Make Your Life Brilliant!

I've written before about the challenges of finding time to scrapbook or to organize your digital images. It is something so many of us aspire to - we know our memories are important and we want to preserve every moment so we can enjoy them later, but so many days slip away from us without doing anything to get us closer to our goal of completed albums. And it doesn't stop with photo albums! Do you have other dreams - dreams of losing weight, dreams of sending more cards to family and friends, dreams of growing your own business, dreams of saving money for a special trip  - that seem to get lost in the habits, routine and shuffle of day to day life? Do you want to make a commitment to be more intentional with your time and make those dreams a reality? Then the Brilliant Life Planner is for you! 

So Much More than a Planner

About a year ago I discovered the Brilliant Business Moms. I loved their positive message and the free printables they sent me to get me on the path of putting my dreams in writing. I filled them out with gusto and made a commitment to myself to make each moment of each day matter. Here are a few of my favorites:

It felt so good to put my dreams, no matter how big or impossible they seemed, in print, and as I filled the worksheets out I began to grow in my confidence that with baby steps, I could get where I needed to go to make my dreams come true! I made miniature copies of my "Big Goal Mind Mapping" sheet once it was filled out and I kept it in my purse as a reminder of why I was doing what I was doing. What an inspiration! I even made a picture collage of one of my top dreams (to become a Lead Ambassador with a company I love called Forever) as an extra reminder to carry with me and guess what - DREAMS DO COME TRUE! By staying on track, sticking to my plans, and working intentionally each day instead of letting time slip away from me, I was able to achieve my dreams. Thanks Brilliant Business Moms! 

As a full time investment professional, Mom, wife, friend, daughter, supporter of other women's businesses, Creative Memories advisor, Forever Ambassador, and personal scrapbooker, I have a MILLION things running through my head at all times. With all of these dreams and only 24 hours hours in a day, no regular calendar was going to get me where I want to go. I needed plenty of room to write out not only my appointments, but also my thoughts, my plans, my challenges, and my list of daily accomplishments and plans for the week/month/year. That is why I am so excited about the 2017 Brilliant Life Planner - I've already ordered mine (I went for the lovely Blue Stripe but they are all gorgeous, inside and out!)

Each planner comes with 4 goal setting pages similar to the free printables I fell in love with, as well as full color on the inside, two page monthly spreads, 37 lined pages for notes, and 8 project planning pages for your biggest tasks of the year. Everyone that buys the bundle now will receive not only the planner itself, but also free printables, a PDF copy of their book Time Management Mama, a free course and all of the positivity and support you can imagine from the Brilliant Business Moms themselves, Beth Anne Schwamberger and Sarah Korhnak. All of this is just $50 during the kickstarter campaign, wow! Prices will go up by $10 once the campaign is over so this is the best deal!

Order your own Brilliant Life Planner!

What are your dreams? Don't let another day get away from you - let's be intentional together! Whether you want to commit to photo album completion and photo organization and preservation, grow a business, lose weight, grow in your job, or just manage your every day life, putting your dreams in print will greatly increase your chances of success. Don't forget to check out the Brilliant Business Moms' Facebook page as well - lots of fun free webinars and encouragement there! Keep scrappin' and thanks for reading!

PS - I volunteered to be on the "Launch Team" for this planner out of sheer love for what the Brilliant Business Moms do - I am not an affiliate and receive no benefit when others purchase this planner through this blog, I am simply sharing the love for others who might want to plan for an intentional and beautiful 2017!

Father's Day Blog Hop

This Father's Day is going to be very different in our home as a month ago my husband's father, my father-in-law, and the boys' Grandaddy Smitherman died at the young age of 65. It was unexpected, and there is definitely a hole in our hearts as we cope with our loss. We honored Jackie at his memorial service with a slideshow, and seeing people's reactions to all of the photos of him at a younger age was priceless. Pictures are powerful and they tell a story of who you are and what you have loved, and they help connect us to the past in happy times and in sad. I was so grateful that as the historian in the family I was able to quickly access all of our precious photographs so that my husband, Chris Smitherman, could put together a beautiful slideshow for his father.

Priceless memories

With these memories fresh, I found it hard to focus on Jackie at this time - instead I am highlighting Chris and the many ways he is a good father and husband himself, just like his own Dad. He deserves more than a Lowe's gift card this year - he has taken on a great deal of additional responsibility with his mother, sister and nieces now that his father has gone, yet he still provides for his own family. I want him to know how much we appreciate him, and to honor what he does for us on a day to day basis! With a busy few weeks ahead, I needed some simple projects that I could knock out in a short amount of time. It doesn't take much to give someone a gift from the heart when you have the right tools and a few printed photographs! I am going to show you a few gift ideas you can pull together before the big day using some of Creative Memories' latest products.

Telling someone you love them as a husband and as a Dad with pictures is easy if you just set aside a few moments to do it

Commemorate a Special Time Together
Before Chris was a father, he was a husband, and while we try to make time for ourselves, it is pretty difficult without formal "date nights." This page layout commemorates one of my favorite trips we took this year - I used the wood grain paper from the "Hello Baby Boy" paper pack, as well as Creative Memories' brown cardstock for mats and decorative touches. The wood grain paper looks perfect with the rustic seafood restaurant as a backdrop - I can never get enough of it! I cannot wait to show my husband these pages. 

I love the way this turned out! The wood grain paper from Creative Memories' Hello Baby Boy paper pack and brown cardstock are perfect for a masculine page for a special man in your life!

 With the wood grain paper from Creative Memories' Hello Baby Boy paper pack it is easy to make a masculine page to highlight a favorite father in your life! I threw in some Brown cardstock for mats and decorative touches and journaled right on the pages as well as in a journaling box created with the Hello Baby Boy Slide In Pack and some numbers from the Year in Review sticker set. 

Not one to waste any space, I journaled everywhere! Stories are so important

The band's logo is actually a photo we took of the screen before the show started - take pictures of signs and logos, they make your pages work so much better! :) 

Hello Baby Boy paper pack (first side)

Hello Baby Boy paper pack (second side)

Creative Memories' brown cardstock

Help Him Celebrate His Children Everywhere He Goes
Now that the school year is over, are you left with stacks of professional photos (school, soccer, basketball, dance, etc...) and nothing to do with them? Don't just put them in a box- cut them up and put them in a little mini album for yourself and for others! Creative Memories is selling these cute little 2X3 Navy Pocket Albums with pages for just $7 and I have always found them to be great gifts for parents and grandparents. I went and looked on Chris' desk and he has the loose photos standing up against his computer monitor - his other mini albums are full already, so I am going to surprise him with this little gem for the newer photos!

Professional photos everywhere?

2X3 Navy Pocket Album with pages holds 16 photos

Fast, easy gift for a Dad

Get those little professional pictures in a book

Wallet sized photos, credit cards, or business cards can easily fit in this affordable little album

Encourage Him to Tell His Own Story! 

Another quick gift is a Fast2Fabulous album. I have talked about these in my blog before, but if you still haven't had the chance to check them out I would definitely do so. I have created some quick pages capturing Chris as a husband and a Dad using the "Stitch in Twine" album pages. Seeing how simple it was to do so, it made me think that a gift of a Fast2Fabulous album, a pen and a tape runner (maybe with a stack of photos) would be an excellent gift for any man this Father's Day. Photos are universal and while men (or busy folks for that matter!) may not care about using elaborate techniques to create pages, they do care about their photos. Why wouldn't they want the best for their memories? Put a pen in their hands and let them tell their own stories!

A Creative Memories Stitch in Twine refill page with a banner strip cut from the Fresh Picks paper pack

Hand that guy a pen!

Stitch in Twine Fast 2 Fabulous Album

For more ideas on ways to honor the fathers in our lives, please continue to Diana Brinsley's blog - the full list of the Blog Hop is below so enjoy getting inspired and have a wonderful June!

Home Creative Memories' Blog

Stop1 Fran Smitherman's CelebratingYourBeautifulLife YOU ARE HERE!

Stop 2 Diana Brinsley's DBrinsely'sMemoryKeepingBlog

Stop 3 Stefani Jones' CropwithStef

Stop 4 Sarah Fitzgerald's ClickWriteShare

Stop 5 Lisa Graham Brown's Lisa's Workshop

Stop 6 Noreen Smith's Organized and Creative Mom

Mother's Day Blog Hop Stop Number 1

Welcome to the first stop of our Creative Memories Mother's Day Blog Hop! I am excited to celebrate my own mother today in this blog hop and to spend a little time thinking about how honored I am to be a mother myself. I will start you off with some simple ideas for scrapbook pages to honor the special women in your life, and along the way you will also be able to get inspired by some fun card and gift projects the rest of the team has created! 

So blessed by my parents and the love they have for my own family!

I can think of endless pages I could do to honor my own mother - pictures of her taking care of me when I was a baby, pictures of her when SHE was a baby, pictures of her beautiful holiday preparations, pictures of her with my sons. For the sake of time I decided to narrow it down to my gratitude for one specific act of service she has done for me my entire life - the gift of her sewing skills!

Celebrating a Special Talent

Does your own mother have a special talent you hold dear in your heart? My mother is a wonderful seamstress, and with the new Button Chain cartridge and a simple hand-drawn needle, I was able to make a few beautiful pages about the many projects she has created for us. This is just the beginning of many more scrapbook layouts about her sewing creations I am sure! 

Using the Button Chain cartridge, the Shades of Pastel cardstock pack and the Fresh Picks paper pack, I was able to complement the color of the dress she wore to my wedding. She made it herself, as well as my veil and my "money bag" for the reception!

The button chain cartridge came in handy again here, except this time instead of a long border I actually cut out "buttons." I  drew a simple black line to serve as thread connected to a hand-drawn "needle" made with the black and silver fine tip pens.

Borders from the Fresh Picks paper pack looks really pretty with this shade of purple, and I wanted the journaling and the button chain borders to be symmetrical on each side of this layout. 

How Far We've Come

In my twenties, I had no idea what my future would bring. I studied and worked constantly and prayed that one day I would find the right man and have children, but of course you never know what the future is going to hold. I think the 20-year old version of me would be happy to see that my fears were for nothing, and while I have two boys instead of the two girls I originally envisioned, I am one lucky boy mama! 

Sometimes it's good to just step back and think about how far we've come in our lives. What would the 20 year old version of yourself think if she saw you now? Have you ever had dreams that came true? Don't take those things for granted - they deserve a page or two to tell your own story, don't they? 

Used stickers from the Hello Baby Boy collection to create "ruled lines" for journaling! 

While I no longer have "babies", I was pleasantly surprised to see how flexible the new Hello Baby Boy papers and stickers were. I haven't yet purchased the Hello Baby Girl paper pack but I am willing to bet I will because with these pretty color palettes I can see so many uses outside of a baby album!

:

I also love how Creative Memories' paper packs have a couple of pages with strips you can cut into borders. I used one of them here to start off my journaling (and you might have noticed in the previous layout I did the same with the Fresh Picks border pages.)

Creative journaling down the side of the page with a border from the Hello Baby Boy paper pack to start it off - "Once Upon a Time" is just one of several cute phrases found in the pack

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday, May 8th and even if you don't have any big plans, take a picture of whatever you are doing (even if it is just picking honeysuckle and enjoying the sunshine!) I created this layout for a Creative Titles post for the CM Blog but just in case you didn't see it, the point of it was not to waste good photo backgrounds! 

I created a title out of shapes cut from the excess background space of photos that might have otherwise ended up in the garbage. The grass would be monotonous if each 4X6 picture was included in my layout, but when punched out using the Blossom Punch, it becomes a lot more fun!

Creative Titles using ABC stickers and shapes punched out from photos

Don't waste those backgrounds :) 

If you have cards and special keepsakes, don't forget you can incorporate those into your scrapbooks as well using Creative Memories' Pocket Pages - they are perfect for holding on to these special items!

I love all of these sweet treasures!

Creative Memories offers Large Single Pocket Pages for displaying your special memorabilia

Whether you are thinking of your own mother, contemplating your role as a mother yourself, or celebrating other special women in your life, I truly hope you enjoy this blog hop and that it will inspire you to do something special with your photos. As always feel free to leave comments - I love hearing from you! Here is the complete list of sites to visit on today's blog hop - enjoy! 


Stop #1 - YOUAREHERE! Fran Smitherman's CelebratingYourBeautifulLife
Stop #2 - Noreen Smith's OrganizedandCreativeMom
Stop #3 - Sarah Fitzgerald's ClickWriteShare
Stop #4 - Candace Bouldin's Scrappin JPEGs
Stop #5   JulieTambrini'sJuliesCMBlog
Stop #6 - Diana Miller's DBrinsleysBlog
Stop #7 - LisaGrahamBrown's Lisa'sWorkshop
Stop #8 - Creative Memories' Blog!

What keeps you up at night?

What keeps you up at night? Are your memories as safe and organized as you would like them to be?

I have 90 Creative Memories scrapbooks and 97,000 digital photos on my computer. So yes, I basically panic every time I even THINK ABOUT anything happening to my house or computer. This has been a huge fear of mine for a while - all those memories are PRICELESS and IRREPLACEABLE. Enter Forever.

Forever is your one stop shop for your photos and the company's premiere offering is online storage for your photos. Unlike so many other providers out there, your memories are backed by the Forever Guarantee Fund and three servers strategically located throughout the U.S. Your account is fully encrypted like a bank's system and completely private other than the folks you decide to share it with. Your memories are guaranteed to be safe for your life plus 100 years - they will never shrink your resolution or share your info with advertisers. It is truly like photo insurance.

 The deeper I get into Forever, the more I love what I have been able to do to have fun with my pictures and to get that precious peace of mind I have been seeking for years! I want to share some images with you of what my accounts and projects look like:

My Home page where I can see all of my albums

What pictures look like as they come in from your phone or your PC (you can later drag them to your albums to get them out of this view!) The phone App is great - I have mine set to "auto upload" whenever I am on wifi. 

The inside of one of my albums, "Baby Andrew" - these are obviously pictures I would never want to lose to a hard drive crash of a photo vendor's tricky terms.

Whether you have a PC or a Mac, you can access your Forever account online, edit, organize and even create projects in Forever Projects (like "Artisan Lite".) I have created Storybooks and canvases already - I am about to try some cards because they are on sale this month.You can upload pictures from your phone and PC either automatically or manually (I love the phone app - it's free for your Smartphone or iPad!)

Forever also scans all types of media (photos, scrapbooks, videos, slides and negatives) and stores those high resolution images in your account. 

Forever Services has now scanned 7 of my traditional scrapbooks - I love seeing the images pop into my account. I can have them turned into page prints, into storybooks, share them with the people who are in the pages, or just sleep better knowing that if my house burned down all those pictures and  JOURNALING would be saved! Some things are irreplaceable- my 90 scrapbooks definitely fall into that category.

Personalized service - they call to let you know your digitization boxes have arrived safely before they start to scan them

Another album, home safe and scanned into my Forever account

In addition to curating my Forever account online, I also use desktop based Historian (formerly Memory Manager) and Artisan (formerly Storybook Creator) for more detailed editing and project creation. I love how I can create projects and work with my photos without the internet in these programs if necessary (some hotel rooms and scrapbook retreat venues don't always have the best wifi!) 

Want to create digital storybooks and have them preserved in the cloud (and printed as many times as you'd like!?) Here is how my pages are coming along in Artisan

A different view of a project coming together in Artisan

Now I can order my books any time I want!

If you haven't already, check out Forever - you will not be sorry! Please respond in the comments with any questions you might have - I am here to answer them! Here's to sleeping better at night! Fran

Easter Blog Hop Stop Number 8!

If you have been with us all along, congratulations, you made it to the end of our blog hop - great job! If you are actually starting here please check out all of the other stops along the way because as usual, the Creative Memories Content Contributors have done a fantastic job coming up with fun new ways to embellish your pages and create beautiful gifts.

I am going to focus on one simple page design to end our time here together. I have used the Shades of Pastel paper pack (naturally) to create with, as well as a tape runner, a straight trimmer, a black pen, a hole puncher and the Shape Maker System's circle cartridge. Here you go!

I love baskets, always have, and you can cut strips of cardstock and "weave" them to give the appearance of a colorful Easter basket. All I did here was take two sheets of CM cardstock and a straight trimmer  - I quickly cut three even strips of each color and arranged them on the paper as shown below.

Once I did that I used my tape runner to hold everything down. Now on to the bunny!

If you have seen my creations before, you probably know I am a huge fan of Creative Memories' Shape Maker system. I used it here to make a pink circle and two white circles. I put one white circle to the side for the bunny's head, and used the circle cartridge to cut out the ears as shown below.

I did something similar (only smaller) for the insides of the bunny's ears. 

 The leftover pink became a bowtie! Perhaps you have done this exact pattern before with two round cakes :)

Using a simple hold punch you can make some eyes and a nose and draw on some whiskers and a mouth to complete the cute little rabbit!

Happy Easter everyone!

If you want to see all of the other fabulous ideas here are the other stops on this "hop"!

Where it all begins:) CreativeMemoriesBlog
Stop 1 Noreen Smith's OrganizedandCreativeMom
Stop 2 Sarah Fitzgerald's ClickWriteShare
Stop 3 Candace Bouldin's ScrappinJPEGs
Stop 4 Julie Tambrini's Julie'sCMBlogspot
Stop 5 Diana Miller Brinsley's DBrinsley'sBlog
Stop 6 Stefani Jones's CropwithStef
Stop 7  Lisa Brown Graham'sLisa's Workshop
Stop 8 YOU ARE HERE! Fran Allen Smitherman'sCelebratingYourBeautifulLife

For even more great ideas (not related to Easter) take a peek at our gallery of page ideas from this past weekend's Creative Memories Scrap-a-Sketch Virtual Crop. We have exciting plans for the next one so be sure and "like" Creative Memories on Facebook so you can get all the details as soon as they are announced!