Dear Senior Mom: You can do it! (Part 1)

We're nearing the halfway point of the school year, the time when the reality of graduation begins looming large for seniors and their parents. Each year around this time, I run into a scrapbooker with sort of a crazed look in her eyes. This is the “Senior Mom” look! This woman wants to scrapbook all 18 years of her child’s life in the few short months before graduation.

This Senior Mom has been to graduation open houses over the years and knows what is expected of her. She feels enormous pressure to create a beautiful set of albums to display at her party, with every detail of every event in her child’s life perfectly documented. She also wants to create a handmade guestbook and invitations, decorations, and more. On top of that, she feels guilty that she didn’t start these projects years ago. Worse yet, she feels like she’ll be labeled a “bad mom” if she doesn’t get it all done!

 

 Does this sound familiar? 

Do not fear, Senior Mom! Many of us who work at Memory Bound have been Senior Moms (in fact, we're in the Senior Mom Club!) and we know the pressure you're feeling. We can help you with many tasks on your lengthy to-do list...except cleaning your house, of course! :) Meanwhile, here are some tips I've compiled to help you as you get started.

1. Start early. This means start NOW. No matter what you think, it will take you longer than you expect to meet your scrapbooking goals. And life doesn’t stop while you’re scrapbooking. Starting early will give you a little bit more breathing room.

Maybe you feel like it’s already too late to start early, but don’t despair! You can still meet your scrapbooking goals, as long as you set realistic expectations. Read on...

2. Make a Must-Do Layout List. Make a list of the events/activities/milestones that you absolutely must scrapbook before graduation. Focus your time on completing those layouts and set the other photos aside for later. (For me, this meant absolutely NO CAT LAYOUTS during my daughter's senior year!) As you complete pages, check them off your list. This will keep you on track and give you a sense of accomplishment.

I suggest adding one special project to your Must-Do list: A portrait album. Gather all of those 8x10 school photos, choose a consistent color/design scheme, and put them in an album (I used a WRMK 3-ring binder). If nothing else gets done, you will have a wonderful, concise album showing how your child has grown and changed over the years. I guarantee that this album will get the most attention of any you complete!

3. Scale back your expectations. If you’re a new scrapbooker, you’ll need to make few layouts before you’re comfortable with the tools and process. If you’re more experienced, you may be accustomed to spending quite a bit of time on each page. Either way, you probably need to let go of the dream of scrapbooking every event in time for graduation. 

For instance, I didn't have time to scrapbook my daughter’s birth or infancy in time for the open house -- and that was okay! She created display boards with a few photos from those years and it worked out fine. Let go of the pressure to do EVERYTHING. You can't, and you shouldn't try -- or you won't have time to enjoy the senior year!

  

Keep in mind that as graduation approaches, we can help you with your display boards -- we can copy photos, help you use our die cutting machines, and assist you with creating your boards.

4. Ask for help from your student. Even a busy senior can help with scrapbooking. As I worked on graduation albums, I had my daughter write notes about events that I later used for journaling. I often created layouts and left the journaling for her to fill in when she had a spare minute. After all, the stories I’m capturing in the scrapbooks are hers. Her voice should be represented in the albums!

In recent weeks, I've been seeing several seniors working on their scrapbooks at Memory Bound. This is a great activity for kids to do in their spare time, and it will be enormously helpful when graduation rolls around! Our work room is almost always available for you to use for crafting, free of charge. Just give us a call to be sure we have space!

Senior Moms, I will leave you with these thoughts for now; look for additional suggestions in upcoming blog posts. Meanwhile, if you have any questions or tips to share, please post them! We at Memory Bound are happy to help you so that you'll be able to enjoy every minute of this very special year in your student's life!

Janet

Staff Projects: Katie's December Daily Library Tray

It's no secret that we have some of the most creative staff members anywhere working at Memory Bound! Many of them have created December Journals to document special holiday happenings (if you missed the blog post, you can see photos of their beautiful projects here). 

Katie took a different approach this year, choosing to use a 7Gypsies library tray and "divider" cards. I'm a "library girl" at heart, so anything made with a library tray appeals to me! I love how her project came together!

Katie was initially inspired by a project she saw in the Somerset Holidays and Celebrations magazine. It appealed to her desire to keep things simple and doable during the busy holiday season. All she needed was a 7Gypsies tray, paper, and embellishments.

When the Simple Stories line arrived at Memory Bound, Katie saw that it would be perfect for her project. She cut the double-sided 12x12 sheets into 4x6 squares to make 24 different cards that fit perfectly into the library tray. But Katie says the best part about this collection is the sheet of number stickers, which gave her many options for each day. She bought two sheets so she could use the same number on the front and back of each card.

Katie's plan is to take photos throughout the month of December and simply place them behind the divider cards. There is plenty of room for writing down special memories, too. She also included kraft envelopes for memorabilia she plans to keep.

Her boys' Christmas wish lists will be on these adorable cards. What a treasure this project will be -- now and in years to come!

Thanks, Katie, for inspiring us all!

Janet

Holiday Card Make-N-Takes - Nov 7 & 9

Our November Holiday Card Make-N-Takes are underway! Stop by on Mondays and Wednesdays in November from 1 to 6pm to make a beautiful holiday card using a variety of new products and techniques. 

 Several of our talented staff members have designed this month's projects -- so you'll see a wonderful variety of styles on the cards. Come to all of our make-n-takes and you'll have a collection of unique cards to give to the extra-special people in your life! Materials fee $2.

Janet

On Monday, November 7, 1-6pm, we'll be making this beautiful cardinal card.

 

On Wednesday, November 9, 1-6pm, we'll be making this lovely card with vintage images.

Get last minute Halloween ideas at Memory Bound!

If you haven't yet seen our amazing Halloween display, you've got just a few more days to check it out! We've got everything you need to make your Halloween extra spooky and fun this year!

When I was a child, my mom used to make special treat bags to give to neighbors, best friends, and family who stopped by on Beggars' Night. What a great tradition to continue this year! We have several ideas for treat boxes and bags which can be whipped up like magic!

We have wonderful ideas for Halloween decor, cards, and more. Stop in to "get your spook on" before it all disappears!

Janet

Staff Projects: December Journals

Over the past couple of holiday seasons, our talented Memory Bound staff members have been making December Journals. If you haven't heard of this concept, the idea is to create an eclectic little album with pages for each day in December. You make the album in advance and fill it with photos and memorabilia throughout the month of December. By the end of the month, you have a completed album filled with memories!

If you are interested in making a little book like this, now is the time to do it! You can use any album -- any size or format -- as a base. You can choose a coordinating line of paper, or mix and match. Use a variety of page sizes or make them all the same...the choice is yours! A project like this is also a great opportunity to use up those extra little embellishments, bits of ribbon, and other do-dads we all have in our stash!

We've taken photos of the December journals made by our staff members to inspire you to make your own this holiday season. Without a doubt, these beautiful albums are some of our favorite projects and will be treasured keepsakes for years to come! Click on each photo collage to enlarge. 

Enjoy!

Janet

Katie's 2010 December Journal features photos, drawings, and adorable little stories about her boys. Katie is the best storyteller, and her album definitely reflects that!

Diane has her 2011 December Journal all ready to go! She chose a vintage tan and red color scheme throughout her book. She used a Fancy Pants journal for her album and had enough extra pages to make a second one!

Amanda is all ready for her baby's first Christmas this year! I love how she incorporated the Frosty book into her beautiful album.

Pat's 2010 album has pictures of everything she did in December...including a visit to the doctor's office! Pat made her adorable album using our Accu Cut dies and bound it with The Cinch.

Diane very creatively used the cover and pages from an "older" Rudolph book for her 2009 album. (I hesitate to refer to that particular Rudolph book as vintage, since I had that same book as a child! LOL)

Diane's 2010 album incorporates lots of photos of family gatherings. She used a Teresa Collins album as the starting point for her eclectic book.

Diana's beautiful 2011 album is all ready to go! She chose an elegant red and cream theme for this year's book.

Diana's 2010 album is a treasure of fun pictures (I love the dog photos!) and stories. She even incorporated a McDonalds' coffee cup into her album!

This is another type of December album created by Diane as a place for recording gift ideas. She created the album from flash cards and made a page for each family member. She also made pages for recipes and Christmas cards.

After School Class for KIDS Monday!

It's after-school Scrappin' Kidz time with Diana! 

Monday, Sept 12, 4-5pm 

Ages 8+, younger ages with adult or older sibling    Fee: $12

Diana has scheduled a different project each month.  Monday, students make a fun backpack- style mini book. It's the perfect place for first day of school photos and other memories.  She has paper for boys and for girls, so both are welcome. It's a nice creative outlet and stress-free fun after a busy school day!  Call 965-1102 to register

Got fair pics? We can help!

Raise your hand if you went to the Iowa State Fair this year. Okay...now keep your hand up if you took a ton of pictures and need to get them in the scrapbook!

That's what I thought! :) Like you, I always find lots of great photo opportunities at the Iowa State Fair.

I have a fondness for animals.

Especially sweet baby animals!

And I love to go through the Ag building, my favorite place at the state fair. Each year I admire the beautiful vegetable displays. I can't imagine growing something good enough to eat AND beautiful enough to enter into competition!

And of course there's always a "big thing" at the fair. For some folks, this year's big thing was deep fried butter on a stick. This is as close as I got to that concoction!

We had a lot of fun taking pictures of as many of the small cows scattered around the grounds as we could find. This one is "Dairy Potter". :)

I have so many wonderful pictures of the Iowa State Fair and I can't wait to scrapbook them! So I checked out the great assortment of fair products currently at Memory Bound.

We've got wonderful custom die cuts that make easy work of your titles. If you've never looked at our beautiful layered die cut titles, be sure you do so next time you stop in. They are a great value and really enhance your design. (In addition to these fair die cuts, we have them for lots of events, places, and subjects!)

We have a great assortment of livestock embellishments, which will be perfect for all of those sheep and pig portraits I took!

So now's the time for all of us to get started on those state fair layouts. Lucky for us, Memory Bound has everything we need to preserve those precious Iowa State Fair memories!

Janet