Challenge accepted

I love doing challenges.  I love to be stretched by things that are new and I love stretching myself by trying new things.  In the Seasonal Expressions May - August 2019 catalog, there is a Memory Protector Combo Pack  Z4092 on page 61.  It is part of the Story by Stacy  products with the new How-to book StoryTeller.  When I first  looked at the combination of memory protectors: 6 x  6, Pocket Plus Design 1, Pocket Plus design 4, 8 1/2 x 11 and a 12 x 12 , I wondered how they would be used.

I received by How-To StoryTeller book and started looking at all the ways and all the sizes you can tell stories.  I have always loved to journal and have pushed people I work with to do the same.  I realized as I was doing scrapbooking for my children that not only I didn't remember all the names of the kids from their class pictures but they didn't remember either.  When I looked back at my pictures in photo albums I didn't remember many details either.  My mother was our "family historian" and she kept saying you need to write on the back of the photos and write down somewhere who, what, where, why and how. 

My Grandmother won all these blue ribbons at the State fair for her flower arrangements, her baking,  her crocheting and her knitting.  After she died we found boxes of ribbons but nothing was written on them so we don't know what they were for.  Try as hard as I could, our daughter has boxes of ribbons from horse shows with very little written on any of them.  The story is really important and details matter.  As I have made my albums,  I have tried to put journaling in by at least putting dates and people but have grown to using  Close To My Heart Flip Flaps  (pg 151) because you can have a photo on the top and journaling under so that if people just want to glance at the photos they can and if they really are interested in the details they can merely look under a flap.

I had from the last catalog Feels Like Home paper packet, complements, watercolor flowers, and some cardstock.  I love to design pages and cards.  I started out with looking at the Extended storytelling and how the memory protector combo pack was used and started to design.  I continued to design the pages by using Make it from your heart Vol 3 ( Pattern 25, pattern 27 and Project 3 from Bring Back My Pack Zoe).  I had to add some cardstock and when I was done there were still compliments and embellishments left.  I based my last 2 page layout on pattern 15 and used Memory Protectors Design 1 and 4. 

If you look at previous posts, you can see that I am making what you might call "albums" which would take up 1/2 a D-ring Legacy Album.  This "set" will go with the previous one.  I am getting the albums made so that when I go through photos and memorabilia I can put them in an album.  If I need more room, I can use flip flaps and different sizes of memory protectors. 

Maybe you have lots of photos or things you want to save.  Think of the possibilities of using ALL the different sizes of memory protectors that Close To My Heart makes in one album!  Think of telling your stories or doing extended stories so that you can remember and others can share in your story telling.   If  I need to tell more of the story, I can use flip flaps or take on of the designated photo spots.

6 x 6 page

8 1/2 x 11 page

Pocket Plus Memory Protectors Design 1 and 4

 I then used the 6 x 12 flip flaps on 2 pages.  The "tops" are the same as underneath.  The page design split originally at 6 inches so it was a natural for using the 6 x 12 flip flaps.

 The page as it looks is on the left hand side and the Flip Flap opened is on the right.  It is easiest to have a Flip Flap stuck so that when you open a page, gravity works to keep it on the page.  The top on is the right had side and the one below is on the left hand side.

Since I still had paper left and some cardstock that matched, I did 2 more 12 x 12 pages and then did the design 1 and 4 Pocket Plus Memory Protectors.

I think that I am gravitating to the 1/2 page Pocket Plus Memory Protectors. I still have lots to learn about not using all the photos on one page or most of the photos that I take or have for one time period.  These protectors allow more photos to be kept in the same section without cluttering up the pages.  

For me, there were several to challenges that I was accepting to work on:

1. Try using the Memory Protector Combo Pack 

2. Try using less photos on pages - hence using the How-to book Make it From Your Heart Volume 3 and probably using Love of Color and Make if From Your Heart Vols 1 -2.  

3. Use as much of a packet as I can.  I have so many plastic bags of paper scraps which could have made several more pages but I just did the workshop as it was and didn't try using them up.  I sometimes make cards from them but the paper has been separated from a project and instructions or already been used in a album.

4. Be creative and try new things.

I hope this will give you ideas of what you might do.  Challenge yourself and see what great things can come from a good challenge.  

Paralyzed by too much paper and too many photos!

Our family takes photos and we have taught the kids to take photos.  I retired in 2014 and I have boxes and boxes of photos and "stuff" from our kids preschool through high school.  The oldest is 42 and has 2 grandchildren so the photos and stuff keep coming.  I have paper to make scrapbooks - I have given a few boxes of paper and stamps away to kids organizations but every time I look the paper multiplies! I have gotten paper with certain projects in mind but the problem is that the paper isn't made into those projects yet because I kept having other projects that were easier or time sensitive.  There is a t-shirt that says "You can't go to heaven until you've finished your scrapbooks".  If that is the case my going to heaven will be sometime in the far far future in a galaxy far far away.

I love the Story by Stacy albums. I have made a number of them.  In the process of working with her small albums, I have begun to hear a process by which I might manage my photos and papers and not be paralyzed with inaction.  Stacy Julian has an old book that I got used called "Photo Freedom:A Big picture approach to scrapbooking your photographs".  I also have gotten from listening to her and from working through the projects some tidbits that are freeing for me. She din't say it this way but it is my take away from her process that I am doing that has begun to make sense.  I think all I need to do is get unfrozen just a bit and I will make progress. In the words of Disney's Elsa "Let it Go!!"

How I will proceed:
1. You really don't need to use ALL your photos that you have ever taken.
2. You don't need to work chronologically in making albums.
3.  How many albums is too many?  Not sure but I don't need to work on the Guinness world record of albums.
4.  Just start and do it.
5. It is Ok to throw away photos.  (ugh I don't know how I can learn to do this)

In my cleaning and reorganizing my room, I found that I had 2 Something Fierce packets.  One was the Workshop Your Way and the other was the paper, and coordinating cardstock. I am making a stab at 1 scrapbook of our kids - at all ages mixed in and our grand kids that will showcase activities we did in the house (not their sports or plays or music) but birthday parties and just having fun in all the seasons of the year.

I have not made it easy on myself in the amount of photos I have.   I digitized photos but never cut the original. I would printed out a copy and save the original.  This has saved me sometimes in that I needed the photo again.  The problem is that even when you scrapbook a photo, you still have to "store" the same photo you just used.  Your pile doesn't decrease in size, it just gets larger.

I have always thought about what my adults kids would do with all of this when I am gone.  Stacy Julian talked about doing albums that she wanted to enjoy and then making albums for her kids.  I am still feeling paralyzed about starting - where to start - not having enough room to put photos on the floors, tables and probably walls and ceilings to sort them but I am beginning to make an attempt.   I am making 1 album of the So Fierce paper. Both our son and daughters and granddaughters all have played with dinosaurs, dragons and other things so the Something Fierce paper with dinosaurs will work for all of them. The paper gives a theme but I have used pink and blue and all other colors.   I am doing it when there is still more paper available on the "Going Soon" part of my website just in case I think I might need something more.

What gives me wiggle room is the Close To My Heart Flip Flaps.  I can still put more photos and journaling on each page if I find out I need more room.

Here are the Workshop Your Way papers:

Next I used the patterns from Vol 3 Make If From Your Heart - Pattern 2,14,and 6 and an old Workshop Your Way and I just put paper on the page!

To finish the album off I made a front and back page.

I decided to try the Memory Protectors Design 2 - full page.

I think I like the Pocket Plus memory protectors better but I will see when I actually get photos on the pages.  I was thinking that summer would be a good time to sort out the photos but summer is almost hear and there is already many things on the calendar plus having the grand kids over.  We will see what happens with this project but I do feel better at having started.  I am thinking of getting all my Christmas pages and papers and Halloween pages and papers and making a scrapbook of each.  Wish me luck and I hope you have good luck saving your precious photos and memorabilia.  Let me know how you are doing. 

Seasonal Expressions 2 New Products

Welcome to our New Product Blog Hop on the things in the Seasonal Expressions 2 catalog!  We will be featuring a variety of items that can be found in the new catalog.  If you have come here from Brandi's Blog, you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants on Melinda’s Blog:  http://ifyoublingit.blogspot.com/p/stamp-of-month-blog-hop-list.html.

This month we have 20 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this view of the current catalog and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

Every July 4th our family gathers at our house we have 11-12 people.  I chose to really do the Workshop Your Way - MY way. I usually follow the directions which leads to 3 great 2 page layouts.   Usually I use the extra pieces after the project to make cards or other things.  This time I am getting ready for the photos from our family gathering.  We take so many pictures because we eat, swim, canoe, kayak, do legal fire works, crafts and have fun with glow sticks.

I started with the Workshop Your Way - Craft On Scrapbooking Kit.  I added some photos to what was on the instructions for the regular pages plus I used our Pocket Protectors Design 1 for more photos between each one of the pages.  I love the designs that Close To My Heart makes but they really mean it when they say "Your Way".  I love to keep the designs and use them for other papers that I have.

I then started in on doing 2 more 2 page layouts with the middle page protectors using the left over complements and paper.  I added a bit of regular paper to fill in.

We have great How-To books.  I used the Make it from Your Heart Volume 3 and varied just a little bit from Pattern 1 and 3.  Then I did a front and back page to make a complete set for my album.  For the front I used all of the Paper Pal series.  The castle I made into a sand castle. I also used the Block Letters and Numbers from the Thin Cut.  This catalog has the most stamp/thin cut sets!  I love them so much.

For our family history, I have an album of activities that have take place at our home.  This section for 2019 will be fun to add photos this year.  Normally I make the album pages after the gathering.  It is fun to have it done now.  Push your creative limits with Workshop Your Ways and you will have fun.  I added Black, Willow, Ballerina and Eggplant paper to supplement what I had left and had fun using all the compliments and cutouts!

Now "Hop" on over to Becca's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the <month> SOTM is only available until <last day of the month>!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount!