Irish Soda Bread Paper Recipe Album

I posted these pics to Facebook, but never got around to posting them to the blog. There's quite a few, so I'll post my faves here. You can view the rest on Facebook.

So, here's the backstory: in late autumn, my sister's boyfriend Dave began expressing an interest in Irish Soda Bread. He likes to cook and bake, so I think he was trying to figure out how to make it. Everywhere Amy went it seemed - restaurants, get togethers - she sleuthed for info about the bread and recipes.

Late autumn means holiday shopping, right? Traditionally, we exchange gifts with everyone on my side of the family. When Amy started interrogating people about the bread, the wheels in my head began to turn. In want of an original Christmas gift idea for Dave, I asked Amy if he had an Irish recipe book or something similar. Since he didn't, I decided to make one using the Spice of Life Paper Album Kit.

I culled together various images and clippings I found online. I printed the pictures using my Kodak printer, cropped them, and, along with the paper and stickers that came with the kit plus a few other embellishments, created a one-of-a-kind keepsake.

I wasn't sure I'd get it finished in time for our holiday get-together, but I did, with a LOT of help from Adam! This product resulted from our joint effort. He sacrificed much of his time (and sanity), so I could finish it. What a great husband!

The whole thing only took me about 2 - 3 days to complete. I started with the history of Irish Soda Bread, which I printed on vellum. I added a basic recipe plus a few variations, including one involving jalepenos!

I included definitions of the different types of bread plus mixing and baking techniques.

I even put a space in the back for Dave to slide in his own recipe cards using a memorabilia pocket! How nifty is that?

I used an X-acto knife to cut a slit along the folds of the inside front and back covers to slip in the ribbon. Then, I adhered the ribbon with adhesive.

The icing on the "bread" was that Dave absolutely loved the recipe book! We even got him a large cast-iron skillet to go with it.

Page Completion Challenge 2010 - Win a $25 Shopping Spree

Who doesn't like free stuff, right?

Well, you could be the next winner of a $25 Creative Memories shopping spree by participating in the 2010 Page Completion Challenge!

The Challenge

Attempt to complete 210 pages in the 2010 calendar year.

Qualifications

• Pages can be from any manufacturer, but in order to qualify, the pages must contain some use of Creative Memories products, such as adhesive, pen ink, paper, stickers, etc.
• The pages also need to contain some form of journaling, such as titles, captions or journaling areas/boxes.
• Every page counts: digital, page prints, picfolio, side-loading, or traditional.
  

Prizes

• Grand prize - Cropper who completes the most pages (at least 50) wins a $25 shopping spree in January 2011.
• First prize - first runner-up wins one pack of Creative Memories refill pages, any size, any style ($17 value).
• All participants win a free workshop coupon for Crop Till Ya Drop in February 2011 ($5 value).

Keeping Track of Completed Pages

If you attend my regular self-hosted crops, then you will get a page log to keep track of your pages. You can also e-mail me and let me know if you completed pages outside of the crops, and I will keep track of them for you.

You'll also appear on the leaderboard here on my blog.

By attending my self-hosted events, you'll also have the chance to win free pages that you can add to your total. This number will appear within parenthesis after the number of pages the cropper has physically completed [e.g. Kathy Harrelson - 41 (10)].

2009 Results

Heather Walls - 137 (100 of these were the 2008 Walls Digital Yearbook!)

Kathy Harrelson - 52 (25) - WINNER

Stacey Prosper - 15 (5) - RUNNER-UP

Amy Hatfield - 8 (5)

Maureen Johnson - 11 (5)

Michelle Wheeler - 5 (5)

Good luck and happy cropping!

2009 Walls Family Yearbook - First Two Pages

My plan for the 2009 Walls Family Yearbook this year is to marry digital and traditional scrapbooking. I absolutely LOVE the digital storybook from 2008 - especially how quickly I was able to finish it - but I would have liked to include the memorabilia in there without scanning everything.

To circumvent that dilemma, this year I've decided to create a mix of digital page prints along with a few traditional scrapbook pages. I started with two pages entitled 2009 Year in Review. This template is available free on the Creative Memories digital center, along with several others. I just uploaded my pictures, dragged them into the template and ordered the prints. CM will print and deliver them straight to my door!

All I have to do is slide them into a side-loading sleeve or adhere them to a traditional refill page and add them to my album. I should be able to fit more pages in my album by using the page prints, since they won't add extreme bulk to the pages.

I've already planned which digital content I'm going to use for the page prints in conjunction with the Storybook Creator Plus 3.0 software (download from my website). Most of the content will comprise Primary and Jewel Power Palette Additions with a sprinkle of Earthy, Delight, and Black/White. The Black/White and Delight content are included with the Storybook Creator Plus software!

The best thing about the digital artwork is that, once purchased, it can be used again endlessly on a variety of projects.

Hawaii Revisited

I've been working diligently over the last few months to transfer my pix from a now long ago trip to Kauai, Hawaii, from a Target-bought photo album that was half falling apart to a shiny PicFolio Milestones Coverset. I'm more than halfway done, and I'm quite pleased with the result.

It's no fun having pictures in one place and memorabilia in another, right? So, finally, I've merged the two, and a few embellishments ta boot.




I started by culling all the pictures, captions, and memorabilia, then assembled and inserted them all in chronological order throughout the album. As I move on to each page, I know exactly what I need to incorporate. It's akin to the Power Layouts method.

What's even better is that I kept a journal of the trip to visit a friend when she lived there. How fantastic to recall my thoughts and memories from that week-long stint in paradise! I recorded details I would have never remembered otherwise.

I'm using the Delight & Discover milestones kit, Delight paper, Surfer Girl Power Palette Addition, and Delightful paper flowers, buttons and ribbon. Everything coordinates beautifully.

I also have some miscellaneous tropical page completion kits on hand also that coordinate well with some of the local grave groves, landmarks and relics.

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the PicFolio Milestones Coverset, but it is just as versatile as the traditional albums now that the pages are removable and larger sleeves are available for memorabilia or large pictures. It's the perfect blend of traditional scrapbooking plus easy-to-use, slide-style photo album. I can still be creative yet it doesn't take me days to plan and complete a page!

Thirty-three pages thus far and still counting!