Looking for more scrapbook time in the coming year? Me too. There is a great article by Rachel Thomae in the January 2006 issue of Creating Keepsakes on this exact topic. She shares strategies from six scrapbookers about how to create 52 pages this year. Sounds like the perfect mini album to me. My favorite part of the article is the list of 52 questions to get your mind flowing.

My top three are:

3. If you could have a free plane ticket to anywhere in the world, where would you go?
8. What’s your favorite color and what does it say about you?
49. If you could write your own fortune-cookie fortune, what would it say?

Not that was hard to pick a top three. If you read Rachel’s article what are your favorite three questions?

So last night at the Girl Scout leader training when we were going over the leader motto it occurred to me that there are several mottos, creeds, prayers, vows and pledges I have made in my lifetime that mean a great deal to me. What a perfect section for my Book of Me scrapbook.

Even though I was right in the middle of learning how to be a better, more inspired and organized leader of my Girl Scout troop I jotted down some notes of the important vows I want to include in my next scrapbooking project - my book of ME!

1. My wedding vows
2. The Delta Zeta Sorority Creed
3. Pledge of Allegiance
4. Lord’s Prayer
5. Girl Scout Leader motto

The Delta Zeta Creed

To the world,
I promise temperance and insight and courage,
To crusade for justice,
To seek the truth and defend it always:
To those whom my life may touch in slight measure,
May I give graciously
Of what is mine;
To my friends,
Understanding and appreciation;
To those closer ones,
Love that is ever steadfast;
To my mind,
Growth;
To myself,
Faith
That I may walk truly
In the light of the Flame.

–– Dorothy Mumford Williams, Alpha Zeta (1939)

In my album I will include this creed that touched my heart during rush 20 years ago and to this day stirs my soul and makes me want to be a better person.

Oh I just cannot wait to dive into this album. It is going to be so much fun.

In honor of this being my 100th post on ScrappinCabinet I am posting my list of 100 Scrapbooking Things I Want to Do:

1. Start my Book of Me album.
2. Finish my Book of Me album.
3. Get my photos organized. (Oh, that’s a BIG one!)
4. Attend at least one scrapbooking major event.
5. Get 100 visitors per day to ScrappinCabinet.
6. Then get 200 visitors per day… (and so on…)
7. Create 1000 posts here. (I’m 1/10 there already=:)
8. Do my Friends album.
9. Get my digital photos organized.
10. Get a Memorabilia Book from Cropper Hopper and see if it really works.

11. Try out the Pages By Design system before I buy it.
12. Create my Seasons albums (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter)
13. Figure out what to do with all my scrapbooking magazines.
14. Find a replacement adhesive I like as much as I used to like CM photo splits.
15. Use more patterned paper.
16. Take Angie Pedersen to lunch.
17. Add my daughter’s voice to an album.
18. Try out that new Xyron personal cutting system.
19. Do #18 and still love all our Sizzix alphabets!
20. Get our Alaska Cruise into an album (do #9 first!)

21. Write a press release about ScrappinCabinet and get it out.
22. Post more photos here on my blog.
23. Despite my skepticism that I will like it, do a paper bag album.
24. See a DIY Network Scrapbooking show to see if I should upgrade my satellite package to get it all the time.
25. Buy scrapbooking stuff from QVC.

{Geez, I should have done this post in honor of my 25th post - not 100th!}

26. Alter a sarabinder book.
27. Journal about all my favorite Christmas ornaments.
28. Journal using computer fonts at least once - without getting addicted and giving up hand journaling.
29. Attend a scrapbooking industry trade show.
30. Get caught up with my daughter’s school album.

31. Be a better journaler in my scrapbooks.
32. Create a Family History album that shows my genealogy research.
33. Interview my grandma about her life and write down her stories.
34. Interview my husband’s grandma about her life and write down her stories too.
35. Finish this list of 100 things…
36. Make more gift albums.
37. Design a USA album documenting my love for our country.
38. Build a Reading album – log the books I read and what I think of them.
39. Produce a My Goals album to inspire me.
40. Use yarn in a layout.

41. Use ribbon in a layout.
42. Watch someone else use walnut ink in a layout.
43. Create a layout of my favorite song lyrics.
44. Create a layout of my favorite movie quotes.
45. Create a layout of the reasons I Love Nancy Drew.
46. Create a layout of Phone Calls that Changed My Life.
47. Create a layout of TV Moments I Can’t Forget.
48. Create a layout of Blogs I Read Every Day
49. Try a monthly scrapbook club.
50. Be a Design Team member at least once.

51. Go on a blinkie downloading binge and scrapbook all that I find worthy of saving.
52. Journal about what I believe about life and make my Believe page.
53. Take a class on digital photography.
54. Do one layout with the one giant picture theme.
55. Scraplift from a magazine.
56. Get rid of all the colors of paper I know I will never use.
57. Give them to my daughter so when I change my mind I know where they are.
58. Finish that purple Tribute album I got at my first hotel suite crop.
59. Download a ton of fonts.
60. Use the aforementioned fonts.

61. Make a year’s worth of birthday cards for family and friends.
62. Get my albums embossed on the covers.
63. Get a replacement piece for the missing spine of our honeymoon album.
64. Have a Make a Tag day and make a bazillion tags to use.
65. Do the layout from the big snow storm of 2003 where we got 3 feet of snow.
66. Ditch work one day and scrapbook all day.
67. Ask my friends to share things about themselves for my Friends album.
68-99. TBD
100. Think of 32 more Scrapbooking Things I Want to Do and come back later to fill them in. =:)

What are the top 3 scrapbooking things you want to do?

In honor of our first snowfall of the season here in Denver (BTW, Go Broncos!), I sought out some fun snow related scrapbook supplies. It reminds me of the time when I was walking through Michael’s and saw a really cool pre-made tag like the one here. I almost bought it because it was so cute. Then, I said to myself, “But do I really need a fancy tag for just some snow?” The next weekend we got 3 FEET of snow right here in Denver. Some folks in the foothills got 7 feet. Shut the whole city down.

As soon as I could get out of our driveway (three days later) I went to Michaels and bought the tag. Now, that snowfall was worthy of a fancy tag!

Fresh Tags-Snow Wonder

I love snowflakes. My sister and I used to catch them on our dark-colored gloves and try to see two that were alike. Never did work…

Making Memories Trinkets-Snowflake

One thing I am really grateful for is that we have all four seasons here in Colorado. In fact, I have on my list of “Albums To Do” a set of Seasons albums. How fun would it be to bring out the Winter album right now just to solidify the season? We could sit around with hot chocolate and reminisce about winters gone by. Then run out and grab some photos for the winter of 2005 - which seems to have started … today.

Since I have officially been doing my Book of ME album for a whole day now I have started to notice all the sub themes that are out there. You know how you never even notice the car commercials until you are shopping for a car - these album themes are everywhere now.

Basic Grey is sponsoring a 2005 BE BOLD Album Contest.

The content is all about being BOLD in creating an album. The album theme choices are indeed, bold. At first glance it doesn’t seem so, but if you start to think about doing an entire album on any of these topics and staying BOLD about it, the fact is that there would be some serious emotional work in doing one of these.

b. Choose a theme for your album from one of the following nine (9) themes:
(1) Life As We Know It
(2) Who I Am
(3) I Never Imagined
(4) Believe In Yourself
(5) My Legacy
(6) Chances Are
(7) Life, Unexpected
(8) Defining Moments
(9) Life’s Challenges

I will probably not enter the contest, but I am going to give these themes some serious consideration as I make more progress on my Book of ME album.

Anybody entering?

Since I keep mentioning Angie’s book, here is the info on it.

So I’m in the grocery store yesterday when I see this cute under-sized magazine at the checkout lane. It is called Scrapbooks Made Easy 12 cool album ideas. Make one tonight! Of course I grab it right away. Not often I get to make a scrapbooking impulse buy at the grocery store.

This little magazine is a dynamo. Not so much for the layout ideas (although there are some cute ones) but more for the guilt reduction. You know, the stuff we scrapbookers make ourselves crazy over - cropping every picture, not doing anything unless everything is perfect, stuff like that.

A quick glance at the section headings alone offered me some relief from the self-induced stress of scrapbooker’s perfectionism.

It’s never too late.
Lose the guilt.
Leave most of your photos in the box
Celebrate your life

Here is an excerpt from the final section, Quality, not quantity:

“It’s easy to get excited about scrapbooking and start seeing everything with ’scrapbooker’s eye.’ Suddenly, everything is a layout waiting to happen. You dress your kids in shirts that match the paper you just bought and take them tot he park to take a picture for a scrapbook page. If you snap the photo and rush home to make your page, you’ve missed the point. If you take the photo, then put the camera away and have a great time playing on the swings, there is still hope for you! Scrapbooks are for saving memories and telling stories, but first you have to live them.”

These great concepts are interwoven with good ideas for album themes for baby, school, vacation, holiday, birthday and family. All in all, this was a great impulse buy. Well worth the $3.99. When you see this little mag co-produced by Simple Scrapbooks and Soap Opera Digest, go ahead and get it. If you aren’t seeking the latest, greatest, whiz-bang layouts but good concepts and ideas about scrapbooking, you’ll be glad you did.

Just got my September 2005 issue of Creating Keepsakes in the mail and one of the articles caught my eye and my mind space. Rachel Thomae writes in her article Scrapbook Your Way about the five starting off points for creating scrapbook pages.

Creating Keepsakes - $ 24.97
From: MagazinesQuick.com

Basically she says that we start a page with one of the five elements in mind and then create from there. Her thought is that no one way is “right” or “wrong” but that we each have a natural tendency. The five starting off points she mentions are:

Photographs
Supplies
Design
Art
Words

Obviously the article goes into some great detail about how you can tell which is your natural style and gives some suggestions for getting started with each one. She evens passes out Permission Slips for going outside your usual style.

It is a great article and I highly advise grabbing your CK (Sept 2005 issue, page 113) and see what Rachel has to say.

As for me, I know my natural style is not to start with Supplies since I just went to ScrapYourTrip.com to see if could get some stuff for our upcoming Alaska cruise. But when I looked at all the great stuff I just couldn’t decide. Even though I know I’m going to Alaska and will undoubtedly do an album on the trip, I don’t know yet what the “tone” of the trip will be. I don’t know what the photos will be like. So how could I buy supplies yet?

Do you have a sense of what your natural style is?
How do you start an album or a layout?

Yesterday when the mail came my daughter asked (as she always does), “Is there anything for me?” Just as I was about to give her the standard reply “Unless you want some of these bills, no.” I saw a postcard peeking out.

Her uncle John always mails her a postcard when he travels. This time he had been to Ottawa and, again, took the time to drop her a quick postcard. She just loves it and has developed quite a collection of postcards.

It occurred to me that helping her to create a postcard album would be a fun project for us in the remaining few weeks of summer. (How fast the summer went is a whole different topic!)

Anyway, there is a great article Wish You Were Here: Postcard Albums by Ramona Greenspan posted at ScrapJazz that gave me some great ideas. She includes a couple of sites that sell pre-made postcard albums and also shows photos with a step by step list of how to make your own. It looks like a lot of fun.

Has anyone done an album like this? Other ideas for postcard albums?

This is a great article I found by Rachel Paxton of CreativeHomemaking.com. Her website is chock-full of awesome information.

By the time your teen is in high school, you probably aren’t taking as many pictures of them as you used to. I have to keep reminding myself that I only have a couple of years left and no time to waste trying to capture fleeing teenage memories.

You might be thinking that I’m really organized to be already working on scrapbooking my daughter’s high school memories. To be honest, I have a shoe box full of pictures of my daughter waiting for me to get to someday.

But if I wait until “someday” to continue taking pictures because I already have so many pictures I haven’t done anything with, then my daughter’s teenage years will come and go while I try to catch up.

I don’t want to chronicle every detail of my daughter’s life (nor would she want me to!), but I was trying to think of some memories that she might want to laugh about and maybe even treasure someday. So how do you do that without ending up with pages and pages of memories?

I decided to do two large (12×12) pages (facing each other in the album) for each year of high school. I will challenge myself to use this space creatively to tell the story of each year. When I started thinking of all the the possibilities, it really inspired me to start getting organized and collecting some great memories. And don’t limit yourself to just photographs, your scrapbook pages can really be accentuated by other types of memories. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Photograph Ideas:

High School Dances
First Date/Boyfriend
School Building
Church Events/Retreats
Braces (the day they’re removed)
Hair Styles
Clothing Fads
Learning to Drive
First Job
First Car
Best Friends
School Plays/Concerts
Family Vacations
Favorite Family Pets
Babysitting
Sports/Band/Cheerleading
Musical Instrument Practice
Other:

CD Covers (scanned)
Favorite Song Lyrics
Drivers’ Permit
First Pay Stub
Programs from Play/Concerts
College Brochures
School Newspapers
ASB Card
Awards/Certificates
Ticket Stubs (concert, movie, sporting events)
Report Cards

You can be creative when you’re arranging your layouts. Don’t be afraid to cut pictures down or cut out portions of play programs or school newspapers. Just cut out enough to accentuate the other items on the page. You will create the overall effect from the entire page, not necessarily from an individual item.

Have fun and don’t worry if you don’t get it done all at one time. I figure if I can do one every summer for the previous school year, by the time she finishes high school (she’s a freshman this year), all of her high school memories will be recorded in the family archives.

About The Author

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For more inspirational articles and tips for everyday living, visit her web sites at http://www.creativehomemaking.com and http://www.crafty-moms.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

One of the projects I have on my Scrapbook Goal list is a Friends album. The picture in my head is an interactive book that I can add to over the years as new memories come up.

Just now, I found the book I’m going to get to help me create this album. The cover alone told me I had found the right design for this unique album.

So far on this project I have created the list of friends who I plan to include. When I did this I sent a huge thank you to the Universe for having so many wonderful friends. And I’ve started thinking up the kinds of things I want to include on each friend’s page.

How we met
Favorite activity to do with this friend
Photos of us
A list of their best qualities
Struggles we’ve shared

I also plan to ask each friend to write a note to me that I can include in the book. Using The Decorated Journal I am so excited I can create an album that equals the quality of my friends.

Do you have any other ideas on what would be fun to include?