day in our life layout

Created with new Cottage Garden digital kit and enhancements.

Font: Brown Bear Funk

Inspired by Ali Edwards Weekend Creative

Welcome to June! You're looking at some of the new digital product available from Creative Memories this month. I am still thrilled to be onboard with CM as they forge into the digital market. I mean, look at these pages. Gorgeous. I love it.

Working on this 'day in our life' project really colored my week - primarily with thankfulness. Looking closely at my life through the lense made me realize that there are a lot of choices we have made that I am happy for. Top of the list: my decision to stay home and sacrifice my time and energy and income for the babies. Once in a while I have a chance to dip into the Word; yesterday I read John 12. Just before his death Jesus says: "Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds... " It's a kingdom principle - when you make sacrifices for others your death goes into the ground and produces a harvest 10, 20, 100-fold. (this also includes the sacrifice to leave your babies to continue working. That is not my hard road, but I know it is some of yours.) A mere two and a half years into being a parent I think I am already reaping a little harvest of peace and fullfillment in return for the sacrifices I have made for my kids to have a stable routine and an attentive mommy.

And I'm hopeful that Jesus' words mean that although my prayer time is mostly reduced to a couple of sentences before bed with Nevin, this lifestyle in itself honors his Father. May changing diapers, making bottles and folding laundry be my acceptable acts of worship today. Amen.

day in our life

Seems like the harder life gets, the harder I work to make creating a part of my daily routine. Logan's been working 10+ hour days the past two weeks, which means I work 12+ hour days with the babies. I was inspired by this Ali Edwards post to create a layout about a typical day in our life. I've spent the past few days being my own photojournalist - trying to capture our everyday moments. Seeing them on film makes me realize how special these days really are - and reminds me how happy my kids are. The layouts are coming sometime after this weekend - here's some of the pics I'll be featuring:

7:21 am. I make us a loaf of bread every other day. I love having a breadmaker 'cause I can wake up to the smell of fresh bread baking. wow.

7:28 am. Breakfast of champions: mommy-made bread, peanut butter and milk. Often accompanied by 'Blue Planet.' Nevin takes a long time to wake up and he loves watching the jellyfish.

8:08 am. 1 pot of tea = 3-4 cups for mommy to keep me going through the morning.

9:17 am. Nora asleep for her morning nap - Nevin and mommy together time! We had a very productive morning today: I got a page of long-hand done and we read a pile of books!

9:17 am. There's the tired lady making peace and love a daily reality for her babes. You should know I carefully angled my photos around the extreme mess that has taken over our downstairs. Making room for a week of writing and creating means other things have to go and I've decided to embrace that. :) Next week I'll be all rejuvenated and it'll be the dishes turn for attention.

10:33 am. Nora's awake! I tried to count how many diaper changes I do in a day and couldn't keep track. I'm guessing 13-16.

12:04 pm. Two kids hanging in while mommy does a big grocery shop. Cinnamon danishes help. I am still stunned by the amount of momentum required to get out the door with two kids, their diapers, snacks and gear.

4:21 pm. Lunchtime passed in a blur of putting Nora to sleep, putting groceries away, putting Nevin's pizza in the toaster oven and then putting Nevin to sleep. Wow. Today the babies naps didn't overlap very much, but Nevin's naptime means at least a few minutes of mommy break time: coffee, writing, playing with photos on the computer.

4:11 pm (yesterday). Nevin's naptime means mommy and Nora together time!

7:31 pm. Time for the little girl's bedtime bottle. 5 bottles/day = 30 oz formula + 4-5 bowls of baby cereal and fruit. Nora is a growing girl.

7:58 pm. Daddy's home! Everybody's happier when we're all together - although more grown ups around doesn't mean more energy. By this point Logan and I are tied for 'most tired parent' award and hoping Nevin wants an early bedtime.

8:24 pm (Wednesday). We actually did this bath before Logan came home from work and it did not end in tears. I felt like a super-mom.

So I can't wait to bring these - and more! - all together in one layout at a digital workshop tommorow. Try taking your camera with you everywhere with an eye to telling the story of your day. A day in your life may seem boring to you, but your story is totally unique. I especially liked some of the close-up shots I got, which focus on the details of my day. Generalities are boring - specifics are fascinating. I'd love to see a day in your life on facebook or wherever you share your photos.

L'chaim! (To life!)

bringing home the beach

'He sells sea shells by the sea shore'

Layout and brushy page edges: Discover predesigned page templates

Background paper: Travel ltd. edition digital kit

Title font: Font in a Red Suit

Story font: Eras Light ITC

So Edmonton is nowhere near the sea shore and in fact, I have not been to a beach in 9 years. Wow, too long. I collected these shells on that long-ago trip to Florida and have enjoyed them in a jar on my bookshelf in a number of homes. These shells have become special playthings for Nevin. I'm looking forward to the day when he can visit their home and hear the crash of the waves in person, instead of just on the Blue Planet dvds he likes to watch.

Some little pieces of CM news: I'm working with the new Memory Manager 3.0 and just loving how smoothly it operates as I organize my photos and use the editing tools to make them really pop - the one click 'contrast' fix makes magic of my flashless photos, like the ones above. And knowing I will be able to find any of my thousands of photos by the people in them or by key words in the title or journal box - well that's just priceless.

Yesterday I received 10 12x12 Page Prints from the CM Photo Centre, including many of the pages I've shown here. Wow. They're so big! My photos look amazing! I wish you could all come to my parties and see them in person. I was surprised at how cheap the shipping was - $2 and change, and the Page Prints cost $3.99/ea. (less with my consultant discount :) Very competitive... if you can just bear to wait 10 days to hold your digital pages in your hands.

And if you haven't already done the Mem Manager/Storybook Webinars I highly recommend them - each session is under 30 minutes and will really help you make the most of your software. Email me when you order your first Storybook for a great CD of fonts and digital goodies. Happy scrapping!

in my project pile

May is shaping up to be a good month for my little Creative Memories business. I am busy keeping current with our new product and software. Okay so that translates - scrapbooking a lot. :) This is my favourite part of this consultant gig - a very solid reason to keep up with my scrapbook projects and photos. Here's a peek at what fills my hour and a half of working time/baby napping time:

Nora's 0-6mos baby album is my biggest ongoing project. I've abandoned the photos that came before and will return to them when this album is done. I'm loving our 'Delight Baby Girl' kit and Display Accents digitally and in paper. I am putting both digital and traditional scrapbook layouts into a RED coverset. I checked out CM's Persona Imprinting to put Nora's name and a little something pretty on the cover (the best time to do this is before you order a coverset - the whole finished product comes to your doostep), but in the end I've decided I'll have more fun doing a little home stenciling.

I can't keep away from the beautiful spring pictures that are filling up my camera's memory card! Lucky for me, this blog is a great excuse to work on a little something fresh every week. These are the revamped 'Signs of Spring' pages I sent to the CM photo centre for developing. I was wanting to create an very open layout, but the big, blocky photos in the previous version stopped the eye dead. I solved the yucky shirt color problem by just making those photos smaller and not so noticeable.

Last, I'm trying my hand at some card making - part of the goodie bags I'm giving out at my National Scrapbook day event May 2 (drop me a line if you want to join!). I've heard cards are addictive little craft fixes... and it's true. How cute are these?

Thanks for letting me ramble a bit - this is my plug to work some crafty time into your upcoming week. You are a creative person - pull out the pens or the baking ingredients or the gardening gloves and play!

how to change project size

This little tutorial is going to introduce you to the handy yellow button at the top left of your Storybook Creator workspace. This buttom is called the 'Start Menu' and allows you to open multiple projects at once and switch between them. I have received some questions about whether it's possible to turn a 12x12 project into an 8x8 one, or an 8.5x11 project into a 5x7 softcover book. The answer is - absolutely! I'm busy with this today, so come along and I'll show you how.

I have Page Prints on the way from the CM photo centre (glorious!) but I need some pages in a hurry for a party on Saturday, forcing me to use a local photo developer. I am turning my 12x12 layouts into an 8x10 project with 8x8 layouts in the centre so that I can get my page prints developed through an ordinary photo kiosk at my local walmart. Here's how you can too (click the images for a closer look):

1. From the project you plan to downsize, click the yellow Start Menu button. Select 'Create a new project' - this is the box you'll see. Choose the size of project you want to create - I am creating a 'custom' project, and I set the size of the pages at 8x10".

2. Group together all the page elements from your original project. Grouping makes it easier to move and resize them in your new project.

3. Click the side arrow on your grouped item to change the 'order' so that all your elements function normally, not like the background. You could skip this step, but the background thing annoys me. Right click your page and copy!

4. Click the yellow menu button and open your new project. You can see I have two projects open (listed under the 'Home Page' icon). I'm switching from 'Nora's baby digital pages' to '8x10 page prints.' Right click the blank page of your new project and paste your layout onto it.

5. Your page is too big! The simplest thing is to use the white square 'handles' and manually make your page smaller until it fits inside your new page. You can also right click your page and choose 'properties' to automatically change it's size, but sometimes there's stuff hanging over the edge of the page that messes with your plan.

There you go! Ready to rock those Walmart ladies with your awesome digital scrapbooking! You can find more helpful tutorials at CM's Help Zone, including four 20 min webinars that will teach you to use both Memory Manager and Storybook creator plus to go from a mess of JPEGs in windows folders to a completed Storybook album. Wow!

I spy with my little eye

'Signs of Spring'
Created with blank white 12x12 Storybook page, my photos and the wand tool.

Lately I've been playing with this clean, open look by scrapbooking on a plain white page. I was never a fan of white as a traditional scrapper. After a year and a half with Storybook's limitless choice of papers and embellishments, I find the simplicity of a blank white workspace really appeals to me. I think I have a lot to learn about how to arrange my photos attractively - there's no place to hide an awkward layout choice. I should google graphic design basics. If there is such a thing.

For the budding branch 'stamps', I took a bunch of photos of the branches just about to bust out their leaves, then used the wand tool to select those shapes and add them to my page as its sole embellishment. I wasn't crazy about the choice of sepia for a spring layout - I must have forgotten the cardinal rule of scrapbooking when I put a pale pink shirt on my pale pink arms: dress for your layout and make sure your whole family coordinates! :) However, the resulting three-color palette: brown, blue, green appeals to me.

As for the beavers... while Logan and Nevin were exploring a path beside the river, Logan made the mistake of pointing out the chewed trees and saying they were the work of beavers. Nevin immediately put up his arms to be carried. "Come? Nevin scared?" And that was the end of that little adventure. Now he looks around the backyard warily while playing in the sandbox. "Beavers hiding?" No Nevin, there are no beavers at our house. You're safe.

rest your eyes on this

Shiny new boots! For splashing!

Mommy, Nevin and Truck.

Peekaboo Nora!

Suddenly it's warm and everything is melting. We've been out for walks every day this week. There's a bridge over a finger of the North Saskatchewan river just down the road from us. It's quiet enough to hear the waxwings flocking in the bare trees, the yellow grasses rustling in the wind and the water hurry hurrying to free itself from ice. These walks make me feel lighter, like my anxiety about money and lack of sleep can't stick to me with the wind blowing and the sun shining.

I read in the paper this week that "exposure to inherently facinating stimuli" helps your brain relax and rejuvenate. Turns out those waving grasses are making my brain work better. This explains why walks are such a tonic for worry and depression, and why solutions to my problems just seem to come out of the air while I'm walking.

On a smaller scale, handling my photos and beautiful papers helps my brain relax. I'm guessing this is why scrapbooking is so huge in northern climes - we need something beautiful to rest our eyes on in the long winter days. What better thing than photos of our loved ones... preferably taken in the summer on the beach? :)

These pics will make it into a scrapbook layout here very soon - but the writing bug bit this week and I'm back working on my novel. You know, I remember a time when I didn't have to fit my creative pursuits into 45 minutes a day. It helps when I remind myself that I also had to work for someone other than my children, 40+ hours a week. But those weekends off... my I miss them.

A blessed Easter to you, friends.

open storybook