The Guest Book

Two weeks ago my husband and I attended the wedding of some sweet friends who we know from Iain's company.  The groom had asked me if I would help him with a little project for the wedding. (Gotta love an involved groom!)

They didn't want to use a traditional guest book, and weren't sure if a matted picture to sign was what they wanted to do either.  He knew I am a digital photobook junky and wondered if I could come up with an alternative Guest Book.

Oh what fun!  I was so excited to play around.  They didn't have many professional pictures, but I liked the fact that the pics they did have were real life shots.

The most time I spent was editing the pictures.  The layouts were my own and fun to do.  I use Shutterfly to print most of my books and have been super-pleased with their work.  Once published, I  had Shutterfly sent the book directly to the bride in her hometown ~ so I didn't get to see it until the wedding.  It took me several hours to catch a glimpse of it because there was always someone looking at it.

When I saw it, I was SO pleased.  I wish I would have had one for my own wedding.  People really took time to write thoughtful messages instead of just signing their names.  I know Nathan and Theresia will treasure that keepsake for years to come.  It was one of the best wedding gifts we'd ever given.  Here's a peek...

Click here to view this photo book larger

Abra Cadabra

If you're the one who's always taking pictures of your family, you may likely be absent from a lot of photos.  That's the case for me, anyway.  Sometimes I wish I'd have more pictures of me with my family, but then when someone else grabs the camera - I rarely feel "camera ready."

I'm not very photogenic, but I've realized that my daughter doesn't care about that. 
One day she's look back at her gazillion photobooks and will wonder why Mommy's not in many of the pictures.  That makes me sad to think about, so I've decided to get over myself and become friendly with Photo Editing tools. Like the Touch-Up pre-sets in Picnik.  (I think you have to be a premium member for those tools - but they are lifesavers...and it only costs $2 per month.)

Here's an example:

The picture on the left was taken at the end of the day, when I had no make up left on my face and was looking pretty darn ragged.

The picture on the right I gave myself a mini-makeover:

added mascara, airbrushed my face, touched up my highlights, got a spray tan, added lip color and smoothed out some wrinkles.  Just a few clicks and voila....a picture that was a little easier to stomach than the original.

I did the same for my mom.  My dad took a picture of her without any notice.

I played around a bit and got this....

(These are my first attempts and they're a little sloppy.  I'm getting better with practice.)

And I will say that I don't (and won't) "fix" all my pictures like that.  I think it's important to look real in our photos.  Just every now and then, a little enhancement can make an unusable photo - usable.

* I almost never re-touch Gianna. There were a couple of times when she had a scratch on her face that I airburshed it on a few photos.  Early on a amped up the blue in her eyes - which was a beautiful blue - but it wasn't Gianna Blue. I don't want her to ever think that her mom doesn't think she's not good enough just the way she is.

Finished is better than Perfect (Photo Books)

Years ago when I attended my very first Creative Memories workshop (scrapbooking), one comment has resonated with me "Finished is Better than Perfect." To a recovering perfectionist, that is a serious statement. Having things "just so" and waiting for that "perfect" inspiration or the most innovative new tool - or waiting until I have a big enough block of time to do EVERYTHING at once....has all plagued me and provided enormous roadblocks in my creative life as well as my day to day life. Finished is Better than Perfect. That mantra has caused me much irritation but has subsequently lead me to all sorts of creative and personal liberation.

If I waited to create projects that turned out exactly as I hoped - I never would finish anything.  Two times during the creation of Gianna's Baby books, I completely lost over fifty separate pages of work.  The first time it happened, I melted down into a puddle of pitiful woe.  My husband came to the rescue and found some of the work - but it was in a compromised form.  I finally got okay with it, lamented the wasted hours, and made a plan to avoid such a castrophe in the future.  Problem:  I did the very same thing on this last book.  Lost the whole flippin' thing - none of which was retrievable.  Rotten, stinkin' luck.

I have to say that I was SO proud of myself regarding my respeonse to the last bit of misfortune. No tears - no drama - just started from scratch hoping my creative juices would keep pumping enough to cross that finish line.  That's a big deal for me...and a pretty good life lesson in a rather unimportant niche of my life.  Hopefully I will translate the lesson I learned to the rest of the areas of my life.  Achieving perfectionism is another way of controlling life.  I'm pretty sure one of my biggest lessons is having to learn, "Ultimately, there is very little in this world over which I have control." And one of the few things I DO have control over is how I react and respond to the challenges life brings.

So, here are my final attempts at the munchkin's Baby Books.  Not at all what I imagined them to be --- but FINISHED!  Happy to have them all in one place.

The books I've already posted:
Baby Book First Year - Volume I

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Baby book First Year - Volume II

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Baby Book - First Year, Volume III

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Baby Book - First Year, Volume IV

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First Birthday

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Bit by bit...

"Bit by bit, putting it together...
Piece by piece, only way to make a work of art.
Every moment makes a contribution,
Every little detail plays a part.
Having just the vision's no solution,
Everything depends on execution,
Putting it together, that's what counts."
— Stephen Sondheim (Sunday in the Park with George)

Gotta love a good Sondheim hit. 

Making memories is easy...like going to the park with friends.

Recording memories is a little more challenging and time consuming but, bit by bit I'm putting it together:  memories into photo books.

Here's Gianna's First Year - Volume II:

Click here to view this photo book larger

For Gianna's First Year - Volume I - CLICK HERE

Sweet Sixteen

Sixteen MONTHS, that is.

We are really leaving babyhood behind.  Thank heavens for her full little cheeks (I hope they never go away) that remind me of the little baby that's somewhere in that busy toddler body.

Not long ago I wrote about why I choose to blog.  One of the things I didn't mention was just how helpful it has been in my digital scrapbooking - especially these little monthly stats and updates that I create on Scrapblog.   It helps that she was born on the first of the month - so I can begin each month's pictures with updates like the one above.

I am still working on completing the books from her first year - there were A LOT of pictures to edit and weed through.  (I know - you're shocked, right?)  I figured I'd create an 8x8 hard cover book for three months at a time.  My goal is to be relatively caught up by the end of the year. (We'll see how that goes.)

Here's my first book I completed for Gianna's first 3 months.  The layouts are a little busier than I'd prefer, but I figure that's pretty indicitve of that first year.

Click here to view this photo book larger

I'll post the rest of the books here and there.

Out of Blog Mode...

...and into Scrap Mode. Digi-Scrap Mode - to be more exact.

Since little Luke left for daycare three weeks ago, and since my baby girl will be ONE YEAR OLD in less than two weeks, I was determined to get her First Year Baby Book done before the big day.

I used to LOVE scrapbooking even before scrapbooking turned into the phenomenon it has become. I did it when I was kid. I still love it - but life's just different than it used to be and all the stars have to be in alignment, supplies laid out, time set aside etc. in order to get anything accomplished. It just doesn't make sense for me anymore.


When I discovered Shutterfly several years back, I began making Photobooks - just slipping in digital pics to pre-made layouts, clicking a button, and receiving a beautifully professional bound photobook in the mail less than a week later. It has made life much simpler and memories much easier to preserve. (And I can order more copies at any time - for gifts and such.) There is no mess issues, no space issues, no time issues, no spending a gazillion dollars on supplies, papers, tools, machines, contraptions, etc. In the end I'm spending less money with a fantastic end result that takes up FAR less room. (End of commercial.)


One of the main reasons I began blogging, was to chronicle our lives in words and pictures in order to help me formulate our Photobooks whenever the time was available. Added bonus: family and friends could keep up with us without flooding their inboxes with pictures, etc. I had purchased new digital scrapbooking software a while back and finally have been able to put it to use. I've been a Digital Scrapping NUT during naptime, night-time, daddy/baby bonding time -- every free minute. About halfway through, the program froze up and I lost everything. I was sick. Thank God my hero-husband was home and managed to find all the pages in a different form - so I couldn't edit them. (small potatoes!)


There's good news and there's bad news. Good news: I finished the book this morning....all 101 pages of it. I know what you're thinking. 101 pages!!!! Could that be any more ridiculous for a baby book? Why, yes, it most certainly could. So now for the bad news: The book only covers her first 6 months. I know what you're thinking.....I've thought it myself. That's just our reality. (Even more amazing - I've only used about 40% of the pics I have stored.) So now I'm working on volume 2. Pitiful, I know. Oh well....that's my reality. :) Here's a sample of a couple of pages. Can't wait to receive the book next week.

How we got the name....

Click to enlarge: