Save Your Memorabilia!*

Are you overwhelmed with memorabilia? Are your desks, tables and counters swimming in programs, artwork, notes and cards that you can't for sentimental reasons throw away because you know they tell a story? If so then we are one and the same! School will be starting around the country soon (really soon here in the South!) and with the school year always brings a sense of newness and a desire to get organized. I have three ideas for you today to control the chaos!

Notes from the karate studio!

A special memory book

First, I am going to challenge you to TAKE PICTURES OF SOME OF THESE PRECIOUS ITEMS! Just get out your Smartphone, that's good enough, and start snapping! How many items can you document in 10 minutes? Here are a few treasures I recorded last night in a short amount of time.

A real treasure from my oldest son

Andrew loves our oldest cat Socks!

I can't save every item that Andrew creates but I sure can try!

What do YOU want to record for all time? Can you take a little time to take some pictures of some items that mean a lot to you?

Second, I am going to encourage you to find the best items and put them somewhere other than a box

Pick a few favorites, find some photos that go along with them, and make plans to put them in an album. How you may wonder? Allow me a minute to sing the praises of Creative Memories' pocket pages! They really come in handy, not just for sliding in full scrapbook pages, but also for certificates, cards and other memorabilia that you really don't want to adhere to your page. In my children's school days albums, I love to use one for each year to save report cards, artwork, and other items or pictures that I don't put in the book. We spend a great deal of time praising the beautiful paper packs and tools and all the fabulous ways to be creative, but sometimes it's the most basic items that really make the difference in our completed albums!

Creative Memories' 12X12 albums are my favorite way to preserve memories. These are my school days albums and I have one pocket page for each grade.

CM Pocket Pages are the best for storing memorabilia that won't fit on your pages.

Pocket Pages go in traditional 12X12 CM albums and come 12 to a pack

Precious memories stored in photo safe sleeves.

Finally, what can you do to save the digital images of these memories?

I want to know they are safe in the cloud because 1.) artwork made from food products won't last forever, 2.) notes and cards are easy to lose track of in piles and boxes, 3.) I want to enjoy these things and tell their story and 4.) storing memories offsite is critical to protect them from natural disasters.

Photos in my Forever library, uploaded straight from my phone (I keep my Forever app on auto backup)

First, I have uploaded these pictures from my phone to my Forever account via the free Forever app for Smartphones and I have assigned them to the appropriate folder (artwork, karate, etc...), making them easy to find when I need them.

A Karate album within my Forever account

A nested album of my son's artwork in his larger album.

Second, I can now easily use them in digital scrapbook pages with matching pictures! In this example, I took Andrew's note and included it in my digital book I am making with Forever's Forever's Artisan software about our family's trip to Universal Studios in the spring. So much fun to know it's getting used in an appropriate place! The fun is just beginning.

A little live music is good for the soul - the kids have other ideas unfortunately! 

Andrew explained his "music sickness" in his artwork when we returned home from Orlando!

I love adding this relevant piece of memorabilia to my digital scrapbook page

Now I feel SO much better about all of my piles that I have now consolidated, recorded and worked into my traditional and digital album projects! What can you share with us this weekend? I would love to see or hear how you do the same, please add some comments so we can share ideas!

* Today's post originally showed up as a Featured Project Friday post on the Creative Life Scrapbooking Facebook page! I am proud to be a part of this fabulous group of ladies who love to create and encourage others to do the same. We share ideas, kick off blog hops, and encourage others to live a life of creativity and memory preservation and I was the Featured Project Friday contributor this past week. While we usually share decorative page ideas, I felt like talking about something a little more practical - saving your memorabilia like cards, artwork, notes, etc... Hope this was helpful to you!