on my daughter's album.

Alea's August Specials

I have to make this quick, as it is very late and I'm sooo tired! To those of you having trouble adding a comment, try clicking on the zero in the phrase "0 comment". That might work?
I just wanted to let you know that I have updated my website, so those of you who are friends and clients might want to take a look at that. I have great specials for August listed, as well as my workshop dates. I have been dreaming of my pages and getting even better ideas for that page I keep telling you about, but I haven't been able to get to it yet. Summer keeps me too busy! At least I know that I will be able to scrap this Friday, since I'll be having a workshop! YAY!

Tip of the Day: check out my website...pretty PLEEEEEASE!
www.mycmsite.com/alea (just click on it!)

Scrap Happy!

Stuck in the middle with you!

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

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

Scrap Happy!

Support the front line!

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

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

Scrap Happy!

History Lesson 101

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

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

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

Scrap Happy!

Tears

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

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

Scrap Happy :(

Ramblings from a scrapbooker

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

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

Scrap Happy!

Recharged

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

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

Scrap Happy!

Still on that cruise of mine!

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

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

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

Is it over yet?

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

Beach in your own backyard

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

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

Scrap Happy!