Library of Memories

This spring I signed up for a class at Big Picture Classes.com. (BPC)  The class is Library of Memories and it has changed the way I scrapbook.

A couple years ago I heard about a book called Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian (who is also the founder of BPC).  I bought the book and read it in a few days and decided that her Library of Memories system and concept of Photo Freedom were the way for me.  I then decided to take the class this year to really delve into the process.

The whole system just makes sense and it is completely liberating and has given new life to my feelings about scrapbooking as well as to my actual pages and projects.

I no longer am just scrapbooking photos just to “get them done” and I no longer “feel behind”.  Now I scrapbook our family stories and I do it based on inspiration, feelings and emotions.  Don’t get me wrong I have in no way perfected the system and I still do many pages that are just about everyday things that have no “story” or are just “traditions”.  But the important part is that I am scrapbooking and loving it.

Here is a page I did for class about my dad... 

Stacy Julian has become my Scrapbooking Guru and I highly recommend her website to anyone who wants to improve upon how they tell their family stories through scrapbooking.

Pixie Hollow Playset

A couple of summers ago we got Bug-a-boo a playset for the backyard.  It is pretty big and very cool.  My wonderful husband, Prince Charming, and his father spent days putting it together.  I was so excited because I never had anything like this growing up.

At the time, Bug-a-boo was really into Tinker Bell and her Friends and I just happened to have the Tinker Bell and Friends Cricut cartridge.  I went to the store and bought some of the Cricut self-adhesive vinyl and got to work decorating.  Along with a few other touches I was able to transform her playset into Pixie Hollow.

Outdoor Play Area

click for YouTube video

Laundry time

Like most people, I sometimes forget to check pockets before doing laundry.  This results in disaster, kleenex, crayons, food, etc.

I decided to make a sign to hang up above the washing machine.  It is an 8x8 sign and I used a page protector and hung it from a pipe in the laundry room above the washing machine.

I used the Mickey and Friends Cricut cartridge to make Goofy and Goofy's name.  I used the Mickey font for the rest of the letters.  I then cut a small piece of fabric and attached it to Goofy's pocket.

So far having this fun little reminder as helped avoid any mishaps.

If you would like to have a customized sign like this for your laundry room for $4.00 you can message me the colors you would like and PayPal the money to kellyldriver@yahoo.com.

Dishes are done, man!

It has happened to all of us...before going to bed our dear husbands will run the dishwasher.  In the morning, not realizing that the dishes are clean we will run it again.  Well, after several weeks of this happening in our house I decided it was time to do something about it.

Using a chipboard coaster I made us a Clean/Dirty sign for the dishwasher.  I wanted it to be a magnet but our dishwasher does not accept magnets.

Using my Cricut with the cartridge George and Basic Shapes I cut out the two large circles out of patterned paper from S.E.I.'s Granny's Kitchen line and adhered them to the coaster.  I then used brown ink and inked the edges of the coaster.

Using letter stickers from S.E.I.'s Granny's Kitchen I used a "D" and a "U" turned sideways to make a "C".  I then used the Cricut Opposites Attract font for the other letters.  I punched two holes in the top and attached some ribbon from the Granny's Kitchen line.  

The sign now hangs off the handle on our dishwasher and we haven't had a wasteful load since.

Inspiration

In 2009, I purchased the book "Photo Freedom" by Stacy Julian and it completely blew my mind!

Up until reading that book I was a chronological scrapbooker and always felt behind.  I was also beginning to freak out about how I was going to organize layouts that I finished of Bug-a-boo.

Before Bug-a-boo was born the only scrapbooking I did was of our travels.  Those were theme books and pretty easy to figure out.  But, what was I going to do about all of the "everyday" photos I was now taking of Bug-a-boo and our little family?

That's where Photo Freedom and Library of Memories came in.  It changed the way I scrapbooked and helped me to love it again!

This book was inspired by the book and the class that I took in 2010.  I found the idea for this notebook in Photo Freedom and scraplifted the cover design from Narelle Jurss who was a contributer to the book as a scrapbooker who adopted the system.

My notebook is one of my new favorite tools.  I open with one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies..."invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple." Gene Wilder as Willie Wonka.

I bought a 3 subject notebook and created 3 tabs, Pages, Disney and Other.  Under the Pages tab I have sketches of my title page, dedication page, section pages and sub-section pages for my Library of Memories albums.  I include samples of the cardstock I use as well as the ribbon I use.

I am a Disney fanatic and we travel to Disney World about once a year so I do a lot of Disney themed projects.  I knew I had to have a Disney tab to include all of the ideas that I have that include Disney characters, etc.  One such idea is a Disney ABC Book for Bug-a-boo.  I took an idea from Stacy Julian to use a brag book style book to make a scrapbook.  This would have been unheard of for me before Photo Freedom.

The last tab I have is the Other tab.  This is where I record any other project that comes into my mind as well as lists of supplies I need and Cricut cartridges I want.

To quote my Scrapbooking Guru, Stacy Julian, "This Is BIG!"

Blogging

I love the idea of a blog.  I have a blog.  Actually, I have two blogs.  The only problem I have is making the time to update them.  The blog I currently use, The Driver's Manual, is done using iWeb on my Mac and it just seems so labor intensive.

I love this blog but I often wonder if I've just made it TOO MUCH, you know?  Right now it has seven tabs that I originally updated at least on a monthly basis.  I have the Chief Executive Mom, The Kitchen (recipes and party photos), My Office (scrapbooking projects), The Library (book reviews), Vacation Time (vacation photos and journals), a tab all about my daughter and Kelly's Blog (random stuff).

I think maybe I just need to pick one and go with it.

I think I choose Scrapbooking!

There are several blogs out there that inspire me and that I would love to emulate.   In the meantime I'm just going to think about what I want this blog to be and go from there.