Why Teens Are Choosing To Stay Home On Halloween Night

There are countless indications that today’s kids are growing up faster than ever. Take a new toy for babies one mom nicknamed “babies first cubicle,” complete with a faux smartphone and Post-Its, which she sees as pushing office culture on the diaper-wearing set, parents.com reported. Flash forward a few years, and many of us parents find that our daughters, who just outgrew playing with dolls, are begging to go to Sephora for skin care products with price tags to rival a fancy dinner for four. Meanwhile, teen boys are singularly focused on building cologne collections that look like the display … Continue reading →

Scrap Your Magical Spring Break Adventure

If your family’s spring break escape includes a sprinkling of pixie dust, a pair of glass slippers and a castle fit for a princess, then you will likely be documenting every magical moment. No trip to a Disney theme park can take place without snapping at least a few hundred photos and collecting a mountain of memorabilia. When you return from your fantasy vacation you’ll want create a scrapbook detailing all of the fun had with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and the rest of the crew. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend a ton of money crafting a Disney-themed memory … Continue reading →

Oh Baby!

Baby scrapbooks don’t have to cost an arm and a leg to make. While, there are dozens of budget-busting elements you can add to your memory book, frugal crafters have affordable options as well. For starters, the Internet is teeming with free items you can print in the comfort of your own home. Scrapbooking websites are filled with an array of free baby book printables, including, but not limited to worksheets, special occasion pages, growth records, decorative paper, quotes and poems. Printable worksheets allow you to document your child’s milestones in an organized manner. For example, rather than randomly jot … Continue reading →

Experiment with Different Shapes

If you have been waiting for a big sale on holiday-themed scrapbooking supplies, Michaels has just granted your Christmas wish. The mega-craft store is offering a slew of savings, plus major money-saving coupons which can be used to purchase seasonally inspired scrapbooking items, from albums to paper and just about everything in between. Once you get your holiday haul home, consider experimenting with new designs as you piece together your layouts. For example, while you could easily pick-up a bunch of scrapbooking photo frames, stickers, stamps and die-cuts in fun holiday shapes, it doesn’t take that much effort to make … Continue reading →

Bask in the Blaze

Mother Nature is getting ready to set herself ablaze. In just a few weeks the majority of the country will be blanketed with fiery red, orange and golden-leaved trees. This is the perfect time to capture stunning photos of fall foliage. And what better place to display your eye-popping shots than in a scrapbook? Fall-themed embellishments are readily available in craft and scrapbook supply shops across the nation, from September through November. These stickers, stamps and die cuts can really help perk up a page filled with pictures of your kids frolicking in fallen leaves or gorgeous landscape photos taken … Continue reading →

Too Cool for School

My 7 going on 17-year-old daughter thinks she’s too cool for just about everything these days, including third grade. Fortunately, I am not letting her attitude affect my tradition of documenting each and every detail associated with the first day of school. Classes resume next week. Yes, summer is almost officially over in our neck of the woods. My digital camera is as ready as my daughter’s new backpack and individual labeled No.2 pencils. I am planning to capture the day live as it unfolds in front of my lens. Then, as I have done for the past three years, … Continue reading →

Locks of Love… and Hate

When was the last time you had a great hair day? Did you document your perfect do for posterity sake? Good hair days are an extremely rare occurrence in my life. In fact, I didn’t even like my tresses on my wedding day. I neglected to schedule a styling dry run prior to the big day and it showed. Needless to say, I have plenty of scrapbook layouts featuring photos of me with hair styles that I absolutely hate. Conversely, my young daughter barely has a day where a single strand of her hair is out of place. It’s just … Continue reading →

Busy Summer Scrapbooking

According to the owner of my local scrapbook supply shop, summer is her slowest time of the year. Ironically, summer is when I do the bulk of my memory book-making. Perhaps, it’s because my daughter is off of school during the summer and we tend to craft more when she is home. However, I have a feeling that the reason I complete more scrapbooks in the summer months is because I take more pictures during June, July and August than other months. While the rest of the world puts their cameras to use extensively during the holidays (October, November and … Continue reading →

Rope ‘Em In

Don’t underestimate the passion people have for horses. I recently posted a blog about crafting a layout featuring photos of my daughter taking horseback riding lessons. Who knew I would receive such an enthusiastic response from fellow scrappers? I truly underestimated how many crafty folks out there hopped on the scrapbooking bandwagon exclusively to showcase their love for equines. I didn’t realize that some horse shows actually gift memory albums to winners along with traditional prizes, so the recipient can display their photos, ribbons and other memorabilia in an attractive book. The page design I constructed featuring my daughter’s first … Continue reading →

Horsing Around

My daughter recently attended a horse-themed birthday party for her friend Kira. Kira’s dad is a veterinarian and the family owns two horses that they board at a farm just outside of town. To celebrate Kira’s eighth birthday, her parents invited eight girls, including my daughter, to go horseback riding at the farm. Needless to say, my child is now hooked on horses. In fact, following the party, I finagled a way to get her enrolled in “sample” riding lessons without committing to the entire three-month, $400 program. My daughter’s lessons are limited, so I’ve been taking as many photos … Continue reading →