Thank you so much for all your kind & generous praise of the Christmas decorating! Glad everyone loves the porch also as both porches are two of our favorites hang out spots too. The back one has Phanton Executive Screens that are retractable remote screens that go up & down so misquitoes & bugs stay out - LOL! Sorry, the yard is not filled in.......just had it landscaped after 4 & a half yrs. this fall & it is like starting all over till Spring. Karen, I took a quick pic for you of the branch arrangement up close. Here it is: Merry Christmas everyone.....it is here!!!! Bonnie

YIKES!! (LOL) Where to start! :) I love the old fashioned scrapbooks where things are glued in etc. But, with all the talk of acid in the papers and glues destroying the photos over time, I have opted for the Creative Memories albums and supplies. I think it would be wonderful to share ideas, pictures etc with everyone who is working on the same theme. It would also be great for everyone to post their favourite scrapbooking sites here. There are soooo many of them, that it would be nice to know which ones people have found useful. Creative Memories is an American company that sells (through home parties)Scrapbooking supplies. They are expensive but from my point of view, well worth the money. They sell different sizes of albums all with acid free, buffered pages, acid free photo mounting papers, adhesives, acid free stickers and die cuts for decorating your pages, and all the tools you could imagine...scissors, rulers, templates etc...does that help? Just thought, maybe I should introduce myself..I am in Ontario, Canada, have been scrapbooking for about 6 years, am a "retired" (ha ha) Creative Memories consultant, and am working on my 7th album. (Have two sons, 9 and 5) When I first started to scrapbook, I only used Creative Memories products and was careful what I put in my albums, making sure they were acid free etc. However, in the last little while, I have found that that really isn't my "style" I have started to add all kinds of things..pressed flowers, memorabilia, lots of things, that really remind me of the old fashioned type of scrapbooks. Well...sorry so long! I love the idea of this forum, and think we can all share some great ideas ~Mar~ Ontario, Canada

Time consuming...it all depends. You can scrap like me. LOTS of pics, very little design. 19 pages in 1 day is my current record. Or you can take your time and each page is a careful work of art. Or anywhere in between. It's fun to see the different 'personalities' of each scrappers book. You can get books at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Meijer, try another Wal-Mart. I'm sure there's a lot more I can't think of right now. But someone else will.:o)

There are a lot of great papers that you just insert your cropped photos into the open spaces. The one I used still had plenty of space for journaling, too. They still look great and it saves a lot of work. You may want to slip one in here and there since you have 20+ years worth! Might break up the monotony for you. I have also seen a paper piecing pattern for a stocking that was patchwork Christmas papers. Instead of a few of the pieces they had three or four pictures. I can't remember where I saw it, but there's a few places I can look. Even if I can't find it, I think this would be pretty easy to do. Just draw a simple stocking shape that takes up most of the page. Crop a few pages into wedges, triangles, etc. that would fit on the stocking, leaving plenty of space between them. Then use assorted Christmas patterned papers to fill in the spaces to complete the stocking. Finish with holly leaves or whatever around the edges. It sounds confusing, but it's hard to explain. If you can picture it in your head from my explanation, you can do it. I'll look for the pattern and if I find it I'll post it. Good luck and happy scrappin'! -Sarah