Negative Space

Scrapjazz had another "Photo Challenge". This one from Jamie Warren, and I loved it! Her picture samples and info about what "Negative Space" is in photos and how it brings to much more emotion and depth to a picture.

I don't even think I have pictures that are good enough to share...that have negative space, so check out this link! SCRAPJAZZ

Preschool Book...LOOK-LOOK-LOOK!

Here's a sample Pre-school book! This is a Cherish Bound "Legacy" style book. That means that this book is already designed with the colors, fonts, and embellishments/designs. Makes it so easy for you! You just have to drop your photos and text in.

You can also see how there are photos and scanned images as well. You can take any of your children's art work, handwritten letters and notes, drawings, awards, etc., and add them to your books!

Wordless Wednesday...Wonders Under the Water

For more Wordless Wednesday visit 5minutesformom.com

Tuesday Tradition #21

Lemonade Stands!

How much fun are those?? I remember as a child setting up lemonade stands during my mom and grandmother's quarterly yard sales, on hot summer days when there was NOTHING to do, and even in the cold days of December trying to earn some extra Christmas cash. Those were the days!

My 5-year-old has just discovered this idea and is OBSESSED with selling lemonade. At first I thought, "Oh, come on...this is too much work! I have to get the table out, make the signs, make the sticky lemonade...." But I realized that I have some incredibly fun childhood memories of sitting behind my little table and my neighbors dropping quarters into my cup.

So if you need a fun summer tradition....go out and sale some lemonade with your kiddos! Everyone loves a yummy cold cup of lemonade and the sticky smiles that are made!

Here is a link to FamilyFun. They have some cute Lemonade Signs already made up and ready to print. Click HERE!

Product Spotlight - Vacation Dailies

It's summer and that means VACATION! Everyone I know is out gallivanting around the world! Except for me of course....actually, I'm choosing to stay close to home this year. We're taking a year off from vacations and enjoy ourselves at home. But for those of you that are out and about Vacation Dailies are just for you!

Vacation Dailies are a set of 16 story "leaves" that contain multiple questions about your adventure. They are designed to help you write your story ONE DAY AT A TIME! Telling your

vacation story while you're on the vacation...BRILLIANT! The questions are organized i n event/chronological order to help you better record your memories and stories that are happening. You have plenty of space to write your side of the story, but you can also get multiple perspectives on your vacation by having your children, husband or other guests write their thoughts as well.

There is even space for you to mount a matching photo or you can publish our "Vacation" story when you get home in one of Cherish Bound's professionally bound books.

Photographing Babies

I'm intrigued with baby photography. I can look at my children's baby pictures over and over for hours on end. I think it's because those stages of life come and go so quickly. Every time I was blessed with a new little one I would think to myself how can life be so grand, so wonderful, so amazing...how can this sweet little baby bring so much love and joy into my soul? If you're a mother I don't even have to try and explain it...you get it. It's not something you can describe in words...it just makes me smile.

The pictures that we capture of our little ones at birth and during the first few months of their lives help us remember those deep overwhelming feelings that we experience when a new baby has blessed our lives.

I found this article on Scrapjazz called Shake, Rattle & Roll, Photographing Babies. It's a great little article with tips for photographing your new little babies.

The "Landscape"

The beautiful Landscape book...yes, that's probably my favorite style of Cherish Bound book to publish. I gives me a warm fairytale feeling. I have flashbacks of being read to by grandparents and even my own parents and I always picture large flowing landscape style books spread across our laps. It evokes deep nostalgia in my soul. Hummmm.....

So here are a few of my favorite "landscape" style Cherish Bound books that I have published. Of course they're all my favorite.

This is the story about my twins and the stories about their surprise arrival and pictures up to about 10 months old.

For Mother's & Father's Day 2007 I gave each of my parents a book about my memories and stories of growing up with them as my mom and dad. By using the Tribute to Mom/Dad Story Starter I was able to remember memories WAYYY back. It helped me discover some amazing stories and memories that I never knew existed.

This is book was a gift to all the softball coaches on my daughter's softball team. Each coach got a book at the end of the year. All the girls wrote about their favorite memories, stories and what they learned during the season.

This is a book I did for my grandmother who told me stories about her mother and father, her youth and her experiences as a mother.

If you're interested in publishing a landscape book through Cherish Bound contact me today! I'll help you get started sharing your stories!

Wordless Wednesday...Let Us OUT!

For more Wordless Wednesday visit 5minutesformom.com

Tuesday Tradition #20

I love summer! I love the warm air (most of the time), I love the beach, the pool, BBQ's and get togethers....I love NO SCHOOL and NO schedules! Such a nice change of pace. And I love the 4th of July...and of course I'm a July Birthday, so I love it for that reason too.

Summer Rocks! And I love that with the simplicity of our schedule we get to spend more time together as a family. No 6 hour drives to soccer tournaments or 2 hours of car pool back and forth to all of our after-school commitments....it's just filled with dates by the pool, morning jogs, afternoon basketball, a little more swimming, some trampoline jumping....then daddy gets home from work and more swimming, late night tennis....

I didn't realize it, but we have great summer traditions in our family. I think we take it for granted that we are so blessed to be able to spend so much "FUN" time together in the summer. Obviously our family revolves around a sports theme, but that's tradition for us! My husband and I are....I guess you could say obsessed with sports, and we have successfully passed on our tradition and passion for sports to our kids. How many couples happily fall asleep with ESPN on in the background....last night, we were up watching the re-play of Tiger Woods' incredible victory of the US Open until 1:00 am. That's bonding....that's tradition in our family.

So maybe you're not a big sports fan, but you have something that you love that you can pass on to your children. And when you put those things into practice it's a tradition...how about cooking or baking? Reading? Writing? Do you collect something? Sing? (Ain't none of that going on in our family) Sailing? Artist? Comedian? Fishing? (that's us too) It can be anything! You are the one that will mold your children and grandchildren, and the family traditions you set in place today will be what connects their family together. Are you passing those wonderful talents and traditions on? I sure hope so....because if you don't, someone else will.

Product Spotlight - Heritage Journal

Finding our family's connections can seem like a daunting task. Most families are so big and extend in every which direction it can become a little overwhelming. Sometimes it's just best to start within arm's reach...start with those living right now, right down the street.

Cherish Bound has a new pre-published journal called Heritage, which is the second book in a collection of four. It joins the previously released Traditions Journal. This pre-made hardbound book will offer ideas, resources and just the right amount of space for recording your Family Heritage Stories. With 12 blank spreads and pages of questions and ideas, this darling journal from Cherish Bound will help you create lots of heritage stories. Use this simple and easy journal to record several stories about one family member, or use each page to highlight a different member of the family.

This Heritage Journal is a great activity for any family reunion or get-together. Don't wait until it's too late....get those stories now! Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts, and even your own parents can offer amazing stories, advice, and wisdom. The Heritage Journal can help you capture those amazing stories!

"Some things can only be told by you. Only you can tell a particular story that will then become a rich heritage passed down to your children and your children's children... Good stories come from plain people saying simple things." (WJH)

Wedding Guest Photo Book

Traditionally at weddings there is a guest sign-in book. It used to be that the guests signed the book and scribe a personal message to the newlyweds at the wedding or reception site. I've noticed over time it's become more of an autograph book for the guests rather than a book of wisdom. I've seen some new traditions of signing the matte around an enormously large over-sized picture of the bride and groom...where the heck is that going to go after the honeymoon is over? But I have seen the cute platters you can sign, very cute! Or the quilt thing...WAY TOO MUCH work to just go writing all over it. Anyway, this tradition has potential....as one of my customers discovered.

A Wedding Guest Photo Book! I would have never thought of it, but one of my customers recently made a book for her daughter who was getting married. She wanted something original and different. She didn't want the typical "Sign your name thing"...she wanted something beautiful, but simple, and something that would last forever...something her daughter would want to keep 5, 10, even 20 years after her wedding.

I asked myself, "Self, where is your guest sign-in book?" And I struggled to remember, but I'm almost positive I threw it away about 3 years after we got married. It was just a bunch of scribbled names and I didn't really see the thrill of keeping it...so I'm pretty sure I dumped it. Matter of fact, I think I had one of those ugly feather pens....oh, my gosh I think so. Uhhhh! Why.......

Anyway, after hearing what my customer did I realized there is an entirely new twist to the guest sign-in book tradition. She took all kinds of her daughter's and soon-to-be son-in-law's pictures from youth, teens, dating, college, engagement and changed them all to black and white photos. (This can be done at home in photo software or by a professional). She scanned all the paper photos and put them onto disc. Others were already digital so they were in her computer ready to be edited.

After editing and coloring the pictures the way she wanted them she opened up a new project in her Cherish Bound publishing center and created an 11x8 landscape Cherish Bound photo book and dropped in all the photos in the available templates. No words, no captions, just pictures. She left plenty of space around the photos for guests to not only sign their name, but have room to write beautiful sentiments and words of wisdom.

The cover was STUNNING....just a full-bleed large black and white candid picture of the couple on the beach. She did add text to the cover, their names and the date of the wedding, but that was it. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! This keepsake will never be stored in an attic or brown box. It has earned its right to be part of this couple's decor forever.

Sigh....just love this picture.
I remember when....life was that calm and quiet, no throw-up on my pretty white dress, actually when I looked good in a white dress. Moving on....

Confessions of an Ex-Scrapbooker #15

The dreaded job of unpacking has almost come to an end...yes, we're in our new house and all 7 of us made it too! That's an accomplishment in its self.

If you've ever moved you know how you get all the big important boxes put away and everything starts to find a home within the home and then there are those last few stragglers. The boxes that were kind of thrown together last minute...dirty spoon, pair of socks, the mess on top of the old fridge, mail...yeah, you know what I'm talking about. You walk by those boxes about 15 times trying to find something else to do, but finally you just break down and go for it. Well, that's where I was today with my unpacking.

With only 3 boxes left i decided i needed to just get it over with. My daughters and I started opening the boxes. The last one was labeled storage/garage/misc. junk. This big old box showed signs of distress and complete neglect. It had to have been one that had been in the attic, then storage, garage...and now finally on this last move made it into the house. I didn't remember this box, had NO idea what was in it. We proceeded to open it up and could not believe what was in it.

Hum...how things have changed. There was a time when I would have actually carried that box from house to house with me, drove it in my own car (shotgun) and never let any strange hands come within 15 feet. What was in it? Oh, about $600 in scrapbooking supplies! Yup! That's it...just $600 in old scrapbooking supplies. Some still in the original wrappers, others still had their over-priced sticky price tags on the packaging, and a few Ebay wins still wrapped in their FedEx packaging.

What does this say about me...about my hobby...about who I am? It says the truth. I got real, and I got Cherish Bound. No more clutter, no more over-spending, no more posed pictures to go with the stickers that I bought on half-price at the scrapbook store...NO MORE! Confession has ended...I got caught with a box full of brand new, never opened scrapbooking supplies.

......You should see the gorgeous cards and stationary my daughters just made. They loved finding that treasure box. ;O)

My New Favorite Book

I posted a few times about the photo/memory book I was making for my 14-year-old daughter that was moving on from middle school to high school. You catch up on those post by clicking here and here

Well, I got the book back and gave it to her.....and it's now my new favorite book. Not only does it look awesome, but the pictures, letters and words of wisdom from her family and teachers are so encouraging and motivating. I've seen her many times lying on her bed flipping through the pages and reading the letters that were written just for her.

So here are some pictures of the book...

I did the cover with digital scrapbooking downloads from Shabby Princess
I created the cover with the "Express Yourself" Collection
I loaded the entire page as an 8.5x11 portrait size into the Cherish Bound full-bleed template.



I then added pictures and text using the Cherish Bound templates. Cherish Bound has beautiful background pages and colors already available, so I thought I'd save myself hours of time and stress and just use the templates and colors provided. They matched PERFECTLY with the cover colors too. I used the background called persimmon. This page background is gorgeous. It has very faint paisley pattern running across the bottom of each page....it's just plain pretty!



I did an A-Z of "Surviving Middle School". The book was 69 pages, which covered 3 years of stories and memories from school events, sports, holidays and even the new arrival of our twins.

Wordless Wednesday...First Visit to the Beach

For more Wordless Wednesday visit 5minutesformom.com

Tuesday Tradition #19

I'm editing this post! :O) I was brought to light on a few things that I didn't know about...."Anonymous" nicely shared their advice and opinions....

We're a big family and we just moved so we won't be venturing out on too many trips this summer, but I know a lot of you are traveling and will go to some AMAZING places. Don't forget to take LOTS of pictures and of course write your stories (Check out the Vacation Dailies) But here is an idea for those of you who LOVE pictures and capturing your memories is picture form.
Some of you take amazing pictures and some of us have some trouble....trouble capturing the perfect scenic shot. I can snap away shots of my kids, but I've got problems when it comes to capturing great scenic shots of landmarks and beautiful places. I can't seem to get the right shots, right light, too far away.....bla, bla, bla. So if you're like me you want those beautiful pictures, but they're just not worthy of any photo/story or scrapbook.

So maybe you can go to the local drug store or souvenir shop and buy some of the post cards. Post cards always have perfect pictures of the important places that you may have visited on your trip. Quit banging your head up against the wall frustrated that you couldn't get the right shot....Go get the post cards. BUT FIRST YOU MUST GET PERMISSION FROM THE PUBLISHER! THEY ARE COPYRIGHTED. PLEASE DO NOT SCAN AND USE ANY POSTCARDS UNTIL YOU'VE BEEN GIVEN PERMISSION!!!*** After you've been given permission you can use them as perfect scenic shots of your vacation....no one will ever know that you didn't take those pictures and your vacation memories will look gorgeous!

And to add a little more fun family tradition to it, have everyone write on the back of the post cards their version of the stories and memories of visiting the landmark, beach, person, etc. Get the memories in writing while you're IN THE MOMENT! Time changes the little details of the memory and emotion, so capture right away...don't wait!

After having this bit of copyright information pointed out to me, this idea now seems way too time consuming...forget all that work. Figure out how to take the pictures....and just for the record, I AM NOT ENCOURAGING ANYONE TO IGNORE COPYRIGHT! :O)

Product Spotlight - Family Gathering Lifeprints

With summer here and vacations underway many of us will be gathering together with our families and friends to celebrate the beautiful days of summer. Many families practice the tradition of Family Reunions annually and travel far and wide to get to them. Families gather together at their favorite landmarks, beaches, or even grandma's cozy cottage year after year after year. The memories that are made and the traditions that are created are just part of what makes these annual events memorable.

If you're like my family, we're kind of spread out all over, so when we do get together is quite an event. Some families are lucky enough to be within an hour or so of each other, but I think most families have a large handful that have to travel long distances to be apart of these exciting events. Many don't get to see each other often and with the busy lives most lead staying in contact becomes a luxury.

A popular pastime when getting together for family reunions is the storytelling. Grandma's and Grandpa's always seem to find stories and memories that have never been told or passed down. Most can't help but listen and take in the simple joys from their beautiful stories. Many stories and memories are made from past reunions and new ones are made each and every year.

Cherish Bound offers "Family Gathering Lifeprints". Lifeprints are a must have at any family reunion or family gathering that you will attend this summer. Each set of Lifeprints contain 16 leaflets that are loaded with questions to help celebrate the most important people, events and stories. Here are just a few sample questions:

• Write the names of each family member who was in attendance and write one thing that you admire or enjoy about each.
• How were meals done at the gathering? Did family recipes play an important part of the reunion?
• What are some of the stories you know or learned about your ancestors?

These questions help stimulate lost memories, encourage storytelling and offer a great activity at your gathering.

"Every family needs to recognize the individuals who make up that family. Every life is important and the family unit is defined by the combination of all. Lifeprints will help you celebrate each member of your family and create a "Lifeprint" that will be passed down to future generations."

- cherish BOUND

Gift Giving @ It's BEST!

One of my customers blogged about her amazing Cherish Bound book that she gave to her parents for their 60th Birthday presents. This book is absolutely INCREDIBLE! Get a glimpse of this beautiful photo/story book that was created!!!! CLICK HERE

She'll tell you about the process and the work that went into this book. It's by far the most extensive and time consuming project that any customer has put through publishing. I can only imagine the lives that will be forever changed and the generations that will be connected because of this book! I'm so honored to be apart of this process.

Another Ah-ha moment.....