Looking Forward… Looking Back

Can you believe it’s almost time to send the kids back to school?!?!!?? It seems like my little guy just finished Kindergarten, and we’re already picking out a backpack and lunch bag for 1st grade! I don’t know if it gets any easier watching them grow up as the years go by, but I’m going to try to hold on to what I can while it’s still fresh in my mind.

I’m a scrapbooker. Yes, I admit it. Which also means that I’m a hoarder. Maybe ‘hoarder’ is a little harsh… however I do tend to hold on to things… you know… just in case. So what does this have to do with my son starting 1st grade in just a few weeks? Well, I seem to have “held on” to a lot of paper that he brought home over the last school year… a LOT. (Did you do that when your child(ren) were in Kindergarten? Please tell me I’m not needing professional help!) And before he starts another year, I need to DO something with all that paper. I don’t think my dh can stand to find any more stashes around the house.

As I said, I’m a scrapbooker. So the natural thing to do is go through these papers and make the best ones into a scrapbook of his year in Kindergarten, right?

So I started going through it all, thinking it would be easy to pare it down to just a few special items to put in his scrapbook… yeah… right. There’s a reason I kept all these papers. See? This first one is where he switched his “Z” and “S” in his name… and here’s one with the cutest drawing of our house on it! …and this is where he was working on opposites… and… and… !!! Okay. I had to grab a hold of myself. I needed to think about what was important here. Maybe if I just kept the part of that page where he wrote his name, and then I can cut out the house and save some room… whew!

I’m only a little way into this project, but I now have a plan. When I’m finished I will post some pics. Maybe I’ll even post some along the way. The plan is to pull the most important pieces from his work instead of saving whole pages. In some cases, whole pages will be necessary, but not all of the time. I’ll use pockets to hold multiple like items such as stories rather than trying to display each piece separately. And ‘doors’ with pictures on them and his writing behind. A few photos of him scattered about. Yes. I think this is going to work.

I will keep you updated on my progress. And if you have found a great way of saving and scrapbooking your kid’s school years, leave a comment and tell me about it!

New Reminisce!!!

Woo Hoo! The new Reminisce Military Signature Series is here! All of the papers and stickers will be available on the website in the next few days… there are 2 different double-sided papers and a coordinating sticker sheet for each of the following:

Soldier

Army

Air Force

Navy

Marines

           

If you received our email last week there were images of 4 of the new papers. Above are the 6 you didn’t see! If you have family/friends/loved ones serving in the military, I hope you will find something in this collection to showcase your photos and preserve your thoughts of them.

God bless those serving our nation, they are truly the greatest heroes.

Marketing Slogans

So… I was wandering around the web the other day and I stumbled upon this site that generates marketing slogans. I thought, “huh, I could use a catchy slogan”, so I followed the directions and typed a word into the little text box. I should’a known… it was free after all… it seems like I’d heard these somewhere before…

These are just some of the slogans it came up with for me… okay, I laughed a couple of times, groaned a few and well, I’ll let you form your own opinions:

Just Do Crop

Grab Life By The Crop (or Scrapbook)

We’ll Leave The Crop On For Ya

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Crop

Wow! I Could’a Had A Crop!

Behold The Power Of Crop

Thank Crop It’s Friday (okay, I actually kinda like this one)

(and this one…) Crop. It’s Everywhere You Want To Be

(oh, and this one…) You Deserve A Crop Today

Okay, so not all of them were bad. Maybe I’ll have some T-shirts made up… you’d buy one, wouldn’t ya? I knew you would!

July Blog Special

Here it is! Each month Remember When Scrapbook Store will feature a “Blog Special”. The special offer will only be advertised on this blog, and is good at www.RememberWhenSS.com only during the month specified. So check back often (well, once a month, anyway!) and see what other specials we’re having. This month is…

FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $25 FOR THE MONTH OF JULY! (woo hoo!)

This is how it works: When you go to the Checkout screen, there is a coupon code box. Enter “Blog 25free” in the box when checking out, and if your order is $25 or more, we’ll ship your order FREE! Be careful, the code must be entered exactly as I have it here, without the quotes, “Blog 25free”, or it won’t work. Capitalization and spacing matters.

Time to shop!        www.RememberWhenSS.com

Not So Obvious Embellishments

Sometimes when we’re trying hard to be creative and pushing ourselves to come up with the next greatest thing we overlook the obvious. We get so caught up in wanting to create that we forget what might be right in front of us. What are we trying to accomplish anyway? We want to preserve our memories… leave a piece of ourselves for the next generation… tell our story… So we spend precious time trying to find the perfect embellishment, just the right touch to make the page *perfect*.

Consider this: that perfect touch may be in your purse. It might be something you just received in the mail, or want to throw out because it’s becomming clutter. Or it might be something in your pocket. Or in that shopping bag you just threw away, heck, it might even BE the shopping bag you just threw away!

I recently read a little article on www.ezinearticles.com titled Scrapbook Do’s And Don’ts by Wes Waddell. It has great information on the extra things we add to our scrapbooks and whether or not they will eventually damage our photos. As I read through the list, I thought… “These are some great embellishment ideas!” Dang, all this time I’ve been trying to create the perfect embellishment, and they’ve been there all along! I just have to “see” them.

So next time you’re trying to come up with that perfect item for your page, consider using the following:

Old Report Cards, Birthday Invitations, Maps from vacation or Post Cards, College Brochures and Acceptance Letters, Greeting Cards, Decorative Napkins, Name Tags or Place Cards, Receipts from the restaurant, Programs and Ticket Stubs from Plays and Concerts or Sporting Events, Old Drivers Licenses (isn’t that a great idea???), CD Covers, and yes, you could even cut out the logo from a shopping bag.

Just remember that many of these things may have harmful ingredients such as lignon and acid, and the inks may not be safe… but as long as they don’t actually *touch* your photos, you’ll be fine! Now get out there and create! (and please feel free to add your ideas in the comments section – we can all use fresh ideas!)

10 Travel Photo Tips

For those of you who still have vacations to take this summer… and, really, for anyone/anytime… here are 10 great tips for taking photos that will help you get some variety in your shots:

1. Use reflections from water. Any water… rivers, lakes, pools, puddles. This can really add depth and drama to your photos.

2. Take action shots rather than posing your subjects every time. Remember that the people in your photos don’t always have to be looking right at your lens. Capture the hike, not just the destination. Look for people interacting with each other, not just standing shoulder to shoulder.

3. Use the horizon… the rule of thirds: break up what you see in the viewfinder into 3 equal horizontal spaces. Is the sky more interesting (great sunset, cloud formation…)? Then make your photo 2/3 sky and 1/3 ground. Is the ground more interesting (flowers, river…)? Then make your photo 2/3 ground and 1/3 sky.

4. Consider your surroundings. Take some landscape photos, show the general area around you. The boats in the harbor are beautiful, but are you also near mountains? …a cobblestone road? …or a nice beach?

5. Change your perspective. Take pictures of children on their level, get down on the ground if you have to. Shoot from behind, one of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken is of my father and my son walking hand in hand down a gravel road. I was about 15 yards behind them. Get under things and shoot looking up, or tip your camera at an angle to get a new perspective.

6. Come in close… real close. Fill the entire frame with just one small wildflower. Capture that ice cream dripping off the cone and on to your daughters little hand.

7. Draw the viewer into your photos by using a natural line. Pull them along your walk on the beach by taking a picture that shows the edge of the water starting in a bottom corner of the frame and extending into the top middle. Shoot a winding path or fence line as it disappears into the trees.

8. Posing can be good, but remember to vary the positioning of your subjects. Gather them (or place him/her) to one side of a landmark, or shoot from an angle – not always from straight in front of them. Also vary who stands/sits where in your photos. Don’t always put the shortest ones in front, have the tall ones sit or kneel in front and the others stand behind.

9. Use a wide angle lens or setting on your camera to capture large areas with a different perspective.

10. Using natural light and shooting at certain times of the day will produce dramatic effects. 1 hour before sunset and 1 hour after sunrise make great pictures with warm tones. Think beach scene with white clothes near sunset.

I hope you enjoy these tips and get a chance to try some out next time you have your camera with you!

4th of July sketch

This is a sketch of a layout I did several years ago, but I still love it. It is actally the 2nd of a 2 page spread. The first page is turned a quarter turn clockwise putting the 1 x 12 inch strip along the top of the page. And instead of journaling, I put the title on the strip with an embellishment near the left corner.

The background is blue with cream stars of different sizes all over. The photo mat is red, as is the strip under the embellishment and journaling. The journaling block is a piece of cream cardstock that matches the stars, and I wrote in red pen.

The dimensions may be hard to read, so I’ll list them here in case you want to try this one.

12 x 12 patterned paper for background, photo mat is 6.5 x 12, strip behind journaling is 1 x 12, photos are 3 3/4 x 6, journaling block is 3 x 5.5, and the embellishment is approx. 2 x 2.5 (in my layout it is an irregular shaped sticker).

Let me know if you try it out and what kind of changes you make!

New Cosmo Cricket

Have you seen the new Hello Sunshine line by Cosmo Cricket? I love it! It’s bright, colorful, and double-sided (that’s always a plus)! I just got it in the store a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t had a chance to do a layout with it yet… I’m looking for just the right pictures.

Here is a look at some of the paper in case you haven’t seen it yet…

                   

Isn’t it fun? (If you click on a pic it will take you to its page in the store.)

Come to www.RememberWhenSS.com and see what else I have that is new!

Too slow

Sales are slow… I need to find more ways of marketing the site. I’m listed on Google AdWords – when someone searches for scrapbook supplies (or many other keywords I’ve specified) an ad for the store will sometimes appear in the right hand column as a “Sponsored Ad”. I’ve gotten some hits from it, and I think an order or two, maybe I’m just being too impatient. I also made a Facebook page for the store, and joined a Facebook Group called “I have no money because I scrapbook”. There are a lot of scrappers in that group, so maybe I’ll drum up some business there.

I’ve found that most of the forums or messege boards have very specific rules about not promoting stores, or advertising in posts. I like to go to boards and read what people are working on, what products they are using, and what they are looking for. It’s so hard to not jump in and post a reply telling someone that I have the product they are looking for in my store, or that I could get it for them pretty quickly and usually at a better price than they would pay in a retail store. I know… a lot of boards have a folder where you can post advertisements, but do people really go and read those? I guess I could register as a “regular person” and try to be sneaky posting information about the store, but that just seems, well… icky.

Help! I love scrapbooking and want to provide others who love it with fun products… at a great price but I don’t have a huge advertising budget! Ahhhhhhh!

To stay virtual or go physical… that is the question.

Another former employee, I’ll call her CN, and I have been toying with the idea of opening up Remember When Scrapbook Store in a… well… a store again. We’re considering the Collierville/Germantown TN area. Currently the store is open (of course) but only online. I really miss having a place where people can come visit any time, where we have crops into the ‘wee hours’, where we can socialize and compare notes, and of course where our MeetUp.com group can meet (yes, even during the day/week)!

What do you think? Can the Memphis area support another scrapbook store? Is the Collierville/Germantown area convenient? What would you like to see in a store that you aren’t currently seeing? What do you like best about your LSS’s? Least? What would your dream LSS be like?

Our biggest obstacle right now is finding a location… anyone into property leasing in the Memphis area?