Fourth of July Camping Trip

We love going camping with the family! After we came back from our trip two years ago, I started to download all the pictures from the memory card and accidentally erased ALL my pictures including these!!!! If this has ever happened to you and you're anything like me, you cried your heart out for this unintentional mishap. Needless to say, I was upset at myself and heartbroken at the same time. I could't believe what I had done and I was not about to let it go. Pictures are an extension of my life. So I made some calls and they referred me to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. After explaining what had happened, the technician still didn't guarantee that my pictures would be recovered. Luckily, they were!!! Of course I paid a pretty penny for them and in the end I had the pictures backed up into a CD. I was so relieved and got to work right away. Here are some images of the album. Can't wait for August to go camping again!

Creative Memories Album

I was very reluctant, at first, to make this album because I had been recently introduced to the Creative Memories PicFolio Album line by my friend Irma, who is a consultant for Creative Memories. But when I wanted to make an album for my mother-in-law and give it to her as a Christmas gift from us, I was up for the challenge.

Putting the album together was actually not the difficult part to do. It was just difficult for me to part with the details that a traditional scrapbook takes me to make. I didn't want to let go of the idea of creating pages without using scissors, glue dots, paper trimmer, etc....all the tools that a typical scrapbooker uses to create an album. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I LOVE and ENJOY doing the hard work. This seemed to easy for me to do and would take the fun out of "scrapbooking" and all that it implies. In the end, I was very pleased with how it turned out. I liked the pre-cut theme papers, that I got to embellish with themed stickers, and especially the fact that I just had to slip the photos in!

Sea Shell Shaped Album

This is one of my most challenging projects. The challenge was not that I didn't know how to scrapbook it. My challenge was: How am I going to "bind" the album? I had to really think about how I was going to bring all the beautiful pictures in a unique and one-of-a-kind mini album that depicted the couple's beach-themed wedding. I had already saved some items from their wedding such as the raffia, starfish, and small seashells. I wanted to place all the pictures on an oversized seashell I had seen both at Hobby Lobby and Michael's. When I didn't find the solution, I moved to plan B - to make an 8x8 album. Until I purchased this month's issue of Creating Keepsakes (tips and tricks section) and...found the answer right in front of my eyes!! As simple as the solution was, I could not come up with the idea myself. All I had to do was - drill out the holes in the album "spine". Yes, it was that simple! So, I went back to Hobby Lobby and purchased the seashells. Then I had my husband, Charlie, help me do the drilling and voila!-- The album cover was designed.

I used the raffia and small shell to attach everything together. I had wanted to use the jump rings suggested in the magazine, but saw that it would be hard to flip the pages. So what better way than to attach everything with a simple, yet original object from their wedding decor. I topped the seashell with the starfish that was used to accentuate the guests tables. The items I had saved from the wedding also added a special touch to the album.




Needless to say, it was hard work, but I loved making and recreating their beautiful and touching wedding. I plan on using the same idea to make our beach vacation album.