One Day or Day One, You Decide!

 

That's a powerful quote isn't it? How about this one? Life moves pretty fast, as Ferris Bueller famously says, and if you don't stop and look around, you might miss it. 

Are you taking care of your photos and memories in a way you'd like to, or are you just snapping away and letting them pile up on hard drives and flash cards and on your phone? If 2021 is the year you want to do something meaningful with them, then follow along with me. For 18 years I have helped people get their photos organized, backed up and ultimately into digitally or traditionally created books. Sign up for a free Forever account to get a $20 welcome coupon and me as your helping hand whenever you need it, and if you haven't already, take a few minutes to walk through my free online class on getting things organized.

2021 is right around the corner, and if you want a fresh start and an accountability partner with resources and tools to get you where you want to go, I am here for you! I hope you have a very Happy New Year and if you have any questions for me, reach out here in the comments or on my Facebook page. Fran

CLS Fall Blog Hop Stop 6

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, but have you scrapped your Halloween photos yet? Halloween is one of my FAVORITE holidays, and going back to childhood I have had a LONG tradition of dressing up (with many of mine and my boys' costumes thanks to my Mom who is a wonderful seamstress.) This year we had to change things up a bit so instead of going out to find the fun, we kept it in our own home. Instead of trick or treating in various neighborhoods around town, we made spooky food, ordered a fog machine and decorated our house to the nines for a fun night with my parents! Here is what I came up with to celebrate these special memories - instruction sheets are at the end of the post. Enjoy! 

A Spooky House with Doors and Windows!

How Did I Do It?

I hope you can use these ideas in your own books and know that this is just one of many WONDERFUL fall-themed ideas on our blog hop today!  Hop along with us and follow these links to see all of the blogs of the Creative Life Scrapbooking team members:

 Stop 1: Krista French

 Stop 2: Meggan Jacks

 Stop 3: Karyn McDermaid - Rolfe

 Stop 4: Diana Brinsley

 Stop 5:  Tessa Chapple

 Stop 6 : YOU ARE HERE!  Fran Allen Smitherman

 Stop 7:  Noreen Smith

 Stop 8:  Lisa Brown Graham

 

CLS Summer Blog Hop!

 

Welcome to the last stop of our Summer Blog Hop! Down here in the South, while the calendar may not say it (or the temperature) summer is basically over and all the kids are back in school, in whatever shape that might take this year. We all have "First Day of School" pictures, and since this is such a busy time of year with many other activities starting back as well, I wanted to make sure and document that special day, as surely it was like no other that the fellas have ever experienced:

I knocked this page out with the Book Smarts digital kit in under 5 minutes thanks to the speed of digital scrapbooking. I will get it printed as a digital print and slide it into my traditional 12X12 scrapbook. I love how it turned out! I am sure the page on the other side will have journaled details about their first week or so, and maybe even some memorabilia and letters from their teachers. 

Here is another page I made for a different event in our home this summer - a massive bookshelf rehaul that led to three updated rooms! Has a garage sale purchase ever led to a major reorganization project for YOU? Boy, it's funny how one or two new items can trigger a chain reaction throughout an entire house!

A few clicks and you're done - that's my style. And I just LOVE Creative Memories' artwork - it seems as though with every collection they absolutely knock it out of the park. But, to stay fresh, things come and they go, and while the coversets, refill pages and adhesives that we depend on are always there for us, stickers and paper packs are here and then they are eventually replaced. So what's a scrapper to do? Buy the digital kit EVERY SINGLE TIME, I say!

When you have the digital kits, as long as your laptop is running well and you also have an external hard drive that you back up to, you will have that art forever to use in whatever application you prefer to do digital scrapbooking or other design projects in (I use Artisan 5 from Forever myself!)

And if you have a wall of Creative Memories scrapbooks as I do, be sure to check out our Custom Foiled Spines as well - at just $10 each, they are so affordable and easy to create! Three different font colors (Black, Gold and Silver), many different font choices (see below) and an array of colors to choose from make it sort of addicting, frankly, to enhance the look and the readability of the scrapbooks on your shelves!

 

I hope I have inspired you to think about some of Creative Memories' digital options as a way to stretch a favorite kit out or to enhance the books already on your shelf. They have other digital options such as custom coversets, custom refill pages and photo prints as well, so Creative Memories has thought of everything! I also hope that you have had a great time on this blog hop and that you will join us for our next one. 

In the meantime, here is our Creative Life Scrapbooking Facebook page where we share ideas every single week, and if you started the hop with MY blog, then you definitely want to go and check out all of the rest of the stops! Keep scrappin', follow me on Facebook at Celebrating Your Beautiful Life and let me know what you think or if you have any questions - that's what I am here for! Fran

Stop 1 Noreen SmithOrganized and Creative Mom

Stop 2 Krista French Scrappin with Krista

Stop 3 Meggan Jacks Meggan Jacks.com

Stop 4 Tammy McEwan Photos 2 Albums

Stop 5 Karyn McDermaid-Rolfe Karyn Crops

Stop 6 Diana Brinsley D Brinsley's Blog

Stop 7 Tessa Shoaf Chapple Tessa Scrapbooks

Stop 8 Fran Smitherman - YOU ARE HERE! Celebrating Your Beautiful Life

Are photos on your mind this summer?

How has your summer been? With so much more time at home than ever before, I have found more time to think about scrapbooks and other household projects while also enjoying the extra time with the family (quality time, not time rushing from place to place, that is - right, busy Moms and Dads?) I've been cooking more and driving less since my husband and I are 100% working from home, so it's amazing how many hours have been freed up without all of the commuting. What have you been up to? Reading a bit more? Rearranging furniture? Maybe looking through old boxes of photos and memorabilia? I know I sure have! This has been a challenging time for the nation for sure,  but memories always bring comfort, as do checking things off of our list that we always wish we had more time for. 

If photo projects have been on your mind, I hope you will take a few minutes to catch up with all that is going on with Forever this year. The company continues to grow by leaps and bounds as more and more people fall in love with their safe and private storage, the highest quality digital conversion out there (Forever is the only one that does more than transfer your memories from one temporary format to another), and our excellent print projects such as coffee table books, mugs and so much more. 

In the last five years, I have saved over 100,000 photos in my Forever storage account, I’ve created so many wonderful books like this one of our recent beach trip (some in Artisan, some in online Design and Print) and I love knowing that my videos are safe too. Forever IS the answer. 

 I have devoted the last 20 years to helping people with their photos (not just scrapbooks!) and it is my passion – nothing makes me happier than seeing people saving their photos in a PERMANENT and PRIVATE place in the cloud, creating projects to relive their best memories and taking old videos and bringing them back into their lives into a format they can enjoy no matter where they are. That is why I became a Forever Ambassador. My in person retreats and workshops bring so many people together to learn, but in this digital age, I can help you WHEREVER you are. In fact, just a few weeks ago I hosted a Pixels2Pages Live event with 52 photos lovers all over the United States, led by the amazing Tameka Bond. There are no geographic bounds to what Forever or I have to offer. 

July is special because it is when we are having our annual Forever Live convention – this is a special time for Ambassadors to learn about new products and to connect with home office. I wouldn’t miss it – in fact,  I love it so much the company asked me to write a blog post about it - if you have a minute check it out to see why I am so passionate about attending this event (which is of course virtual this year but will be just as exciting!) Clients and Ambassadors are welcome – it’s not too late to get your ticket! And if you ever want to join me on the Ambassador side of things, let's talk. It has been LIFE CHANGING. 

Forever Blog— Why EVERYONE Should Attend FOREVER Live! By Fran Smitherman I am a very passionate person when it comes to enjoying and protecting my photos and my memo...