I'm in a quagmire so why not some new products?

So, you know that thing called Project Life?  Well, I'd really love to share it with you, but I don't have any photos.  Why is that you may ask...um because someone...I'm not pointing fingers...at least not in my own personal, general direction, has lost the mail key.  That's right!  It's gone.  We have no idea what happened to it.  I asked Erik to leave a note for the postman.  Did that happen?  No, it did not.  So, I'm going to try and remember to do this in the morning in the midst of getting shoes out from under the trampoline.  Oh, and they have to be frozen solid because the water may turn on during the night, and it will freeze.  Plus, I will probably be getting arrested soon...Just kidding but I got a ticket a couple of weeks ago and they don't have it on file yet so they want me to call back the day after I'm supposed to appear in court.  Doesn't that mean they write a warrant for your arrest?  Well, I for one don't want to be bent over the hood of my car on the side of the road while my kids sit in the back asking why Mommy is a bad guy.  So, I will kindly call again tomorrow and see if they have it.  And if they don't, I will be in a slight panic...and if I don't blog for a few days consider the fact that they probably don't have internet access in jail.

I also know I'm late on my little series...and it's coming up soon.  We were so busy this weekend, and I was playing realtor today.

Here are some cute new products from my website..I love them.

These are the new BoBunny Products  Just click the link and it will take you there.  I LOVE BoBunny.  

Planning Your Pages Part 1

First, lets talk about photo storage.  You downloaded them from your computer.  Now what?  Having the advantage of once being a "PC" I can tell you how I stored my photos with a PC.  But let's get to that in a bit.  I use a Mac now, so basically I put my SD card in the slot and my photos directly load into iPhoto.  They are beautifully organized and arranged by date, event, person, and place.

 
When I had a PC, I would download the picture from my camera and store them by date in My Pictures.  So, for example I would say this download is from pictures I took on August 28 to Sept 12, 2009.  I would create a folder named that at drag all of the photos into it.  And to consolidate later, I would arrange them by year so all 2005 photos would be dragged into the 2005 folder, etc.  

I had to manually move the files over and create folders for them.  And that is not a big deal, I just wanted to show you that way too as most of you probably have a PC. 

Okay, so now let's move onto how I plan my pages.  You will need two things.  At least I need these two things.  One is my notebook, and the other is Photoshop Elements.  Elements is available for free trial from Adobe.  I have an older version, and it works for me as I do most of my photo editing in Photoshop CS5.  Elements is easy to start out with and navigate.  I use it to create photo collages...which I still haven't figured out how to do in Photo Shop.  Elements is also very affordable.  I think its around $100 or so.  I would really encourage you to download the free trial and see how you like it.  And I can help you get started with any questions you may have.

Next, my Notebook.  My notebook is CRUCIAL to my planning.  In fact, once I thought I lost it and I almost had a real, actual heart attack.  (just kidding but it was close).  I keep all of my sketches and page plans in there.  I am going to talk about it in my next post because there is just a lot of stuff to go over.  I will try to get that up tomorrow.  

  

February Family Photo

Here is our family portrait.  It's a beaut.  It is so HARD to get a good photo of us.  But I do have to say that the cat was not actually harmed in this photo.  It looks like Wolfie is strangling her.  I can assure you that she is just fine.  I love our cat...she loves our kids and she lets them wear her like a scarf.  It is amazing to me that they all still have their eyes...ha.

Anyhow, as I quick update, I have been very busy these last couple of days.  I will be posting my February Project Life Pages as soon as I get the photos.  I am waiting for them to arrive from Postal Pix.

I will also be updating my series this weekend as well.  I haven't had time to type it up yet.  Thank you for your patience.  And I wanted to share this picture of JoJo because he is the cutest little cookie monster I ever saw.  I washed his face like ten times and he still had oreos on them.  Plus, he needs a haircut.

Oh, and my dream came true (5D Mark III)...but I can't actually afford it... :(

The Basics: My "Working" Scrapbooks (#1 in Series)

My scrapbooks:  No they are not all one color and uniform, but I am highly considering that idea.  (I store my stickers in a binder...I find that the easiest way to deal with them.  I have general stickers like borders, accents, etc.  I also have letters and holidays in another binder.)  

How they're organized.  At this point, I am working on 5 albums.  Yes, 5 is correct.  I have one album for each boy.  Each boy's album includes some of the same layouts and pictures, and some that are individual to them and their life.  When I talk about layouts for each boy that are the same, I mean I make three copies of one layout, or variations of the same idea.  These albums are arranged in exact chronological order.  Whether the layouts are the "same" or individual to each boy.  I'm sure some of you may disagree with this idea.  And that is quite fine.  Yes, each of my children are special, but I'm sure when they get older they will be glad to have an album even if it has a few of the same pages.


Here is an example of what I'm talking about.  These layouts are a few years old, but it shows how I work my scrapbooks.

The next kind of album I am working on is our family album.  This album is NOT arranged in chronological order, and is more for my own creativity.  When I find a photo or photos that I love and inspire me, I scrapbook them and put them in there.  Later, the boys can fight over this one, I guess.  There are no rules for this scrapbook.  And, I think that is really helpful to break up the monotony of getting pages done.  This is my play album, that I get to put whatever I want in.  In fact, most of the pages I've been sharing lately go into this album.  Here is one of my favorite layouts that is in my family album:

My last and final album is our Project Life Album.  You guys know what that one looks like as I have recently shared my first spread for January.  This album, may eventually just become a continuation of our family album.  I haven't decided yet.  For now, it is separate.  I may turn into a Project Life album of however many years will fit into the book.

So, there you have it.  That is what I am working on and how my boy's/family albums are divided.  I will be back with how I plan the actual pages that go into the albums.  Let me know if you have any questions/comments, either in the comment section or via email.

How about a little series?

I thought it might be fun to do a small little series on how I organize and prepare my scrapbooks.  I think I've talked about it before, but that was ages ago...as in actual several years.  So, I thought I might update it a bit.  I'm going to do a few posts on several different ideas such as:
*organizing and printing photos
*sketches and scrapbook layouts
*organizing pages in my scrapbooks
* turning your sketches into layouts
*getting ideas for sketches
*and any other ideas that come up along the way.


Please keep in mind that while my craft room looks like an actual bomb went off in it, I am very anal about organization and the order of my scrapbooks.  And really my craft room doesn't look that bad as I can actually see the floor and my desk.  That is a small victory.


If you have any questions or suggestions for this, please let me know.  You can email me or leave a comment in the comment section.  Let's have some fun with this, and feel free to share with your friends.

Weekend Round Up

Maddie's new pet...A Venus Fly Trap.  He is obsessed with it.

 Blooms on our plum trees.

My herb garden

JoJo's wardrobe malfunctions.

The weather this weekend has been beautiful.  I have been waiting and wishing for warm weather and it finally came.  We spent most of our time outside getting the garden and yard ready.  We got a composter as well.  So we will be composting fools around here.  

I hope you all had a great weekend too.

New Simple Stories AVAILABLE!!!!

Beautiful new Simple Stories can now be ordered.  Go here to find the products.  Just click on the Simple Stories section.  

On another note, I'm getting everything ready for my February Project Life spread.  It may be a little late, because I have to order a few pics online and have them delivered in the mail.  But I will share as soon as possible.  Have a wonderful and blessed weekend!