Saving Memories

 Over at Kelly's Korner Blog,

there's a link party to share ideas

for saving

photos, kids' artwork, memories, etc.

 I thought I'd join with my hodge-podge

of memory pack-ratting.

Sometimes, I make cards out of my kids' artwork that I especially like.

I've done scrap-booking,

but somehow, time has dashed away from me...

so now I slip loose pictures into albums when I get them

and mark little bits next to them.

 Artwork can be added

with editing by the artist as well.

Can you name this famous crew?

I did take some time to make an album for our anniversary a few years back.

 I wanted to spare all those photos from getting lost,

so I did pages on our first farmette,

our lives,

 our current farm,

our kids,

my husband's photos from Iraq

(which has the added touch of his own editing),

 and family portraits in the back.

My new love is Snapfish.

 At Christmas time,

they have great sales,

so I try to take the time to do a book up of our lives from the year.

It takes some time,

but it's nice because there is a large assortment of 

background papers to choose from,...

photo arrangements,...

 and quantity of photos wanted for each page.

The same backgrounds can be used to make it look like a story...

 

 or different backgrounds so they separate thoughts.

 One can also choose to edit with just a few words...

 or a paragraph.

For this one, I had a picture of a letter,

and blew it up enough to be readable in the book.

There are fun ways to display the pictures as well.

 The pictures are just printed on the pages of the book,

of course,

but I like the way they display,

and I don't have heaps of photos to try to get to

(well, I do order some of my favorites,

but my heaps are smaller and more bearable this way).

I'm a pack rat,

so I also keep a copy of our Christmas letter from each year...

and have 15 years worth stashed in the fire safe.

Also in the fire safe is my journals.

 I have been writing in journals (diary) since I was twelve.

 Most of my journals were given to me.

I love to decorate them with clippings that I can't pass by...

 and it's fun to go back and read the things I wrote

when I happen to come upon them once in a while.

I doodled a lot when I was in college to keep from falling asleep during long, early lectures...

 and some of those doodlings have made it into journals.

 It's fun to see that the things I pasted into my journals decades ago

are still pictures and thoughts that I love.

I really need to try to write in them more...

 since the last few times I have written have had too much time sitting in between.

But even if nothing more gets put into these various forms,

I've probably written much more than my kids will ever want to read

and

I hope the memories we make will be the better thing.

What do you do to keep the days of yesterday alive today?

(I am not being paid for my "advertisement" of Snapfish,

I just appreciate their product

(although if they wanted to pay me,

that would be fine with me!))

Simple Card-making.

Sometimes it's fun and a good use of time
to have blank cards with envelopes already on hand
and just ad some personal embellishments.

I find it's the only way I make cards these days.
(Starting with 12" x 12" paper that needs to be cut down to cards
seems like an extra process that hinders me from starting at all.)

 Here are some blank wedding invitations I found at a discount store a while back.

I've had these for a while
and have used up all of the cards and regular sized envelopes.
Only the RSVP postcards
and HUGE envelopes are left.

Not wanting to throw them out,
because that would just be wrong to my frugal-mania,
I came up with this option:

 Taking the over-sized envelopes,
I licked the seal and closed them up.


 I then cut them in half
from the sealed side down to the unsealed side
(I discovered that this size fits the postcards exactly).



 I found my pad of decorative paper.
I like the kind that is pretty on both sides.

 I measured the cut side of the envelope,
drawing a mark
and then cutting a piece that size from the decorative paper
about halfway up the paper.

 

 I folded that piece in half,

 and then cut a new flap for my envelope,
cutting so the folded part was safely away from the blade of the scissor.

I then had one cut folded piece.
I took the other two pieces, folded them in half lengthwise
and then cut them in the same manner.

This made 3 tabs for the new envelopes.

 Using my favorite card-making glue...

 (it is very sticky and does a great job or REALLY holding paper pieces together,
without the annoyance of any bubbling)


I applied glue to only one side of the folded tab...

 and affixed this to the backside of the cut envelope,
so that it would fold over and close on the front side.

(Please, let me know if I've confused you;
it's not easy explaining with words instead of showing you.)



 I was happy to discover that the postcards came two attached together
with a slight perforation for tearing them apart.

Seeing that the perforation was slight enough,
I just used it as a fold line instead,

and folded the two postcards together,
forming one card.

Using some of the left-over tab paper,
I cut some little scraps to use on the face of the cards,

 using a punch to ad some fun flowers for details.


 
 (TIP: When using the punch, it is easier to turn the paper and punch underside toward
you; this allows you to use as much of the scrap paper up as is possible
and so you can see where you are cutting).



I like to keep word stickers and little decorative stickers on hand
to ad to my cards.  Using rubber stamps is also a fun way of adding words,
but stickers is often easier to this rushed mom.

 It's fun to see the different variety possible...

 with just a few different stickers.

 Sometimes, I find simplicity is just as nice...

and doesn't make as much mess
or take as much time.


I'll have many more envelopes left-over than cards,

but I have stacks of paper that can be used with my paper cutter as well...

someday.




Linking up to:

Women living well 

Raising Homemakers