WeScrap

Scrapbooking for the ill.....

A Clive mother helped line up 40 volunteers to compile scrapbooks this month for a woman diagnosed with terminal cancer.

As Lori Jackson of Altoona grappled with her diagnosis, she thought of the thousands of photos and memorabilia of her three children she had yet to put into scrapbooks.

Leaders of her church, Grace Church in Des Moines, asked congregation member Amber Gustafson of Ankeny to help Jackson's family. Gustafson is a Creative Memories scrapbooking consultant.

Then Monica Artino of Clive, whose children attend Des Moines Christian School with Jackson's three children, stepped in to help, too.

"Everyone wanted to do something for her. Lori is such a 'doer' and is very involved," Artino said. "The first thing you think of is to take meals to the family, but we wanted to do something that was her heartbeat, something she really wanted. We saw on her Web site at CaringBridge (www.caringbridge.org) that she wanted help with her scrapbooks."

Artino called Des Moines Christian School to secure a room for people to work in, finding donations of food and people to pitch in.

"I knew that the number of people to help would be 40. I don't know why, but I just knew it, and we ended up with exactly 40 people," Artino said. "My local Hy-Vee donated money for whatever food or supplies we needed. Then Shane's, a new barbecue place, donated 40 full meals for the workers."

Even though Artino has only done two pages in her oldest daughter's scrapbook and admits to not being a "big scrapbooker," she knew she could help organize the effort behind the scenes. She teamed up with Gustafson to make the scrapbooking happen. After putting the word out about the project, Artino said she received many e-mails, at least one-fourth of them coming from strangers who just wanted to help.

Gustafson said Jackson's family had purchased some scrapbooking materials to get things rolling, but relatives weren't sure where to begin.

"It really was a total miracle. We ended up with eight books completed in the end for Lori and her family. That first night we worked from 3 p.m. to midnight, with some people never having scrapbooked before, but wanted to just help," Gustafson said. "Another Creative Memories consultant whose kids attend Des Moines Christian helped us get a plan together and this group of 40 wonderful women took 10,000 prints and 5,000 pieces of memorabilia and got everything organized."

Gustafson said the women probably worked from 80 to 100 hours earlier this month.

"It was a huge task, getting everything sorted and then making the pages," she said. "We had several group work sessions, then some women took pages home to work on. At the same time we were working on these, according to Lori's online journal, she had some really good days. I want to think that this took a load off Lori's mind and helped lift her spirits."

While Jackson's wish to have her scrapbooks completed was fulfilled, the volunteers unknowingly created another legacy.

"God provided everything for us, from the food to the workers to the supplies. In fact, we ended up with a huge amount of leftover supplies, so several of us who participated in this decided to form a group that would serve as a resource for hospices and hospitals who have patients in a similar situation," Gustafson said.

"We would love to continue doing this for families with a terminally ill loved one on a donation basis as a way to give back. I've heard it said that when someone dies, a library burns down, because of all the stories and memories that perish with that person. If we can help create a tangible reminder of that person, we'd like to do it."

Memorytrends Conference & Expo 2007

Memorytrends Conference & Expo today announced that the show has won a Bronze 2007 FAME Award from Folio: magazine recognizing the best in magazine events. The FAME Award follows Memorytrends’ inclusion in Tradeshow Week magazine’s “Fastest 50” list of the fastest growing shows in America two years running, and echoes the overwhelmingly positive sentiments expressed by Memorytrends 2006 attendees. Memorytrends, the world’s most comprehensive event dedicated to scrapbooking and papercrafts, will be held September 18-20 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, Las Vegas, with the education program beginning September 16.

“Memorytrends offers the best conference and education program in the industry, and the show is thriving,” said Tina Battock, Group Publisher at CKMedia, which presents Memorytrends. “The 2006 show demonstrated our commitment to creating a positive environment exclusively for the scrapbooking and papercraft industry. The FAME Award underscores the success of Memorytrends and we are thrilled to have won this award.”

Memorytrends 2006 attracted manufacturers and retailers of all sizes from throughout the scrapbooking and papercraft industry and featured a record number of sold-out conference sessions. The 2007 conference program promises to be even stronger, and will reflect the content of Memorytrends magazine, the new CKMedia publication geared toward the scrapbooking retailer and manufacturer that debuted to rave reviews. And in response to attendee and exhibitor demand for an East Coast venue, Memorytrends recently announced that the show will move to the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida beginning in 2008.

“A show dedicated to scrapbooking strengthens the industry,” added Kim Guymon, founder of ScrapBiz, a small business incubator dedicated to helping scrappers set up their own scrapbook business. “At Memorytrends, I can reconnect with my industry contacts, I get fresh ideas and I have a chance to participate in great educational opportunities. By focusing on our industry exclusively, Memorytrends offers a different approach than other venues, and it is one that the scrapbooking industry is hungry for.”

Memorytrends Conference & Expo is the must-attend event for companies that sell, manufacture, market or promote scrapbooking and papercraft products and services. Because the show focuses exclusively on the scrapbooking and papercraft industry, Memorytrends provides exhibitors and retailers with a unique opportunity to be surrounded by like-minded business people in an environment created especially for them.

About Memorytrends

Memorytrends Conference & Expo, online at www.memorytrendsexpo.com, is the world’s leading and most comprehensive event dedicated to scrapbooking and paper crafts. This award-winning conference brings together scrapbooking retailers, gift and card shop owners and managers, and vendors of scrapbooking products and services. It is the #1 marketplace for companies that sell, manufacture, market or promote scrapbooking products and services. Memorytrends Conference & Expo is presented by Craftrends magazine (www.craftrends.com) and produced by Universal Event Management (http://uemanagement.com/).

"Expanding the passion..."

What I did to expand the passion...

By NSA Member Jan #4152

In September 2006, I went looking for other scrapbooking friends. I started an online/local group here in my hometown, the Spartanburg Scrapper and Stampers. I knew that I wanted to have a group in which new and seasoned scrappers would enjoy participating and one where they would look forward to our next crop or event. I also knew that I wanted to make our group special, not only expanding the passion, but giving back to our community as well. With the help of some wonderful ladies and especially Robin Novak our assistant organizer, we managed to raise over $900 for our local Safe Homes with our Scrapping From The Heart Charity Crop. For the first time ever attempting anything like this, we were so pleased with the results. With that charity event, we gained several new members who are also interested in growing our group and sharing with others our passion for scrapping. We plan another Scrapping From The Heart Charity Crop in October on top of other events coming up for the spring and summer. Through this group of ladies passionate for scrapping, we're spreading the word, doing our best to let everyone know the joy of scrapping, the joy of friendship and fellowship, and the joy of preserving memories.

Piecing Together The Past

Posted 2007-03-26

Scrapbookers Start Club To Preserve Family Memories

By Kelly Jasper

TIMBERVILLE "I’m finally getting them into an album," Saunders said, laughing as she explained her wedding was eight years ago. It’s an all too familiar story, said Saunders, 55, of Paw Paw, W.Va. "Life just goes by fast sometimes." Photos piled up, she explained, and slipped to the back of her mind. Until, that is, she started scrapbooking. Saunders and her daughter, Michelle Foltz, embraced the new craft together about four years ago. The two took their passion public when Foltz decided the area needed its own scrapbooking club. She signed up on a popular networking site, Meetup.com, three months ago and is now meeting with a group every month in Timberville. Collective Cropping Through Meetup.com, a dozen members joined and several meet every month for hours-long scrapbooking sessions, said Foltz, 36, of Timberville. "It goes by really fast," said Foltz, who made four pages for her scrapbook during their four-hour meeting on Sunday. It was the group’s third meeting so far. They plan to meet the fourth Sunday of every month in a meeting room of the Plains District Community Center. It’s a spacious place, with room to fan out stockpiles of supplies, without worrying about the roaming hands of little ones, Foltz said. "When you have children, you can’t leave it out at home," Foltz said, pointing to her collection of funky scissors, inkpads and a paper cutter. That’s part of why she started the group earlier this year. "It’s a way to get out of the house and meet people," Foltz said. "It’s just more fun to do together." Member Olivia Conley agreed. While she’s been scrapbooking for about five years, "because of the group, I’ve gotten into it," said Conley, 54, of Dayton. But the benefits of collective scrapping hardly stop there, they said. Advice For Newbies "One of the biggest advantages is sharing tools," Foltz said. "Like today, I learned to emboss for the first time," borrowing the heating gun of veteran scrapbooker Anne See, a Broadway resident. Sharing is just perfect for "newbies" who want to try the craft out before committing, Foltz added. "It can get very expensive, but a lot of discount stores are starting to sell supplies," Foltz said. Emma Norton, of Harrisonburg, is new to the craft, but she’s already learned that resourcefulness can cut costs. "You can use trash, anything, if you’re creative enough," she said. Inspiring each other’s creativity is another reason group members said they didn’t want to just scrap from home. "You just walk around and look at their stuff," Saunders said. And they often do, comparing notes, techniques and supplies, as well as the memories behind the photos they so creatively want to preserve. That desire to preserve the past drives scrapbookers like Foltz. "It’s for my kids," she said. "I want something they can have and look back on." Saunders says most people have a similar desire — it’s why they keep shoeboxes of photos in the first place. But now, more than ever, scrapbooking is made more accessible with so many resources, and the support of groups like this one, she said. "Anybody can do it," Saunders said. "You don’t even know how creative you are until you get started." Jenny Foltz, of Timberville, who crafted Halloween-themed pages on Sunday, agreed. "It’s for the artist who can’t draw or paint," she said as she packed up bags of supplies. Their four hours went by quick, Foltz said. But, "there are always more photos to take." They’ll be back next month, she said, armed with another shoebox of photos to preserve. — Maria Saunders smiled as she thumbed through wedding photos, pausing to glue her favorites to a sheet of dark crimson paper.

Scrap Happy!

By Greg Miller

Star Staff

[email protected]

    "We offer a wide variety of scrapbooking, paper crafting, and card making supplies -- patterned papers, cardstock, Prima flowers, Cricut, tools, ribbon, stickers, stamps, etc.," said Angie Ellis, who along with her husband, Tom, own Scrap Happy.

    "We also offer classes, crops, yard sales (scrapbook items that our customers on longer need -- at bargain prices), monthly make and takes, and All About Me Club (an opportunity for scrapbookers to focus on an album about themselves)."

    Memories from a variety of events can be preserved through scrapbooking. These include highlights from the lives of children (birth, school years, birthdays, sports, Vacation Bible School), vacations, trips, holidays, family events -- reunions, family history (heritage album), faith-related events, wedding events -- bridal shower/bachelor party, proposal, wedding, wedding trip, anniversaries, birthdays (adults), sporting events, any event that you take pictures at -- or even events without pictures.

    "A good way to start is to choose a topic -- choose your pictures of this event -- lay out your memories on paper," Angie said. "If you are new to scrapbooking, we offer a beginners' class. Check the Web site or come by the store for a schedule. If you find yourself working on a project and need advice or just support, bring your album and stop by the store," Ellis said. "We are happy to help any way we can!"

    Scrapbooking, Angie says, is "definitely" a good way to preserve historical type events such as family histories, genealogies, and military careers. "All of our life events will become 'history,'" she said. "Preserving these memories for your family/children is a perfect fit for scrapbooking.

    "An album about 'you' the scrapbooker is considered an unusual item. But the All About Me (AAM) or Book of Me (BOM) albums are an insight into your life for your children, your family, or just for you!"

    Memorial/commemorative albums are important scrapbooking tools. "I personally wanted a memorial to the lives that were lost on 9/11/01, so I have an album in progress of the memories/thoughts from different people," Angie said.

    During the Friday night crops (Crop the Night Away -- with three or more registered), the store will remain open during the crop -- normally 7 p.m.-midnight. A crop is a great way to gather ideas and meet other scrapbookers. A crop is a block of time set aside to work on your projects. Unlike a class, crops do not involve instruction on a topic. Two or more crops are offered each month.

    A "Scrap-Over" is featured 3-4 times per year. Participants can crop from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon (the store closes at midnight, participants can leave their items and return the next day).

    "We offer free use of our crop area, when there isn't a scheduled event," Angie said. The crop area can be booked for private crops or parties.

    Don't be surprised to see a man behind the counter at Scrap Happy. Tom is behind the counter most weekdays. Angie normally is there on Saturdays and evenings.

    Scrap Happy opened at their first location on Rogosin Drive on July 5, 2005. The shop moved downtown on Sept. 5, 2006.

    Scrap Happy is located at 453 E. E St. The shop is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. The store will be closed March 19-24 and will reopen Monday, March 26.

    For more information, call 542-0056, log onto www.scraphappytn.com, or e-mail [email protected].

The Diamond Inside the Rock

by: NSA member Carolyn Garland

Being talented at scrapbooking may be my gift from God, but that is not all God means for it to be.  God has also used my scrapbooking as a way of healing my hurts, finding my self, and returning my joy. 

Recently on my road of life I have gone for a little detour.  On the outside of my situation you could say it’s a very sad thing, but under the hood God was just planning for a little “tune-up”.

About three months ago I found out I was pregnant with my third baby; I was extremely excited and already full of love for my new little one.  Little did I know that a month later I would be told that my baby was no longer living.  Naturally I knew that I would start to pull away and hide myself from my friends, my responsibilities, and my hobbies because of the depression that would ensue… so I planned to do the opposite!

I started going thru the photos of my 9 month old at birth and with tears in my eyes I planned to scrap my way thru it!  Merely two days after I lost my baby I had a scheduled crop at my church that I was determined not to talk my way out of.  Just looking at the photos of my son gave me feelings of sadness for the baby I didn’t get to know, but I was also overwhelmed with extreme joy in the babies that God has already blessed me with.

I realized that as I scrapped those photos that day, God was using it to have me re-live a blessing in my life.  Instead of focusing on the hard times, He had me residing in the delight that is not only scrapbooking my children, but it is also rediscovering the joy sometimes hidden inside us.

My encouragement to anyone who experiences loss… do not run from it, instead let it help you embrace what God has placed in our lives and hearts to expose the diamond inside the rock.

Lettering Delights - Special give-away of seven items.

OREM, Utah, United States 3/12/2007 Lettering Delights, developer of online full-color alphabets and creative delights browser, announced today that the company is celebrating its 7th anniversary with a special give-away of seven items. . "We are thrilled to celebrate our seven years in business and would like to thank our Lettering Delights users all over the world who have helped us reach this milestone with this special give-away," stated Doug Larson, founder of Lettering Delights’ parent company, Inspire Graphics. “We look forward to many more years of creating unique downloadable graphics that will exceed our customers' expectations." The “alphabet” is the company’s flagship product.  Larson defines the product:  "Alphabets take fonts to the extreme. Each letter is a full-color illustration or image that can be used with any creative project (titles, embellishments, etc.) Used in tandem with our creative browser, Alphabets are quick and easy to use." Lettering Delights’ customers have the ability to type a word or phrase they need in full-color and are able to print it off and have it ready to immediately embellish their craft or scrapbooking projects. While Lettering Delights prided itself on selling lettering products, like fonts as well as alphabets, it has enjoyed the recent success of offering complimentary clipart in their Journaling Delights sets. “Our customers were very anxious to get the clipart embellishments that match their favorite alphabets,” says Larson.  In conjunction with the anniversary, Lettering Delights has seven fun and creative suggestions for alphabets and clipart.  Log on to www.creativedelights.com/letteringdelights/celebrate7.php to see finished examples. One:  Make decorative recipe cards or a recipe scrapbook.  Not only is this project a fun way to showcase your favorite recipes in a decorative way that looks great in your kitchen, it makes wonderful gifts for family and friends.  A good suggestion is to make your page smaller than the traditional 12”x12” scrapbook size.  If you use regular letter-sized, 8.5”x11” paper, you won’t need to trim and it fits nicely into most kitchen shelves or recipe book holders.  If you don’t want to go all out and do the whole book, just make a cute and creative card to accompany a cupcake or another homemade treat from your kitchen. Lettering Delights’ Journaling Delights sets have several pre-designed photo boxes and tags that would work perfectly for a recipe.  Two: Make a creative idea binder.  For creative people, this is a perfect place to store your imaginative ideas that you want to remember.  Instead of just folding over page corners in your magazines and catalogs, cut out or copy the images and adhere them to pages in your binder.  Have plenty of blank sheets for taking notes on ideas you want to remember when you are out shopping or searching the web.  Include some envelope pages too for clippings too big to adhere to a page.  Having a “one-stop shopping” area for your creative eye saves a lot of time in the long run.  Three:  Don’t just send a boring e-mail or letter to family and friends.  Let your creativity shine by creating a newsletter that is a work of art.  If you do it by hand, make sure you scan in a copy so you can either mail it to others or keep one for yourself.  Back your photos with our Lettering Delights photo ploppers or Journaling Delights and include appropriate clipart to embellish.  Four:  You don’t have to be an artist to make your own cards.  Not only does Lettering Delights sell ready-to-print cards, you can use the elements of a Journaling Delights set to create a card in a matter of minutes.  Use one of the journaling boxes and a matching alphabet or font of your choice, print, fold, and you have a personalized card that looks like you spent hours.  Five: One of the easiest and most fun things to create as a little gift to brighten someone’s day is a special candy bar to fit the need, whatever it is. (When does chocolate not fit the need?).  Choose a Lettering Delights digital background paper to wrap the candy bar and conceal any original wrapping.  Then use a Lettering Delights alphabet to personalize the top.  If this project seems too complicated or time consuming for you… try a ready-made Lettering Delights candy bar wrapper.  There are many designs and themes to choose from to suit your needs. Six: Make your chore chart something fun to look at.  A chore is a chore, but the chore chart can sure make chores look more fun.  Giving your children something colorful and creative to fill in might be just the motivation they need to get their chores done.  Seven:  Make a small gift look more regal by adding a personalized gift tag.  You can make one from scratch or get a head start with a Lettering Delights Journaling Delight set.  A simple candle, a home-baked good, even a small candy looks a lot more thoughtful with a special gift tag. Download Lettering Delights special 7th anniversary super seven party gift at www.creativedelights.com/letteringdelights/celebrate7gifts.php. About Lettering Delights Lettering Delights offers thousands of creative products at a great value. The huge selection includes scrapbooking fonts, colorful alphabets, printable designs and the free Creative Delights Companion software program. Visit them online at www.LetteringDelights.com.

Project is a gift from Heaven

By Karen Meiman

In August 2002, Mike and Lori Baker anxiously awaited the birth of a baby girl.

Lori, a social worker, was 20 weeks along in her pregnancy. The nursery was decorated. A baby bed was in place.

Mike and Lori talked about the hopes and dreams they had for the baby who would soon join big brother, Austin, in the busy Baker home in Boone County.

But on a weekday evening, Lori placed a Barney video in the VCR for Austin and began to prepare dinner. She sensed something was wrong, then began to bleed.

Lori's father-in-law attempted to rush her to a Cincinnati hospital, but traffic congestion forced them off Interstate 75 and into the emergency room at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Edgewood, Ky. Lori was admitted, placed on bed rest. For a week, her and her infant girl's condition seemed stable, but Lori's water broke and her baby girl was stillborn.

The dreams Lori and Mike had for their baby girl died with her.

The couple named their baby Heaven. They dressed her in a tiny pink dress and hat. They baptized her, cuddled her, took pictures, grieved and said their goodbyes.

"She had blondish, brown hair and fingernails," said Mike. "She weighed less than a pound, but was this perfectly developed little human being."

Mike and Lori decided to bury Heaven in a special plot for infants who die at St. Elizabeth Hospital before, during or just after birth.

The hospital dedicated that plot in St. Mary's Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, Ky., in 1989 so that each small life could be remembered and have an individual, final resting place.

The Bakers held a memorial service at Heaven's grave and purchased a small headstone in her honor, but after months of grieving for her daughter, Lori wanted to do more.

"When we went to visit Heaven's grave, we noticed that a lot of the graves didn't have a headstone, they just had a metal plate with a number on it. We realized that a lot of families couldn't afford to purchase a headstone or the pain was too great for them to consider one," said Lori. "We wanted to help these families acknowledge their infant's short time on Earth."

That's when Lori and her sister-in-law, Susan Baker, a scrapbook enthusiast, decided to host a fund-raiser.

For the past four years, the Bakers, their family, friends and parents who have lost infants, have raised nearly $9,000 for the St. Elizabeth Infant Loss Memorial Fund.

The First Church of Christ in Burlington, Ky., where the Bakers attend church, annually open their doors at no cost. Mike and Lori's family cook breakfast and lunch for the crowd who come to a day of scrapbooking classes and sessions. They solicit businesses for door prizes and donations.

"Sometimes, it is a test of faith," says Mike, who annually fears that not enough help will arrive or donations will be made. "But in the end, everything seems to come together."

For the 34-year-old Bakers, laboring for the St. Elizabeth Infant Loss Memorial Fund is simple.

They want to give back to a hospital, its exceptional pastoral staff and a unique program that assisted them during the most heart-wrenching life experience they have faced. They want to enlighten others about the pain both a father and mother experience when losing an infant, even in the earliest months of pregnancy.

The Bakers also want to remember Heaven. And they want their children Austin, 6, and Rachel, 3, to know about Heaven.

Mike, a computer analyst, wears a ring, symbolizing the hand of God and an infant inside his palm. Lori sheds a few tears as she flips through the pages of a scrapbook filled with condolence cards and the letter she wrote Heaven on the day she died.

Lori's tears are healthy tears, she says.

"One of the most comforting things someone said to me when we lost Heaven was 'that she was special. So special that she didn't have to suffer all of life's hurts. She got to go straight to Heaven,' " said Lori.

"I now know that everything that came about, came about for a reason. We tell people that Heaven has done more on this Earth than some people do in a lifetime."

The fifth "Scrapbooking For Heaven" is 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. April 28 at First Church of Christ. Proceeds go to St. Elizabeth Hospital Infant Loss Memorial Fund. To participate or to donate, call Baker at (859) 525-1088.

Every Tuesday Karen Meiman writes about the people she runs across when she's not home-schooling her four kids at the family's log cabin on farmland in Boone County. E-mail her at [email protected].

ScrapbookING, yes!

Today...this article warns us that we --as a market/industry-- have gone overboard and scrapbooking is now alienating consumers. Perception has crossed from overwhelming to down-right frightening:

Scrapbooking is everywhere...There is even a television show about it, which I watched one time simply out of sheer disbelief.

Upon leaving the store, I had the urge to down a whiskey to counterbalance the act of purchasing scrapbooking supplies on a Friday night. But since I don't drink whiskey, I settled for a raspberry martini, which took the edge right off my uncomfortable foray into the world of scrapbooking.

It seems my old method of sitting down biannually with five photo albums and a shoe box full of pictures no longer cuts it.

...scrapbooking highlights my inadequacies in the craft department, takes too long, and makes my fingers and my neck ache.

It makes me sad, because there is only one rule in scrapbooking: If you're having fun, then you're doing it right. The author of the article was not having fun. And I don't know who looses more: that we loose a customer, or that she looses confidence in her capacity to creatively preserve her memories.

Expanding the passion is not about getting excited over the latest and greatest. It's about finding and embracing a way to integrate memory preservation into our lifestyle so we become more passionate about our life.