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!
Scrap Happy!

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!
Scrap Happy!

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!
Scrap Happy!

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?
Scrap Happy!

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!

There's a monster in my scrapbook!

I've been working on my daughter's birthday party pages. Her party theme was Monster's Inc. To both challenge myself and also to add a little cohesiveness to the pages, I have been using the same 4 colors on all of her birthday pages. These are the official monsters Inc. colors, light but bright blue for Sulley, lime green for Mike, and Orange because that seems to be a color associated with the movie! I'm also using hot pink because my girl was wearing bright pink. It is an odd combination, but is turning out to be very appropriate for a birthday party! It also is tying the pages together marvelously! I've been using more letter stickers on these pages as well. They keep it looking less cluttered.
Tip of the Day: I already mentioned creating a theme of some kind for events that have multiple pages. Last year for my daughter's birthday, I created a tag for each page. I used all kinds of tags, small ones, and some more elaborate. I had a lot of fun with it and since it was carrying over onto all the party pages, I didn't have as much trouble coming up with new ideas.
I have a friend who used the same title box for all of her day beginnings on her cruise. She had a rectangle of water colored paper which she secured to the page. Then she used a smaller rectangle of vellum and secured it onto the water paper. Now there is a border of the water paper clearly all around the vellum. She used letter stickers to write the date and location and placed that on the vellum. It looked sooo nice!
Scrap Happy!

I hate my pages!

Have you ever gotten to the point where you just can't come up with anything creative? That's where I feel like I am right now. I've been stuck in the land of no creativity for some time actually. When I do the pages, I just feel like they are so... blah. But when I look at them later, I realize that I really do like them! I stayed up past 3am working on my daughter's birthday pictures. I have been working so hard on everything else, that it really feels relaxing to work on her pictures. ( I just wish I could come up with some awesome page ideas) If you are stuck in a rut, like I am, you might want to consider page ideas that come in a binder. CM sells them! You can add to your collection every season when a new pack comes out. I'll let you know if I start creating betterpages the next time I write!

Tip of the Day:
To slide your page protectors onto a well embellished page smoothly, just lay a piece of paper right up against the page and the page protector will slide right on! Then simply pull the extra paper out.
Scrap Happy!

Scrapbooking for ME!

Yesterday, I said, "Forget it!" I took some time for myself, and just went to work on a few pages of my daughter's album! It was great! My personal goal is to catch up on her album before our little vacation in August, so that when I get home from the beach, I can do it right away! You know how some things are easier to do than others? My beach pictures are like that! I relive it as I scrap it! I also take very good notes when I'm there, so that of course makes it much easier to journal when I sit down to scrap 2 weeks later.

Tip of the Day: One of my favorite beach page ideas is this, tear tan paper in a strip and place it along the bottom of your page with the torn side up. Place a few seashell stickers, maybe a bucket on it's side in the "sand" you have just made, and all you need are the pictures. It's so simple, yet looks so cool.
Scrap Happy!

No time to scrapbook!

Running a business, cleaning my house, taking care of my little one, laundry, and my husband's softball games. What do all of these things have in common? They are my reasons for not getting any scrapbooking done this week! But the week is still only halfway gone!

Tip of the Day: I got this tip from my friend, and customer, Dana. Using the CM cutting system, cut a circle out of your page. Obviously, the next page will then show through. You can then place a photo on the next page that you will be able to see through the hole. I did a book for someone of their son's baseball career. I placed his first little league photo on the second page of the book, in the left hand top corner of the page. I cut the facing page, and then continued to cut circles in several pages, so that you could still see his first photo for several pages. Be careful, because after 4 or so pages, you can no longer see through once you have placed page protectors on the pages. I had several of these "Focus Photos" throughout the book, because this book was mostly made up of news articles, and I wanted to keep the photo idea fresh. I did a Mentor theme for his book, so I started the front page with a picture of him and his grandfather, who taught him to play ball, and using several pictures of him with his parents as "Focus Photos" throughout the book.You might want to use the larger size book when using this idea, because it does tend to take up a lot of space on the page.
Scrap Happy!

Monday, Monday

It's the start of another week, and I was able to work on the 10th grader's album again this weekend. Both Friday and Saturday, I spent hours on it. I'm really happy with how it's looking, even though I'm not using a Creative Memories album, and I have no idea how to insert the extra pages in this one. I also don't like how the 12x12 sheets of paper don't fit right on the page and I have to keep cutting each sheet. Everything is designed to fit together with CM, and it seems to save me a lot of time. I have hardly made a dent in the box of photos, and I am only at the end of her preschool year! The good thing is that once I finish a page or 2, I will be done with this album, and then I can start using CM albums and pages!

Tip of the Day: Get your pictures developed in the 4 inch size instead of the 3 1/2 x 5. It's easier to crop the larger photos, and it's easier to see everyone's face in group photos.
Scrap Happy!

Fast and Thrifty

Yes! I finally was able to get pictures in order and start the album I told you about! I completed 9 pages in 4 hours last night, and didn't end up leaving my friend's until after 2 am! I made simple pages, and that's how I completed them so fast. I still have a long way to go! I have a scrapbooking night tonight, so I hope to complete 9 or more in the next 5 hours.

Tip of the day: When I mat a photo, I hate to waste all of the paper that will be behind the photo where no one can see it anyway! What I do is measure and cut the "mat" out, and then cut the center rectangle ( the part that will be hiding behind the picture) out with a 12 inch trimmer. This takes a few extra minutes, but I think it's worth it!
Scrap Happy!!!

life strikes again!

I was going to try to start my customer's album by today, but I failed! I have a good excuse though! My daughter became really sick and wanted to be held constantly. I did pick up 3 more rolls of developed film before that happened, so now I have even more incentive to finish this other book, so that I can work on Kennywood pictures, as well as pictures my daughter took on her own little camera. (It's her very first roll!) I hope to get together with 2 of my friends to scrap tonight.
Tip of the Day: Set aside time to scrapbook! Make it a priority! Put it on the calendar if you need to! Making plans to go to a friend's house and just scrap until you can't see straight, will help you keep the time set aside to just scrapbook. You might even want to turn your phone off! I have workshops in my home twice a month. Anyone is welcome, and I have scrapbooking supplies there to purchase. I also hand out page ideas for everyone to take home. If you are interested in having a bunch of friends over to scrapbook together, I can come to you, bringing a box of stickers, paper and tape runner refills! I also have a thank you gift for the hostess, and crop talks for everyone. If you're interested, write to me at aleasalbums@yahoo.com .

starting from scratch

The hardest part of scrapbooking, is actually starting the newest project! Once I have the pictures sorted and I have sat down to actually put them in the album, then it is easy! It's just the initial overwhelming start! I have an album to start for one of my customers. It's been on my own personal to-do list for 3 days now! I hope to be able to tell you that I have started it by the next time I write!
Tip of the day: If you have years worth of photos in boxes, you probably are daunted by where to start! The easiest thing to do is to purchase the Power Sort box from a CM consultant. I was able to help my mom sort BOXES of photos in just 4 hours. You should have seen all of the empty envelopes we threw away! Imagine the guilt that we threw away along with those empty photo envelopes! Whew!

scrapbooking ideas and revelations

I have a confession to make! I'm now 2 months behind in my daughter's album! I try to create an album for her, and an album for myself. My own album is now a year behind. Here are my excuses: First, I take way too many pictures! I can't help it! I just don't want to forget anything she says or does. She has 2 books for every one year of her life. Secondly, I do other people's albums. Enough said! I just don't have time to put my own pictures into an album.

A HA! Now you're thinking, how do you have time to write about scrapbooking then? How can I resist?! Writing and scrapbooking are both passions of mine! So, my writings in here may be short, but I want to share a little bit of my experience and ideas.

Tip of the day: make sure you journal in your albums! You might hate your handwriting, but it is a part of you. Imagine getting the mail and spreading all of the envelopes out on the kitchen table. You'll see bills, and flyers, but what jumps out to you? An envelope with handwriting on it! How many times have you looked at a handwritten envelope and known immediately whom it was from? You recognize your mother's handwriting because it's a part of her! What will your handwriting mean to your children when you have passed away?
That's it for today! Scraphappy