scrapbooking without really scrapbooking!

(photo from http://www2.snapfish.com/photobookcategory/)

i am probably 2 years behind on putting our pictures into photo albums. it stresses me out every time i think about it.

i have seen photo books advertised with snapfish many times and always wondered if they would be cool. i love scrapbooking, but just don't make the time these days...i'm thinking when life slows down a bit...HA!

i thought i would try these photo books when they had a special in december. i picked my favorite photos from each year's album and created the book on snapfish's website.

i think they turned out great for what they are. the best part...they took a fraction of the time of making a 3D scrapbook, i didn't make a mess in the house by making them, and i can even write in the books with a permanent marker if i ever choose to.

http://www2.snapfish.com/photobookcategory/

i kept the covers really simple by just typing the year on the front with a black background.

the really nice thing is that you can have anywhere from 20 to 150 pages (20 is standard...you pay for the extra pages). You can get snapfish to auto fill or you can place pictures exactly where you want them. you can choose from themed background and a nice selection of layouts. If you're like me and get distracted you can save your project and come back to it after you change that diaper that's funking up the house!

if you could see my coffee table right now, you would see my 4 "scrapbooks" from '06, '07, '08, and '09 :-)

check out snapfish.com they are currently running a free shipping special. if you're not a snapfish fan, i feel certain other similar sites have photo books as well.

What to do with those Christmas Cards

one of my favorite things about the holidays is receiving Christmas cards in the mail. i don't know what it is about it...it just makes me happy. because it makes me so happy i don't ever want to get rid of them, but then again, i don't want them sitting in piles either...i've got plenty of piles going on already.

years ago, a friend suggested cutting out my favorite part of each of the cards i received and creating a scrapbook with them. i thought this was fantastic. here is ours from 2007.

here is a little bit closer on one of the pages...you can see i hand wrote 2007 at the bottom. i used simple paper in the background because there is so much going on in the body of the page. i typically alternate the background colors between red and green.

i'm obsessed with pictures, so i love getting the holiday cards with pictures. i decided i didn't want to cut up these cards and include them in the scrapbook page. rather, i punch a hole in each card at a corner with a single hole-punch and then feed them through a metal ring. i include these in the Holiday Cards scrapbook simply by dropping the ring down into an empty sleeve that corresponds with the correct year.

sampling of Christmas, part 1

in an attempt to save money this Christmas i set on a mission to create things. Even right now i'm trying to figure out things i can make for my niece who i will be exchanging gifts with in less than 2 hours...i think i should just give it up!

at school, we have activity period once a month. my group does crafts. the group i had most recently wanted to tie dye. although the thought of tie dye made me cringe (the mess, my inexperience), i agreed. i'm glad i did because it sparked some ideas for Christmas. this year i tie dyed towels and white leggings for my nieces.





i have to admit, i still don't really know what i'm doing when it comes to tie dye, but what i've learned is that it doesn't really seem to matter! i like those kind of projects :-)

both of my nieces love art, so i tried to create some things to support that. i made an art tube for one of them.



an art display center made from a scrapbook:






and an art in progress on the go kit (i placed a sketch pad and some nice colored pencils in an accordian file):