Day 20 – On a Sunday

As scrapbookers, most of us are very fortunate to have lots of photos of our children to scrapbook.  Digital cameras (and cellphones) are compact, affordable, and just about everybody has one.  Where once our families only took one or two pictures on very special occasions, now we all take pictures of everything.  We take pictures of our pets, our cars, our yards, the new flowers we just planted, the food we ate for dinner, even the bugs crawling on our back fence.  Having all these pictures makes it easy to share the stories of our every day lives, and sometimes we go out and take pictures specifically with our scrapbooks in mind.

But what happens when you don’t have photos of the subjects you want to scrapbook about?  It wasn’t all that long ago that there were no cell phones, cameras were expensive, and the cost of film and processing meant that we were a lot more careful to make sure it was a picture that we really wanted before we took it.  Sometimes the only photo of Johnny’s 5^th birthday might get lost or destroyed -- assuming there was a photo to begin with.  What do we do then?  All I can say is, “Thank goodness for Google and the internet!” 

I had just one such dilemma when I was trying to decide what to do for my Day 20 page.  Lain gave us the prompt, “On a Sunday,” and I wanted to focus on the church I attended when I was just nine or ten years old.  The only problem is, I had no pictures of the church or of me from that time period, and the little church itself is more than 350 miles away, so I can’t go take a new one. But a quick Google search turned up this photo on the internet, and that was all I needed to make my story come to life.

Have you ever used a photo from the internet to complete one of your pages?  What other ways can someone who has no photos document an important story?

Day 19 – When I Grow Up

I’ve had a lot of fun going through my photos for this LOAD.  Since I am trying to stick with stories rather than events, it gives me a lot of great opportunities to use up some of those odd pictures that may be less than perfect or don’t really fit with event-style scrapbooking.  Today’s photo is a perfect example. 

I took this photo 15 years ago when all I had for a camera was an old Pentax-K 35mm and no flash.  I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but it looks like I took the picture in some deep shade with natural side-lighting.  There’s really nothing remarkable about the photo, and I’m sure that many a photography nut would snub it because my son’s face is so poorly lit, but I love this picture.  I love the close-up to my son’s precious face, and I love that he looks so deep in thought, which perfectly underscores the theme of this page.

I know a lot of scrapbook gurus advise you to “get rid of the bad photos” and only keep the best photos for scrapbooking, but I say that’s wrong.  Keep all your photos, but keep them well-organized – you never know when that half-dark, blurry picture will be the perfect picture for the page you’re working on.

Empty Nest

Today’s layout features one of the very few professional portraits my husband and I have had made together.  We had it done on last year’s Crafty Neighbor scrapbooking cruise.  It was the first time hubby has ever gone with me on one of our cruises.  We both had a great time.

The layout was done for Layout a Day this past February, and our prompt was “Scrapbook your honey”.  I had a really hard time with this prompt because I wanted to do something of hubby and me together, but I really don’t have many pictures of us like that.  I know many of you probably have the same problem – when you are the photographer, there’s never any pictures of YOU! 

Family portraits are an important legacy that we leave behind for our descendants.  Sadly, most of us get so busy and wrapped up in the day to day things that we really don’t get those family portraits done as often as we should.  I’m guilty!  The last family portrait we had taken was before my son was born.  He turned 20 on Wednesday!  It was a good three or four years earlier than that for some pictures of hubby and me.  That’s too long!  

Our kids are grown now, and we are celebrating our empty nest, but that doesn't mean it's any less important.  Make sure to have a family portrait done every year or two.  It’s a valuable snapshot of your family’s growth from year to year, and you will be glad to look back at how everyone has changed.  If you can’t afford to have one done professionally, find a friend and arrange a swap!  Or at the very least, sit everyone down on the sofa and start the timer on the camera.  I promise you won’t regret it!

For more information about our annual scrapbooking cruises, visit our website at http://www.craftyneighbor.com  

You're Never Fully Dressed...

All through the month of February, I participated in a fun challenge called LOAD, which stand for Layout-a-Day.  LOAD 213 (February 213) was the third LOAD challenge I’ve completed, and I’m always amazed at how many great layouts I have when it’s all over.  In the past, I’ve sometimes tried to post those layouts as the challenge progresses, but this year, since I have changed the posting format for the blog somewhat and am trying to keep up with the 365 Challenge, too, I decided to save the LOAD layouts and post them throughout the year.  So look for one or two LOAD layouts each week, and I might throw in some non-LOAD layouts once in a while, too.

One of the prompts we faced this time was to scrapbook an important, but often overlooked item.  One of the first things that came to me was our smile, since I had just been to the dentist and had some work done to my own teeth.  The October Afternoon patterned paper is part of the “Boyfriend” line, and I made the butterflies with acetate and glitter.

If you are interested in learning more about the LOAD challenge, there will be another one coming up in May (I’m already signed up for it!  I can’t wait!).  You can read all about it at Layoutaday.com.  Lain doesn’t have the open registration up on the site yet, but I’m sure it will be forthcoming in the next few days!

A Perfect Day

The Spring Break season has started, and my son came home from college this week.  He’s the quintessential nerd—rather than hang out with his buddies or go to some exotic location to party, he came home and immediately plugged his brain into hours of video games.  When I asked him what his plans were, he said simply, “Sleep and eat.”  I have a ton of pictures of him doing pretty much the same thing -- sitting at his desk playing video games.  I compiled a few to make this layout.  I kept the layout simple as a reflection of how simple his "perfect day" is.

The patterned paper and and some of the embellishments are October Afternoon “Boyfriend”.  Cardstock by Stampin’ Up!