It's a Girl!

Late spring of 2008 we lost our beloved black lab, Joey. It was a great loss and his companion, Gertie was really down. After some time we felt she needed another friend. We had our mind made up that we were going to adopt another male, black lab and wouldn't settle for anything else. One day we went to a shelter in a neighboring county and thought we had found true love. A very playful pup matching all we were looking for. We were told that he was available for adoption. After leaving to retrieve some information needed, when we returned, we were informed that there had been a mistake and he was already spoken for. He had a sister that they thought we might want to consider. After taking her into the play yard, we didn't feel she was the right fit for our family.

I told my husband that it was probably meant to be, we were going to be moving soon and when the time was right we would find the right companion. About a week and a half later we decided to go to the shelter in our county. When we left my oldest son say bring home a hound. My response was NO hounds!

We arrived at the shelter, much smaller than the other and much more personable. We went to view the dogs available, luckily only about a half dozen. this precious little four month old, black with white, face sat looking at me. I was gone!!! I tried to convince my husband that it was a black lab. I picked up the pup, the pup snuggled up under my chin. Oh my gosh!! I was in love. My husband would just give me that look. The paperwork on the kennel read....female, hound mix. I couldn't believe after telling my son, no hounds, that I fell in love with a hound. I have never had the experience of hounds, what are they like, how are they different from the other dogs we have had. I can't believe after all the strong feelings we had that we wouldn't get any other breed, other than a lab or lab mix, we were swayed with this little cutie...a hound after all. I would look at my husband and all he would say is, she is awfully cute, and she will be trouble. We filled out the paperwork and took her home. Can't imagine what life would be without her in it now. And she and Gertie have created great scrapbook pages.

Oganizing and Hosting a Crop Event

Calling all scrappers!!! Scrapbooking workshops, scrap retreats, scrapping weekends, it all sounds like so much fun and fellowship with others that have a common interest.
I had been contemplating organizing and hosting a crop event in my area. There seems to be a number of people in the area interested in scrapbooking. There doesn’t, to my knowledge seem to be any of these such events to gather together scrappers. We do have one business that has an assortment of scrap booking supplies that holds a four hour workshop/class once a month. This is a smaller community and we are some distance from the larger cities where larger selections of products are available. After spending the previous five years with access to the varieties of stores and products, it is an adjustment not having the availability around the corner any more. I had come used to access to 13 hour scraps, Midnight Madness crops and National Scrapbook Day events. It would be great to get something of this nature started in the area.

Through my research for organizing and hosting a crop event, I have compiled some ideas that will help make the event fun and successful:

1. Location….need plenty of room. Scrappers have a lot of products and need room to spread out to do our work. There are a couple of location ideas in the area that would have ample room and there own tables and chairs.

2. Theme….having a fun theme would be a fun idea. Maybe a casino night, beach parties, slumber party, holiday theme, such as a Christmas or a Fall crop.

3. Food…..people always like food. Of course it would have to be non-messy, non- sticky finger foods. We also get thirsty and need to stay hydrated.

4. Demonstrations…..we scrappers are always looking for new layout ideas or make and take items that may be nothing more that a border or corner embellishment. It may be nothing more than a fellow scrapper showing a technique they have learned and would like to share.

I invite you to submit any of your ideas and suggestions that you or your fellow croppers have encountered at Crops that you enjoyed.

My Favorite Subjects!

Over ten years ago I started scrapbooking and since the onset of my newfound favorite past time, my favorite subjects have been my two son’s. I didn’t start scrap booking until about the time the youngest was about five or six years old. Many times I have wished that I had started when they were babies, but looking back I would never of had the time to scrap. Also, when you are just starting out having children, money is also a consideration. There is nothing saying that a person can’t always go back and scrap those years later on in life, just be sure to save important items and make notes of events, dates, and anything that you may find useful later on. I don’t think you can ever have too much. Once the scrapping is done, that excess “stuff” can always be trashed!

My favorite subjects have allowed me to scrap countless pages of fishing, hunting, football, basketball, our pets, and lots of outdoor activities. At time I have had to struggle to get the photo, they would see me coming with the camera and take off running. This would not deter me!! I have learned how to use the zoom on my camera quite well. The photos I really like are the ones when the boy’s aren’t looking at the camera anyway. They just seem to be more real.

As much as the kid’s seem to hate have there picture taken, they really enjoy looking at the albums I have created. Now that they are older the seem to appreciate being able to get out the albums and reminisce about the times past. It has surprised me how often when they have a girlfriend over, they like to get out the scrapbook. Well, maybe it is mostly that one particular album that has the photo’s from the summer we went home to Nebraska and they caught a wheelbarrow full of fish in one evening.
Good times!

Family is very important and I think it should be photographed as often as possible. My big thing is between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I gather my favorite subjects together including what ever pets we have at the time, for a family photo. I like to include these with Christmas cards each year. Some years it is more of a struggle than other years.

Scrapping with Newspaper Clippings

Scrapping with newspaper clippings is a fun way to document milestones and accomplishments. The newspaper clippings can be incorporated into any type of scrapbook album. For documentation purposes and additional interest, be sure to include the banner including the name of the news publication, as well as the date section.

When scrapping with newspaper clippings, in most situation it is important to take the proper steps to make them archival safe before putting them with your photos in your scrapbooks. Using a deacidification spray will make the clippings acid free and safe to use with your photos. Making copies of the newspaper clippings on acid free scrapbook paper is another very good alternative.

I made two separate scrapbooks of two different football seasons and teams my husband coached. For the first school, the album was mostly news articles, not many photos, it was before our oldest son was playing high school football. The county had a daily newspaper and football was BIG in the community, so there was a lot of material to work with. The newspaper used the school mascot often throughout ads in the publication. These made great embellishments for the scrapbook. I would cut them out, or you could photocopy them, and mat them with the school colors to add interest to the pages.

These were special, “themed” album for my husband and I felt in 20, 30, 40 years no one would really care about the albums. In this situation, I didn’t feel that scrapping with newspaper clippings, needed to be made archival safe. The photos were put on a separate page without the newspaper clippings and once the page protectors were on they would be protected from any acid.

The second scrapbook with the newspaper clippings, was a bit more important to us. By this time our son was in high school, playing on the football team. I made copies on acid free paper of the newspaper clippings, unless I knew for sure that they would be on there own page and covered with a page protector. At this particular school, the newspaper would only print football new once and sometimes twice per week. This did matter so much this time because one of the other parents was really into taking pictures and he would put the photos on a CD for me every week. I had sooo many pictures that year. It made such a special album. I took it to the football awards banquet and some of the players were more interested in the scrapbook than the awards ceremony.

Just remember that acid is bad for the scrapbooks and preserving our memories. But I think in certain situations in scrapping with newspaper clippings may be an exception to the rule.