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!
Scrap Happy!

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!
Scrap Happy!

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!
Scrap Happy!

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!
Scrap Happy!

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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Rainy days are perfect weather...for scrapbooking!

Hello Katrina! Welcome to Pennsylvania! All you do is give me an excuse to scrapbook, because it's too yucky to do anything outside and who can afford the gas to drive anywhere anymore? I have once again been working on the book that I'm doing for someone else. This is because I received a call from someone else who wants me to do a book as a gift for their grandparents, and I realized that I'd better get working! I really do love what I'm doing!
I am not up to date on my little girl's book because I am having a journalling issue. So, I borrowed some books from the library to help me know what it is I want to put down on these pages. I really have to say that I like my work recently! That's always good! But now I'm having this writer's block on my pages. AG!
Tip of the Day: The library is a great source of information! And you can't beat it, because it's free! You are not limited to the books at the actual library you visit either. There is a huge system out there to choose from. I have started to request books via the internet because it is easier and doesn't take up my favorite librarian's time. Just go to your local library's website to find out how to request any number of books. I recently have gotten idea books by Memory Makers magazine, and journalling books including hand writing books, different fonts, there is just no limit really to the resources you can get from your local library.
Scrap Happy!

Beach bliss

First I just wanted to let everyone know that our softball team won the championship game today! I almost cried! They absolutely loved the album we made for them, too. Who is it that told me boys don't like albums? They actually credited it as the reason for the win! We took even more pictures today, and as someone suggested, I think it would be fun to get all the ladies together to scrapbook the playoffs! But not until I get back from my vacation! I'm so excited about my vacation! I really need one, because I'm really not able to let myself have a whole lot of down time. I'm always thinking or planning for my business. So, it's good for me to get away for a little bit.

Tip of the Day: Don't set impossible goals for yourself! You know what kind of a scrapbooker you are, and how much you can reasonably accomplish in whatever time. If you set outrageous goals that you can't possibly complete, then you will only end up disappointed and still behind in your scrapboking. I speak from experience. While I have completed a lot in this time before my trip, I was dreaming too big expecting to catch up on 3 months worth of photos in just a few weeks. Maybe I can try to get the rest done by the time my beach pictures are developed!
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The power of NEW!

There are so many new things from Creative Memories lately! This isn't a plug, seriously! I just find that I'm getting inspired now by looking at the different paper and stickers. I have been pushing to get this album completed, and I find that I'm getting page ideas even as I walk around Kennywood! The problem is holding onto these ideas until I can put them into my album! I think that the more I work on my daughter's album, the more inspired I get. Weird, because I was having so much trouble thinking up page ideas when I wasn't working on anything.

Tip of the Day:
This tip goes along with what I wrote the other day. I have a page every month where I put a collection of pictures that didn't go anywhere else. For instance, in May, I have a picture from Mother's Day, a picture of my girl with her nursery teacher since it was her last time in the nursery, and a random pic from her party, and some relatives we saw that month. On this monthly "random" page, I usually will look at my calendar and write all the things I jotted down for that month, on that page. This gives every memory a home of it's own!
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Fans of the Game

Tonight I got together with other wives and girlfriends of our church's softball team. This season has really been a great one. We ended the season 15-7. We wanted to show our guys how much they mean to us, so we made them a little album. It was the first time that I've ever worked on an album with a group of people, and it really was fun! I had everyone over to my place, because I had every tool we'd need, as well as my whole workshop room to scrapbook in. I supplied everything, except most of the other girls brought their tape runners as well. It went really quickly with all of us working together! I can't wait to see the guy's faces when we give it to them at their playoff games this weekend. I just know some of those tough guys are going to tear up when they see it! We are going to be taking lots of pictures at the playoffs because this might be the year we take first place!

Tip of the Day: When planning a team album, try to get one picture per player so that you can really put them in the spotlight. Even team pictures rarely end up having every player in them. I wish that I had pictures of every player by them selves, so that I could have written out their full name and their jersey #, and maybe something that they are known for saying or doing. Well, there's always next year!
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pictures and remembering

I have been working everyday on my daughter's album. I sorted through the pictures last night, and I can't see how I could ever get caught up with the summer months by the time our vacation gets here! I had no idea that I'd taken so many pictures! It looks like I will be starting another album soon as this one is almost filled to capacity. This will bring my girl's album total up to an astounding 6 albums! I must be documenting every moment of her life. But you know, when I look back, I'm so glad that I have, because you forget those little things they say one month afterward, even if they say it every day for a month!

Tip of the Day:
I don't keep a fancy little journal to remember the little things my toddler says or does. I simply jot them down on my kitchen calendar when I remember. When I scrapbook, I often grab my calendar to help me keep track of what happened that month. I sometimes like to jot down what I took a picture of, too. This works well for those times you find your self wondering which direction is up in the picture, and what is she doing with that purple blob?
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My busy life

I have been busy with a concert, my wonderful scrapbooking business, and a week long visit from my cousin, and haven't gotten to scrapbook in a while. But I have still been taking pictures, which I will need to put into an album soon! My goal of getting all caught up in my daughter's album by the time I go on vacation, is looking like the impossible dream at this point! But I have you to keep me accountable! I'll report my progress. I have one week!

Tip of the Day: When you first get your photos and look through them, you can save time by separating them into 2 piles (doubles) and putting duds in the trash right then as well. This is also the best time to pull out your negatives for the ones you wish to get copied or enlarged. Creative Memories has several different items that help me to keep organized. Folders sized to fit your photos, as well as negative files designed to keep your negatives safe. Label an envelope "doubles~ spring 2005" or separate the photos with envelopes labeled with names on them to give to different people. If I don't do it right away, I don't always remember to do it later! If you aren't going to get your photos into albums for awhile, you could use a photo labelling pencil to jot down names, dates, and what was going on in the photo on the back of it. This really comes in handy later, trust me!