Why I Scrapbook...and why you should too.

The last several weeks have been very challenging for me and I have found myself to be in some kind of dark hole from which I cannot seem to be able to emerge.  I find myself driving down the freeway bursting into tears just because of some silly thought that comes to mind...and it kind of scares me a little at times.  I've never been a person that suffered with depression (other than the typical PMS style rantings that roll around) and I really don't like it at all.  I know I'm freaking out my family with this bizarre behavior, but I just can't help it.

Here's the deal:  I am realizing that my life is passing right before my eyes, and I am on the verge of a new chapter--and it isn't just one thing, it's a million things all at once...

I think the beginning of it all started last year when Colby graduated and walked out of high school and right into a fabulous career as a software engineer (yes, he's a genius) and I realized I was nearing the end of my life raising children.  Now, within the last several weeks my youngest child and only daughter turned 16 and then went on her first date within the week (way faster than I wanted that to happen), I took Dylan in for his mission physical and we are mere weeks from him turning in his mission papers (I could swear he just got baptized), and I signed papers for my oldest son, Braden, who is disabled, stating that he is graduating from his school and transitioning out this year.  But it doesn't even stop there...I just put Savannah on a bus headed to California with the school choir, Dylan is preparing to travel to both Atlanta and Nashville for various school competitions, and my super-genius is filing his own taxes and I have now lost him as a deduction (and yes, this is sadder than it might seem).  It's like the perfect storm of anxiety for me.

All of this led me into my closet where I started perusing my scrapbooks.  Even as much as I love this hobby, I haven't even made a dent in the boxes and boxes of pictures I've taken and will never in my lifetime be "caught up".  (I hear that stupid phrase all the time and honestly have no idea what it even means!)  The thing I can honestly say though, is that those books are helping me more than any other single thing.  Not only do I have the pictures, but I have the stories that go with them.  All these glorious books are showing me just how WONDERFUL my life with my kids has been up to this point.  I don't just have pictures of vacations, birthdays, or Christmas...but I have all kinds of every day stuff that I would have long forgotten if it weren't for my scrapbooks.

A specific example of this is some pictures of Savannah that I took when she was barely three, wandering the backyard exploring the flowers--little purple pansies that had sprouted all over the yard in early spring and she couldn't get enough of them.  I followed her around taking pictures as she carefully poked them with her tiny fingers or leaned in to sniff them, but she never picked one or damaged them.  Looking at the pictures and reading the story of that day made me feel like I was back there, living it again.  I was sad for a minute that it was over, but also so happy to be able to remember that it happened.  And I also realized that it was a small glimpse of the beautiful girl she has grown up to be, who still loves flowers, whether it's the tulips just popping up in the yard or the roses given to her by a boy asking her to a dance.

I am so grateful for my scrapbooks!  They will always be there...reminding me of how great my life has been, and giving me hope for more great times in the future.

Often I hear people give reasons why they don't scrapbook...maybe you've used one of these yourself...

I'm just not creative enough to do that...

I don't really have time to scrapbook...

I wouldn't even know how to begin...

It's too late to start now...I have too many pictures and I'll never get "caught up"...

I don't have any artistic talent at all...

or my personal favorite...

No one will ever want to look at them, so why should I bother?

The funny thing about scrapbooks... it isn't about the creativity, the artistry, the embellishments, the paper, or any of that stuff.  It's about the story that you NEED to tell.  And you may not be telling the story to anyone other than yourself, but that's okay, because that's who you SHOULD be telling.  Just like keeping a journal--maybe even better, because it includes the pictures to go with it.

If you have pictures and memories, that's all you need.  Buy some paper, slap those pictures down and write your story.  Don't be afraid to use your own handwriting either.  All the rest is just fluff and in the end it isn't going to matter.  For me, I love the fluff... but if that's not you, don't let the fluff be the thing that stops you.  Include all the moments of your life--the good and the bad.  Discover for yourself how things have changed, what you've learned, and create a way to remember what your life is about...because before you know it, you'll blink and everything will be different.

A Giveaway!

So...getting a page kit together for a giveaway proved a little bit more challenging than I would have liked, but it's finally ready!  Sorry it took so long, but here it is:

It looks a little crooked in the pictures, and hopefully the colors are clear (the orange looks a little tan, but it might just be my monitor).  I used my brand new Birthday Bash cartridge to make the really cute embellishments for this page and it was super fun!

The winner of the page kit gets all the pieces to put together the embellishments, two sheets of black background paper, 3 sheets of patterned paper with markings for cutting according to the pattern, the plain colored card stock for matting your pictures, and a color picture to follow.  Sorry, you're going to have to supply your own pictures of someone having a birthday...

Entering is easy, and each person is allowed up to three entries:

1. Click on this link and enter:  Birthday Page Kit Giveaway  (This will allow us to contact the winner and know where to send it--very important)
2. Follow our blog (but don't do it anonymously or we won't know who you are)
3. Share this blog post on Facebook (and then let us know in the comments)

We will put all entries into a random drawing and announce the winner on March 30th (we will also contact the winner via email at that time).  Be sure to check back on the blog often--we're hoping to do several more giveaways over the next month.  Good luck and happy scrapping!

Boy

I had to put this page in before we were finished with our 30 days of layouts. It's got to be one of my favorite portrait pages of all times, I loved the pictures so much that it made the page really easy to do!

My background is just plain green cardstock. The orange polka dot and the brown plaid is scenic paper route. The green polka dot and the stripe is Bo Bunny. All the stickers are from a Bo Bunny sticker sheet, they matched my pictures perfectly! I spelled Ethans name using doodlebug button letters. 

The brown frog and green flower are felt shapes I got from Fancy Pants a long time ago. Again I mounted my stickers on chipboard. The orange ribbon is from American Crafts and the fibers and green ribbon are from All My Memories. I also used some brown snaps from We R Memory Keepers and some matching buttons. 

Posting these pages has been a lot of fun for me, I have had a great time looking through my albums and stirring up some of my old memories! Sure makes me miss my chunky little babies though! 

Keep an eye out for our upcoming page kit giveaway! 

Spring Fling!

So yesterday was a little too hectic for my taste and before I knew it the day was gone and there was no page posted!  So here is my page for the day, and in honor of the gloomy weather I decided to go with something super springy.

I think these pictures are really fun because I love action shots!  One of my favorite things to do with my camera is to set it on multi-shot and just push the button down.  It's the very best way to get really great candids and you never know when you'll get the perfect picture and not even realize it.  Once again I took way more pictures than I could fit on a layout, so I had to pare it down and try to make it fit.

Every one of the pictures is smaller than a standard 4x6 size, with some of them half that size and the pictures in the filmstrip the smallest.

At first I wanted to put the pictures in the filmstrip in order so it looked like a moving picture, but since I had way too many, I only did it for the small pictures in the top right.  I love the use of the filmstrip to include a lot of photos!

The paper is some coordinating paper from Hobby Lobby (Paper Studio)--I love it because it takes all the guesswork out of matching the paper.

I cut the various sizes of circles using my Sizzix and a circle die cut. I love the idea of lots of circles with the page because it matches so well with the frisbees and giant ball. The ribbon is American Crafts, and the 3D bugs are Paper Bliss.  The word Fling is made with sticker letters from Doodlebug and I cut summer with a Sizzix alphabet.

Some people shy away from pink paper, especially when they are dealing mostly with pictures of boys, but it is such a fun spring color for everyone that it definitely has it's place so don't be afraid to use it!

On another note, we are coming close to the end of our "30 days of pages" and have some fun new ideas for future posts, including a page kit giveaway, which we are hoping to have ready to go next week!

Through the Years...

Back in the days of film cameras....(I  know some people still use them, but where do you even buy film anymore?)...I had to be careful about how many pictures I took.  So as I sift through all my old pictures many times I find that I only took one or two pictures of something--especially if it was just pictures on a random day and not some special event.  A pile of these random pictures is how I came up with this idea for a fun page about the boys using pictures that didn't really go together and were, in fact, not even taken at close to the same time.

The cut outs that I used on these page are really cute but I have no idea what brand they are or what store might carry them.  The page is very simple--I just used the cutouts and plain card stock for the most part.  I do have some brads and and I used foam tape on the squares to make them raised, but other than that it's a pretty basic page.

The little airplane is raised up on pop dots and I attached the sign with eyelets and string so it would look like the plane is pulling it.

The fun part about this page is the journaling.  I got this idea from someone else online, so I can't take credit, but I will share.  

On each picture (you might be able to see it if you look hard) there is a number that corresponds to the journaling block.  The pictures all have a basic theme of the boys being together, so they fit with the cutout theme about boys,  but because all the pictures were taken at various times, I decided I really wanted to keep track of dates and places.  So my journal strip has numbers with the dates and a blurb about the picture.  It was a great way to combine many different activities into one layout!

I've been wanting to work on more of these random pictures lately, so maybe another page like this is going to be in the works soon...

Rock n Roll Birthday

I love hosting themed birthday parties! This one was particularly fun! I tried to decorate like a 50's diner, we served hamburgers in paper cadillac boxes with bottles of Rootbeer. And I forced my boys to dress as Greasers! They were not to happy about the apparel but I informed them that I needed cute pictures, and it was all about the fun scrapbook page I was going to create after the party! :) So they stomped off to their bedrooms and changed and voila!! Exactly the pictures I wanted!

I used a black backgound paper for this page, although not much of it shows, I wanted a hint of black behind the pattern papers.  The stripe and blue at the bottom is from the confetti pack by My Minds Eye. The  black gingham is just some old paper I had.

For the "Rock & Roll" part of this title I went online and found a 50's font, printed it on black paper and cut it out with detailing scissors. I did the same thing  with the music notes. I wanted them to look shiny like a record so I embossed them with embossing powder and my embossing gun. 

The word "birthday" is done with bazzill chipboard letters I got from O Scrap. The records are actually from the streamers I decorated with, I got the streamers from a local party store. I embossed the records as well. 

The black ribbon on the page is from Wal-Mart. The black buckles are pretty old so I don't remember where I got them. I went online and printed the words from the "Happy Days" song on a transparency and put the strip along the bottom of each page.

I wanted a greaser on my page but I couldn't find any 50's stickers anywhere! Now that my page is done, I see them in every craft store around! Isn't that how it always goes? But, since I didn't have a sticker I had to paper piece my own. I found this image online. I even had some levi pattern paper! I had a great time making him! Don't be afraid to paper piece, you'll love the end product!

YOU

When my kids were young we rarely did any photo shoots, they just weren't agreeable enough. So as they have gotten older we try to do a photo shoot every year on their birthday, I can't say they particularly like to do it but they are good kids and humor me! I chose this particular photo shoot because I loved the colors and the page kit!

When we did this photo shoot we wanted to capture some of the things that make Tyler who he is, so we took pictures of him with his ipod, because he loves music, it is a major part of his life, but  Obviously the most important part of his life is his mother right? What teenager wouldn't think that? At least that's what I tell myself everyday! 

This is another storytellers club pack...LOVE THEM! I loved the way the colors in this pack complimented the pictures and all of the tags went so well!  I love that storytellers pretty much comes with everything you  need for your page, even the background paper. I usually just add a few odds and ends to make it look complete. each of the tags had little circles printed on them that look like brads, but I like a little dimension to my pages, so I pulled some matching brads and put them right over the top of the printed ones. The punchouts on the side I mounted on more metal tags and added buttons. At the bottom of the arrow border I just added some matching ribbons and fibers. The only thing I wish I would have done with this page is maybe mounted some of the punchouts on chipboard or possibly have put them on my page using pop dots to make them stand out a little more. Other than that I love the way the page turned out, it made me realize that portrait pages aren't as hard as you think they will be. 

I wish I would have kept up on the portraits from the time the boys were little, I probably would have caught some really funny candid shots! 

Preserving School Memories

I don't make one page layouts very often, but when it comes to school pictures and you only have one photo, there isn't really a good way to turn them into a two page layout.  Even though these two pages aren't part of the same layout, I used the same basic idea for both of them, so I decided to post them both.

I saw the idea for the little squares at a scrapbook store a long time ago. They were selling sheets of paper with the squares on them, but I realized I could make them myself and print them out for a lot cheaper, plus I'd be able to include any category I'd like for the kids to fill out.  I am so extremely happy that I did these pages when the boys were young!  The answers they gave, and their handwriting preserved forever make these pages priceless!

To make the pages for the boys to fill out, I just created some text boxes in Word and filled in the categories.  I left the black outlines on the squares and had them fill out the pages before I cut the squares out so it would be easier for them.  I actually love the misspelled word "tooth" with the extra h crossed out--it gives it more character.

The only thing I asked from them is that they write within the box--no input on answers or even suggestions--I wanted it to be their genuine responses.

The stickers for the red page came from Pebbles, Inc; the blue ones from O Scrap.  These pages were super simple--all I had to do was piece everything together to make it all fit and glue it on.

A lot of times I go overboard and make my pages complicated, so the fact that these are so basic but so fun makes them extra special.  I really love them, and in retrospect I wish I'd done this with my kids every year and created an entire album of just these school pages.  Sadly I didn't, and there is no going back.  If your kids are little, make the sheets for them to fill out.  Even if you don't do anything with them right now, one day you'll be glad you have them.