I am definitely a "3 ring binder with page protectors" scrapper. I started making these scrapbooks this way before I had even heard of Creative Memories and they work great for me. I definitely like the flexibility it affords me to move pages as I am organizing. Norma - I am in the middle of doing a heritage scrapbook of my maternal family. It sure is fun but a lot of work! Where have you gotten some of your ideas for arranging pictures on the pages? Do you have any advice for the heritage scrapper? I would love to hear any ideas and suggestions. I am looking for 5X7 embossed frames with rectangular centers but can't find any. They only carry ovals. Any ideas? Thanks! :-)

Dear Pat, I have used them in my albums, and have rec'd lots of swaps that have used them also. Just to be on the safe side just don't let the foam touch your photos, or if you want you can give it a quick spray with archival mist. Love Penny

I really don't know why I didn't think of this earlier... about storing all member photos on the FKB server. I guess I figured it out be outrageously expensive to host all the photos. But the cost of storage has gone down tremendously (an extra 20GB on picasaweb costs only $5 per year), and I am making small change from the ads on the FKB. So it's definitely do-able. I replied back to gellchom with a message similar to this. Please feel free to mention this when you send out your emails (although it's probably too late for most of you). Sample email: There are a couple of options for getting your photos back onto the FKB. Option#1: Upload your kitchen photos to one of the online photo management applications (photobucket, flickr, picasa, etc.). Remove password-protection from your kitchen album or members will not be able to view your photos. Email the link to me. (Many members choose this option because they like managing their own photos.) Option#2: Email all your kitchen photos directly to starpooh and she will upload them onto the FKB's photo album. Her email address is: starpooh@gmail.com. They will be put into a separate folder (similar to outwest's kitchen): http://picasaweb.google.com/starpooh. If, in the future, you decide to remove your photos from the FKB just send an email to starpooh and she will take care of it. (Some members are choosing this option because they don't want to worry about keeping track of their kitchen photos. They also do not need to worry about password-protecting their personal photos.)

My sister has a different approach. When our mother died, she left behind a few boxes of old (and I mean old) family photos from both her family and my late father's family. She also left behind albums of her own RCAF service in WWII, and some photos and a scrapbook of a couple of my dad's voyages (he was engineer on an ocean-going tug). Sis took photos of my mom's younger brother, killed during WWII, to the tiny local museum where they grew up. Uncle Stuart's photo is now on their War Memorial wall. She took some photos of Mom's air force service to the aviation museum at the airport where she served. She took photos and memorabilia of my Dad's historic tugboat trip (yes, don't laugh, there are such events!) to the Maritime Museum in Vancouver. And she sent photos of my grandparents' homesteading days on the Prairies to the local museum back there, as well. All were delighted to have them! I've passed on some photos she gave me of our maternal grandparent's earlier years in England to a local historian back there who has an interest in the historic house they lived in, and had previously written about the family. He's now added a bit more to their story on his blogsite, and even dug up some information we didn't know about, including a couple of photos. So, while I may not have my grandparent's wedding photo up on a wall, it and they are memorialized on line in an article he wrote about them!