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)

Scrapbook Tuesday

I didn’t get as much scrapbooking done during the holiday as I had thought I would. Actually, I just wasn’t feeling the creative burst to do so… That, and I know I’ll be doing a LOT of scrapbooking this coming weekend, so I focused more on other things (like knitting and reading and hanging out with the girls) than on scrapbooking.

I did manage to get one page done –

I think it turned out well – and it captures a sweet moment with Little Bit and me that I didn’t even know SuperMan took a picture of. This was at the cabin in North Carolina when we met my mom and stepdad up there for the weekend.

I’ll have lots more to share next week, I’m sure!

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!

Friday Scrap Inspiration

I subscribe to, oh, about a million blogs. I don’t read them all every day, but I love to spend a little bit of time each day to read a few blogs. I have some standards – my “Daily Fix” that I read every day – and then a whole host of others that I read when I have time. I have them categorized in Google Reader (do you use this? It is awesome if you’re a regular blog reader) – categories like Cooking & Baking, Scrapbooking, Parenting, etc.

Today, I have been perusing the scrapbooking blogs I subscribe to. I thought I’d share with you some of the layouts I’ve seen that are inspiring me today – giving me ideas and getting those creative juices flowing.

So, grab your cup of tea (or coffee) and sit back and enjoy: (you can click on the images to link back to source blog post)

I just LOVE this spiral with the hearts. Gotta try this.

and this one? LOVE the magazine-style layout.

Same gal did this one, too. Love it. Can’t wait to see more of hers in the future.

If you’re a digital scrapbooker, you should check out Songbird Avenue. Each month, they post a kit for $8 and the proceeds benefit a charity. That’s not why I buy their kits, though. I buy them because they are beautiful. Every single month. I love them. Here’s June’s kit:

I’m also finding colors inspiring today:

The cool teal blue of the water and the hot pink of the float and goggles. Must figure out a way to scrap these pool pictures and make those colors “pop” even more.

What is inspiring you today?

New Scrap Space

I spent a lot of time last weekend moving and reorganizing my scrapbooking stuff. I moved it from the sitting area in my master bedroom down to the basement. I decided it was time to make our bedroom a real bedroom, and not a scrap room with a bed!

Here are some pictures of the new scrap space in the basement. I have some decorating to do – I want to get some things on the wall to make it a little more inviting/crafty/creative. Last weekend I was just focused on getting everything downstairs and set up.

This is the space – two parallel tables nestled in the corner. One is my worktable and the other will be for storage and for laying out larger projects.

My worktable (complete with inspiration – a picture of SuperMan, some chocolate, and artwork by my kids)

The view as you come down the stairs.

I decided to keep my stamp pads close by as well as the tools, idea books, pens and other things I use on a regular basis. The cart tucked beside my chair holds odds and ends. I want to reorganize it and put some other things in there like my stamping tools, etc.

The sort/store/Cricut table. SuperMan made the shelves for my tables out of stair tread boards. I love them and it is great to take advantage of vertical space for storage. Behind the CM paper tote I have a Rubbermaid drawer that houses mini albums and some other projects-in-progress. The 3-drawer Rubbermaid has ribbons, brads, eyelets, and other stuff. Behind the CM photo box are my stamping and embossing tools. Paper and stickers are on the top shelf.

I also need to get some storage space. Everything is under my table and it’s not very pretty. I want to get it organized better so I can find things – and so little fingers don’t go wandering through my stuff (the kids’ play area is at the other end of this room)If I have a buddy over to scrap, there is room across from my tables to set up another table for them. I also have a TV and stereo downstairs so I can watch TV or listen to music while I scrap. I am going to keep my eye out for a cheap DVD player to put down there, too so we can watch chick flicks.

Templates for You

I have created a few more templates to be used in StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0.

The pages I created using them are below. They give you a good focal-point picture and still have room for some other photos. I had a lot of pictures and I wanted to fit them all in a few pages. I think this did the trick.

and here are the pages: (click on the image to download the template)

Here is a link with instructions on saving your templates and importing them into a StoryBook.

Hope you enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Creative Memories,Creative Memories templates,StoryBook Creator,StoryBook Creator Plus,digital scrapbooking templates

Thursdays are now Template Thursday!

First of all, let me apologize for the “blog lite” I have had the last few weeks. I have had two rounds of strep run through the house (first the little one, now the big one) two rounds of a cold (first the little one, now the big one, see a pattern here?) as well as a ton of work-related projects going on. Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging. It’s a bummer, but it’s true.

So, now, on to more fun stuff…

I’m going to start working some regular posts into my blog and the first I am adding will be on Thursdays. Template Thursday we’ll call it.

My thought is this. I will either share a template with you (to download) or I will share a template idea I’ve seen somewhere else that inspired me – and I’ll share a layout I’ve created with that template. Hopefully, this will give us all some inspiration and maybe a nudge to get a page or two done each week.

So, here is this week’s template:

It’s got a Valentine’s spin on it, but you could use it for anything. Remember, you can recolor almost everything in SBC+ so, have fun with it.

Here’s a fall themed sample:

That’s the CM Jewel Collection papers.

Oh, and if you use the template and post it online anywhere, I would really appreciate you linking back to my blog and crediting me for the template. I’d also love to see how you use it!

Here’s the link to download the page file.