China Adoption Page

This is the last page I made for 'Rose', the little girl from tne Starfish Foster Home who was just adopted and is now home with her family in Georgia.

This is her visit to Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton). All Chinese adoptees visit the US Consulate here to complete their immigration paperwork just before they leave for home.

These photos bring back so many memories. We stayed in the same hotel (twice) and took our daughters' pictures on the same famous Red Couch (twice). Just for the fun of it, are Sophie and Charlotte's on the 'Red Couch' pictures:

Charlotte in 2000

(She's the crying one in red)

Sophie in 1999

Another Waiting Baby Page

I made one more page for "Rose", the little girl in the Starfish foster home. (Who is now truly at home with her forever family.) And who will soon have a 45-page Heritage Makers book documenting her time at Starfish, including this page of her first three Halloween's:

It's such a joy to look through her whole book and see the pages contributed by different scrappers with different styles.

And because it's getting hot here, this article on iced coffee recipes from Home Made Simple really caught my eye.

I'm trying to cut back on my Starbuck's consumption, with varying degrees of success. (Sometimes you feel like it's been a rough day and you deserve an iced mocha. At least, that's what I tell myself.) I doesn't help that Charlotte has developed her own (caffeine-free) Starbucks habit, thanks to a friend. The moral of the story: watch those trips to Starbucks with kids, unless you want to develop your own little Starbucks afficiando!

Scrapping for Waiting Children

A week ago, I got an e-mail from a friend looking for volunteers to make digital scrapbook pages for children waiting to be adopted in China. With my background, I couldn't say no.

But I didn't realize just how rewarding this would be. I am totally taken with this charity, called Starfish. (See their website here and their blog here.) It's run by an South African living in Xian, China who takes care of children that the orphanages can't -- children with medical problems like spina bifida, cleft palates, and heart conditions. Doctors volunteer their time to correct the children's problems, and many times the children are adopted. Not all of the children that she takes in survive -- but what a difference she is making to the children who do!

In fact, the name of the charity comes from a story with that theme:

The Starfish Thrower

Once upon a time there was a man
who used to go to the ocean to do his writing.
He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.
One day he was walking along the shore.
As he looked down the beach
he saw a human figure moving like a dancer.
He smiled to himself
to think of someone who would dance to the day.
So he began to walk faster to catch up.
As he got closer, he saw that it was an older man

and the man wasn't dancing.
Instead he was reaching down to the shore,
picking up something
and very gently throwing it into the ocean.
As he got closer he called out,
"Good morning! What are you doing?"
The older man paused, looked up and replied,
"Throwing starfish into the ocean."
The man noticed there were hundreds of starfish
all washed up on the beach

from a storm the night before.
He watched as the man carefully
continued to pick up the starfish one by one.
"I guess I should have asked,
‘Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?’"
"The sun is up and the tide is going out.
If I don't throw them in they'll die."
"But don't you realize
there are miles and miles of beach
and starfish all along it.
"You can't possibly make a difference!"
The older man listened politely.
He bent down, picked up another starfish
He looked at the starfish
as he prepared to throw it into the ocean,
past the breaking waves and said –
"I will make a difference to this one!"

The charity founder takes great photos, and by the time the child is adopted, she has quite a few. So volunteers put together scrapbooks for the children to take with them to their new homes. How I wish I had that for my daughters!

Here is a page I did recently for "Rose", going home soon to her 'forever family':

Since adopting again isn't feasible for us, this is a great way to make a small difference. Plus, getting to scrap pictures of these little cuties is it's own reward.

Fantastic Friends Book for Tweens

I was recently asked to do a small 7x5" book template for Heritage Makers. This book is designed to showcase the relationship between a pre-teen girl and her friends. And of course it's perfect for my own little pre-teen, who is moving on next year to a middle school that is different from where the rest of her friends will be going. Here are a few of my favorite pages:

You can view the whole book here.

Another Father's Day Card

This is another Father's Day card I did, this time for my dad:

Front:

Inside:

Back:

We've been very lucky here -- it's the middle of June, and the highs are only in the 80's and 90's. We can even go to Charlotte's soccer practices and sit outside comfortably! We'll see how long it lasts...

Father's Day Card

I haven't been doing much scrapbooking lately, unfortunately, due to my surgery and the recent tragedy involving the drowning of a family friends' son. But I did do a couple of digital Father's Day cards, such as this one here:

Cover:

Inner cover:

Inside (3-panels):



A fellow scrapbooker recently asked if she could feature one of my layouts on her camping blog. I said Yes, because I think it's a pretty cool blog, with some really useful information if you camp:

http://rjnbenterprises.blogspot.com/

Busy, Busy, Busy

Spring is a hectic time around our house -- there are reports, overnight field trips, school plays, and science projects. Charlotte went on a 3-day field trip to Kartchner Caverns, and Sophie was (one of several) Juliette's in her class "Shakespeare in the Park" production.

Charlotte, her grandfather, and I took some time out to go shoot pictures of the Dave Chihuly glass sculpture exhibit at the botanical gardens. Charlotte was a hit with the other attendees, doing whatever it took to get the shot, including lying on the ground. (I wonder who she gets that from...)

Here is a digital layout using some of my photos and a template from Studio Hillary at Scrapbook Graphics:

The Desert Museum

Here is proof that fun was had on the Girl Scout camp out a few weeks ago, despite the drama.

I had forgotten how lush the desert is in Tucson. It really was beautiful, and we got to get up close and personal with a lot of different animals.


This layout uses another great template from Hillary Heidelberg at Scrapbookgraphics.

Two-Pagers

Here are some 2-page layouts I have done based on Hillary Heidelberg's templates at Scrapbook Graphics. I love 2-pagers because you can capture so many more photos, and Hillary's templates are a quick, easy way to get them done with great results.





And last but not least, there is one more pet who is running for MVP to vote for!

What I'm Doing with My New-Found Time

Now that I'm employment-free, I don't have an excuse for not exercising and losing those few extra pounds. So I've been hiking one of the local mountains at least twice a week, in between running. My favorite is Piestewa Peak, with an elevation gain of 1,190 feet. It's quite a workout, but exhilirating at the same time.

I also started my 2-D graphic design class at the community college. So far it has been a blast. I'm not sure which is more fascinating: the design material, or listening to the conversations of the fresh-out-of-high-school guys at my table.

One of the intesting things we're learning about is the Divine Ratio. I knew that the Divine Ratio (or Golden Mean) was used in Greek architecture. But I didn't know that it's the basis for the musical octave and is found through out nature. I may even have to read this book:

The Golden Ratio

Who knew design had a mathematical basis?

I'll also be creating scrapbook pages for the Addicted Scrapper's February kit. Just look at these adorable papers: Addicted Scrapper's Sneak Peak. I love those happy colors and can't wait to start playing with them!

I've also made a new Father's Day Storybook template for Heritage Makers which will be appearing in the Template Gallery soon:

Christmas Joy

To be honest, I am too stressed getting ready for Christmas to be experiencing a whole lot of Christmas joy yet... But I'm sure it's coming!

Here's a quick digital Christmas page I put together for my calendar. (Yes, I'm just now getting December 2008 done!) I just ADORE that glitter tree from Jofia Designs at Shabby Pickle:


In other Christmas-related activities: I started my Christmas baking last week, and my cheapie 20-year old hand mixer burned up. I have a cookie exchange this weekend, so I'm trying to decide: Should I bite the bullet and invest in a KitchenAid mixer, or just get another cheap one? I went to Target today and checked them out. The others just seemed so flimsy compared to the KitchenAid. Boy is that baby solid! If you have any opinions, please chime in!

Kids with Cell Phones: The Layout

The photos from the last post have made it onto a scrapbook page. (Much quicker than normal, too!) That's because I used one of the great templates from Hillary Heidelberg at scrapbook graphics.com. It's so easy, it almost feels like cheating. If you've been thinking about dabbling in digital scrapbooking, a template is a great way to do it!

Circles

I've been on a circle kick lately. They add such a fun and energetic feel to scrapbook pages. Here's another layout featuring circles, with photos of my family at various stages. I love getting old pictures scrapbooked, and capturing a little of my childhood, not just my childrens'.

Digi Templates

I hadn't really used digital templates until Hillary asked me to use hers at her new online store at ScrapbookGraphics.

I couldn't beleive how fun (and easy!) it was to use them. The basic design is done for you, but you can add you own touch by choosing whatever paper and embellishments you want. Here are a couple of layouts I did using Hillary's templates:

And Another Heritage Makers Template...

I was asked to do another template/sample album for Heritage Makers, this time a Grandparents album. This was quite the project, since as a sample book that will be available as hardcopies, it needed to have real photos and journaling.

Fortunately, I had scanned quite a few heritage and family photos on a recent visit home, so I had some of the photos I needed. But not all! I had to call home several times and ask my mom for photos on a particular topic of their lives, then my brother had to scan them and upload them to a photo website so I could access them. Pulling this album off required a lot of work from multiple people. (Thanks everyone!)

I have to say that it was all worth it, even if my bed and I didn't see each other much for a couple of days. Gathering all these photos and stories together is something I've always wanted to do, but never seemed to find the time for. Getting it all together in an album that everyone can get a copy of is truly priceless.

First Template for Heritage Makers

This week, I designed my first template for Heritage Makers, a "storybook" company that publishes digital photo/scrap books.

Now, I don't think their storybooks are going to take the place of scrapbooking for us fanatic, hard-core types. But it is a great way to get an album done quickly, or to create multiple copies of a gift album. And for people who don't have the time or inclination for scrapbooking, they are awesome.

Their products are similar to the photobooks you can order from places like Shutterfly, but so much better. They're heirloom quality, with sewn binding and acid-free paper. They offer a large variety of pre-designed albums and pages, which you can use as-is, or modify as you choose. And they have tons of digital scrapbook elements that you can use to create your own pages from scratch.

So without more ado, here are some of my favorite pages from the album, an 8x8 adoption album:

If you'd like to view at the whole album, you can see it here:

If you know of someone who might be interested in using the template, contact me and I'll be glad to let you know when it's available through Heritage Makers.