The Family Forest

Hello!  I see that it has been a while since my last post... but no apologies, I have been busy living this summer!

 My Mother's family gets together every 2 or 3 years for a summer reunion, and this year my aunt asked me to make a cover for the family "archives" album she has been working on.

This is the cover I made, featuring my Grandparents:

The photo was taken on their 40th Wedding Anniversary, in 1978.

 

a couple of close-ups:

 

And this is our family prayer, for the inside of the front cover:

 

A bit of background info:  My Grandparents, Adam and Emelia in the photo above, had 17 children. (That is NOT a typo). Seventeen kids, 2 sets of twins, 11 boys and 6 girls.  The oldest and youngest are 20 years apart.  And they supported them without a reality TV show for income. They grew them on a farm, raised their own food, made their own clothes, and saw that each of them had a full education.  (They did this without pampers, microwave ovens, televisions or computers.) My grandparents are guardian angels now, and they have a lot to look after...at last count I believe there are 129 of us...their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

 

Here are a few pics from the reunion, so I can prove I didn't make this up:

 

Their living children:

These would be my aunts and uncles on my mother's side, my mom is front row, center

With their spouses (also known as the outlaws):

This would be more aunts and uncles for me

 

 These are some of their grandchildren:

That would be me in white in the front row, with my sisters on either side

 And here are just some of the great-grandchildren:

My daughter is back row, 3rd from left. My son is middle row, 2nd from right

So, you can see why it is necessary for someone to be in charge of the family archives (photos and important info).  I can't wait to see what she puts into this binder.  With such a large group, I'm lucky if I can remember all of their names. It sure helps that we make the effort to get together every couple of years. And this is just my mom's clan, my dad has 8 brothers and sisters and 8 step-brothers and sisters, plus all of their offspring.

 

Fit THAT on a family tree!

 

Lorrinda

A couple of pumpkin layouts...a la Studio J

It's a beautiful fall day in in east central Alberta, did I spend it frolicking in the leaves with my kids? No. I spent the afternoon detailing my SUV (hey, it probably won't get done again until spring) I drive a Santa Fe, not sure if that's an actual SUV, but it's not a car, or a van, it's one of those crossover thingies. We call it Steve...if you've seen "Over the Hedge" you'll get it. ("I'd feel better if I just knew what to call it, so I'm naming it Steve!"  bonus points if you know who said it.) Anyway, it's now nice and shiny and smells of leather cleaner.  Life is good.
The gorgeous sunshine today reminded me of the October days we took the kids on a pumpkin hunt with their cousins. I have a couple of layouts to share. Would you believe these are digital? Done with CTMH Studio J website:

(click on the pic to get a larger view)

Those 2 in the middle of the 5x7 on the lower right page are mine :)

They were sure cute when they were little.

There they are again, on the right end of the log this time, only they got bigger.

Great thing about Studio J, not only did these layouts get done super fast, these papers which coordinate with the photos so nicely are no longer available. They have been retired from the CTMH catalog, but you can still use them in Studio J!  There are also exclusive Studio J papers and patterns which are not available anywhere else.

Give Studio J a try, it's FREE. Yep, I said FREE. You can access it HERE, and you can play with it until you're happy with your layouts. There are no charges until you order prints, which get delivered to your door, in fabulous archival quality. Pricing starts at $15.00 per 2 page layout, with discounts for purchase of a membership such as $7.00 per 2 page layout (that's just $3.50 per page, I couldn't print my photos for that, let alone a 12x12 layout!) which includes .jpg files for archiving, free page protectors and free shipping.

If you haven't tried Studio J yet, what have you got to lose? It's free to play! I suggest creating an account when it asks you, no charges- you just set up a user name and password which allows you to save your layouts and come back to them later. You'll be surprised at how quickly you can create gorgeous scrapbook layouts, with no mess to clean up.

Thanks for visiting my blog;

Lorrinda

Studio J Preview!

What is StudioJ?

StudioJ is a new product from CTMH! Put simply, Studio J is online design software that allows you to create custom-printed two-page layouts you put in your albums. There is no software to purchase and install; instead, simply log in to Studio J and start designing your layouts! You can create and immediately purchase your layouts, or you can save them for up to 90 days in an active folder for later completion and purchase.

No need to fill up your hard drive or use up your RAM. This is an ONLINE program that is FREE to use! You only pay for the layouts you order, and CTMH prints them and sends them right to your door! How's that for convenient?

I got a chance to preview the website before it goes live to customers in April.  I've been playing around with it (short learning curve) and I gotta say I'm impressed!

Here's a preview of the layouts I did today: (note: I did a screen capture from the layout preview window, the watermarks you see here will not be printed on the layouts)
You can click on the layout for a larger view.

My most productive scrapbook day EVER!

And, I got to play with some other papers/layouts without even uploading photos. So now I have some layouts ready to use when I decide what pictures I want to scrap next.

The software is extremely intuitive and easy to use. The software walks a user through five simple steps:

1. uploading photos;
2. choosing the desired themed kit;
3. selecting an exclusive layout pattern;
4.adding photos, embellishments, title, and journaling;
5. purchasing custom-printed layouts.

Here's what I like best about the software....
* I got 10, 2-page layouts done in an afternoon!
* I prefer the look of traditional 12x12 layouts, but I like the ease of digital...this combines the best of both!
* I didn't have to drag out all my crafting supplies, or clean them back up.
* I didn't run out of adhesive or get ink all over myself.
* And...I can do this from any computer with an internet connection! Downtime at work? hmmm
* My layouts are stored for 90 days so I can log in and out on my own time to work on them.
* Did I mention it's FREE? Play with it, what have you got to lose?

This is going to be BIG! For anyone who wants to scrapbook, but doesn't have the time, the ideas, the money to invest in products, or the space to spread out a bunch of supplies, this is for YOU! Want to do multiple copies of a layout for friends and relatives? Just order multiple prints! If you prefer the "feel" of a 3D layout, you can embellish the prints with brads or flowers before putting them into your albums.

Studio J goes LIVE to customers in April, 2010.

Watch here for an announcement.

You can only access it through CTMH consultant websites (my link is on the right sidebar, at the top).

You can view the video demo NOW from the StudioJ link (also on the right sidebar).

Yay! Making progress on the kid's School Days album!

OK, so I blew off my January scrapbook goal of 10 pages. Please give me a break, I was in New Year's Resolution mode. How many of your new year's resolutions did you manage to keep? But...goals are supposed to motivate you right? Well, I AM making a bit of progress on my kid's school albums, so I'm trying to stay positive. I've re-set my scrapbook goal to get these school albums up to date this year. Follow along with me if you like, and positive reinforcement in the form of your comments would be very helpful!

These are the first pages of my daughter Jenna's school album. She's in grade 5 this year so you can see how far behind I am! For the cover page, I used CTMH Notebook Level 2 paper and Stickease and retired September Word Puzzle stamp for the images. (I don't know why they retired this series of stamps, they are so useful!).

I used CTMH Daydream Level 2 papers for this 2 page layout. I accented the pages with C1343 Happy Endings stamp images, sewing machine stitiching and pink orgundy ribbon. There isn't alot of journalling on these pages, but the pictures sort of speak for themselves.

I forgot how cute she was with her halo of curls! Now she has a waist long blanket of thick frizzy curls that is usually in a braid to keep it from becoming dread locks! 

I can see now why you want to keep up to date with the photos. I keep reminiscing over all the pictures and because of that, these layouts are taking me for-ev-er!

Thanks for checking out my blog!

January 2010 scrap challenge...4 down, 6 to go!

I am soooooo far behind on my photos! Are you like me? Do you have shoeboxes full of photos that deserve to be archived for all time? I decided to challenge myself this year by joining a monthly scrapbook challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers (link on the right). I have to set a goal each month, then post my work. It is really helping me to stay focused!

I am working on a school album for each of my kids. This week I finished 4 pages for my son, and as you can see by the dates, they are from 2005! I'm only a few years behind schedule! Oh well, I'm actually glad I waited, because I got to use the Felicity paper kit which is this month's promotion from CTMH. It is perfect for the preschool layouts because Shane's favorite color is orange and it coordinated beautifully.

This is the first page of the school album. I left spaces to add photos each year, with the cropping dimensions noted in the last square so I don't have to measure every year. I have used CTMH My Reflections 'Notebook' Level 2 paper pack and My Stickease for this layout, and My Acrylix stamps from the September Word Puzzle set. I just love how CTMH products coordinate.

These are done with papers from CTMH Felicity Kit. They are only available until the end of January! You can find them at my CTMH store link on the right, or you can go to the National Papercrafting Month link on the right and leave a comment for a chance to win a free kit every day this month! The papers in this kit are beautiful, and the diecut page shapes are truly unique.

I am spending the rest of today in my craft room scrapbooking, maybe I'll finally

get these school albums caught up this year!