Mom's Online Retreat

Theme Ideas For Your Scrapbook

Lauren — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:20:22 +0000

Whether you’re new to scrapbooking or an old pro, coming up with ideas for a new album is not always easy. Here we’ll talk about different ideas and how organizing your photos will help determine the theme of your next scrapbook.

Here are some album ideas you can use; and looking these over may spark some other ideas of your own.

Travel Scrapbook: You can create an album from photos of you and your family while traveling. You may have enough photos from one specific trip to complete a small album, or you can combine several trips into one larger album. If you travel a lot, you might like to do an album called “On the Road in 2009″ for example.

School age children’s events: If you have kids in school, an album of their different activities is a good way to store and display those memories. You may want to have one album for each year with all your children, or you may want to have different albums for each child throughout the years.

Antique Album: An antique style album is great for old black and white photos you may have lying around in a box or the basement.

Seasonal album: Perhaps you have lots of pictures during the different seasons. You could create an album with all your fall pictures using earth tones and fall colors and themes.

Children’s artwork: Do you have tons of your child’s artwork plastered to your fridge or in a box somewhere? Get it out, sort it by year and create an album using the different pieces. You can use it for backgrounds, decorations or maybe even embellishments. Incorporate pictures of your child from a specific year with the artwork.

Now that your wheels are spinning with ideas for your next album, let’s talk about photo organization. Organizing your photos is a great way to get ideas for albums as well. As you sort through the boxes and packets of pictures you have, you’ll start to get ideas for an album.

There are, of course, many different ways you could organize your photos, so I’m just going to give you a few ideas to get you started.

Chronologically: If you have piles and piles of photos in boxes, or photos in old albums that aren’t acid and lignin free, take them out and start sorting them into stacks by the year. If your photos aren’t date stamped on the back or front, try to determine the year they were taken by the ages of the people in them, the style of clothing, the location or event where the photo was taken. You may find you have hundreds of photos for each year and will need to break it down further by season or event.

By event: As you’re sorting chronologically, you’ll probably come across photos from certain events that would make for a nice album or two such as: a trip, a wedding, birth of a new baby, a play or other theatrical event, a concert or a family outing.

Once you have your photos sorted and organized, store them in plastic baggies to keep the air out. This will help preserve them until you can get them into an acid and lignin free album. Be sure to mark each bag by year or event so when you go back to make the album you know which baggie to grab.

Are you ready to scrapbook yet? I am off to scrapbook my latest trip.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

To add color and fun to your pages, use scrapbooking embellishments.

Tags: Scrapbooking

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Organizing Tip: Donate

Lauren — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:23:41 +0000

When the time comes to clean out and reorganize the house, there are always items you find that you just don’t use anymore. Some things may even be gifts that you have never even taken out of the original package. As long as the items are still in good shape, there are many ways they can find a new home. Many people do not want to bother with a yard sale, so they prefer to donate the items to a charity.

Many items can be donated to area thrift or Salvation Army stores. Quite often they will give you a receipt that will allow you to take it as a tax write-off. It is probably best to call and check with them as to their drop-off policies. Some places only take donations on certain days or hours.

Another option is to donate carefully used toys, books and clothes to women’s shelters. Many times the families staying there have had to leave their homes with just what they were wearing. A few things for them to have while they are there can be a great comfort.

There are other charities that also take clothes and household goods. Some, including veterans’ organizations like Purple Heart and Vietnam Vets, and other groups like Easter Seals, will actually pick up your donations at your home. If you call them, they have set pickup schedules for the neighborhoods in your area. They have a set procedure.

Some hospitals collect books, sometimes specifically for the children’s wing. When your children outgrow their books, considering giving them away to a hospital or other charities for children.

Once you’ve donated things, you can reorganize what you have left and maximize your storage space. This is something to consider doing every few months, because things tend to accumulate. If you’re unsure about donating some things, put them away, and if you haven’t used them after a given time then you can probably go ahead and donate them.

Tags: organization

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Save 20% at Prairie Soy Candles

Lauren — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:21:38 +0000

Who says all the good sales have to be around Christmas?
Prairie Soy Candles is having a 20% off sale
From now until August 4th, take 20% off your entire order.
This applies to everything in the store including already marked down items on the discount shelf!

Prairie Soy Candles is owned by a Mother-Daughter team who handmake these candles. I can personally attest to the quality of their candles, and the incredible scents they offer. The candles are clean burning, and the wax melts hold their scents for days!

Go shopping now at Prairie Soy Candles.
Use code: julyxmas to receive 20% off your entire order until August 4th.

Tags: candles, shopping