Katie the Scrapbook Lady

Lots of inspiration coming your way!

From May 12- May 21, Canadian scrapbooking community, Scrapbooker’s Club House, will feature sketches from various scrapbooking celebrities for a full ten days in an extravagant celebration of talent and creativity. Visitors will be able to create layouts from sketches designed by some of the biggest names in the industry, chat, and meet fellow scrapbookers during the event.

I don't know who all the guest celebrities will be... but I can tell you that I do know one of them. That's all I'm saying for now!

Here's the link to the forum where the whole thing is happening. I know I'm really excited to see all the great ideas. After loading up on supplies for National Scrapbook Day I'm feeling very ready to get scrapping!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone has a nice Mother's Day today. I'll be going to church, watching the Jazz game (hoping for another Jazz win!), and putting together a family dinner with my Sister-in-law for my Mother-in-law's birthday/Mother's Day. Her birthday was yesterday so we are doing it all in one shot. I will be calling my Mom on the phone since we are about 600 miles away from each other. It's hard to be away from family on special days, but I am happy to be able to show you part of the present I'm giving her.

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Almost everything on this layout is from this darling Tattered Frannies kit at Nitwit Collections. The frame is by Katie Pertiet from Designer Digitals. The font is CK Higgins Handprint. You can click on the image to make it bigger if you want to read the journaling. I used some of my Mom's own journaling from her personal blog on this. I'm putting a copy of this layout in my daughter's album also because I want her always to remember how special these dolls are that her Grandma has made for her.

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autism

Right off the bat let me state that this is not an autism blog, it is a Scrapbook Lady's blog. I'm not claiming to have all the answers when it comes to autism. There is such a wide range in the symptoms of autism that it really is a hard disorder to explain. I'll just do my best to relate some of our own personal experience here and point you toward some helpful links and information if you want to know more. Oh, and because I'm a "Scrapbook Lady" I will include some layouts to illustrate some of the points. If you want to read the journaling on the scrapbook pages you can click on them to make them bigger.

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Autism has been a big part of my life for the past 11 years since my son was diagnosed on December 31, 1996 at the age of 3. Yes, we really had a psychiatrist appointment for him on New Year's Eve day. Sort of put a damper on New Year's Eve for several years after that. I didn't realize it at the time but it was a huge blessing that the doctor immediately diagnosed him with autism. There was no question. He had almost all of the symptoms. We were in heavy denial though so it took some convincing before we saw the light. We were devastated. He was our first child. He could read but could barely communicate. He could talk but he just repeated what we said or recited lines from movies. There were so many obsessions and fears, but none were as startling as his reaction to his little sister who had just joined our family in September of that year. He wouldn't even go in the same room with her.

We cried. We mourned. Mostly, we just got to work. He started in a special needs preschool in January of 1997 and started occupational therapy. We continued on with the speech therapy we had started in November of 1996 (which is what lead us to the psychiatrist - a recommendation from his speech therapist). We enrolled him in a special needs preschool.

I could write a book about all of this. In fact I actually started one and got about 45 pages done. The rest of it is in my head. It got overwhelming and I decided to spend the energy on my family instead of the book. I may decide one day to finish it or at least turn it into some blog or magazine articles.

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This is my son at the age of 3. These pictures were taken just about 2 weeks before he was diagnosed.

Those are the biggest indicators of autism. You have to have several symptoms in combination to be classified with autism. Fewer symptoms might mean Asperger's or even something different than autism related disorders.

There are some good facts about autism at http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm and also some links for further information.

I have listed symptoms and types of autism in this blog post at http://scrapbooklady.typepad.com/katie_the_scrapbook_lady/2008/05/autism-defined.html

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There is no cure for autism, but there are treatments. The most important treatment is early intervention, which basically means helping the child and the family as much as possible with language, social skills, learning skills, and addressing any other special needs such as sensory issues. All of this means a very full schedule for a young child who is already struggling to get through each day. Oh, and very long days for the parents also!

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Autism is a developmental disorder which means there are delays in development. My son was quite delayed in the areas of speech, play, social skills, fine motor skills, and he wasn't potty trained until he was nearly 5 years old. I was terrified that my 2 year old daughter would beat him to that accomplishment, but he finally got there!

Notice him sucking on his sleeve in that picture? He used to do that all the time. His sleeves and collars were always wet and we went through shirts like crazy. When he got a little older we made him necklaces with pieces of tubing on for him to chew on (don't do this for little kids who might choke). He finally broke the habit a few years ago, except for once in a while he will still suck on his collar if he is deep in thought.

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He has always had a lot of sensory issues and probably always will but he has learned how to manage these better with age and maturity. (so have we)

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Now my son has an incredible vocabulary and anyone who meets him would never believe that once upon a time he could barely talk. He can be quite chatty now and he is incredibly entertaining. He is very smart and has an amazing memory. He has also matured a lot and has greater control over his behaviors and emotions. In fact he is very pleasant to be around almost all the time now.

I don't dwell too much on the past, but it's good to look back once in awhile so we can appreciate just how far he has come.

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What a joy it is so see proof of his progress! Sadly, not all people with autism are able to make such strides. I have seen a lot of kids with autism though because of our experiences and they do develop and grow. Even in the most severe of cases I have seen progress but it takes an enormous amount of energy and work. I don't want to sugar coat things because life truly is difficult for many people with these challenges. And although my son is doing very well now, there are still hurdles to overcome.

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But you just have to take it a day at a time. It's hard sometimes, but I also think you gain a greater appreciation for the simple joys in life.

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and sometimes you just have to laugh at some of the hard stuff. A sense of humor really helps keep you sane! I will tell you that I never judge a parent of a misbehaving child in a store because you really just don't know what the situation might be. We've had some really big meltdowns in some really public places. I can laugh about it now but I'm sure glad it's in the past! Here's a minor but very embarrassing incident that I just had to include in the scrapbooks.

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Eventually you just get a little smarter about the whole thing. Why didn't we think of ear plugs years ago?!

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What should you do?

So what should you do if you suspect your child has autism? Start with your pediatrician and if they don't think it is a concern but you are still worried, get a second opinion. Don't waste precious time! A good starting place is a hearing test to rule out any problems. My daughter had so many ear infections that she actually had damaged hearing for awhile and it impacted her speech. If there are speech delays go to a speech pathologist for an evaluation. If there are sensory issues see an occupational therapist. You can do all of these things without a diagnosis of autism so don't wait around for that. And the specialists might be able to tell you their opinion of whether you need to further pursue a formal diagnosis. There are some kids that just need some of these therapies even if they don't have autism so don't panic about that.

And if you get the diagnosis of autism, don't give up hope. It's ok to mourn and be sad, but then you have to get moving and do everything you can to help your child. I promise that it works. Sometimes it takes a LONG time, but it does work!

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If autism is part of your life here are a few tips for including it in your scrapbook albums.

1- Don't be afraid to include autism in your scrapbooks. It is a big part of your life. There was a time when I was hesitant to scrap about autism. It was sad and overwhelming for me. I wasn't sure what the future would bring. I didn't journal about it much until recently. Time has made it easier. Now I am going back and adding some autism related layouts to my son's albums.

2- Include educational settings, therapies, and other interventions in your layouts. It will be a good timeline and a wonderful lifelong reference for everyone!

3- Of course you should try to include pages about the individual and not just the autism. Focus on successes as a picture can be a great learning tool for someone with autism. Even if you can't get the typical kind of holiday pictures, just celebrate who they are and include them in your albums

4- Remember that a meaningful scrapbook is an authentic one. No need to pretend that autism doesn't exist for the sake of your album!

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Here are some other posts I have written relating to autism:

Autism defined

Blog therapy and deep stuff

Brain on a scrapbook page

Why I scrap

the power to make it true

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for credits on all the layouts used in this blog post, visit my gallery at scrapbooklady designs

 

autism defined

What is Autism?

Autism is considered a developmental disability with an onset before 36 months of age. A developmental disability means multiple areas of development are affected.

All people with autism share difficulties in 3 areas;

1-social relatedness

2-communication

3-behaviors and interests (usually have a narrow range of interests)

1-SOCIAL SYMPTOMS:

·         poor regulation of social interaction through eye contact, facial expresssion, gesture, posture, intonation. 90% off ALL people with autism have difficulty in this area.

·         failure to develop age-appropriate peer relationships

·         little showing, bringing or pointing out objects of interest (this can usually be seen as early as 9 months in some)

·         limited social-emotional reciprocity (not good at back and forth interactions)

not all people with autism have all of these social symptoms. However to be classified as "autistic disorder" there must be at least 2 deficits in this social symptoms area. To be classified as "Aspergers" there must be at least 2 deficits in this area. To be classified as "PDD-NOS" there must be at least 1 deficit in this area.

2- COMMUNICATION SYMPTOMS

·         delay or absence of spoken language (50% of autistic people do not have functional language)

·         repetitive or idiosyncratic language which can be in several subtypes:

·         echolalia (immediate or delayed) which is repeating back what is said to them or maybe something they heard in the past from a video tape

·         pronoun reversal (which stems from echolalia) when you ask them "do you want a cookie?" they respond "you want a cookie" to mean "I want a cookie".

·         neologisms (making up their own words for items like calling sheep "nebo" -makes no sense to us)

·         poor conversational abilities which means they can have poor turn taking or dominate a conversation with monologues. Excessive talking. Difficulty taking the listeners perspective. Concrete and Literal (sarcasm is not understood). Overly formal way of speaking.

Again, all of these symptoms under communication do not need to be present for a diagnosis. "Autistic Disorder" has a minimum of 1 delay in this area so there must be some sort of communication disorder.

"Aspergers" has no language delay at all. PDD-NOS could possibly have a delay in this area but it is not required for diagnosis.

3-REPETITIVE BEHAVIOR SYMPTOMS

·         encompassing preoccupations

·         unusual topics (sometimes they like usual subjects of interest like dinosaurs or cars -but sometimes it is something like sprinkler systems or vacuum cleaners)

·         focus on the details (this can be a good and amazing thing, but it can also interfere with learning)

·         difficulty in differentiating relevant from irrelevant information

·         insistence on sameness, ritualistic behavior

·         stereotyped body movements -flapping hands, walking on toes, blinking eyes repeatedly

·         preoccupation with parts or sensory qualities of objects (doesn't play with a toy house but just opens and shuts the door or maybe avoids anything wet feeling)

"Autistic Disorder" must have at least 1 deficit in this area. "Aspergers" must also have at least 1 deficit in this area. "PDD-NOS" could possibly have a deficit in this area but it is not required for diagnosis. PDD-NOS must have a social deficit plus one other in either the communication or repetitive category.

5 types of diagnosis of Autism:

PDD=Pervasive Developmental Disorder. This is the general category in which autism falls. Autism is considered a PDD.

There are 5 types of PDD diagnosis and all 5 involve deficits in these three areas: Social Relatedness, communication, behaviors & interests.

The five types of PDD are:

1- Autistic disorder (classic or high functioning as subtypes). This is the most common PDD. Has an onset before age 3. Must have 6 symptoms (2 social, 1 communication and 1 restricted or repetitive behavior) at the minimum to be diagnosed with this.

2- Aspergers disorder. This is ruled out if criteria for autism is met - the diagnosis of autism always takes precedence over a lesser diagnosis.

Aspergers have 3-5 symptoms (2 social and 1 restrictive or repetitive behavior minimum) Aspergers disorder has no history of language delay. If there is language delay it is not aspbergers. Language usually develops normally if not even at an advanced rate. IQ is usually normal.

*There is some debate over whether Aspergers is really just high functioning Autism and should it even have a separate name. The treatments are the same whether it is autism or aspergers. Autism has laws and policies written now to support it so it may be less advantageous to call the person Aspergers.

3- Rett disorder (very uncommon)

Affects only females (about 1 in 10,000). There is at least 6 months of normal development and then a severe general regression occurs (including motor). Head circumference does not grow and there is little benefit from treatment and a poor prognosis.

4- Disintegrative Disorder (also quite rare)

at least 2 years of normal development followed by a severe regression. The average age of this regression is 38 months.

5- Pervasive Develpmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDDNOS) Autistic like symptoms present but criteria for other PDD's not met. Less symptoms than autistic disorder. Or maybe an unusual pattern of symptoms (like they have more than six symptoms but not any repetitive behaviors)

Must have symptoms in 2 areas and at least one of these must be social. (like social & communication deficits or social & behavioral deficits).

*PDDNOS is often misdiagnosed. 70% of the cases when retested were misdiagnosed. 30% were really autistic disorder and 40% did not meet any criteria for any PDD.

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Autism is not easy to explain and I do not claim to be a professional. I am a parent with more than 11 years of experience. I have taken a college level course on autism and read many articles and books. I got my information from the following resources:

·         University of Utah Special Education Course 6960 "Treatment of Autism" taught by Sally Ozonoff, Ph.D.

·         "The World of the Autistic Child" by Bryna Siegel

·         "A Parent's Guide to Autism" by Charles A. Hart

flat tire

365:129 flat tire, originally uploaded by katiescrapbooklady.

my new car is only 9 days old and I already got a flat tire. Not just a little flat, but really flat. Looks like I ran over a nail or a large screw of some sort. Fortunately it happened when I was meeting my hubby somewhere and he was able to put on the spare for me. He was in his nice work clothes so a store owner brought out a doormat for him to kneel on. So thoughtful of her.

I'm pretty sure hubby was not thrilled with me that I whipped out the camera during all of this but I thought it would make for a good "picture of the day" - LOL! You have to find the bright side to things like this because they are so irritating.

I have to confess that I have never changed a tire. I hope I never have to but I've watched hubby a few times and I'm pretty sure I could do it if I really needed to. I would be fine without ever having that experience though.

We already had a busy day planned for Friday but it looks like a trip to the garage is going to be first on our list.

      

Projects for May

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to keep track of the creative projects I want to do each month. Truthfully, I'm not quite sure how to do this yet so bear with me as a I refine this idea. Basically I want to make a list of things I would like to do each month and then record if I actually accomplish them.

Some projects are ongoing but some are a one time only type of deal. So I guess I will try making a list for May and then including my ongoing projects list at the bottom of the post.

I hope this is interesting and helpful to my readers and that you find new links and inspiration from the projects I'm listing.

• I love this idea from Scott Kelby's blog - a top 5 list of everything. I want to do one for my blog also.

• Finish layouts from 2005. I have finished all the layouts I am going to do for both 2006 & 2007. If I can finish up 2005 then I will have 3 complete years of digital layouts. I think I have about 15 more that need to be done so this is a goal I should be able to accomplish. If I'm not working on 2005, than I will work on this current year. I don't want to get sidetracked from this focus.

• start a cross stitch project. I never did get this done last month. I have the pattern, fabric and the thread so the only obstacle now is me!

• start planning how to turn my studio into a studio/homeschool room. I know this seems almost blasphemous for a "scrapbook lady" to do, but I'm going to be homeschooling both of my kids full time soon and we will need the space. And I want our homeschool environment to be creative and also be in a room where I can shut the door on the work in progress if needed and not have to worry about cleaning it up.

• I am going to limit adding any other projects to the May list until I get the ones I've already listed done!

My ongoing goals that I want to work on for this entire year include:

• taking a photo every day for my own Photo 365 project

• maintain and promote my Creative Spaces Flickr group

• go on photowalks. That means going on walks and bringing my camera. Simple, fun and healthy!

• try at least 3 new recipes a month. I'm so bored with cooking!

• do a minimum of 15 scrapbook layouts per month. I really want to get some of the past years finished up and put into albums for my family to enjoy.

• organize, scan, and backup all my pictures - I have a long way to go on this. So far I have this done for 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and part of 2008.

• blog almost every day. Yes, this is a creative project! I really have more creativity when I take the time to post on my blog and it helps keep me organized and inspired.

I used to make a list like this every month back when my kids were really small and I used to get quite a bit done. I'm amazed when I think about this because that was not an easy time, but I know that writing down my goals really helped. It is so easy to let your own creative projects get ignored because life is so full of things you "have" to do. It's also important to make some time for fulfilling and fun tasks that you "get" to do. I hope you will set a goal to accomplish some of your own dreams this month!

April roundup finally done!

Finally got my April roundup done! Here's the month in pictures:

link to photoset

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What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

Caffeine for the Creative Mind – interesting and it did seem to jumpstart my creativity.

I Heard That Song Before by Mary Higgins Clark – I thought this was one of her better books.

I read 3 Harlan Coben books. I really liked Tell No One but I didn’t really care for Gone for Good (too violent for me) and The Final Detail was ok but not as good as Tell No One.

I also read You the Smart Patient which was very educational. I learned that you should only sit on the plastic chairs in an ER (not fabric ones – too many germs) and that you might save money on prescriptions by not using your insurance. I found out that is true when I asked my pharmacist. I’ve been paying a $10 co-pay for a drug refill that the pharmacy would only charge me $4 for. Since I’ve been doing this 2 times a month for about 2 years now, that is a lot of money I could have saved. Of course most prescriptions cost more than the co-pay but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

That is the most reading I have done for personal enjoyment in a long time and I really enjoyed it. Now I would love to find a new mystery series that isn’t too violent or graphic. Any ideas?

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What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

A few episodes of LOST, Mythbusters, and some 3^rd Rock from the Sun. We watched a comedy DVD of Brian Regan which was quite funny.

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What special days did I celebrate and how?

Called my brother on his birthday. Gave my Father-in-law a puzzle for his birthday and we had cake together as a family while we were in Oregon on vacation with the family.

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What gifts did I give and/or receive?

Gave my neighbor a cute little basket of bandanas for her “hats off” party. She has cancer and is getting ready to go through chemo so some neighborhood ladies threw her a party and we all gave her hats and scarves.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

I actually had a pretty bad bacterial infection in my system, probably a result of taking antibiotics last month. It was miserable but I finally got a medication that helped. I’ve also started eating Activa Yogurt each day.

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What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

Went on vacation with my in-laws to Depoe Bay Oregon. We visited an aquarium, went to some very cold beaches, flew kites, and just did a lot of relaxing.

My Mom was here for a visit for the first few days of April. We shopped and ate too much and had a lot of fun.

Went to a NBA playoff game with my hubby (Jazz vs. Rockets). It was a great game, but the Jazz lost by two. Now they are in the next round of the playoffs and they are up against the Lakers. We also watched the Jazz games on tv.

Tended my twin nieces for a few hours on a Saturday morning. They were such cuties!

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What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

We went out for a few meals in Oregon but the only one that was really “blog worthy” was Tidal Raves. It had the most amazing setting the restaurant is on a cliff above the ocean. Good food and great atmosphere!

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What special or unusual purchases did I make?

A brand new car! Got me a new Honda Minivan. Yep, I’m spoiled.

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What were this month's disappointments?

My Dad lost his job in a corporate cutback. My parents have their house up for sale and no job. Scary stuff for them.

Being sick was not cool. My daughter also struggled with her health.

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What were my accomplishments this month?

I feel like I really got a chance to work on my photography skills. It was nice being in such a scenic place for a week (Oregon) and having plenty of time to just keep snapping photos. You can see my vacation photos here if you are interested.

I also felt very inspired by the photochallenge.org April challenge of entropy – decaying or falling apart types of things.

I also took a photo every day to continue on with my goal of a photo a day all year long.

I digi scrapped 21 pages which is the most I’ve done in a long time. Being on vacation with no internet access and not much else to do was a big factor.

One of my digi pages was chosen as Creating Keepsakes Page of the Day.

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Anything else noteworthy to record?

We went to a funeral of one of my husband’s former co-workers and friend of the family. She was very young and it was a sad occasion.

My son finished 2 days of state testing for the IOWA tests. Because we homeschool through a state program he is required to do the state testing. He did a great job!

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I love doing roundups because it forces me to look back on the month and find things that I did actually accomplish. I usually surprise myself when I realize that I accomplished a lot more than I originally thought I did.

Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking

I have some neighborhood friends who want to get into digital scrapbooking. I promised them that I would help them get started but I’ve let everyday life get in the way and I haven’t gotten around to it. Teaching someone to digital scrapbook is a bit tricky though, it’s not like regular scrapbooking where you can just show them the papers and some idea books. With digital there has to be some comfort with using the computer and the big decision is what program to use and the learning curve involved with that. It can be overwhelming for sure so I’m hoping to make this information very accessible here for everyone.

Katie the Scrapbook Lady’s 10 things to know about Digital Scrapbooking:

1.       Get some digital pictures uploaded into your computer, or scan some regular photos to use. You can use your own scanner but if you have a lot of pictures you want in digital form I really recommend using scanmyphotos.com – I was very happy with the results and you can read about my experience here. Don’t worry about having every photo you’ve ever taken organized on your hard drive, just have some photos available to work with to get you started.

2.       Pick a photo editing program to use. This is what you will use for digital scrapbooking and for editing your photos. Even if you decide that you can’t stand digital scrapbooking, you will still be happy to use the program for editing your photos. What, you don’t edit your photos? No worries for now… but I bet you will want to after you see all the cool things you can do with them.  I’ll cover more about that a later post about photography.

I personally learned on Microsoft Digital Image Suite which I still love. But, it’s not being made anymore. The majority of digital scrapbookers use Adobe Photoshop Elements or even the full Photoshop (which is very expensive, I don’t recommend that for beginners). Photoshop Elements is a great program that really has everything you should ever need unless you want to become a digital designer, but don’t put the cart before the horse here!

There are other programs out there and I’m sure most of them are great, I just don’t know much about the other programs so I’m not going to cover them here. You can also buy digital scrapbooking programs at craft stores and even from your local Creative Memories Consultant and these can be a great way to get started. After awhile you will want to branch out beyond these so you can get even more creative.

If you are hesitant to buy a photo editing program right off the bat you can try a free trial period which is a great way to test drive a program.

3.       Learn how to use the photo editing program you pick. This is the most intimidating part of the whole process and it is tempting to want to give up if you over think this step. Don’t panic! It isn’t as bad as it looks, you just need to take it step by step and there is a lot of help out there. And most of it is free!  There are so many resources and tutorials that I’m going to tell you to visit this blog entry for a listing of them.

4.       Find digital designs to use on your pages. There are tons of free ones which you can read about in this entry and then when you’re ready to go shopping I have a huge list of digital scrapbook stores right here.  I really suggest you start with the free stuff so you can minimize your initial investment. I also am a firm believer in keeping things very simple especially in the beginning so don’t worry about putting a ton of embellishments or patterned papers on your first layouts just get familiar with how to put pages together.

As you work on your pages you will need to decide what size of layout you are going to use. If you aren’t sure then you should create them in a bigger size like 12x12 because it is easier to reduce the size of a finished layout than it is to later try and increase the size. You will lose print quality if you try and increase the size too much later on. The most popular scrapbook layout sizes are 12x12, 8x8, 6x6, and 8.5x11 (standard paper size). There are also several smaller brag book sizes to work with. My favorite size is 8x8.

5.       Print your pages. After you have finished some pages you will probably want to print them. I really wasn’t “hooked” on digi scrapping until I printed out some pages and saw how they turned out so I hope you will print some of them. I love to use professional printing for my pages. You can print on your own home printer but you will use a ton of ink and your pictures will have a flat look to them. It’s worth spending the money on printing and you will still be spending less per page than even the most frugal paper scrapbooker because you don’t have to print out your pictures AND buy supplies that you can only use once. You can use digital scrapbook supplies over and over again and even print out multiple copies of the same page (no more duplicate scrapping!)

When you go to print your pages you will need to decide what size of layout you want and what kind of album you want to use. If you are going to be adding pages to an album as you go then you will want to find an album with plenty of page protectors.  I use an 8x8 postbound album for mine – you can read about my albums here. If you are doing a project that has a clear beginning and an end such as an album about a particular vacation, a baby book, or other specialized scrapbook you might want to consider a bound book from Shutterfly – check out these inspiring albums . They are really nice and you can have multiple copies made for gifts.

I print all my layouts in size 8x8 from scrapbookpictures.com . The prices are reasonable and the layouts are mailed to your home. They run sales occasionally so I wait for one of those before ordering. I have also uploaded my pictures to Costco and either picked them up or had them mailed to me. They do a wonderful job also but most Costco photo centers only have canvas sizes of 8x10 or 12x18 so you have to be sure you don’t have your photo fill the entire canvas or it will be distorted.

6.       Share your layouts with others. Besides printing them out, you can email them to your Mom in another state, post them on a family or public blog, post them in a public gallery to get feedback from other digi scrappers or even submit them to magazines. Of course you don’t have to do any of this, the layouts are first and foremost for you and your loved ones, but it can be fun to share them with a larger audience. Just be careful about including any personal information such as full names, addresses, or other info that might be compromising. You should have permission from everyone in the pictures (or their parents) if you want to put the layouts in a public gallery or a magazine. Respect others rights to privacy.

To share with far away friends or family members simply attach the layout to an email like you would a picture. If you are worried about their email capacity you can save a lower resolution version to use for web purposes but if they try and print it out the quality won’t be great.

All blog programs have a way to include picture files so that makes sharing layouts very easy.

My favorite digital galleries are Digi Shop Talk and Designer Digitals but most larger digi sites have their own galleries and communities to participate in.

Here are some links to my own personal galleries:

Katie’s Scrapbook Lady Designs gallery

Katie’s Digi Shop Talk gallery

Katie’s Designer Digitals gallery

7.       Keep looking for new ideas and inspiration. It’s everywhere! I hope you will find a lot of scrapbooking ideas from my blog here but there are plenty of other great resources also. Look through online galleries and save your favorite layouts for a future “scraplift” – yes, it’s ok to copy others, in fact it’s a compliment! Just be sure to give them credit for the original idea if you post your layout online – say something like “this is a lift of this layout by Katie the Scrapbook Lady” ;)

Subscribe to newsletters, most are free.

I have one that you can sign up for here. 

Digi Shop Talk puts out a HUGE newsletter every month – you do have to be a member.

The Shabby Princess has a wonderful newsletter that is really inspiring.

Many other digi sites have their own newsletter so sign up wherever you like to shop so you know about their sales and freebies.

And then there are blogs – tons of them! When you find a scrapbooker or designer who inspires you, check their signature lines for a blog link. Or you can do a google search to try and find them. My very favorite scrapbooking blogs are:

Ali Edwards

Jessica Sprague

Sande Krieger

Sweet Shoppe Designs

Idea Books 4U

Of course I also hope you will read my blog – I try to post something new every day!

8.       Backup! Backup! Backup! With all your photos and layouts on your computer hard drive you may forget about this important step. But what if something happens to your computer? It will. Backup your files regularly! You can backup to cds, dvds, flash drives or even an external hard drive. I would suggest 2 forms of backup when possible in case the first one fails (external hard drives are notorious for this!) Oh, and don’t forget to back up all those digital purchases also – your spending good money on them after all.

I backup all my pictures once a month to cd or dvd. At the end of each year I make a complete year backup of pictures on DVD. I do this as part of my monthly roundup tasks. I’m not as religious about backing up my digital purchases. I try to do a full backup of all my files at least a few times a year. In the meantime I try to backup newer purchases if I get a lot of new stuff.

I also upload ALL of my photos to flickr.com. I have a pro account there so I can upload an unlimited number of files. I currently have more than 6,400 pictures uploaded there and I’m just getting started! Most of them are marked private so only my family can view them. However, I participate in flickr as a community so I have a lot of public photos stored there as well. There are plenty of other photo sites you can use but I LOVE flickr because with a pro account you can access the full size resolution photo at any time. See my blog entry here for more details. For me this is like having an external hard drive that is available anywhere I have an internet connection.

9.       Organization is important. Once you are digital, you don’t have to worry about taking over the dining room table with scrapbook supplies anymore. You don’t have to hunt for brads and stickers in your craft closet. But you do have to be organized – at least on your computer. You are still welcome to have dishes piled up and laundry waiting in hampers though, I know I do!

What does it mean to be organized on your computer? It means that you need to know where to find things. Just like socks should go in a sock drawer, you should have files for photos and digital designs. Some people buy programs for this but I just prefer to use the basic system on my computer for this. All you need to know is how to create a new folder (just  use the right click button on your mouse and choose “new folder”) and how to change the view in the folder (go to “view” at the top of the screen in the folder and pick either “thumbnails” or “filmstrip”) so you can easily view what is in your folder.

I’ll show you more about it in this post about organizing.

10.   Have fun! Don’t stress about creating the perfect page, just enjoy the pages you make. Keep the focus on the photos and the words that go with them and the layouts you create will be meaningful treasures. Get as creative as you want to but don’t let the pressure of needing to create a “masterpiece” each time slow you down. There is no way you can scrapbook every picture. I don’t even try to do that. Just have fun recording your memories and sharing them with others. That is what it’s all about!