Patting my own back

I've been getting a TON of pages & albums completed in like the last month or so (maybe shorter...) & it's all so [nerdy] exciting for me :)

Here's what I've finished in like the past 3 weeks:

• Our Honeymoon album (circa 2005)
• Liam's FIRST birthday party album
• GParent's Gift
• PicFolio Minutes album - mainly done for showing at shows & such but I like it, of course, and have it on 'display' and switch the pages every other day or so

Here's what I've started in the past 3 weeks:

• Our 2005 Family Album -cropped myself out of pictures in two crops! That amounted to Jan - March pictures.
  
• Our 2005 Cape Lookout Album - completed about 30 or so pages in two crops! I will complete this album VERY soon, like maybe this weekend. It's smaller than I anticipated so upon completion I might rethink the whole "needs its whole album" line of thinking & might just go on and put it in our 2005 album depending on huge that sucker turns out to be.
• Ordered our wedding pictures (that are in our album also) to start the album for my parents - they did not get a professional one in our package as they opted to let me create one for them. And yes, I'm only now getting started on it.
• Organized older pictures of Mystic to pick up working on her "brag book"
• Ordered May - August of 2005 pictures. It appears we did nothing in April...
• Completed Red Rocks 2005 StoryBook but have not ordered it yet as I am waiting on the husband to "edit" it with me
• Changed out the Everyday Easel to put VA TECH pictures in it!
  

Here's what I have coming up:

• I got pregnant in 2005 so I will start my pregnancy album next which will include belly shots, showers & getting ready for bebe layouts
• We went to NYC in the winter for DMB shows & I am putting off deciding if that will need its own album or not until I get through our Summer 2005 pages
• 2006 Family Album
• BabyMoon 2006 - this will take its own album since we were there for 10 days & took approximately 4590 pictures every day
• Arrival of the Fellow & Beyond
• Jen's Girlie Album documenting The Wedding - I have wanted to put together an album that has all the planning pictures & events documented in it that is separate from the wedding. Like showers, trying on dresses, luncheons, the Diva Dinner, etc. This will probably sit on the back burner until I can catch up
• Another GParent's gift for Matias' family
  

Currently, I am back to working on TWO albums at a time :) I like being able to set one aside if I'm not "feeling it" & work on something that has inspired me for some reason at that moment. I find that if I'm bored with my pictures or the events that I don't like the work I do on the LO (industry term for Layouts) so that doesn't make for very good Memory Celebration ;)

I'm having a lot of fun with these albums & really do enjoy doing it - it is rarely "stressful" work for me so that's always refreshing! And since we got the new cutting system blades, I have been making circles & ovals out of record breaking amounts of pictures! Over two days' time, I circled or ovaled over a dozen pictures, were as in the last album (Honeymoon for those keeping track) I probably only did that many total in a gigantic album. And the new paper that I didn't think I would really use (Mod tone on tone), I have been using a LOT of! And I really HEART the new paisley shape maker - I swoon at all things paisley so this is prefect for me :)

OK time to stop blabbering away about this & get back to work!

Putting "Creative" into Creative Memories

Christina was trying to explain why she does not attempt anything "creative" with her photos & I started to write a novel in her comments about how I was the same way when I started scrapbooking...and I thought I would share my experience here!

Kym can attest to this since it was at her house that I got introduced to CM - I WOULD NOT CUT MY OWN PICTURES. I made the consultant do it for me. It hurt me to 'deface' them, pictures are very valuable to me & I thought I was 'hurting' them by cropping them. It took me a while to get over. But get over it, I did!

Also, I am NOT creative artsy. My sister got the drawing & imagination talent in the family. I have a few "guidelines" that I live by in my albums.

1) use all the pictures that mean something to ME - maybe it doesn't mean something to everyone but the story that goes along with it is important to our family history

2) I find a central theme & color in the pictures I'm putting on a page & I go with that.

3) Don't try & be something you aren't. I'm NOT going to be all creative & go crazy with the adorable ribbons & brads & glitters & other amazing stuff that is out there. My pages include paper, stickers, titles (sometimes hand written & sometimes with stickers) and journaling to tell the story of the pictures & to document who is in them. That's what is important to me. I can 'dress up' the page but sometimes I really think it becomes more about the 'dressing up' than it does about the pictures. And the pictures are WHY I'm doing this.

My albums/pages have gotten better/more creative as the years have passed & I would really only encourage someone to do something within their comfort zone - even if it's not MY comfort zone! I have a customer who makes AMAZING pages but it's way too much for me to tackle. It would take me weeks to finish anything (and sometimes it takes her a long time) and I would stress myself out over it. I find that the pages I get the most compliments on are the ones that I thought were 'missing' something or that I didn't do a good enough job on it...strange...

I have one customer who wants to go back and REDO entire albums because she doesn't like that they aren't as "good" as her current ones - but to me that just reflects how far she has come in her hobby & I think it's a fantastic testament to the thought, care & work she has put into her albums. I wouldn't go back and redo anything - it's all a learning process - you can look at the size of my first album compared to my recent ones & WOW - those albums are TINY. But now, I'm more 'skilled' at what I'm doing or the products have improved or I've taken some risks and done new things...I think that's so much fun to go back and see that! Imagine if you went back and re-colored pages in your coloring books because as you got older you colored better? I think it's so precious to see how you have grown & the lessons you have learned from your 'learning' years.

I could go on and on about Creative Memories & scrapbooking in general. But the bottom line is - it's for you & you need to do what you feel comfortable with! If that means digital albums versus "traditional" scrapbooking then that is what it means! If it means less snazzy pages because you don't love paper or stickers the way I do, then that's reflecting YOU & not what others are doing! The one thing I cannot stop repeating though is you did not take all these wonderful, expressive, personal pictures to put them in a box under your bed OR leave them as files lost on your computer. Celebrate them! Show them off! Showcase who you are!

I'm so excited!

I finally finished my 2003 album!!

I have already organized, digitally, our Honeymoon pictures & ordered the first 1/2 of the trip! I have a Crop on Saturday here for the DCMMScrapClub group that I am a moderator for so I'm very excited to have NEW pictures to crop for a NEW album!

I'm going to use the Cottage Power Palette for a good number of the pages using the Idea Book that comes with the set & I'm also REALLY excited about using new products :)

And you know, after organizing & choosing the prints to go in the album I saw how happy & how much fun we were having & it made me smile.

THEN, I'm going to do a NYC album for our 2005 trip with my mom, sister & Aunt to see DMB and every corner of that city! THEN, I'm going to do a Babymoon album of our wonderful trip to Tahoe with my parents & my brother's family in 2006. THEN, in between all of this, I'm going to start Liam's album - there is SO much fantastic new stuff out for baby & little boy/little girl from Creative Memories that I cannot sit on it any longer, I need to break it out & start playing with it ASAP! THEN, I will start working on my pregnancy album which will cover 2005 in its entirety and of course 1/2 of 2006.

Actually I havent worked out those specifics as of yet because I just dont know how to organize a pregnancy that happened in Nov & a birth that happened in July with my general organizational process of doing a YEARLY album...I'll work that out when I come to it but I'm trying to eliminate "issues" by doing a separate NYC & Babymoon albums...

YAY ME!

I just signed my VERY FIRST CONSULTANT for CM!

I'm so excited :) I am now someone's Upline!! YAY ME!!

I'm trying really hard to "grow my business" this year so that I can be as successful as I want to be & this is the step in the right direction. My short term goal is to become a Senior Consultant - that means I have two consultants 'under' me. My long term goal is to become a Unit Leader - that is my Major League Dream.

Right now I'm just happy to be getting off the bench :)