Scrapbooking Spring Sports

I love the feeling of spring in the air. At my house, spring inevitably brings busy schedules because it is the start of the soccer season. Between all the games, practices, carpooling and looking for lost equipment, I can't find any time for scrapbooking. But that doesn't keep me from plotting and planning pages I can create when the lazy days of summer--without all those schedules--come rolling in.

Since I've got soccer on the brain, I thought I'd share some fun ideas about how to create themed pages for all the sports your children play.

The first thing to consider is your photographs. It is important to use the right settings according to the lighting. A bright outdoor soccer game would be photographed differently than a nighttime football game under the stadium lights. Also, think about classic sports shots you can take: The team high-fiving after scoring a goal, the football huddle, the focus on a player's face, the batter sliding into base. Also, don't forget the fans and the quiet moments in sports. One of my favorite layouts is of my family huddled together under blankets and umbrellas watching a game in the rain.

Let's move on to the design of your pages. The first consideration is color. A good idea is to match the colors of your team. Especially if you are creating a themed album for one particular sport, it is fun to see the same colors throughout. Take a look at the wide range of sports-themed papers and products available as well. Many of the major paper companies have developed whole product lines around most major sports. Many have accompanying embellishments to further enhance your design, such as football-shaped charms or stickers.

One approach that is especially fun is to create a layout with the look of a newspaper or magazine cover. Many digital scrapbooking products include pre-made templates for this type of layout, or you can create your own. Younger kids in particular enjoy seeing themselves in that context.

Use these ideas to capture and create team memories. Enjoy the process, but don't get so caught up in saving the memories that you miss your child's first goal or touchdown.

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Is it Spring Yet?

Ah, spring! This is the season that so many of us call our favorite and with good reason. Although here in Utah, it still looks and feels like winter. But, I know spring has to be just around the corner. Right? To get in the mood, and hopefully spur Mother Nature on, I thought I'd throw out some spring scrapbooking ideas.

The first thing you might want to think about when it comes to spring scrapbooking layouts is the color choice. Many people opt for soft pastels when it comes to spring pages, but it's also fun to try something a little more bold. Try colors such as turquoise, lime green, and fuschsia. They are bold and bright and just looking at them makes you feel cheerful.

What is going to be your main focal point for your spring scrapbooking layouts? Remember the holidays during spring, like Easter. Easter egg hunts and Easter outfits make great photo opportunities for your spring layouts. Take pictures of your garden, especially the bulbs as they first start to sprout from the ground. Spring layouts can include springtime sports as well.

When scrapbooking Easter page layouts for spring, don't limit yourself to bunnies and baskets. This is a perfect time to scrapbook your faith. Include your feelings about why the gospel is important to you and your feelings about Easter.

Spring brings warmer weather and all those fun activities that go with it. Consider all of the fun things you do when the weather is warmer. They can be great themes or page elements. Since there is no right or wrong way to scrapbook, don't hesitate to get creative and you'll have pages that are as unique as you are!

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Eggs to "Dye" for

I remember the fun of decorating Easter eggs as a child. I'd take out the crayons, dye, paints, markers, pretty much anything that I could think of to color the eggs. My designs were ambitous, and my fingertips ended up dyed for days. We always used the traditional PAAS easter egg kit. It was so exciting to drop the tablets in the water and watch it change color. Today, you can still purchase the PAAS kit, and in even fancier varieties that include stickers, punch-out designs, special markers and crayons, and much more.

Kits are convenient, but you can make your own dye as well. Combine 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of food coloring with 2 teaspoons vinegar in a cup that is deep enough for the eggs. Add water to about the half way point. Gently place the eggs into the cups. Experiment and create new colors by dipping the egg in one color and then another.

There are many fun ways to decorate eggs. There's the traditional solid colored eggs. As a child, we would color on the eggs with crayons before putting them in the dye. The waxy crayon prevents the egg from picking up color and leaves fun patterns behind. You can use this idea to create personalized eggs or to write a special note.

Another idea is to create rubberband designs. Wrap elastic bands around hard cooked eggs, then drop them in food-coloring dye. Remove eggs, pat dry with paper towel and remove rubber bands. The parts of the egg covered with rubber bands will not be colored. Once the rubber bands are removed, you can drop the egg into a different color dye.

To create marbled eggs, in a mug or jar large enough to contain one egg, place 1 tablespoon of oil, 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 tablespoon of food coloring. Add enough water to cover egg, stir quickly with a spoon and drop in hard boiled egg. Pull egg out quickly and pat dry with paper towel.

Coloring Easter eggs has long been a family tradition and my children look forward to it every year. Hopefully I've given you some new ideas that will make your Easter egg coloring more fun this year. For more egg decorating ideas check out Family Fun Magazine online.

YourLDSneighborhood has added exciting new things to its website. Please drop by and take a look, browse around, check out our vendors, our radio station, our authors, our musicians and more. Check out the Neighborhood.

And while you're there, subscribe to the yourLDSneighborhood Newsletter. In addition to being able to shop in the new virtual neighborhood, the newsletter brings you articles, products, services, resources and interviews from around the world-all with an LDS focus. Look for issues delivered to your email inbox every week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Easter Traditions

Easter is fast approaching. Every time a holiday nears, my thoughts turn to our family traditions and what I can do ahead of time to prepare for the day. Easter is a unique holiday. From my experience, there seems to be a lot of variety in the way families celebrate.

When I was a child, the Easter Bunnny would come and spread candy all over the basement. My brothers and I would stand at the top of the stairs, eyes wide, looking at the candy strewn all over. We'd have to wait for Dad to get downstairs with the camera before we could scramble and fill our baskets with candy. After a mad dash through the house, collecting everything our baskets, hands, and often even our shirts could hold, we sat down and sorted our candy. Even though everyone selfishly gathered the candy, we always divided it equally in the end. I guess it was just the fun of trying to get the most that made us act like crazy people.

Somehow, that tradition has led to our own family tradition of hiding the Easter baskets already full of candy. They've ended up som very interesting places: in the dryer, in closets, under chairs, outside, and even in the shower. Believe me, wet chocolate eggs just don't quite taste the same and the jelly beans stick together.

Easter always mean a new dress for me and a shirt and tie for my brothers. Now we have a large family and it's not economically possible to do that for my other children, but we still take a little bit longer getting ready for church on Easter morning, wanting to look our best.

Some years, we've participated in as Passover feast, which is always around Easter. Brigham Young University does one every year and I strongly recommend going if you ever have the chance. It makes you look at the Passover in a whole new light.

Then, of course, there's the favorite tradition . . . coloring Easter eggs. I've found some fun ideas for coloring eggs that I'll share with you next week, so be sure to check back. I'd love to hear some of your Easter traditions, so please leave comments.

YourLDSneighborhood has added exciting new things to its website. Please drop by and take a look, browse around, check out our vendors, our radio station, our authors, our musicians and more. Check out the Neighborhood.

And while you're there, subscribe to the yourLDSneighborhood Newsletter. In addition to being able to shop in the new virtual neighborhood, the newsletter brings you articles, products, services, resources and interviews from around the world-all with an LDS focus. Look for issues delivered to your email inbox every week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Low-Cost Digital Photo Printing

Let's face it, scrapbooking can get expensive. I think most of us still enjoy doing some traditional scrapbooking which requires printing your digital pictures to use them on your layout. I've been printing lots of pictures recently, so I've researched some ways to print digital photos inexpensively.

SNAPFISH
Get 30 free 4" x 6" prints when you create a free Snapfish account! Plus, this month you can save up to $15 off your purchase of any photo gift, including books, cards, mugs, and more. Just use one of the coupon codes below at checkout:
To save $5 off purchases of $15 or more, use coupon MARCH1
To save $10 off purchases of $30 or more, use coupon MARCH2
To save $15 off purchases of $40 or more, use coupon MARCH3

Snapfish also gives you professional quality nine-cent prints everday and free online sharing and storage.

SHUTTERFLY
There are many benefits of a free Shutterfly membership. You can securely store your images at full resolution for a lifetime. They are never deleted. You can also turn your favorite memories into professionally bound photo books, create cards and stationary, and even create a free website to share your photos and memory books. You can get 25 free prints when you join.

WALMART
A definite benefit to using Walmart's photo processing is that you can order prints and pick them up in an hour. You can also order the prints and have them delivered to your house or shipped for free to your local Walmart store.

They offer traditional prints starting and nine cents. They also have many items you can add your favorite photos to such as posters, collages, calendars, playing cards, mugs, mousepads, clothing, and more.

These are just three of the many ideas and services available for online digital photo printing. Try them out and let me know if you have a different favorite you like to use so that I can share it on my blog.

YourLDSneighborhood has added exciting new things to its website. Please drop by and take a look, browse around, check out our vendors, our radio station, our authors, our musicians and more. Check out the Neighborhood.

And while you're there, subscribe to the yourLDSneighborhood Newsletter. In addition to being able to shop in the new virtual neighborhood, the newsletter brings you articles, products, services, resources and interviews from around the world-all with an LDS focus. Look for issues delivered to your email inbox every week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Journal Keeping

Growing up in the Church, I’ve long been taught of the importance of keeping a journal. I know that it’s important to record the details of my life. I’ve found this helps me as I look back and see difficult situations I’ve been able to overcome. I’m hopeful that some day it will benefit future generations as well. I’m far from perfect and I hope others can learn from my mistakes.

I’m in the middle of a new relationship in my life. Last week, I found myself wishing that I had taken time from the beginning to record all the special memories we are making. They are still fresh in my mind and I could probably go back now and record them, but that’s not as good as if I had written them down as they happened.

Then I discovered an amazing thing—my email inbox. I read through all the emails I’ve received from this special person in my life, and realized I do have a record of most of the things we’ve experienced together. I’m grateful for that written evidence of the way our relationship has developed over time and the many amazing things we’ve been through and done together. I’m going to print them out and put them in a scrapbook. Some of them can be embellished by pictures, but even just the written record is priceless.

Don’t overlook your email as a source of precious memories. Especially if you have a loved one far away who you communicate with electronically, it can be a great source of ideas for scrapbooking. I know many families who send family newsletters out monthly which keep them involved in the happenings of their loved ones. These make fun, easy pages with memories that cannot be recreated.

Because of the advent of digital scrapbooking, it is not uncommon to use your computer for scrapbooking, While you are there, remember to check you inbox If you are struggling for new scrapbooking ideas.

YourLDSneighborhood has added exciting new things to its website. Please drop by and take a look, browse around, check out our vendors, our radio station, our authors, our musicians and more. Check out the Neighborhood.

And while you're there, subscribe to the yourLDSneighborhood Newsletter. In addition to being able to shop in the new virtual neighborhood, the newsletter brings you articles, products, services, resources and interviews from around the world-all with an LDS focus. Look for issues delivered to your email inbox every week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

A gift for new Mothers

I was excited to receive my contributor copy of A Cup of Comfort for New Mothers, which includes my short story, Equal to the Task.

There’s a new baby in the house—and it’s not the only one crying. New moms cry happy tears, tired tears, and overwhelmed tears—and that’s when the wisdom, sensitivity, and empathy of women who’ve been there prove invaluable. In this book, you meet fifty mommies who’ve lived and loved through those terribly wonderful first months home with baby. From a first time mom faced with keeping her little miracle safe and happy once daddy goes back to work, to a mother who wonders how she will find time for the newest member of her already sizable family, these moving stories provide the support and reassurance mothers need to enjoy their new role—and their baby—to the fullest!

Here is a short excerpt from my story, Equal to the Task:

"What's wrong? Why isn't she crying?"

A swarm of doctors and nurses were in the delivery room, but no one would tell me anything. As soon as Emily had been delivered just moments before, they'd whisked her to the corner of the room. I lifted my head trying to see what was happening, holding onto a shred of hope. Although I hadn't heard her cry, I thought I'd seen her move. She wouldn't move if she were dead, would she?

To read more of my story, as well as the other amazing stories about new life and love, you can purchase a copy of A Cup of Comfort for New Mothers on Amazon. It is a great gift for any new mom.