WeScrap

Greensboro Woman pitches product to Oprah, QVC

Diana Gardner-Williams developed her unique scrapbooking kit, Just a Cloud Away to comfort and cradle the hearts of grieving parents and families who have experienced the loss of a baby. With her dream to appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", Diana Gardner-Williams visited West Chester, Pennsylvania, to pitch her product line during QVC’s nationwide product search for the “Next Best Thing: held by Oprah Winfrey and QVC.

Oprah and QVC have teamed up to search for products that are unique, creative, demonstrate well on television and appeal to the broad masses. At the close of Gardner-Williams appointment, a judge asked the question what three things would sell this product. Gardner-Williams replied, “You do not need a photograph of your baby to use the scrapbooking kit; anyone who has experienced a loss can use the kit to compose a tribute, and finally, the scrapbooking kit can be used to make other crafts such as a keepsake box. Gardner-Williams shared with the judge that statistically, each year 2 million pregnancies in the United States do not see their first birthdays, he was quite surprised and stated that QVC does many different scrapbooking segments throughout the year, and he had not seen any product like Just a Cloud Away.

Gardner-Williams is one of 4,200 contestants who will know by April 27th if she is one of the ten finalists selected to appear on the Oprah Winfrey talk show this May. The studio audience will vote on their favorite product, and the winner will have an 8-minute time slot to appear on QVC this fall to sell their product.

About Just a Cloud Away
Just a Cloud Away scrapbooking kits will be available in the three different styles. Themes include Classic Baby, Modern Baby and Vintage Baby. Each scrapbooking kit contains one 12x12 scrapbook background, a 12x12 Certificate of Love, two sheets of coordinating stickers and a die-cut sheet with images of babies and angel babies on clouds. The kits feature exclusive designs with angelic and heavenly imagery.

For more information on the Just a Cloud Away Scrapbooking Kits, please visit the online resource center www.justacloudaway.com.

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.

How I Learned to Deal with Grief

Editor's note: NSA Member Judy contacted the us with a scrapbooking question and told us all about how she got started in digital scrapbooking - she was not a scrapbooker in any form beforehand. Her story moved us so much that we asked if she would be willing to write about it. What follows is Judy's story about getting into scrapbooking in her own words.

How I Learned to Deal with Grief

Sunday morning October 23, 2005 I was awakened by the phone at 5 am. I saw on the caller ID that it was the nursing home where my husband had been a resident for the past 5 years.  I just thought that he had fallen out of bed again. Boy did I get the most awful feeling that a person could get when the nurse told me that Charles had just passed away. I almost went out of my mind, in shock alone with no one here except for my dog. It was my worst nightmare. The only phone number I could remember  at that time was my parents' number in Newfoundland, Canada. I called my Mom and Dad, not making any sense to them, all I could say was, "he's gone."

My husband had been ill for the past 18 years -  suffering from heart disease, diabetes and dementia and a history of strokes. Eight years ago he has triple bypass and pulled through it, only to have a major stoke 3 months after. I quit my job to stay home to take care of him. For 2 years his health failed so much. Then in August of 2000 he had a major stoke. I was no longer able to care for him at home, he needed 24 hour care. I was just so exhausted from everything, so the doctor said he need to be placed in a nursing facility. I cried at the thought of having to do this. It was an awful thing to do. I felt like I was abandoning my duty as a wife. I would go there every day to be with my husband, making sure he was getting the best of care. So from the time he was there it was my daily obligation to be there.

As the years went on his health failed more each day. There were times he was in comas from the diabetes. They were the times that we thought he would go with the Lord. But he always came out of it. The doctors had told me to make funeral arrangements, because it was a matter of time. I did as they advised. I made the preparations with the funeral home. You cannot imagine the feeling you have when you have to do those things. And again I am glad that I took care of that before he passed away because I would have been in no condition to do it at his time of death.

His memorial service and military service was held on October 28, 2005 with all our friends and family that could make the trip to New York. It was very emotional, especially the military service. I was so proud to see that he had a beautiful farewell from our friends here in NY. On October 30th I took my husband's ashes to be buried in Newfoundland. That was his request that he be buried there with my family. As with the service in NY, the service in Newfoundland was very emotional for me. I knew that I would have to come back to New York to live. I would not be able to go to visit his grave as I would want to because of the distance. I came home to New York on November 12 after what would have been his 65th birthday.

When I got home, there were so many things that needed taking care of. Then what was I to do with myself? I kept thinking he was still at the nursing home, and realized that he wasn't. Friends had us for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I had no interest in anything. I just wanted to stay in bed. For 2 months that was what I did. I would get up to get a cup of tea, take care of the cat and dog then go back to bed. There was no reason for living anymore. It felt like my reason for living was over.  My best friend, husband and father of my son was gone.

In January of 2006 I got on the Internet looking at websites for things to buy for his grave, when I found a memorial site. I knew nothing about creating web pages, but I was determined to learn, so I put my heart into it to making a memorial page for my husband. I had to learn how to upload music, scan pictures, crop them and resize them. I found a way to keep busy and learn something new. It was a challenge for me, because I was determined to do this, if it was the last thing I did. I got it to a point that I was happy with it, yet something was missing. I was not happy with the picture layout. It was plain, and I didn't know how to fix it. I knew what I wanted but could not find the help I needed.

I wanted to learn scrapbooking. I knew how and what I wanted, but where do I get it? I went to software stores and bought  $250.00 worth of scrapbooking software.  Excited, couldn't wait to start my new project! More disappointment, it was not the right software, so back to the drawing board. It gets better, I finally found a digital software program that gave me everything I needed. Then it was time to do some test runs. I did it! I finally made a scrapbook page! So excited, now to get it onto his website. How do I get this to fit? I didn't know how to change it to a jpeg file. Back to the trial and error thing again. I did manage to figure it out and am happy to say that its working out great for me. I am happy with the progress in such little time. The fruits of my labor and love can be found at charles-wildhagen.memory-of.com

I just want to let people know that with the help of computers, scrapbooking and a lot of head knocking that anything is possible. I am able to deal with my loss. It doesn't take the emptiness away, but it's letting me do something that my husband would have been proud of...keeping his memory alive in a website with pictures done through scrapbooking. If not for the scrapbooking and the website for my husband, I truly don't know where I would be today. It truly is a new way in healing and grieving.

Have you dealt with a personal loss and used scrapbooking to help you through the tough times? Please let us know if you would like to share your own story.

About Ravyn - by Terrena

Editor's Note - This wonderful submission came to us from Terrena - we realize that everyone grieves in different ways, and so we have a category specifically for people who have experienced signifcant loss in their lives. We thank Terrena - and all those who follow her - for sharing their stories.

Tribute to Ravyn

May 10th, my husband’s world came crashing down. Scott’s only child, Ravyn, died. Ravyn is a beautiful girl and had more love in her heart than 100 people. We are going to miss her so much. This was so unexpected. We do not know what the cause of death is and have prepared ourselves to never find out. Ravyn would have been 26 years old May 22nd. She was a healthy, vibrant woman who loved life to the fullest.

As hard as it has been on my husband and I, it has been harder on her family. Ravyn has a son, Gunnar, who is two and is too young to even begin to understand why his mama is no longer with him. Ravyn absolutely adored Gunnar and had changed jobs so she could stay at home with him. Ravyn also has a husband, Richard, who is having a very hard time coping with her death. Ravyn died at home and I believe that Richard is suffering from a lot of guilt.

What does this have to do with scrapbooking? In 2001, I started gathering supplies to start scrapbooking. My husband, Scott, coaches high school fast pitch softball and his girls had won the state tournament. I wanted to make a scrapbook for him to look back through and relive all the wonderful memories of that year. I didn’t get far, I was into decorative painting and I kind of put scrapbooking on the back burner.

Then, along came Gunnar. Ravyn enjoyed being a mother so much but had made a statement that she just did not have any time to scrapbook. Ding! I had an idea, I will make a scrapbook for her. I again started gathering supplies however; I didn’t feel any urgency to begin as I was stockpiling supplies and pictures. I did not get a single page done before May 10th. I felt so guilty because I knew that she would have loved having the scrapbook to look through. Naturally, I believed I had all the time in the world. How cruel didn’t events can turn out to be.

Her death has been hard on us and when I would look at little Gunnar, I knew I wanted to do something to help him remember his mother and how much she loved him. I also needed something to help me heal from her death and get over feeling guilty about lollygagging around on making her a scrapbook. And, I wanted to give something to my husband that he can look through when he is ready. However, I still didn’t feel motivated to get to scrapping.

For Mother’s Day, I had papered and embellished a frame to show off a picture of my mother-in-law and Gunnar. I showed it to Scott, and he really liked it. Again, I started thinking that I needed to get started on Ravyn’s scrapbook. But I was still dragging my feet.

After Ravyn’s funeral, Scott asked me if I would make a frame with a picture of Ravyn in it to put on his desk in his softball office. Making the frame made me feel so good. Ding! I had another idea, what a great way to record how much Ravyn loved Gunnar. It also occurred to me that a scrapbook would be a great way for my husband and I to reflect on her life and how much she loved it. Could this scrapbook help us heal? I believe it can.

Doing the scrapbook will also be a tool to help me get over feeling guilty and to create a loving tribute to Ravyn. You see, the very saddest part of all this is that I rarely told her that I loved her. I did not realize how much I was going to miss her until she left us forever. Scrapbooking now allows me to feel closer to her and love her from the great distance that can never be overcome. I get to work through my pain and guilt by creating this book in her honor. Doing the tribute scrapbook gives me the private time I need to be with Ravyn and do something for her that will last a very long time.

Yes, this scrapbook can help us heal.

Ding! I have a new idea, I LOVE YOU RAVYN!

Have you thought about doing a tribute album for a loved one? Please let us know.