The world must be ending

because I actually SCRAPBOOKED yesterday. The first time in, oh, I don’t know how many years. And I enjoyed it. Immensely.

I have fallen off of the memory keeping bandwagon for some time – I got busy with work and life and scrapbooking took time I didn’t have. And then I got so far behind that the thought of starting and trying to catch up just was overwhelming. My poor scrapbook table sat dusty and unused, becoming a place for the family to pile things that they didn’t want to deal with at the moment. My scrapbooking software has been unopened, and while I have been saving photos, no archiving has been done. No organization or anything.

However, ever since we got back from our Disney trip I have been wanting to do something with those photos. I didn’t want them to sit unenjoyed on my hard drive. We had a great trip and I wanted to preserve those memories. To be able to look back on the stories and relive the fun.

So, I have been toying with the idea of a pocket-style scrapbook. I even purchased a 6×8 album and inserts and Disney-themed décor. And then I looked at how many photos I had. Over 1,000! Between the photos we took and the ones that we had taken by cast members, we have a LOT of photos. I wasn’t sure my little 6×8 album could hold all of that. And I wasn’t going to print that many pictures only to discard about half or more that wouldn’t make the cut into the album. That’s wasteful and expensive.

So then I thought about doing a simple Shutterfly album. I uploaded the photos and then started looking at the options online. I realized that I would not be happy or content with the products they had because I was used to being able to customize my pages with my digital scrapbooking.

So yesterday, while we watched movies as a family, I set up my laptop in the living room, downloaded some Disney themed digital kits and got to work. I managed to make it as far as our first “official” day in the park. I’m planning to do more this weekend, so hopefully I will make good progress. I have a lot of pictures to go through, but I’m having FUN and enjoying it again. And that’s a pretty big thing.

Who knows? I may actually scrapbook again.

Scrapbook kit: Simple Stories Digital collections (Say Cheese & Say Cheese 2)

Project Life Tuesday ~ 6 May 13

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

Hope your week is treating you well – so far so good for us here. It’s time for another update on my Project Life pages…

A little background

This year, I’m doing my Project Life album digitally. I’m using Creative Memories’ Storybook Creator software and Becky Higgins’ Turquoise Edition (for the most part) I’ve also purchased these nifty little overlays that allow my pages to look like true pocket pages (I’m loving them).

I’m planning to print my pages as a book – hopefully, it will all fit in one volume and take up less space on the shelf than the 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012 versions which are 2 volumes (2 3” binders) each!

This week’s pages

I had hoped to get more pages done over the past weekend because of International Scrapbook Day, but I was sick over the weekend and really didn’t feel like doing much more than just sitting still. Sigh.

But I DID get some pages done – continuing to work my way through 2013 and hopefully get caught up soon.

The journal cards are from Juli Fish: You Make Me Happy ~ I can’t find the download link anymore.

The other bits and bobs were from another kit that came from The Daily Digi as part of the monthly kit. I love it. Happy, happy stuff.

I like the pages – I think they capture the fun of that week. And I love that everyone in the family is in the pictures.

Project Life Tuesday (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Project life Tuesday (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
25 great gifts for memory keepers (scrapbookladypages.com)
December Daily + Project Life in action (scrapbooklady.typepad.com)
Sponsor Giveaways: The Daily Digi and Scotty Girl Design (cathyzielske.typepad.com)

Project Life Tuesday ~ 24 April 12

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday!

If you are stopping by from The Mom Creative, welcome & thanks for clicking over! If you are not, you might want to click over there when you’re done here for some more great Project Life inspiration!

I’m using the Clementine Edition of the Project Life kit offered by Becky Higgins, supplemented by some digital extras and using up the random bits I have from twelve-plus years of scrapbooking. Some weeks are more digital than others and some weeks are full of frills and furbelows. It just depends on my mood.

This week is a little more digital – with the exception of some old Creative Memories’ Black & White paper and some red ribbon for a punch of color. Since it was a rainy, gloomy week last week, I went with black & white for the major color scheme.

(remember to click on any image to see it larger)

Here are a few close ups:

This was the back of the page from last week and it had six 6×4 pockets. I realized this only after I’d cut my 3×4 pictures and rounded the corners, but I think it looks OK. It matches the other page, at least.

I thought the red ribbon tied in nicely to the red on the radar and the red tail lights from the rainy day picture.

a close-up of the journaling. Loving the Cathy Zielske journaling cards. I made the border dark grey to go with my color scheme.

Right side page: (sorry for the glare)

My favorite cookies – SuperMan brought some home for me. Love to nibble on some with some green tea at night while we watch TV.

And the cat has moved back in the house because the doggies have taken over her garage – at least until the back yard is de-flea-ed and the rain lets up.

and then there is my dismay over gas prices. I figured it was worthy of documenting –

and my current magazine loves & Big Girl’s multi-tasking…

Moving on to Saturday when the pups tried (vainly) to get into the house for a visit.

That’s it from around here. I’m not participating in the Week in the Life project (maybe one day) but I have been taking lots of pictures and it’s only Tuesday! Yay, me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life Tuesday ~ 10 April 12 (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Project Life Tuesday: 1.24.12 (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Project Life Tuesday 3.27.12 (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)

Scrapbook Tuesday

Okay, I’ll admit I haven’t done a very good job of keeping up with the whole Project Life thing – it just seems like, well, LIFE gets in the way of doing the project!

But, I have been busily scrapbooking again. Enjoying using the new StoryBook Creator 4.0 software (I love it!) and scrapping the pictures from our recent adventures.

Additionally, since I’ve given up on the whole Project Life thingy, I’ve decided to do my 2011 pictures in digital pages – so that gives me tons of pictures (and stories!) to capture… Now, instead of being overwhelmed and feeling like a loser for not doing anything with my PL album, I’m feeling energized and inspired to get some scrapbooking done again!

Here are some pages I did this past week… loving the fact that digital scrapping means no mess and it’s so easy to do a page or two here and there without a big production.

Anyhow – here are the pages – enough rambling!

Crawling out from under a rock

Sorry for the silence on the blog lately. I have been sick with a rotten case of bronchitis for the past week. It came on rather suddenly and pretty much knocked me off my feet for a week. I’m on the second round of antibiotics now and am starting to finally feel more like myself again.

No menu plan this week. I kinda sorta have a plan, but really am leaving it open as it will depend a lot on how I’m feeling.

I did manage to do a tiny little bit of scrapbooking last weekend – I got two pages (somewhat) done – think I may tweak them a little more before I’m finished with them, but thought I’d share with you anyway. The other four pages I can’t remember if I shared with you already or not, so I thought I’d share them today.

I downloaded the newest version of Creative Memories’ StoryBook Creator(4.0) and am in love. It is the best of the old SBC+ and Photoshop Elements all in one. Lots more power, lots more flexibility but the same user friendliness that CM products are known for.

I can’t wait to spend more time in the software and play around a bit. One of the things I have discovered that I REALLY love is the fact that it handles all my non-CM content so much better than before. I just pointed the software to the folder where all my digital content is and presto! it was available in the software. No more creating packages and all that jazz. That was one of my biggest headaches with the old CM software because I have A LOT of digital content. So this makes me really, really happy. Worth the price of the upgrade alone.

I’ll continue to play around and try to get a review posted soon. If any of you are using the CM software, let me know what you think!

A little bit of scrappin’

I have been on overload this week. Lots going on at work and at home.

So, I managed to carve out a few minutes of time last night to do a little therapeutic scrapbooking – to give my brain some creative time and my body a little rest.

Here are the pages I did. Not many, but it sure was nice to get some done. I am hoping to do more this weekend.

I can publish CM SBC+ templates if anyone is interested… let me know!

A little progress

I had high hopes of scrapbooking this past week – or at least getting some scrapbooking in during the past three days. Alas, life did not go according to plan, and neither did my muse. It just wasn’t in me.

And then, I thought to myself that even though I didn’t “feel creative” I should just sit down and piddle a little with the pictures and see if I got inspired. After all, it’s been months since I’ve scrapbooked and I’m still working on 2010 pictures, for Pete’s sake. (whoever Pete is…)

So, I did just that.

Sat down, opened up my software to see where I’d left off, and before you know it, I’d managed to do six pages! That, along with, feeding kids, retrieving dogs who are escaping their invisible fence, troubleshooting my mom’s email account, answering the phone, well, you get the picture.

The days of quiet solitude while I scrap are long gone. But, the nice thing about digital scrapbooking is that I can do just that – scrap in between life’s little interruptions. It doesn’t mean I have to put all the mess away, or pray no one bumps my page in progress. Nope, I just hit the “save” button, take care of the urgent matter, and move right along.

Love it.

Anyway, here are the pages I’ve done: (most of the digital supplies are from the Daily Digi subscription I have. Best investment for high quality digital supplies, I tell ya.)

And as a special treat for you guys – I have uploaded the template for the two pages above to my 4shared account (Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus templates) for you to download!

What? A Scrapbooking Post?

I know, I know… those of you who originally started following my blog to see scrapbooking related posts have probably gotten really disappointed in me lately… the scrapbooking has been rather absent. As a matter of fact, if you’re still hanging around, I have a special message for you…

Thank you.

I know I have been rather lax in the scrapbooking department. But, I have no good excuses for you – Life just gets in the way sometimes, you know?

But, the good news is that I have two scrapbooking retreats this fall – one was this past weekend and one is in October. I think I have found my scrapping mojo again – although it took me most of this past weekend to find it!

Here are a few pages I did over the weekend. For those of you who are Creative Memories software users, I’ll post some templates later in the week.

Field Day

When I was a kid, Field Day was something I dreaded. It was sooo hot in South Georgia and the thought of being outside and being forced to participate in sports was the equivalent of being banished to Hell. I used to try to come up with all sorts of reasons why I couldn’t go to school that day (none of which worked) and why I didn’t need to participate. I was not athletic, competitive, coordinated, or heat-tolerant. All of those things added up to making Field Day a miserable experience for me.

My girls, however, have not inherited those traits from me. They, thank goodness, have a love of physical activity and seem to be relatively heat-proof. So, Field Day for them this year was a great time.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that their school put on a fantastic event. I have to hand it to those folks. You can tell that months went into planning the day. There were water events, track and field-type events, coordination challenges, relays… all sorts of things. And there were eighty-bajillion volunteers. Which, I am sure, is part of why things went so well. Thank goodness for involved parents!

SuperMan was off of work so we were able to enjoy watching the girls in most of their events. Here are some highlights: