This can be a problem if you buy seeds from a small individual who makes his own seeds and messes up. I like to get seeds that originated from a big seed wholesaler. If he messes up the news will get out and I will have a better chance to find out about it. I also like to save seeds because all too often the seeds are not available the next year. Seeds keep being dropped. ***** When dealing with OP seed there's not a company that hasn't had problems from time to time, but it really does depend on which companies you chose to deal with. And that's b'c some companies produce almost all their own seed, some subcontract out and some buy wholesale from the company that bred certain varieties. And some companies do a combination of those. Dan, I don't think you were here at GW when I used to do a wrong variety thread each year, which I did for several years, although I know you've posted here for a couple of years. There were those companies that rose to the top re seed purity, seed quality and service. At that time, and I expect that to be true today, the top companies included a couple of large ones as well as several small family owned companies. It's not whether a company is **small or large**, per your comment about not wanting to deal with a small company,rather, it's the specific company in question and their sources of seed as I mentioned above. The greatest amount of Xed seed at that time was seed that was traded between individuals and if I were to do those Wrong Varieties threads today I'm sure, from my readiong at several message sites, that that situation would still obtain. When I did those threads I was the one who contacted the owners of those companies that had wrong seeds b/c I knew many of those owners and still do. Some companies were glad to hear that they had a problem, but there were a couple of companies that wanted the persons who had problems to contact them directly so they could affirm that indeed the person had purchased the seeds from them. The ultimate responsibuility for reporting wrong purchased seeds rests with the person who bought them but I've also found that many folks just don't want to report errors. YOu aren't going to hear about seed problems any more frequently with a large company as opposed to dealing with a smaller family owned company. It's the seed purchasers you may or may not hear from on a public message board such as this one. There are those companies that have discovered a problem from feedback and then waitied until they got good seed and then replaced, at no cost, the bad seed with the good seed. It's a complicated issue, that's for sure, but I cannot agree with your contention that it's better to order seed from a large company versus a small one. Carolyn

I subscribe to Simple Scrapbooks and find a lot of good ideas in it. I have a softcover book that I refer to everytime I work on a page--Creating Keepsakes, A Treasury of Favorites. Title: Scrapbook Tips and Techniques. $16.96 I got it at Michael's with a 40% off coupon. I'll be watching this thread for more ideas. Have fun with your granddaughter and her scrapbooking projects.

Carla you are absolutly right when you say we need to go beyond holidays b-days and weddings. just last night I was reading in the graceful bee site and something that I read made me think think I need to take pictures that tells about the life my family has lived. My dad loves to fish but I don't have a picture of him fishing. My grand daughter has asthma occasionally she is hospitalized and I don't have a picture of her or her new friends in their hospital gowns. She doesn't have a computer at home but I have software for her when she visits. That the first thing she want to do when she comes over. we made brownies with her ez bake oven I didn't get pictures. My sister just moved I left the camera home the day we were painting and cleaning.I'm going to keep my camera out at all times and take pictures of life. The good, the bad, and the ugly. LOL And hopefully my future scrapbooks will tell about the life the people in them has lived.

Stephenei: What got me hooked was a section on home made cards in a Feb issue of either MM or CK magazine. And I REALLY got hooked! Card making has replaced (for the time being) scraping. As for ideas, I got some from the aforementioned magazine, some from looking at cards in card shops, and some from my own imagination. ItÂs amazing what creative creatures we can be when doing something we enjoy! One idea for an Easter card came from a quote I found onlineÂÂGive hugs, if you carrot at all! My sonÂs best friend calls me ÂAunt Carront, so I made a little card out of lime green card stock. I made three little carrots out of orange and brown card stock and cut thin strips of dark green card stock for grass. I attached the grass and the carrots to the front of the card with pop dots (for the 3D effect) and outlined the edges of the front of the card with thin strips of orange card stock. I made one large carrot for the inside to hold the latter part of the quote. It turned out to be a cute card and the idea came after seeing the quote. Other ideas come from looking through my materials and Âplaying with them,Âi.e., seeing what goes together. IÂve never scanned anything for use on the computer, but if you like, IÂd be happy to try and scan and post-to-you some of the cards I made to help you get started with ideas. I know what itÂs like to feel like...where do the ideas come from?! And once you get started, believe me, thereÂs no stopping!!!!!!! Also, some others have posted about tea-bag/paper folding which I have tried yet. As Sally said, when your scraping and stamping, the ideas just seem to flow. p.s. there are also books on card making and paper projects. My husband gave me one for a present and one was referenced in the magazine that I have been looking for but have yet to find. Hope this helps. karen