I just finished an ABC/123 Scrapbook for my son. What I did was I used a CM Sentiments album ( a real good size) and the first page was A. So I used stickers and Diecuts with words that are appropriate for A. For example, Airplane, apple, Apron, ant,.... Then I did this for all of the letters in the alphabet. I also incorporated photos in the album as well. Like for letter "G" Grandmother Smith, .. or for "U" Uncle Joe.. After letter Z, I then did a numbers part from 1 to 10. So for number 1, I put a Die Cut of a #1 in the corner and a large Diecut of a clown - thus showing one item. For #8, I placed 8 stickers of a dog , and so on. Once complete, this album can be used as a learning tool for children.

Yes, I got them for my boy , on last year! (probably at michael's)and I saw them in FRances Meyer catalog (it is free from their web site, and they are the only one who have accepted to send me their catalog to France,completely free!). the stickers are on page 207 of the catalog. Ref 2110-034 for a boy and 2110-035 for a girl. these are jumbo stickers, those I bought was regular size, but exactly the same design. They have toddlers stickers really cute too! friendly from France Joelle

I found some really great "calligraphy" pens at Michaels. I can't remember the name or brand, but they have a pen tip at either end...for a smaller and larger calligraphy look. You have to practice some to learn how to hold the pen but I really love the look much much better than my plain hand-writing (which I HATE when I journal). They provide a more personal touch (look) to the page then printing calligraphy style on the computer (which is also a nice idea). Like Jill, I usually like to matt what I journal, depending on the page. If your cousin just graduated from Med school, could you somehow incorporate something from her "soon to be profession"? Perhaps you could make (scrape) a nice looking professional business card with her name, the date she graduated, her title etc.? I'm not too up on graduating med students so maybe she has to complete her residency, but maybe you could include smaller photos of where she will work or complete her residency on the page (in the background or superimpose photos of her on top of these smaller ones)? For something a bit more comical, maybe you could get a photo(s) of her with friends or family "using" her medical tools from her black bag with a humorous title page or a funny lyric or poem? I love to matt a lot of my photos and I also love to try (try being the key operative word here)and make up poems or rhyme when I journal. I think you could have a lot of fun and still have some very elegant and "fun" pages. Good luck! Send us a link for your completed pages so we can save the ideas...I'll need one in about 14-16 years!

Annpan - you asked whether I had ever seen the Mapp and Lucia TV series - no, but I have heard good things about it... Does the series stay quite close to the story? I happened to find a title the other day which I am having an extremely hard time to put down. It was published in 1955 by author Brian Moore and has the appalling title of The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne. It's the story (fiction) of a (maybe) middle-aged (definitely) unmarried woman during the 50's in Belfast. She becomes enmeshed with one of her fellow boarders at the house where she lives, and, at the same time, is fighting really hard to keep part of her life secret. Really excellent read. She's not a particularly likeable character, but she stays with you. Reminds me a bit of Stone Angel's protagonist in some ways. And it has little to do with bodice-ripping type passion. BTW, just found out that there is a sub-category of bodice-ripping romance books focused on the Amish crowd -- called "bonnet-ripping".... :-)