Hi friends!

As you can see, my daughter's wedding was full of happiness and love. That's me with Megan in the first photo, the bride with two cousins (one she gained by marriage) in the second pic, and the new husband and wife preparing to leave for their weeklong honeymoon at Disney World in the last (hence the ears on the top hat and veil)!

And I'm thrilled to report that I'm keeping up with the scrapbook album I began for the kids when they got engaged. I have room for about seven more layouts, and in creating this memory album I've discovered something about what kind of memory keeper I am. On some pages I simply want to put a bunch of photos with captions so I remember all the details. On other pages, I like to put just one or two photos and then play on the layout (adding embellishments, color, etc.) 

So here's the question: What do you do with your layouts? Come to the forum and let's talk about these two different ways of memory keeping.

Peace and love,
 Patty

With Halloween just around the corner, I decided to make cards for family and friends, but wanted the process to be quick and simple. With premade cards as the base, one sheet of Making Memories patterned Halloween paper and complementary 3-D Halloween embellishments, and orange and black cardstock, I created six cards super fast. Here are three of them. Quick and simple, for sure, and just the thing for sending trick-or-treat greetings!

Hope your weekend includes some Halloween fun!

Best,
Beth

I have wanted to test the digi-waters for quite some time, so when I found Picnik.com, I was excited to try my hand at digital or hybrid scrapbooking. This free online site allows you to download pics from flickr, picasa, facebook, photobucket or your computer. All of the basic tools are free, but if you want something a little more advanced, it’s only $24.95 for the year.

I had to download the latest flash player, but it was painless and quick, and I was able to begin editing in minutes. At Picnik.com you can edit, crop, resize, sharpen, delete red eye and use other basic tools. The real fun comes in when you add effects, text and shapes to your photos. There are really a lot of possibilities, and I had such a fun time exploring the different effects. Once you’ve created the effect you want, you can save the image to your computer, share them on your blog or print them whenever you get a chance.

If you have drooled over layouts like the one in Master ’08 Tracie Radtke’s last blog, now is your chance to experiment with hybrid scrapbooking and all-digital layouts. I think Picnik is a great option if you want to experiment without investing a lot of money into a photo-editing program. I really liked the results, given the fact that I was able to do everything online without downloading or investing any money. If you decide to test the waters and want to talk about it, check out the Testing the Digi-waters thread in the forum. Let me know what you think about picnik.com, or share information about other photo sites you love.

Top Left:
Eating one of my favorite pasta dishes while I was home visiting my family.
Left: A picture of my dad who is a photo-journalist and constantly taking pics, but rarely in front of the camera.

Create something, Inspire everyone.
GinaMarie

While most people's thoughts are on Halloween costumes, pumpkin carving, and trick or treating, I'm looking a little further ahead to Christmas. It always sneaks up on me, mainly because I so love fall, Halloween and particularly Thanksgiving, and I get swept away by all things autumnal.

Before I know it (and I should know it sooner because holiday decorations and catalogs are already everywhere!), it's December, and I'm trying to cram shopping, baking, gift buying, card writing, etc. in among work and everyday life. Even though we're a small family with a pretty laid-back approach to the holidays, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and a bit frantic.   

Last year, I took a more leisurely approach, and it helped immensely. I went to Organized Christmas and used its 6-week organization plan to complete most of my holiday planning and preparation by the first weekend in December.

This free site offers more than 50 printable forms, calendars and checklists for creating a personal holiday planner. I'm reusing the holiday planner I made last year from Christmas scrapbook paper, chipboard and binder rings, and I'll just print out and add in the 2007 forms. (For an even easier planner solution, just use a 3-ring binder.)

While I didn't follow the Organized Christmas plan to the letter, it offered a step-by-step big picture that helped me ensure that I wouldn't overlook anything I felt was important to our family and our traditions.

This year's program kicks off October 21 with "Get Organized Week." Wanna join me in a more organized Christmas? In the meantime, pass the candy corn ...

Best,
Beth