Scrapbook Blogger

What is a mommy blogger?

A mommy blogger is a small part of the blogging world that consists of moms who blog about their children. Some mother’s blog about daily activities, and others only record major milestones in their children’s lives. Other mommy blogs cover a variety of subjects, including their children. The blogs are as varied and unique as the women who write them. But they are all an amazing look into the life of being a mother.

So, why do women blog about their children? It is essentially an online journal of their children’s lives. It’s a great place for friends and relatives to read about the happenings in your family. And it gives your children something to look back on. It’s always fun for children to read about themselves.

There is a fun new product I just discovered tailored perfectly to this group of bloggers. It is called Scrapbook Blogger. It’s a new and innovative way to turn your blog into a printed scrapbook to keep forever.
Scrapbook blogger was created by Ashley Cuttino. Ashley began blogging about her life and her experiences as a new mom right before the birth of her first child. As a new mom, Ashley quickly realized that despite her best intentions to create a traditional scrapbook of her child's growth and development, she simply did not have the time, inclination or creativity required for such a project. Then the realization came that she had already created a scrapbook for her daughter with pictures and stories that was much better than anything she could recreate with paper and scissors—her blog.

Ashley said, “Once my girls were born it became very important to me to preserve my memories of them for the future. My mother passed away very suddenly at the age of 50 before I was married or had any children. I would give anything to be able to read about my mom’s thoughts on motherhood and see the memories of my childhood. Everyday I have questions about motherhood that I would love to ask her. To have a scrapbook that had her thoughts and memories that I could look back on now would be priceless!”
Ashley made the decision to find a way to print and bind her blog into a hard copy, coffee table style book. The software program that was developed allows a blogger to download all or part of a blog and then add backgrounds to each post to give the book a true scrapbook feeling. Hence, Scrapbook Blogger was born and now Ashley is leaving a legacy for her own children. They will be able to see what they were like as children, and what she was like as their mother.

I hope you’ll check it out. It’s an amazing idea and is so simple to use, anyone can do it. I can’t wait to have enough blog posts to print my own.

Return to the Neighborhood.

678 Conference gets a 10!

I attended an amazing writing conference today, the 678 Conference, held at Cedar Fort. It exceeded my expectations, and my congratulations go to Doug Johnston, the publicist at Cedar Fort, for a job well done. The conference had a sold-out crowd. There were even several late attendees they had not planned on, but they graciously made room for everyone who wanted to be there. I will definitely plan on attending any conferences they hold in the future.

The day started out with a brief introduction by Jeffery Marsh, the acquisitions editor at Cedar Fort. He offered two tips for our consideration:
1) Write to an audience - Great books are literally a conversation between you and your audience. Don't forget them. Keep them and their needs in mind each time you sit down to write.
2) Learn the art of storytelling - It is an art, a craft, and a gift.

Next, we heard from Abel Keogh, author of Room for Two. He told a little about the story behind his book and then taught about the importance of having an online presence. He reviewed websites and blogs and the importance of each, as well as the essential elements each should have. He is a very experienced blogger and has been blogging since 2000. You can check out his blog here. I won a copy of his book, and can't wait to read it. I'll be sure and review it for you after I'm through.

Janet Kay Jensen, author of Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys, taught us all about self-promotion. She is the self-promotion queen and had tons of great ideas to share. She gave us ten important keys to book publicity. Her book is also one of the ones in my lineup for reviews this summer.

Doug Johnston has many years experience in the newspaper industry and he shared surefire ways to get a book review in a newspaper. He also dispensed wisdom from a publicist's point of view. He told us what he does and does not want to hear from prospective authors. In a nutshell, he wants you to tell him what you are going to do, have done, and will do for your book. You are an important part of the team in making your book a success!

The highlight of the day was the final speaker, Eloise Owens. She is a popular motivational speaker and the author of Get off the Beach. You can read more about her at The Momentum Company. She had a dynamic personality and enthusiasm that enthralled the audience. She walked us through an author's look at The Messenger, The Message, and The Marketplace.

The Messenger - Take a good look in the mirror. What are your strengths and weaknesses as an author. We listed the qualities of a great writer--things such as passion, confidence, tenacity, creativity, and more. Eloise proposed that the greatest quality a writer can have is the ability to self manage. This quality is so important because all the other qualities listed above may go through a period of insufficiency. If you are self-managed you will stick it out, and continue to write through it, coming out the other end a stronger and more accomplished writer.

The Message - Achieving idea clarity is important. If you don't know and understand the message of your book, the audience will not understand it either. Clarify your book's idea--develop a short, crisp answer to the question: What is this book about? Eloise also discussed the importance of a title and gave suggestions for finding one.

The Marketplace - Keep your eye on the goal. Eloise shared an experience from when she was writing her book and learning how to surf. She wasn't successful until she kept her eye on the shore. She discussed things such as speaking engagements, writing articles and blogs, creating partnerships and a fan base, launching your book, and handling the media.

She wrapped up by talking about waves. There is always a bigger wave out there to ride. She encouraged us to not be afraid to try. If you hesitate, fear wins. The only limits you have are the ones you set for yourself, so keep your sights set high. You never know what impact your book--your message--will have on someone else. It may be the means to get them to ride a higher wave.

There is nothing quite like being in a room of struggling authors who have the same thoughts, feelings, and struggles as yourself. The feeling of camraderie and support at the conference was amazing. Thanks to Cedar Fort! I think all who were in attendance left feeling uplifted, motivated, and that it was a day well spent.

Just for Kids!

Are your kids out of school and looking for something fun to do? There are tons of amazing kids scrapbooking and craft activities you can sign up for at local craft stores. I checked out three stores in the Utah area to see what they offered to help keep your kids busy this summer. Look what I found:

Pebbles in My Pocket

Beginning June 2nd Pebbles offers fun kids classes with a new activity each week.
Who: All kids & their parents (parental supervision is required)
What: New kid friendly craft projects that change each week
When: Monday thru Saturday 10- 11 am & Monday nights from 5 pm until close
Where: At all Utah Pebbles Locations
Cost: Small fee varies with each project

Roberts Crafts

The Kids Clubhouse at Roberts offers a fun class each week. Children under five need to be accompanied by a parent. The cost of classes is between $5.00-$6.50 each.

June 9-14 – Treasure Boxes
June 16-21 – Wooden Picture Frames
June 23-28 – Canvas Bags
June 30-July 5 – Aprons
July 7-12 – Flip Flops or Visors
July 14-19 – T-shirts
July 21-26 – Clay Animals
July 28-August 2 – Jewelry
August 4-9 – Chipboard Storybook
August 11-16 – Paint Cans
August 18-23 – Flip Flop Scrapbook
August 25-30 – Room Magnets

Michaels

As a member of Michaels online club, The Knack, you'll be inspired by fun online projects, a monthly e-newsletter, exciting in-store events and much more. Membership is free! Get project ideas in the following subjects:

Developmental
Gifting
Holiday
Language Arts
Math
Rewards
Science
Seasons
Social Studies
Visual Arts

For those of you not in the Utah area, check with your local craft stores. Most of them probably have summer activities you and your children can participate in. It's surprising all the fun, non-traditional things you can make with scrapbooking products. You’ll find there’s no limit to what your kids can create. Have fun!

Return to the Neighborhood.

Missing Children

They're gone. It's been exactly 23 hours 37 minutes and 16 seconds, and I'm missing them already.

My two middle children left yesterday to spend the WHOLE month of June in Texas, visiting their cousins. I was sad to see them go and instructed them they better come back to me. I'm always afraid when my kids leave me for any extended period of time that something will happen to them. But I'm in the middle of moving, so having two less kids to watch after and taxi around will help.

So, send happy thoughts my way. I'm missing my kids today.

Summer Book Trek 2008

I've joined some of my blogger friends for a Summer Book Trek sponsored by the LDS Fiction blog. It's easy. Create your list of titles you'd like to read this summer. (There are no minimums required. Even one is okay.) Then blog about at least one of the books you read. And yes, there will be prizes! Join us. It will be tons of fun!

For details on the trek and how to join in click here.

Here's my reading list:

The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys by Janet Kay Jensen
Heaven Scent by Rebecca Talley
Finding the Angel Within by Pamela Hansen
The 13th Reality by James Dashner
A Modest Proposal by Michele Ashman Bell

Heaven Scent Blog Tour

I'm participating in Rebecca Talley's blog tour for her recently published book, Heaven Scent. I can't wait to read it and share my review. My 15 year old daughter took it from me and read it before I had a chance. She loved it. I'll include some of her comments in my review.

Here's a brief blurb about the book:

"She'd wanted her father to pay more attention to her, and she'd wanted her family to be like it used to be. She hadn't wanted everything to change so drastically that she may not even survive it."

As Liza proves herself a basketball star, everyone - from college basketball recruiters to the gorgeous Kyle Reynolds - seems to take note of her. Everyone, that is, except her own father. While her father is busy at his law practice, Liza learns about a strange new religion from Kyle. Could Kyle's religion help her family? Or is it already too late for her father to make amends?

When yet another broken promise finally leads to tragedy, Liza doesn't know if she will ever be able to forgive her father. It will take a good friend, a new belief, and a miracle straight from heaven to help Liza see that she still has a choice. The compelling story of a high school basketball star, this is a novel every girl will want, and none will be able to put down!

The following is a schedule of the stops Rebecca will make. Be sure to check them out. It's sure to be lots of fun!

June 9 Ronda Hinrichsen
June 10 Don Carey
June 11 Stephanie Humphreys
June 12 Nichole Giles
June 16 Michelle Jefferies
June 17 Emily Debenham
June 18 Danyelle Ferguson
June 19 Ali Cross
June 20 Karen Hoover
June 23 Heather Justesen
June 24 Kim Thompson - That's Me!
June 25 Rachelle Christensen
June 26 Andy Lemmon
June 27 Karlene Browning
June 30 Marcia Mickelson
July 1 Cindy Beck

Acid-Free Albums

Acid and photographs don’t mix. Photographs already have acid in them from processing. When those acids are combined with other acids from paper, stickers, adhesives, and page protectors a chemical reaction occurs. Over time, this causes your pictures to become discolored and brittle.


Remember the old photo albums that had sticky pages. You’d peel back a piece of clear plastic and then stick your photo to the page. Acid free? Guess again. Mom and Grandma just thought their photos were getting ‘old’. Little did they know the album they were using was causing premature aging of their precious photos.

You would expect paper that you buy in your local scrapbooking store to be acid-free, but that is not always the case. Make sure you look for the words acid-free on all supplies you purchase. Often white and pastel papers will be acid-free while darker papers may not be. Paper dies often affect the acidity level. A pH-testing pen is a great investment for every scrapbooker. Be sure to follow the instructions on the pen, as the results are presented differently for different brands.

High levels of acid in ink, newspaper clippings, and other memorablia can make your scrapbook pages unsafe. Be sure that any paper touching the actual photographs is acid-free. There are sprays, such as Archiver’s Mist, which can be sprayed on memorabilia to neutralize acid in them. Another option is to copy memorabilia onto acid-free cardstock.


One other thing to consider is your hands. Hands are naturally acidic. There are products you can purchase such as the lotion, Hands Off. Once used, it provides about two hours of acid-free protection. If you don’t want to go this far, just be sure to touch your photos as little as possible.

While it would be nice to make sure all of your products are acid-free, sometimes that gets expensive. The most important items to purchase acid-free are the paper, adhesive, and sheet protectors. These are all items that will be directly touching your photographs, so make sure you buy something that will protect them.

After all, why go to all the trouble, and hours of work preserving your precious memories, only to have them deteriorate. A little bit of effort goes a long way when it comes to making sure your products are acid-free.

Return to the Neighborhood.