Take an interactive tour through my newly labelled scrapbook albums on Flickr (click here).
I've sold all my CTMH albums and moved almost all my 12x12s to American Crafts D-Ring albums. This enables me to more easily mix page size as the pages/posts don't have to be removed to insert the different sized extra pages.
I've been meaning to update the spine labels on my scrapbook albums for a while. I had an idea to use metal rimmed circle tags (in the Ali Edwards style) but needed a 1" punch which I didn't have.
So today I borrowed a punch (thanks B) and started the process of re-labeling them so they coordinated.
Green albums are family:1 and family:2; pink are ig:1 and ig:2, blue are jg:1 and jg:2, purple will be kg:1 and kg:2.
Even though the albums aren't all the same style (in fact ig:1 is a cool photo album) I think they look much more "coordinated" and the differences aren't so obvious as they were before.
Comments? Do you like? Do I spend too much time reorganizing? Lol....
Come on over and join in some of the great discussions going on at Clickin’ Moms right now! Everyone is gearing up for the holidays, discussing which shiny new photo equipment to put on their wish lists and planning their holiday family portraits and photo shoots. Take a Great Pumpkin Patch Shot The Light Baby section has a quick tip about getting a great pumpkin patch shot! Find Big Spenders for High Priced Photography Sessions Members are having an active discussion in the Photography Business section about how to find customers willing to pay higher prices for photography sessions. Plus, the thread about setting up a professional photography business is still going strong! Clickin’ Moms Newsletter Tips – Self Portrait Focusing and a DIY Tripod For a well-focused self portrait, place your camera on a tripod and put something to focus on where your face will be. Once you set the focus, put yourself in the portrait and use a remote or your camera’s timer to shoot. It will take some trial and error – but setting the focus on a stand-in object should keep those errors to a minimum.
What happens if you forget your tripod at Christmas and are wondering how to take your family portrait without it? Use a lamp instead! Unscrew the lamp shade and attach your camera to the threads that you just removed the shade from. It fits perfectly!
Download Free Photoshop Actions Check out the latest free actions posted in the Pay It Forward section. The Verve Actions are super popular right now!
Use coupon code CMNEWS for 10% off any subscription!
I'm taking the Ali Edwards Yesterday & Today course over at www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com. I haven't taken one of their courses for a while because I don't like the fact that you don't have access to materials after you've finished, but this course was pretty tempting and came with a lot of digital elements by Ali (well worth the cost of the course itself). And even though I've been in the scrapbooking doldrums lately and haven't scrapped anything for a while (2 1/2 months!), I signed up for it anyway.
[In fact I bailed on the Jessica Sprague "Beautiful" album course that I was enrolled in and didn't complete any of the layouts. So now that's 2 courses I'm behind in, I still have the Type + Writer course to complete too :( So I didn't hold out too much hope of completing this course]
I have to say I've been impressed with Ali's course so far. Ali's emphasis is on documenting now, forget getting your craft room ready (Bonnie!) or scanning in all your photos, or scrapbooking chronologically, or..., or... Ali's stresses that you can document your memories now. It doesn't matter if they are random or planned, it doesn't matter if you have photos or not, it doesn't matter if it's just a short story and not a whole layout, she has a very "just do it" attitude. She emphasizes documenting in words and pictures. Not necessarily journaling everything (although you can) but if you're more comfortable with lists or stickers then "just do it".
So here are the first layouts from this album. I can't promise that I'll keep up with this but it's looking good at week 3 of 13.
About 2 years ago I created a genealogy book using the Heritage Makers self publishing system. The book was simple to make and I was very impressed with the results. While there was no output other than the book (no PDF file for example), I felt comfortable producing my book with them because they had an "Heirloom Assurance" promise, which stated:
The Heritage Makers Heirloom Assurance assures that your projects will last lifetimes. Torn pages, missed typos, daily wear and tear. Heritage Makers will print a replacement copy for you at only half price.
To receive your replacement copy, you'll need to mail us back your original book (or what's left of it) along with the Heirloom Assurance Form. You can get a copy of the form from your consultant who can find it their Virtual Office Library.
What a great guarantee! Even if you later discover a mistake or damage your book yourself, you will be able to replace the 1st copy for 1/2 price, or simply order more full price copies.
So recently I contacted Heritage Makers as I noticed that the genealogy book I had made was no longer showing in my projects list. I had wanted to print an additional copy as mine was getting very "ratty" as I'd passed it around at the local genealogy society to demonstrate Heritage Makers wonderful work and had used it in my seminar "Organizing Your Family History" taught at both the Vernon and Kelowna genealogy societies.
This is the response I received together with my replies:
Dear Marina,
I sincerely apologize, however, it looks like those books were in the 11.5x8.5 book sizes that were discontinued more than a year and a half ago. Unfortunately, our system does not have the ability to reprint them. I am sorry for this. Thank you so much!
Warm Regards,
Brandi Brady Heritage Makers, Inc. Client Services Agent
Brandi I am sorry but that is completely unacceptable. Your emphasis is on preserving stories and family histories. My book has been damaged and I need to order a replacement.
If you are unable to reprint in a certain size, then the book should have been converted to a new size that you are able to print.
Tell me, how does a customer know that you are discontinuing the ability to print in a certain size? This was never announced. I was aware that I could no longer create new books in that size but not that my existing books were not available for reorder.
It does not give me any confidence that books I might create now may not be discontinued in the future.
Regards,
Marina
Dear Marina,
I apologize, after doing further research I discovered that your projects were actually Classic books. It was announced early in 2008 that the Classic system was being discontinued, as it had become inefficient and high maintenance. All projects needed to be completed before August when the system would be terminated. Then this year in the spring we announced that we would be bringing out a new studio, called Studio 3.0. Because of the complexity of the 3.0 upgrade, we announced that classic projects would not be able to be produced. We encouraged all client to get their classic project recreated in studio or print their projects before the 3.0 was released.
We did send out numerous amounts of communication to ensure all clients were aware of our changes. I sincerely apologize for your frustration.
Warm Regards,
Brandi Brady Heritage Makers, Inc. Client Services Agent
Brandi Do you have access to the old files - is it possible to get a copy of the project in either pdf or image format so that I can recreate the project? As I mentioned, my book is damaged and I cannot read all the text.
Marina
Dear Marina,
I apologize, unfortunately because the old system was terminated, I am not able to access the files at all. I am able to see a list of the names and types of projects you have, but I cannot access them. I am sorry for this.
Warm Regards,
Brandi Brady Heritage Makers, Inc. Client Services Agent
Hi Brandy So let me get this clear, are you saying that you will not honor the Heirloom Assurance?
Heirloom Assurance The Heritage Makers Heirloom Assurance assures that your projects will last lifetimes. Torn pages, missed typos, daily wear and tear. Heritage Makers will print a replacement copy for you at only half price.
To receive your replacement copy, you'll need to mail us back your original book (or what's left of it) along with the Heirloom Assurance Form. You can get a copy of the form from your consultant who can find it their Virtual Office Library.
Regards, Marina
Dear Marina,
We do honor our Heirloom Assurance program. However, as explained in my previous emails, to ensure the quality and speed of our system we found it necessary to terminate the Classic system and replace the studio with a newer version. With such large changes, in order to keep our word with our customers we do make many announcements to ensure all customers are aware and can make the appropriate preparations. I sincerely apologize that I am unable to reprint your book for you. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to assist you.
Warm Regards,
Brandi Brady Heritage Makers, Inc. Client Services Agent
So it appears that they *only* honour the Heirloom Assurance promise during the current version of their software and that any time they choose to upgrade their software, they will cut off all previous users from this guarantee. In practicality, this means that their guarantee is only good for approximately 18 months (an average software life cycle). Once you are beyond that time frame (which is when most of the damage is likely to occur) you are out of luck.
Hopefully Oprah (Heritage Makers is an Oprah top pick) doesn't damage one of her books 18 months after she makes one!
As for me and Genealogy Buzz, we give Heritage Makers a big "Thumbs Down" or "Not Recommended" rating for preserving your family's history.
Excellent song. My kids and I love Dan Zane's version, but here's the original. Although written in the depression it certainly speaks to today's economic crisis.
Ok, so don't laugh but I was trying to put J in the naughty corner for being cheeky and I tripped over him into the back of the couch, put my hands up to break my fall, and broke my finger (left hand ring finger at the joint). C had to pull my rings off with margarine as the finger started to swell.
Anyway, Dr. thinks its broken and had to get x-rays. Waiting on results. Right now fingers taped together.
Hard to type, change diapers and can't cut up my own food :(
Had fun yesterday taking pictures of I playing with my sunglasses. She totally knew what she was supposed to do with them but had a little trouble executing! The session was going great up until the point where (while mom was fiddling with her camera settings) 'I' slid off the side of the king size bed, landed on her head and broke the sunglasses. Boy, did Mom feel like a deadbeat mother whose child could have had their eye poked out with the broken sunglasses..... Back to parenting school I think.....
K started Kindergarten yesterday and J started 2nd year pre-school this morning. K was pretty excited when she came home yesterday, she had a great day and especially enjoyed recess where she got to socialize with some of her ex-preschool now G1 friends!
C noticed a small fire in East Kelowna around 5pm September 1st on the way back from the grocery store. A helicopter was on the scene about 30 minutes later shortly before the main thunderstorm went overhead.
This photo shows both the fire (to the left) and the helicopter (to the right).
Local Kelowna gals, I've got two 12" lilac fabric Colorbok Perfect Scrapbook albums for sale. The refills are a different size than the huge stash of CTMH ones I've got and I don't want to buy a different kind of refill.
The albums were purchased for $7 plus taxes at Winners and I'll sell for same price. Both are clean and unused and come with 10 refill pages each. Each has 3 post screws.
Let me know if you are interested.
(Repost: I was going to keep/use them but now I'm not)
I'm happy to be getting the above lens from a fellow Clickinmom. It's a Nikon 80-200 2.8 AF. I've been wanting one of these for a while as the $2500 70-200 VR is just out of my price range! This is an older style lens but the optics are supposed to be good. I'll see how it works out when it arrives. My only hesitation is the weight of it. This lens weighs a *lot* so hopefully I'll be willing to drag it around :) Happy shooting!
Each of the kids has their own digital camera but I don't often download the photos for the them (they prefer to chimp at the LCD screens on the back). What you do find are some weird photos: toys, tv, people sleeping and of course, self portraits.
Ok, you really didn't think I was going to post a picture of me sleeping did you?
While browsing on Flickr I discovered a great project for giving children their First Own Portrait. The photographer then takes a photo of them holding their polaroid portrait.
I thought it was a fabulous idea and it made me think about how lucky we are (and how much we take for granted) the ability to save a "snapshot" of our own or our children's lives.
As a photographer and scrapbooker, it is almost astounding to think (in this day and age) that some people will never see a photo of themselves and never be able to have that momento of what they looked like at 5 years old etc.
Here is some important information about a newly certified software application that will work directly with the new.familysearch.org Web site to prepare ancestral ordinances for the temple.
RootsMagic 4 is the first software affiliate product that is certified to reserve and submit ancestral names to temples to print LDS temple name cards using new FamilySearch Web services.
As an application that is certified to reserve ordinances, RootsMagic 4 has the ability to link people in your desktop genealogy file with matching people on the new.familysearch.org Web site. Once linked, a simple click on the temple icon next to a person’s name will display that person's official temple ordinances, complete with dates, temple name, and status. Incomplete temple ordinances may then be reserved to be performed at a later time. Your own file may also be updated with ordinances that are already completed. RootsMagic 4 can select reserved ordinances and print a Family Ordinance Request (FOR) form to take to the temple. Once at the temple, a worker will scan the bar code on the form and print all the desired temple name ordinance cards. Once the ordinances have been completed, RootsMagic will be updated with your ancestors’ new ordinance status.
Ever since I saw Ali Edwards home office with a printers type tray I've wanted one too. I finally picked one up from ebay with the original intention of altering it for photographs but the little sections were too small for this idea. So instead I followed her example for stamp storage in her office and am using it to store all the little stamps that I have (mostly alphas and word art). I actually like this idea because I can see what I have, things I'd long forgotten about so that when I actually start stamping/paper scrapping they are right there in front of me and I think I'll feel more inclined to use them.
Rub a Dub Dub, three men in a tub.... Ok, so three kids. I don't know what it is with J, but he always seems to manage to screw up his face in every photo :)
Mother of 3 and workaholic IT Project Manager, I am dedicated to telling life's stories using words, photos and art. I hope it inspires you to capture a piece of your life. ♥
