The dreaded first page

Ok, you have your pictures, your memorabilia, and beautiful paper.
Now what?
You sit and look at the blank page and the surrounding implements.
Flip through the pictures.
Walk around.
Talk to friends.

For me the first page is the toughest.
Deciding what will represent this book in the best way can be daunting.
I have some "sisters" who scrap the entire book and then the last page they do is the first page,
that way they have a feel for the book. That could work.

Again, for me I figure titles work best.
I do 2 family albums per year. Title pages are first including the year and volume 1or volume 2.

So query question for today,
"Do you make the first page a title page or do you use pictures right out of the gate?"

New Pictures came in!

I got so excited yesterday when I pulled into the driveway and there was a box on the porch, because I knew it was from Snapfish!

When it comes to taking pictures I am the shutterbug in our family. The grand babies come over and I have the camera on ready. I keep a small digital camera in my purse and a spare battery charged. You never know when that moment will happen and sometimes it gets captured! Also, photography is relaxing.

So back to my treasure...the box...on the porch. Yes, it had 400 pictures from the past 3 months inside. Not every order is 400 but the past few months have been so jammed packed of great memories. We went to Canyon De Chelly and the Grand Canyon. When we returned we had fishing trips, anniversary party, 4th of July, and then our son graduated from college! YEAH!! (feel free to clap!) Our summer and celebration continued at the beach with three generations enjoying as much time together we could manage.

AHHH MEMORIES!

So today I will sort pictures. Sorting not only by event but also by date.

I am a chronological scrapbooker. I feel like I have just told you alot about myself, but for my brain to function properly it has to be in an order and time is my order. My fellow Scrapping Sisters understand.

So the query question today...
"What order/direction do you scrap?"

Inspiration

Scrap happy means having tons of ideas and not enough time to get them done before you forget them.
I have done that sooooo many times.

Sometimes when you sit down inspiration doesn't just dawn on you. For me inspiration for page layouts comes when I am driving or in the shower, not exactly ideal times for creating or scrapping.
There is a website I have found that has some great ideas. I don't like to copy layouts exactly, what fun is that? But at least sometimes it gets me started!

http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/layouts/collage/projects/shaped-picture-collage-ideas/
this was the inspiration for mine...

We got to visit out west this summer. I'll have to admit I knew about Route 66 but until you experience the actual road and places surrounding it do you realize that part of Americana is fading away. When I travel I am more of a "nature" photog. I like the flowers, trees, and landscape of a place. That makes a place special and different from where I reside. So that's why on this layout you see the nature of the road.

There are museums dedicated to the preservation of the highway. The one we visited was in Oklahoma.
Here take a look
http://www.route66.org/index2.html
I really learned so much and remember some things my dad had told me.

My friend, Lori McCluskey sells Close to my Heart products and before we left on our road trip adventure I decided to purchase this paper set from her. And did it hit the Crop Spot! That feeling when you realize that you have the PERFECT paper and embellishments to make your layout the bomb! So this it the resulting double page layout....

I took pictures of the outside of the museum and kept the entrance sticker that we wore as part of  admittance. I keep everything...we'll discuss that later... ;) But I love the layout and even though the paper is busy, using a dark color to frame my pictures and keeping the pictures to a minimum really helps to keep it from my your eyes just jump around.

So your query question today...
"what kind of scenery do you like to photography/scrap?"

Today being September 11th brings back a lot of memories. 
I am interested to know if you have ever "scrapped" tragedy? 

My personal feelings are that if we don't then we forget our immediate feelings about the event. Of course destruction such as the attacks on 9-11-01 will never be forgotten. 
But do you include news accounts such as paper or pictures (not your own) in pages such as these? 

Today's query is 
to scrap tragedy or not...

Ehow.com has a great article on preserving newsprint

http://www.ehow.com/how_13081_preserve-newspaper-clippings.html

I use acid free card stock behind the article and then laminate the entire page.

I am a Scrapping Sister!

Hey ya'll, I am Lulu!
I am a scrapbook fan.
I love the idea of being able to preserve the memories of my family.
I would love to share some ideas and products that I love.

let's Scrap!