heather’s blog

One of the many things I love about using the Heritage Maker site to create my books is that all I have to do is upload my pictures from my computer to their site and then I can use them in a multitude of different ways.  I have the ability to crop and if I don't get it right the first time re-crop until I'm happy.  I can also make my pictures any size.  Sometimes I don't always see every use for my pictures but once you enlarge or start cropping a photo sometimes I think that would look better if I just focused on the hands or using the same photo twice but just using bits of the same photo blown up.  You don't have to decided ahead of time which photos you would like duplicates or enlarged cause you have the freedom to do it on the spot when you work on-line.  Also have you ever cropped a picture and cut it crooked or cut someone head off.  There are no do overs in traditional scrapbooking, but on-line you just push undo and the crop disappears and the head comes back.  In my wedding book I created a page that had the main focus on lighting the unity candle, but across the bottom I put four boxes with words in each box.  When I was done it looked kinda plain, so I took a picture of my husband's and my hands sitting over my bouquet.  Of course I had to make the picture really small to fit the boxes but that was easy on-line then I just duplicated the same picture for all four boxes.  The words were kinds of hard to read over the picture so I transparencied the picture and it made a really nice finished looked.  Again I always feel like I get the best use of my pictures when I work on-line, all of my pictures are already stored on my computer anyways so it is a quick easy way to use pictures from the present or even hunt up a picture from the past that I never got around to using before.  I also love the fact that I don't have to pay for picture processing anymore, no more trips to the store to pick up pictures, more time spent making the perfect book.

Reasons #7 - #1 coming next week.

With all the waste in the world today, I try to do my best to be "Green".  Although I'm far from perfect about somethings, I'm glad that scrapbooking online is more eco-friendly.  In tradition scrapbooking you use lots of paper and also the printing of the pictures, there is the glue used to hold it all together and then all the embellishments.  Here is the great thing about online, you still can use all the paper, picture, embellishments you want but you only use one piece of paper per page.  It's not a huge deal but I think every little bit helps.

I will be back tomorrow with Reason #8

The very first thing I noticed once I started online scrapbooking was NO MESS!!!  Yeah!!!!  How great is it to sit down and just create.  I didn't have to cart my stuff out of the closet bring, unpack everything just to find the paper at the bottom of the pile.  Then when I was finished pack it all back up.  And if say you weren't finished with a page and you don't know what to do with it, leave it out it may get destroyed, put it away it may never go back together the same way again.  If I don't finish a page online I just push save and come back and work on it later.  In the long run I really got more done because I felt I could walk away and everything would be just as I left it, only no mess.  I could steal 20 minutes here and an hour there and was able to produce so much more.  Now in tradition scrapbooking I have to take the time to clean up all my supplies and once again put everything away in the closet it took up precious time that I could be creating or spending with my family. Have any of you every tried to scrapbook with small children around?  I either ended up frustrated because I couldn't get anything done or my kids were covered in glitter and had stamped themselves multi-colored. Without the mess I could scrapbook with my kids in the room and they can even help and not end up with glue in hair. So there is reason #10, keep watching for reason #9.

I wanted to give everyone my reasons for switching from traditional scrapbooking to online.  First I want to give you just a little bit of background on how it all started.  I'm a card-keeper, translation I can't throw away a greeting card.  So when I go married I had tons of cards and nothing to do with them. That is how my scrapbooking got started, I scarpbooked all of my cards. Once I added my first child to the family scrapbooking took on a whole new world, pictures of my new baby, plus all the cards I received for her took over my scrapbooking.  And then the second baby came and my scrapbooking came to a screeching halt.  My second child is needy to say the least and she made scrapbooking a chore instead of fun.  So there I sat with a pile, maybe more like a mound of pictures and no time or desire to mess with it anymore.

One of my middle school teachers got really sick and his family started a blog at Caring Bridge, it allows them to post updates on his condition and you can leave the family encouragement as well.  Anyway when I found out he was sick I posted my message and a few weeks later I got a e-mail from a good friend from school that had read my post and decided to contact me.  It had been nearly 9 years since we talked but the minute we made contact it was like no time had passed.  Anyway she caught me up on her life and she told me about Heritage Makers, she is a consultant.  I decided to check out the site and was excited.  Now this was something I could do and not have to fight with my kids in the process.  What really had me excited was that I could make them as gifts.  It was the first week in November when I started my fist book and I had to have it done by the end of November to have it published and shipped to me in time for Christmas.  So I had 3 weeks to make my masterpiece.  When I gave my books to my parents and in-laws for Christmas I was so excited and it was so well worth their joy. 

Over the next week I will continue to post my 10 reasons why I switched so stay tuned.

What are your first thoughts upon waking?
Submitted by Cher Cabula.

My very first thought is always is there someone watching me, then I open my eyes and discover my two year old wanting her morning snuggle.

Hi, I just joined Vox and started searching for some online scrapbookers.  Curious if anyone is a online scrapbooker like myself.  I use Heritage Makers and have an example of one of the books I'm currently working on posted on my blog.  Here is one I have finished, it is for my two year old that loves cats.

 I would love if you all would take a look and give me feedback. I'm a stay at home mommy and I'm always looking for any form of adult communication. Thanks for looking.

Heather

I'm a online storybooker and I created this booking using Heritage Makers. It is a wonderful system that allows you to make hardbound books in a range of size.  You can also create card, calendars, playing cards, poster and invitations. Heritage Makers uses a drag and drop system that makes storybooking easy and fun. You have a selection of over 30,000 pieces of art with new art added monthly so have every embellishment, paper, alphabet, ect you can think of.  The best part of the book or project you create is that they are easy to duplicate so you can give them away as gifts and still keep a copy for your self.  No more mess, no set-up, no more storage of supplies.  No more shoeboxes full of memories that will fade away over time.  No more photos sitting on your computer just waiting to be printed.  The best part is this is the "green" way to scrapbook.  You don't use endless amounts of paper or glue or trinkets, you just print one page. There are so many solutions to the problems I face in traditional scrapbooking that I got much more accomplished and felt better about taking the time to preserve my heritage for my children.

Take a look at the book I'm creatong above.