Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be .JPGs

My mother is having open heart surgery this Friday. It's been a bit of an unexpected shock to the family, and while her chances are quite good, inevitably we've all been going through the anxiety and planning that everyone goes through when facing major surgery. The "if I die..." scenarios. "here's my insurance papers, here's all this important stuff, here's where I think your father will be lost, this is what the will says, I want a DNR," that sort of thing. Dealing with the unpleasant reality that your parents are, in fact, mortal, and that a day will come when they are no longer in your life.

My beautiful Momma in high school.

My son joined Cub Scouts this year, and last night was their first Den meeting. The activity was 'make a family scrapbook'. Right up my alley! Since it was an activity being undertaken by a bunch of six year olds, we didn't get too fancy; the scrapbooks are binders filled with 8.5"X11" white paper sheets in page protectors. But each kid got to decorate the pages and the cover of their book, and one of the den leaders even took pictures of each kid (as well as one of the whole group) and printed them out right there so the kids could put a couple pictures in to start. It was a really nice activity.

A lot of my paper scrapbooking supplies are packed away in my basement right now (I'm chronically disorganized over here!), so I went over to my mom's to raid the kids' art box for supplies. She has a big rubbermaid bin that she fills with paper and sticker scraps for my kids to craft with when they're at her house.

My mom is the consummate crafter. She's been through myriad crafting phases in her life, from sewing to stamping to scrapbooking, and has always collected a TON of supplies along the way. The past several years have seen the two of us doing a lot more collecting of supplies than actual crafting. Especially with scrapbooking, it's really easy to get sucked in by all the adorable papers and delightful stickers and clever punches and cutters and gadgets.

Mom is much more organized than I am. Most of her papers and stickers, and even many of her photographs (even from decades ago), are organized by categories and projects. I asked to borrow some of her Fiskars so the kids could cut fun shapes out, and she started pulling out bins of papers and stickers to see what else she could send with me for the kids to play with. As she was rooting through the various groupings of papers and stickers, she was mumbling things like 'no, not these, I was saving these for your brother's football album... I need to have two of each of these for your and your brother's school albums... this was going to be for your school dances... I need these for your and your brother's halloween pictures... ' and so on.

Me and my brother.

It struck me, listening to her and watching this process, that these memories are being lost every day. My brother is almost 28. I am 32. It's been a long time since either of us was in high school, going to dances or playing football. It's been even longer since we were kids dressing up for Halloween (well, we still all dress up, but you know what I mean!). I'm sure that details of these events have faded in her mind as the years have gone by; I know that details have faded from MINE, and in some cases I don't even remember. I look through her boxes of old pictures sometimes and I can't figure out what year it is, or who those friends were, or what the occasion was; in some of the baby pictures I can't even tell my brother and I apart. In some of the baby pictures, my MOM can't even tell my brother and I apart!

She has been collecting these supplies for YEARS, and while some books and pages have been finished over that time, for the most part, her crafting room(s) are simply full of good intentions. I'm not criticizing my mom; my crafting rooms are even less organized than hers, and are full of an equal number of good intentions. My children are 4 and 6, and I haven't done their books yet. I've done ONE for my son, and that's it.

I'm sure many of you can relate to this. The shoeboxes full of pictures. The supplies tucked away in the corners. The "oh, I SHOULD get to that one of these days" thoughts; but one day keeps getting further away. Some day, 'one day' might never happen. My mother's upcoming surgery obviously has me much more sensitive to the thought that these memories might be permanently lost in the near future. But the reality of life is, none of us know how much time we have, or what disasters or diseases might come along and rob of us of our precious heritage.

Wouldn't you like to know the story behind this?

My friends, it's time to take 'one day' by the hand and make it today.

Grand Opening Giveaway!

To celebrate our Grand Opening, and for reaching 50 fans on our facebook page, I am hosting my first giveaway!

The Prize
One free custom 12X12 or 8X8 scrapbook page of your choice, from designs posted in my etsy store.

How To Enter
You have up to FIVE chances to win! Please leave a SEPARATE comment on this entry for each of these actions, letting me know you have 'earned' that entry. 

1. Become a follower of this blog.

2. Share a link to this contest on your facebook page and encourage others to check it out.

3. "Like" our page on facebook (or if you are already a facebook fan, leave me a comment and let me know).

4. Tweet about this contest: "Win a beautiful custom page from Scrapbook Chicago! #giveaway http://scrapbookchicago.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-opening-giveaway.html"

5. Blog about this contest on your blog, and post the link in the comments here.

Contest ends Wednesday, October 13th, 2010 at 5pm central time. All entries received after that time will not be counted. Winner will be chosen using random.org.

Some examples of available pages (see my etsy shop for more):

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED; CONGRATULATIONS TO COMMENTER #4 - ANGELLAM!

About Heritage Makers

As mentioned in my last post, Heritage Makers is the company that introduced me to digital scrapbooking, and my life has been forever changed because of it. If you are at all inclined to undertake digital scrapbooking yourself, I highly recommend you check their services out. I've been supremely happy with the company and the products. In a future post I will talk a bit more about how to get started using Heritage Makers (feel free to visit my consultant website to explore a bit on your own!), but today I wanted to share this introductory Heritage Makers video. It's only six minutes long and gives you some great reasons for making your own storybooks. Please take a few minutes to watch the video. I would love to help you get started today.

A Brief History

I have been an avid crafter for most of my life. I also enjoy photography, writing and journaling. Approximately ten years ago, one of my friends invited me to a new kind of home party, a Creative Memories scrapbooking party. I was already a rubber stamp aficionado, and I was writing up journals and taking tons of photos, so it was only natural that I took to scrapbooking like a duck to water. As a matter of fact, I signed up to become a consultant on the spot. I was a Creative Memories consultant for several years before I realized I really enjoyed the scrapbooking more than the selling. I loved the products, but I didn't love lugging things from home to home in order to bring them to people. I just wanted to share stories! So I stopped selling, but didn't stop scrapbooking.

Six years ago I met my husband. We got married, had two children, moved a number of times. Life went on. The demands of motherhood and the realities of a house with two young children, a cat, and two dogs meant that I was almost never able to scrapbook. I didn't have time to start a project, let alone complete one! And if I tried, the kids and pets all wanted to 'help'. It was a disaster. My scrapbooking supplies were relegated to boxes in the laundry room. I continued taking pictures and writing journals but sorely missed being able to create beautiful scrapbooks.

Three years ago I was introduced to a new company called Heritage Makers. Heritage Makers is a digital storybooking company. (I will talk more about them in a future post.) The company returned my ability to create beautiful scrapbooks, and even let my children help. It was a lifesaver, opening whole new worlds for me. I signed up to be a consultant almost immediately.

I am still a consultant for Heritage Makers, and indeed many of the projects I create digitally are created using the Heritage Makers system. I love the company and truly believe that everyone has a story to tell. However, as a consultant over the past few years I have encountered the same problems time and again. People love the products, they love the idea of preserving memories and telling their stories. What they don't have is: Time. Technological ability. Confidence in their creative process. Oh yes, and did I mention time?

The front of our family Christmas card, December 2009

Memories have many enemies, among them: Water. Sunlight. Time. Disasters. All of these things and more can diminish or outright destroy precious photographs, memorabilia, and memories. It brings me tremendous sadness to know that people's heritage is being lost. I am very passionate about helping people tell and share their stories, and as a result, I decided to launch a personal scrapbooking business.

Those of you that are willing and able to create scrapbooks on your own, wonderful! If you are a Heritage Makers customer, or would like to become one, I would love to continue being your consultant and help you create beautiful projects that protect your cherished memories.

Those of you that are unable to create scrapbooks right now, I would love to work with you. I will use the latest in archiving technologies to help you preserve your heritage in beautiful ways that your family will treasure forever. Preserve those memories for yourself and future generations to enjoy. Your values, photos and stories make up your heritage. What you experience today is your family’s history; don’t let that be lost!

I love working with people from all walks of life. I offer a variety of services and products. I work with both digital media AND traditional paper products (and sometimes, a combination of both).

You may learn more about Heritage Makers at my personal Heritage Makers website here.

To see some of my personal scrapbooking offerings, please visit my etsy store, amilliondreams.

Please subscribe to this blog for project updates, techniques, tips, and more!

Don't forgot to 'like' my business on Facebook; I offer periodic contests and giveaways there!

I look forward to working with you in the future.

Coming Soon!

More information about my burgeoning personal scrapbooking business, available products, projects you can complete, and more!

In the meantime, please see my etsy shop for current listings, or feel free to contact me about a custom project.