Capturing Memories

This past weekend my BFF Joyce and I went to a scrapbooking getaway. It wasn't really so much away (about 20 miles) - but we stayed at a hotel and didn't go home- so that's away enough for me. It was from Friday night, til Sunday (i left by noon). It was really good. I got a lot of pages done - and some quality time with my friend. We drank lots of margaritas. Pretty much from noon on on Saturday - and yet, never got drunk. We also went to Hooters for the first time (that was where we got our first margaritas!) Anyhoo---- we got some good work done!

I finished my Disney book from last November's trip - and I LOVE it. Looking at the pics again did make me feel bad that we didn't bring Big Man along on the trip - but we may be able to remedy it this fall when I have a conference in San Diego. We are thinking of all going out and spending time out there - including maybe a day in DisneyLand.



I also got all caught up on their birthday books. I have books for each child with just a 2-page layout of their birthday for that year. My plan is that when they are grown up, I can give it to them and they will have their very own birthday book. I also scrap their birthdays as part of our chronological books, but these are just birthdays. I am not all caught up - for the next 10 days, until we have B's birthday.

( i have no idea why this one won't stay rotated (probably left over margarita on the brain).

It is so great to just have a weekend to yourself sometimes..especially with a good friend and a chance to reflect.

Cool Project and Website with Lots of Potential

I thought I blogged about this before, but I can't find it. Last year Tonya at Currently Crafting had this awesome idea to make a book. She used this awesome free site - Scrapblog.com - to design the pages. Then she printed them out and mounted them in blank cardboard hardback books she bought on Oriental Trading. Such a cool idea.

So I totally stole it and made a bunch of these for Christmas. I used the great free photo editing software at Scrapblog to put the kids into the stories in the books. Big Man got one about a silly Caterpillar, the girls got one about princesses (thanks to the great Disney pics I had of them all princess'ed up!), and I did a few with superheros for some favorite little boys. They came out so great and the kids all LOVE them. I thought I would it here. I am working on some more for some upcoming birthdays. They are fun to make and come out great. Here are some pics of the one I did for Big Man.



Scrapblog is a great tool for other things too! Party invitations come to mind. You just create a page and then can save it as a .jpg to print. Here is what the .jpg looks like:





As you can see, I used their free tool to cut around an image of Big Man. Then I used their clipart to put in the bench, the butterfly, and add the speaking bubbles. Really so easy, and doesn't it look great?

I am using it now to write a book with K. She is writing the story and we are typing it out in the program. She drew pictures for it and we scanned them it to use as the background. Then we can use all the "stickers" and other clipart they have on scrapblog to embellish and build the pictures for her story. It is great. I will probably post more details on that soon, but wanted to share this great site, and a great idea.

If you don't want to use photos - you don't have to, you can just use their clipart, like Tonya did.

Fun Little Project

Last week, K and I worked on a cute scrapbooking project I had seen online. It was really fast and came out great! I highly recommend it - even if you don't usually scrapbook. Basically you need 5 peices of 12x12 paper. One of them will be the cover of your box. The other 4 pieces are cut and folded and become the box. You put pictures 4 (or 8 if you do the back) pictures (approx 3.5x3.5) on each page. It is hard to explain - so you should go here to check it out. When you are done it is really cool. The recipient just lifts off the cover of the "box" and the other pages fan out and show off all the pictures. It probably took us less than 2 hours and it would be a great mother's day gift! Here are a few pictures.

A Week in My Life

So this week I am tackling an interesting scrapbooking project - A Week in My Life. The idea has been well fleshed-out by Ali Edwards, a scrapbooking author. It looked like fun, so I thought I would give it a shot.

I have been carrying my camera around everywhere and trying to take as many photos of my life as possible. My biggest fear is that this will demonstrate how completely boring my life is. Oh well...I think it will be interesting to see. Shutterfly even has a cool kind of kit to help you make a digital scrapbook.

Will let you know how it turns out. But in the meantime, if you see me taking pictures of random crap - you know why!

Scrapbooking Is My Life

Or not. I had a FABULOUS time at Scrapbowl this weekend. It was so fun. It was great spending so much time with my girlfriend, and I got lots of scrapbooking done. It was a crazy place - over 600 scrapbookers, a bunch of vendors, and classes. Although I have to say the thing that cracked me up the most was how seriously people took the scrapbooking. The keynote address was given by a woman who has written a bunch of best-selling scrapbooking books, and she is really talented. She also takes this hobby REALLY seriously. Basically her message was that if we change the way we scrapbook - it will change our life. Really??!! I don't think so. It will just change the way I scrapbook. My life is a whole other matter. At least for me, scrapbooking is a fun hobby that I enjoy. It lets me be creative, and at the same time preserve some family memories and use some great photos. But it isn't life altering. I preferred the message from the amazing Donna Downey, who taught one of the classes I took. She said she doesn't always journal, because, frankly she is just not that deep. She has cute pictures of her kids and she likes to put them in a pretty book. That is exactly how I feel about it. Sometimes I have a funny story to tell, or a touching moment - and that, I journal. But otherwise, its just about the photos. Anyway, it was a great time and I totally want to go back next year. I even got two (15-minute) massages out of the deal! Here is a cute book that Donna Downey taught us how to make - called My Kind of Beautiful.

A Scrapbooking I'll Go!

Yayy. I am off for SCRAPBOWL with my best friend from high school. I am SOOO excited. I am taking two classes, but the rest of the time I will just be scrappin'. I think I enjoy it so much because I am a crafty person. But I don't have much time for many crafts what with the job and three kids and all. So with scrapbooking, I feel like I am preserving family memories - but get to let my creative side out as well. Whatever it is - I love it and can't wait!!! Maybe I will even post a layout or two when I get back.

Freecycle Rocks!

I have been using freecycle for about 2 years, and I have to say, I love it. I can't tell you how much stuff I have gotten rid of quickly and easily, AND how much stuff I wanted I got for free! If you don't know what freecycle is - its a website where people in your area list stuff they want to get rid of, and you email them if you want it. You can also post your stuff to get rid of, and even post "Wanted" for items you want that someone may have. It's really great.

I have only posted one "wanted" for a baby bicycle seat to strap to the back of my bike -- and got one within a few days. Other great gets are huge lots of scrapbooking materials, a nice train table, and some maternity clothes. I have also quickly and easily gotten rid of desks, filing cabinets, old Corian counter tops, books, an old garbage disposal, a broken printer, photo albums, picture frames, you name it!

If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it!