{Scrapbooking} Digital and Done 2014 & 2015

I haven't done an updated digital scrapbook post since 2014 and I recently finished up our 2015 photo album so I thought it was time to share a little.

I must have finished up 2014 awhile ago.   I like adding a photo of all four of us to the cover page.

  I use Shutterfly for the albums and I've been happy with the quality.

 I try and do them in chronological order and fit as many photos as possible. I still leave out a lot of photos but I try to get the best ones.

 It's fun looking back...8th grade?!

 Trips are fun to document and remember.

 And holidays...

 Our trip to Paris to visit College Girl over Christmas...

 more Paris...

and London!

2015

 

 2015 was a big year for us: 4 milestone birthdays (16, 21 and two 50's!)

There was a lot of partying!

 We went to Aruba and...

 the beach.

 Visited NYC...

 and celebrated Halloween.

 Did some photo shoots.

 Celebrated the holidays and...

 ended with the back cover (with a photo).

Each time I make an album, I learn something new. I finally figured out I could add a year to the spine of the album.  I'm going to try and be better about exporting my favorite photos to Shutterfly over the year and make a few pages at a time so it's not such a big job at one time.  Then when they're having a sale (like free extra pages) I'll be ready!

*edit* Shutterfly just extended their FREE UNLIMITED PAGES sale until Wednesday. This is an awesome deal if you have a lot of photos like I do!   I might just finish 2017 yet!

Linking up:

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{Get Organized} Memory Album Labels

We moved our photo albums from the open shelving in the family room into the cabinets below and I wanted to reorganize them so I'd be able to access photos more easily.

The previous system I used to label albums (almost 7 years ago to the day!) wasn't working for me anymore and I needed something more permanent.  The charms were falling off or the labels would fall out of the charms. I really needed a new system.

 I did some searches and didn't find anything for my style of albums (Creative Memory cloth covers) so I had to figure out something on my own. #thehorror   These Martha Stewart adhesive metal bookplates were featured in some organizing posts but not for albums. I decided to give them a try and at first only bought one pack of them to test them out.

They have a pretty strong adhesive and seemed to hold onto the fabric covers well so it was a go!

 I had to visit a few Staples to get all of the packs I needed. I went through each album and wrote down the dates of the photos it contained.  The bookplates are not cheap($3.99/pack) but they seem very sturdy and I can change the information out if I ever need to.

 I created a document in Pages on my Mac to make the labels.  The packs contain inserts for the bookplates but I wanted mine to look consistent so I printed my own on card stock.  I was able to fit six on a page.

I used the backing from the labels to cut out a template for the cards.  The backing is translucent so it made it easy to figure out where I wanted to cut around the card stock.  It was a slow a process but worth it.

I love the new look of my albums and how easy it is now to identify what year of photos is in each book!

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Linking up with:
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Cooking and Crafting with J & J

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{DIY} Magnetic Memo Board Jewelry Organizer & Giveaway

Home improvement projects tend to have a domino effect in our house. Once we painted the master bedroom, I realized I couldn't just put all of my jewelry and make up items back the way they were in my vanity area.  It had become a big mess (sorry, no before photo).  I searched Pinterest for jewelry organizing ideas and saw a lot of cork board ideas for displaying/organizing jewelry.

I didn't have a cork board that would fit on the narrow vanity nook wall but I did have a Creative Memories Everyday Display Board (currently being used in the powder room to display photos).  I took it up to my room to see if it would work. The board has super strong magnets, a cloth background and a ribbon with mini clothespins for hanging things along the ribbon.   I did a quick mock up and liked the way it looked.

The black frame looked great but was being used elsewhere and I had an extra white board in my stash (use what you have!) so I set that one up with some blue scrapbook paper as a background. I also used some black magnetic hooks that came with an Ikea magnetic chalkboard.  The ribbon holds my hanging earrings.

 I love how I can see all of my jewelry in one place now.  I tend to be lazy with my jewelry and don't change it very often but now I'm starting to change it up a bit more.

  The board comes with hardware for hanging if I decide I want to do that down the road but for now, it's propped up agains the wall and working well.  I can change out the paper if I want a different look and if I find a better jewelry solution, I can always repurpose the board. We currently have four in the house (the powder room, each girl's room and now my bedroom too).

I'm using an extra Ikea spice rack (from this project) to hold my watches and bracelets.  You can see I'm also using one of the spice racks to hold my hair products (in the above photo when I was trying out the black frame). My Jonathan Adler zebra rug dish holds additional rings and stud earrings.  My newest addition is this sweet deer dish that Miss High School made me for Christmas. It's perfect for bracelets that don't have a clasp.  It's her spin on the Glam Dinosaur Ring Dish that I made for her and I adore it!

***

If you want to make of these for yourself you'd probably be out of luck if you don't already own one of these Everyday Display Boards because they are no longer in production sooooooo being the nice blogger buddy that I am....drumroll please....

**I'm giving away my last Creative Memories Everyday Display Board to one lucky reader!!**

The color is chocolate brown and it's still in the box.

You don't have to use it for jewelry either. It makes a great frame for photos, mementos and scrapbook pages. I change up my powder room frame frequently and seasonally.  You can find lots of inspiration on Pinterest.

This giveaway is closed.

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{Scrapbooking} Digital & Done 2012 & 2013

After finishing up my 2011 scrapbook back in July I decided I was going to give digital scrapbooking a try.

My traditional supplies are dwindling and what I do have takes up a lot of space and makes a mess so I liked the idea of going digital...no photos to order, no physical cropping of photos or running out of adhesive halfway through a layout. The idea was appealing!

 Shutterfly was running a 50% off sale and that motivated me to finish two books in a short time(over a weekend).

 I went through my Iphoto library and uploaded photos that I wanted to use into folders by date.  I used the Custom Path which lets you customize your book the way you want it.  Each book started as a standard 12 x 12 book with 20 pages and a hard cover. I added the maximum number (91) of additional pages and also upgraded to matte finish (I hate glossy!).

 There was definitely a learning curve to getting the pages just right and I had to add and take away some photos to make my layouts work sometimes.  I also noticed that my Iphone and Instagram photos needed to be on the smaller side since their resolution isn't as high. The books come out larger than they appear on screen as well.

 I love these layouts where the photos cover the whole page.  

There were a lot of fun 'stickers' and embellishments that I could pick from.

This was fun but time consuming because I took a lot of time deciding what I wanted to use.

Most of the time, I just let the photos speak for themselves and kept the layouts simple.   I definitely didn't journal as much because I was pressed for time.

I love how slim and compact the books are and that I can fit an entire year of photos in one book (they hold up to 1000 photos each).  

    Overall I'm very pleased with the books now that I've got them home (I can't stop looking at them!).  They are definitely a time saver and a money saver. For two books I spent a little more than $200.  The prints alone (even at a discount) would have been $180 and then I'd have the added expense of albums, pages, protectors, adhesive and embellishments.

What do you think? Are you on the digital bandwagon already? I'm sure I'll always do some traditional albums but I think I'm hooked!

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{Scrapbooking} Disney Autograph Album

My kids used to love getting autographs from the characters on our Disney trips. 

  I wanted them to have a mini scrapbook of the autographs rather than just an autograph book.

 We would use mini Creative Memories albums and have the characters sign a page and leave the other side blank for a photo.

 When we got home, I'd add the photo and stickers and embellishments for each signature.

 It's fun to see the unique way each character signs their autograph.

 I've used a sampling of a few of the books we've made through the years.

 It's pretty special to get two characters to sign on the same page!

 We would go to a lot of character meals to get signatures but sometimes we could get them walking around the parks (if the lines weren't too long).

 This was a mini Disney album and perfect for autographs. We asked Mickey to sign in the Mickey ears on the inside of the front cover.

It's always magical to get a Disney princess to sign your book!

For more of our Disney adventures, click here.

Linking up with:
WOYWW
Create It Thursday
Before & After Wednesday
Create Link Inspire
Wicked Awesome Wednesday

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