Throwback Thursday - Sequoia National Park, 1999

I pulled an album out of my bookcase this morning just for fun and was suddenly taken back to 1999. My adult and teenage grandchildren were still just little kids and toddlers then. Still wonder how that time went by so fast! Seems like I just blinked and they were adults and teenagers. While looking at the pages that I'm going to share with you today I thought to myself this is why I scrapbook. 

While I do enjoy the process of adding paper and embellishments to my album pages, most of the albums on my shelves are simple, simple, simple! Seriously, there is nothing wrong with a plain white background (in fact I like a plain white background). And, yes, I sometimes add more than just a few decorative elements to my pages. But, quite frankly, it's not about the papers and the embellishments, is it? At least not for me. For me scrapbooking is about the photos and the stories that go with those photos. It's about preserving those memories and being able to relive them every time I open my books.

Anyway, here are a few pages from my 1999/2000 Family Album .... a little blast from the past.

There you have it. I hope these pages inspire you to create your own family album ..... and to keep it simple!!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Recent Work

Good afternoon everyone .... hope you're having a happy Wednesday. One of the projects that I was able to complete while on my blogging break was my 2005 Family Album. Yay! So glad to finally get the photos I took in 2005 into an album!! Today I'm going to share some layouts from that album.

I used the Tangerine, Plum & Then Some Fast2Fab Album and added plain white refills along with the coordinating but discontinued Creative Memories Vintage Power Pallet to create this album. Fortunately, some of the papers and embellishments from the Vintage Power Pallet were brought back as the Vintage Paper Pack and the Tangerine, Plum and Then Some Slide-in Pack and are available for purchase.

These are some of my favorite pages from the album I created with my 2005 pictures:

My oldest grandson took these pictures of his younger sisters and brother and I absolutely love them! I added matted vertical and horizontal photos to the predesigned F2F page on the left and another matted square photo to the page on the right. I also added an embellishment from the Vintage Power Palette for my title, stuck down two 5x7 photos to the right side of the layout (before adding the small square photo, of course) and that was it! It took me no time at all to complete this layout. Love, love, love our Fast2Fab albums.

These pages are also predesigned. The mats here are part of the design .... the only mat that was added to the page was the vertical mat used under my daughter's picture on the right page. The journal box and mat are from the Vintage Power Palette but you'll find similar mats in the Tangerine, Plum & Then Some Slide-in Pack.

Again, accept for the vertical mat and the journaling box on the left, I used the predesigned pages here as is. My youngest grandson looks so cute in these pictures! He's still cute but he's no longer little ... he's now taller than I am. When he was that cute little guy you see in these photos, I would often tell him that one day he would be as tall as his older brother. He is quickly catching up with his brother now. I really wish kids would stay little a bit longer than they do!

This layout is what we like to call a blended layout. The page on your right was used as is. The page on your left was wallpapered with coordinating paper from the Vintage Power Pallet (you'll find the same paper in the Vintage Paper Pack). I used brown cardstock and orange designer paper from the original Power Pallet to complete the page.  While the page on the left took a little work, all I did to complete the page on the right was slap two pictures into the spaces available. Walla!! Okay... I've got one more layout to show you then I'm done for the day!

I created this layout from scratch using paper from the Vintage Power Palette/Vintage Paper Pack and brown cardstock. Whether I'm creating a blended layout or a layout from scratch, I love having paper packs that coordinates with our Fast2Fab albums.

That's it for today. It's just about time for me to get off of my computer and fix dinner for the man I'm married to. To purchase any of the products featured today visit my link at www.creativememories.com/user/dbrinsley.  Be sure to type the name of the product you are interest in into the search bar. 


 I hope these layouts inspire you to create your own album with your photos. Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

April What's New!

Okay, I know I just published a blog post on Tuesday (this is a new record for me ... 2 posts in one week ... woohoo!), but I'm too excited to wait. I just love this month's new products! I'm also way stoked that CM has brought back the 11x14 Pocket Albums. I've got more to share about these pocket albums but first check out April's new products:

April 2015 What's New pg 1

April 2015 What's New pg 2

Like I said, I'm really excited that CM brought back the 11 x 14 Pocket Albums. These albums are, in my opinion, the best way to get your photos in an album quickly and easily. And the best part is that you don't have to be a scrapbooker to complete one of these albums. All you have to do is just slip your pictures in the pockets, maybe journal on a slide-in filler and that's it. You'll have an album done in no time! I used the Reflections Album when I was a Creative Memories Consultant for pictures I took during a cruise to Hawaii. I'm going to share a few pages of that album with you to give you an idea of what that will look like.

Reflections 11 x 14 Pocket Page Album

As you can see, the 11 x 14 Pocket Page Albums have a Flex-Hinge binding so you can add more pages if you want. And, of course, it's photo safe .... which means that it's acid-free, lignin-free and buffered. And, by-the-way, if you are using yours for a vacation album, the 4x6 pockets are also great for adding post cards from your vacation.

Originally, I used fillers from Creative Memories Milestones kits with my photos in this album. The middle photo on the right and my journal box on the left were matted with 5x6 fillers from those kits. To show what can be done with our new Slide-In Packs, I replaced two photos with fillers from the Sunshine Getaway Slide-In Pack.

Before I sign off for today, I have a little story to share with you that illustrates why we need to journal in our albums. While I was taking the picture of the above pages, I remembered something that I hadn't included in my journaling box. I'll have to revise this page and add another journal box. But, in the mean time, I'll tell you my little story.

I lived in San Pedro with my family when I was 5 or 6. Somewhere in the hills you can see in the bottom photo on your left. We could see the Port of LA from the road leading to and from our home. I would often look out on the cruise ships as we traveled that road and dream about being on one those ships. I would imagine the women dressed in formals and thought it would be so romantic to dance on a cruise ship. I remembered that little girl dreaming about cruising to far away places as we sailed out of port that day. Here I was, some 50 or so years later, sailing out of that same port bound for Hawaii. God is so good!! I still tear up when I remember that story.

Anyway, future generations will not know that story unless I include it in my album. I know that all of us have stories that need to be told ... don't forget to include them in your albums.

To purchase any of the products featured in this blog post, please visit my link at www.creativememories.com/user/dbrinsley. Be sure to type the name of the product you are interest in into the search bar

I hope this post inspires you to create an album of your own! And, thanks for visiting my blog!

Strut Your Stuff Fast2Fab Album

So what's a Fast2Fab album? Simply put, they are just a cool, cool way to get your photos in an album without taking a whole lot of time to get it done. The pages are predesigned and ready to add your photos and stories just as they are. Or, if you like, you can add embellishments from our Slide In Packs. Or even paper from our Paper Packs. You can also "color outside the lines" or "think outside the box" and do what you like with your album. But, if you want to get it done really quick, all you need to complete a Fast2Fab album is a tape runner and a pen .... and, of course, your photos. CM offers a variety of  8 x 8 and 12 x 12 Fast2Fab albums but today I'm going to share the Strut Your Stuff Fast2Fab album I created last year.

My husband and I took my sister-in-law, Denise, on a cross country road trip in 2013. I came home ready to get my photos in an album and pulled out a Strut Your Stuff album for our vacation photos. Here are some of the layouts I created:

I'm not much of a "color outside the lines" person. When I do color outside the lines, my crayon marks still need to have some order. Such is the case with my title page. The original page had space for two horizontal photos but I wanted to add a vertical photo to the page. I made room for the vertical by cropping one 4x6 photo into a 4x4 and overlapping my vertical over the upper horizontal!! Walla!! Three pics on a page instead of two.

Again, I turned a two photo page into a four photo page by "thinking outside the box." I added a 4x4 photo to the empty space above the vertical photo box shown on the right page above. I cropped another horizontal photo to 4x4 and stuck it down in the vertical space ... which gave me some room under the photo for some journaling. Like most of us, I have more horizontal photos than verticals.I use this trick often in my Fast2Fab albums when I don't have enough vertical photos to fit the page as is.

Instead of adding two vertical photos to the above vertical spaces, I added an embellishment and a journaling box from the Strut Your Stuff Slide In Pack. These two pages were done in minutes! By the way, doesn't my sister-in-law look like her brother? The two of them could have been twins!

This is one of my favorite layouts from this album. Every time I look at it, I'm reminded of the beautiful drive through The Bighorn National Forest in the spring. Anyway ... I trimmed blue cardstock to 12 x 11 1/2 inches for the left page, leaving a border from the original page visible. I used paper from my leftover Creative Memories stash but you can also use paper from the Strut Your Stuff Paper Pack or Shades of Blue Designer Cardstock.

Finally, these pages were used as they were designed. I simply added some journaling where there was space to journal. Incidentally, I didn't get a picture of the Desert View Watchtower this time around so I simply borrowed one the I took in 2004. Shoot, you could even go online to borrow photos of attractions you visited but failed to get a photo of.

There you have it! Here are pictures and a flyer of the products in the Strut Your Stuff line just to give you an idea of what it looks like. It might be just what you need to create your own vacation album or to celebrate a special event.

Strut Your Stuff Paper Pack

Strut Your Stuff Slide In Pack

Strut Your Stuff Flyer

For more information, or to purchase CM products, visit my link at http://www.creativememories.com/user/dbrinsley

Hope this inspires you to create your own Fast2Fab Predesigned Album! And, as always, thanks so much for visiting my blog!

Catching Up

Hello everyone! In the two years since my previous post I have gone from being a Creative Memories Consultant to an Ahni & Zoe Consultant and, finally, to a CM Advisor. I also took an unofficial break from blogging. I didn't plan it that way... it just happened. I even deleted some of my old posts thinking that they were no longer relevant. The transition from Creative Memories took the wind out of my sails for awhile. In fact, I considered retiring when Creative Memories closed its doors. But, after praying about it, I felt that the Lord was leading me to stay the course. So here I am 2 years later blogging as a CM Advisor. The New CM includes both the Ahni & Zoe Fast 2 Fabulous Albums and the Creative Memories bookcloth albums as well as other Creative Memories products. We now have the best of both worlds and I love it! I'm so glad I stuck it out! You can check out everything CM has to offer by visiting my CM link here.

I've also spent the last two years catching up on my albums. I still had quite a few traditional prints and some digital images from way back that needed to go into albums. And, I also wanted to use up my personal stash of Creative Memories stuff. Since then I have created 10 albums which is a record for me! Woohoo!! So I have a lot of material to share with you.

My first goal was to get the rest of my 80s photos into albums. I think I had an Instamatic or something like that way back in the 80s. My pictures were small 3x5s and not really good photos. We use to tell people to get rid of their blurry pictures and only scrapbook their good ones. But, in some cases, I don't take my own advice. If a blurry or faded picture from the 70s or 80s is the only picture I have I'm going to scrapbook it regardless. Anyway ... since my goal was also to use up what I had, I decided to use two 8.5 x 11 albums that had been sitting on my shelves for years. I'll close this post by sharing a few of my favorite layouts from those albums with you. I hope it inspires you to get your old photos out of storage and into an album. Or, to use up your own left over Creative Memories stash.

Have a good day and thanks for visiting my blog!

4 Simple Steps to Creating an Album Page

Whether you are creating a traditional album page or a digital page from scratch, this 4-step process will help you create pages that focus on the most important elements - your photos and stories.

Step 1. Choose your best photos.

Select 7 to 10 of your best photos for a two-page layout. Crop your photos only to eliminate any excess or distracting elements. Keep in mind that although a rounded shape can add interest to your pages, the most pleasing shape to the eye is the 4-sided square or rectangle. Multiple shapes can also make a page look too busy and crowded. Do crop a photo into a circle or an oval if you like, but limit yourself to one shape per two-page layout.

Step 2. Layout - Group, don't scatter.

Cluster your photos to one side, in the middle, or the top or bottom of your page. Clustering is simply a method for organizing photos on an album page so that they form a cohesive group of photos in a concentrated area of the page rather than randomly scattering them anywhere on the page. It keeps album pages from looking too busy and leaves more space for journaling, titles, and enhancements.



To cluster your photos: 

•  Create an eyeline or dominant margin or your page. To create an eyeline, line up your photos with either an offset vertical or horizontal margin somewhere on the page. This margin can be overlapped but avoid a perfect cross of margins.
• Group your photos with a consistent margin between them. A quarter of an inch is a good rule of thumb but not more than a half an inch. An exception would be a photo cropped into a circle or an oval.

Add color to your page with a background paper, photo mat, a title box or matted journaling box. When choosing paper colors, look for one or two dominant colors in your photos that will enhance your photos without overwhelming them.

Step 3. Journal and Create a Title

Besides your photos, journaling is the most important part of creating a meaningful album. Be sure to leave space on your layout to write your story then journal in paragraph form instead of using captions and incomplete sentences. Don't just include the facts (who, what, where, when and why) - expand the stories behind the photos with your feelings and reflections.

If you're uncomfortable writing directly on your background paper or page, try creating a journaling box using Ruled Paper. Your journaling box can be matted to add color to the page or used as is. If you need a lot of room to tell the whole story, use your computer to type the story and print it on cardstock.

Create a title using alphabet stickers, title stickers or Dual-Tip pens. Use your title as a headline above your journaling or as one of your design elements. Place the title at the top of the page, down the side, in the middle, along the bottom, or make it a part of your photo cluster. Make your title stand out with a title box cut from cardstock or add it to the border.

Step 4. Enhance - but use restraint!

Enhance your page by filling empty spaces with borders, doodles, stickers, or shapes created with shape makers and punches. Be careful not to overdo it - don't overwhelm your photos with too much fluff. Your goal is to enhance your photos. Not to cover your pages with a lot of unnecessary page enhancements that visually detracts from your photos and stories. You'll also save yourself a lot of time and money by limiting the amount of page enhancements you use on your pages.

Here is another simple page example.

I hope you find this post useful and thanks for visiting my blog!



 



Autumn Wedding

Hello everyone. If you read my last post then you know that my grand-daughter was recently married. Of course I took my camera to the wedding! I have to admit, though, that I took very few photos at the wedding. Instead, I handed my camera to my daughter & son-in-law's foster daughter, Laura, and let her take pictures. I didn't want to spend the evening with a camera in front of my face and Laura not only took a lot of beautiful photos, she had fun doing it. I loved having my very own "assistant" taking pictures for me.

I went to work editing pictures from the wedding shortly after the wedding. Then started creating digital pages with my wedding pictures as soon as I finished editing them. Here are some of my favorites:

 Family Digital Layout

 Special Moments Digital Layout

 The Reception



While I'm on the subject of wedding photos, I think this would be a good time to share a few tips that might be helpful if you are planning to attend a wedding sometime soon.

The pictures that were used for my Special Moments layout were taken in the church after the wedding. I usually don't take pictures when the professional photographer is taking formal pictures directly after the ceremony. It's not only distracting but it takes up the photographer and the bridal party's time. I let Laura take those pictures because our photographer, Ursala Houser, was busy setting up her equipment. I put my camera away as soon as she was ready to shoot. The professional photographer and the wedding party have a limited time to get those formal photos in before their arrival at the reception. If you want to get fed on time, it's best to put your camera away or take pictures elsewhere during this time.

Laura and I took the pictures that were used in the Family layout while we (Ashley & Dale's parents and grandparents) were greeting wedding guests before the ceremony. Ursala and her assistant were busy elsewhere then so I felt free to take pictures without being in their way. This might also be a good time for you to take pictures.

The reception is fair game. Everyone has their cameras out then and it's a good time for candid photos. I do try to keep out of the professional photographer's way when I'm taking pictures at a reception. For instance, when I took pictures of the garder toss (which my youngest grandson caught!) I checked to see where Ursala's assistant was standing before shooting my own pictures.  By-the-way, Ursala wanted to attend the reception as a guest so she hired an assistant to take photos during the reception. Which brings me to my final tip.

If you're planning your own wedding and thinking of inviting a photographer friend or family member in hopes that he or she will take pictures for you, think again!! Ursala is a family member and she doesn't take her expensive camera anywhere unless it's going to make money for her. Not even family events! Sometimes I'll hand my camera to her at an event. Other times she'll hint that "someone" needs to take pictures of so-and-so and usually that someone turns out to be me. So even though we have a professional photographer in the family, I'm the official photographer at family events (other than weddings) and I'm by no means a professional photographer.  If Ursala is the official photographer at a family wedding she gets paid for it. And that's the way it should be.

Have a good day and thanks for visiting my blog!