Boys Will Be Boys

Brett with some of his cousins on Kyle's side of the family. They look like they had been playing hard!

A Boy And His Dog

Our grandnephew, Brett, with his dog, Choxie. She is a devoted nanny dog and has been wonderful with him. I did this digital scrapbook page to honor the relationship that Brett has with his dog, Choxie!

Brett Swings Low

Our precious Brett on the swings the week before Easter. I did this digital layout of Brett on the swings.

Brett On The Slide

Our Grandnephew, Brett, enjoyed sliding on the slides at the playground. This was back early last Spring, just before Easter, and we went to visit Jenny & Kyle at their home on the base in Charleston, SC. I'm just now getting to scrapping those playground pictures. I did these digital scrapbook page layouts of Brett on the slides.

Brett Crawling Through The Doggy Door

Our little grandnephew, Brett, was caught crawling through the doggy door. He was raised around dogs and has his own Chocolate Labrador Retriever, Choxie. So it's not surprising. I did this digital scrapbook page of Brett and the doggy door.

Brett and Joseph

Our grandnephew, Brett, with one of his cousins on Kyle's side of the family, Joseph!

Uncle Glenn On His Boat

Uncle James took this photo of Uncle Glenn on his boat and I did this digital scrapbook layout entitled "The Captain".

Katie and Dustin Love Football

Our niece, Katie, and her fiance, Dustin, love football. She attends USC Upstate so they are Gamecocks fans and they attend most of their games. So I did this digital scrapbook page for their football fun!

Hannah is 6 Months Pregnant

Kathryn and Will Run A Marathon

My cousin, Kathryn, and her husband, Will, ran a marathon today. It was Kathryn's first. I'm so proud of her. She keeps in great shape even after having 3 children!

Elaine

I did this scrapbook page of my sister, Elaine.

Brett's Sweeping Moment

Little Brett gets his Granddaddy's dust mop and starts sweeping. He's just like his Pickles!

Melinda And Maxwell

Our Granddaddy had a black cat named Maxwell. Granddaddy loved to tease and play with Maxwell. Here are some photos where he was telling Melinda about how a cat can jump. She was a little too fascinated and I know Granddaddy was chuckling. This digital scrapbook page about her playing with a black cat goes along with this time of the year.

Elaine Riding In The Early Years

My sisters, Elaine and Melinda, both started training in English riding and jumping as girls at the old Russ 'n Nola Farm in Cedar Springs. It's no longer there. But the girls took several years of lessons and developed their lifelong love of horses and riding there. Eventually they went to western, then walking and Melinda dabbled in padded walking for awhile. They taught me to ride when I was 30 and I got to ride with them on trail rides and such for a few years. But we all three developed Fibromyalgia and have pretty much given up all horseback riding. Melinda still lives on a farm and has a couple of horses but she doesn't ride more than once or twice a year.

Our Uncle James took these early photos of Elaine jumping. I had an inspiration from the October Creating Keepsakes magazine (Vol 15, Issue 7), pg 43 for the layout. Taking inspiration from someone else's work and then making it your own is called "scrap lifting".


I made my own horse clip art using Adobe Photoshop shapes.

Making Your Own Children's Books

I got a wonderful email from a reader of my blog and her question was how to make a family book for her small daughter:

"I wanted to make her a small booklet or something similar...even something like pictures on a keychain, that would be waterproof and somewhat durable for little hands to play with. I want to have pictures of every member of our family in it... Do you have any idea where I would find something of this nature?"

Thank you for reading my blog and for taking the time to ask this question. For those who are deeply into scrapbooking, we know about the chipboard books you can buy and then decorate as you want. You can find these at scrapbook stores or craft stores that have a good scrapbooking section. You can also do a Google search on "chipboard books" to find a place online to order from.

I actually did this for my grand nephew. His father is in the Air Force and got transferred way up to Illinois so our niece and grand nephew are about a 16 hour drive from us. It was very hard for us because we are a close family. I was afraid he would forget us and so I made him a family book. I took a few pictures of each of our family and did a book that included his grandparents to his great grandparents and all his aunts, uncles and cousins. So I can attest to these chipboard books. Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of my book so I can't show it to you.

Chipboard is a stiff cardboard made from the same stuff that they make puzzle pieces with. So it's stiff enough for children to handle and play with. If you buy the kind that is held together with D rings or key rings, then you could laminate it. It wouldn't be completely waterproof but should last through sticky fingers.




If you laminate them you will need to keep it simple with no 3D embellishments. But photos, stickers, fun scrapbook papers should be slim enough to be laminated.


These chipboard books can be mini scrapbook albums but if you are creative, you could even make personalized children's books. For instance, if you want to teach your toddler to count you could take photos of things around your own house and then create a counting hard page book. So little Junior is learning to count with things he knows from around the house. For instance I have 5 dogs and I could use small photos of our 5 dogs for the number "5". Same with alphabet books. You can get real creative by making your own hardboard books. But remember they are being made for children who WON'T treat them like heirlooms. So don't overdo because they could be accidentally dropped in the bathtub, spit up on, or have things peeled off by little fingers. And don't put anything on it that could be choked on like buttons and little ribbons and such. It's pretty for us but don't tempt fate with children.



Another idea for my reader is a smaller regular photo album. You can buy one and fill with your photos. You can also have them made just like a picture book at most photo development places. You can order them online too where you can select your photos and arrange their placement and then order the book and it's very reasonable.

Or you can buy a regular photo album and place the photos in yourself. So it can be as simple or fancy as you like.

After placing family photos in the photo album then use it for bedtime stories. For instance one or two pages devoted to each family member so that when you turn to that place in the book it has all photos of brother (or other family member). This book would be used only under supervision and you could tell family stories with each photo. It's small enough to bring to the bed and for the child to handle (under supervision). For instance a photo of Grandpa and tell the story of Grandpa building his own tree house or a photo of Aunt Sue and tell the story of how Aunt Sue met Uncle Ben. This not only makes your child sleepy but gives them faces of the family and cements it with family stories. Soon they should be able to name the people in the album and even tell the stories. And I know you know different stories for each family member so it won't get boring.


I hope I've given you some ideas and thank you, again, for your kind comments and your question.

Glenn Jr. And His Daughters

Here is Glenn Jr. with his daughters, Caroline and Mary Lauren.

Emma And Rachel, Little Sisters

Two of Uncle Glenn's Granddaughters, Kathryn's daughters, Emma and Rachel.

Katie As Cinderella

Our niece, Katie, is the Cinderella in this fantasy scrapbook page.

Our Little Pumpkin... Rachel

Kathryn and Will's baby girl, Rachel, picks out a pumpkin in this scrapbook layout.

Fantasy Digital Scrapbooking

My sister got a photo of her grandson, my grand nephew, Brett looking out the glass door. It turned into a silhouette. Some might have thought that was a lost photo but I loved it. Anyway, I was reading about fantasy digital scrapbooking where you make your scrapbooking page into something like a fairy story or anything else in your imagination. I remembered that silhouette photo and decided to try to use it. I digitally extracted his silhouette and made this digital layout. My goal was to make it look like something in his imagination.