Photos of my Papa... soon to be scrapbooked

I am not sure about you but whenever I have lost someone, I tend to run (not walk) to get all the pictures out I have of that person. I find it very therapeutical. I have always loved taking pictures, every since my first camera in 2nd grade!

I always feel better seeing pictures of the ones I have lost. It reminds me of special memories and times with them. When I lost my Papa in August, I was very heartbroken. My grandparents have always been very special to me. Ever since I was little I would choose to spend time with them! We went to church together and I loved taking the bus to their house. Alzheimers is a devasting disease and I had to watch my grandparents suffer through this disease together. For my grandma, it required a lot of LOVE and patience. They have that though since they were married for 64 years! For my Papa, he knew he was losing his memory and was very frustrated. Once I got over the initial shock of the day he forgot who I was, I made the most of all my moments with him. Even though he didn't remember me most of the time, I know he enjoyed me walking and talking with him. I would pull out pictures and show him the house he built, his 5 children, 9 grandchildren and multiple great-grandchildren.

I still remember one of the last days I spent with him. We were enjoying some outdoor music at a party my mom had put together. He was HAPPY. He was telling me about living in Cape Cod and his wife having 5 children. It was the first time in a few years that I saw his eyes filled with life. He was cracking jokes and was back to his old self. The picture I took of him, was the one used in his obituary and at the Memorial Service. I am so thankful for my memories of him

So what does all this have to do with Scrapbooking? Scrapbooking is a WONDERFUL way to preserve your photos and memories. I am working on some new pages with some of these photos of my Papa and look forward to adding them to my album.

I am so happy for MEMORIES, pictures and for my family!

I Miss you & Love You Papa!

Week 6 of 52 Challenges

I think it is great to set a scrapbooking goal each year! I know we have had a few months where we challenge ourselves to scrapbook a layout each day that month. This builds a lot of momentum but then after the month is over, it is easy to lose the scrapbooking "mojo".

So this year we are doing 52 weeks of Challenges. Every week we are posting a new challenge. The goal is to help you scrapbook 52 layouts! So far, here are the challenges we have had:

WEEK 1 - NEW YEAR - It's a new year! I want to help you scrapbook your memories from this year. It is January 3rd! While the memories are fresh in your head, scrapbook how you celebrated New Year's Eve or New Years Day this year. Even if you went to bed early - you may want to scrapbook why?

WEEK 2 - FAVORITE THINGS - Scrapbook some of your favorite things right now in your life. It may be your computer, scrapbooking, starbucks (not people but things), food, Scrapbook a layout about one or a group of your friends!

WEEK 3 - FRIENDS - Scrapbook a layout about one or a group of your friends!

WEEK 4 - BORDERS - This week use at least 2 different borders on your layout! They can be short borders, long borders, ribbon borders, paper borders, punched borders, etc. :)

WEEK 5 - MEMORIES - This is a pretty vague challenge, but today I want you to scrapbook particular memories. Maybe it is a photo collage of memories from over the years (this is what I did) or maybe its a childhood memory you have not documented yet.

WEEK 6 - ANIMAL - This week create a layout about an animal! It can be one of your pets or even a trip to the zoo! Make sure you include some journaling!

Examples of these challenges to come! Hopefully one or all of these will challenge you to do something new for your albums!

JANUARY CROP!

We are so excited to be having crops every other month! It is always fun to hold virtual crops online but even better when we get to do them in person! This last crop was on January 29th.

We had a fun group of girls! Everyone got something done and we all had so much fun scrapbooking and laughing together! As you can see in the picture girls, scrapbooking, photos, starbucks!!

We even had Addie & Dawn drive up from Roseburg just for the crop!!!

So thank you Carrie, Paige, Addie, Dawn, Wendy, Kris, Jan, Jill, Brittany, Jenny, Angie, Kristin, Holly, Nadine, AJ for coming to our crop! We also had some visitors: Larry, Eric, kiddos, Carmen & Jenny! We are looking forward to the next one!

My girlies :) 3 peas in a Pod... 3 Amigos :)

A few of the original PersonalScrapper girls! Dawn, (me), Kris, Addie & Wendy! So fun to scrapbook again with you girls!

Message board friends Paige and Addie got to meet for the first time!

Lots of chit chatting and scrapbooking!

FEBRUARY 2011 KIT!!! *Scroll down for a giveaway*

Sometimes after the hustle and bustle of shipping a kit out, I stand back amazed! I have been putting kits together for over 7 years. This is monthly kit number 87! I think I have done the math wrong before. I started in December of 2003 with kits.

I feel very fortunate about my job! It may not be the highest paid job or easy (it is a little labor intensive) but there is no doubt it is rewarding! Not only do I get to scrapbook my family but I help lots of other scrapbookers preserve their family memories. I have made so many friends through scrapbooking also. I consider our message board to be like the "Pen Pals" of this decade. It is so fun to meet other women all over the world and share this love of scrapbooking! I am feeling super blessed this month about PersonalScrapper.com and where we are at!
Ok, now on to February 2011 kit. This month we are using WeRMemory Keepers Be My Valentine paper line. If you know me, you know that I like a versatile kit. I don't just do "theme" kits. If I pick a line that is Valentiney, I make sure that other layouts can be created with the kit.

Here are the layouts we have done with the kit so far!
My scanner is not scanning colors right but i still wanted to give you an idea of what we created.

The kit comes with a variety of glitter brads from American Crafts. These were an easy way to add a little bling to my page! I also loved the little cards on the WeR papers.

Andrew loved riding this bike in the snow. This page is simple but I liked the white background. I wish my scanner would not cut off die-cut papers. This paper was perfect for this photo of my hubby & I. The ribbon that comes in the kit is wired and very easy to fold, etc.

Loved these photos of Jenny's! She always does a fantastic job of layering her papers and embellishments! The first one, she shows a cute way to decorate the die-cut with hearts and a brad. On the second one, i love how she framed the photos with the ruffled ribbon!

These photos are so fun! I love the papers and the cute ruffled ribbon! Jenny cut out the hearts and layered them!

This page by Carrie has so many different elements to it! I love the photos (precious!). She used great papers together and added all the perfect touches of embellishments.

I love how Carrie layered the papers on this layout! She also was very creative and cut the diecut and embellished it! Love the inking too! Great family photo!

First off, this photo is gorgeous!!! I love that it is 8x12 and goes all the way across the paper. The embellishments look great with this page!

Thanks for reading this far down!

**Leave a comment before February 8 and you could win a set of some of the embellishments used in this kit!