To My Sister - Thank You for Introducing Me to Scrapbooking

My sister, Sandra (aka S.A.M.), introduced me to scrapbooking over 10 years ago. I don't know if I ever thanked her for that or not - but it has become a very big portion of my life and a major creative outlet for me.

Last year, I did a layout that featured early pictures of the two of us. Click here to see the post about the layout.

On March 1st, 2009, Sandra passed away, a day before her 47th birthday, after a 7.5 year long battle with ovarian cancer. She continued to fight right up until the end, but the dreaded disease proved to be too much for her.

For her service, Ruth (Sandra's BFF) and I created a unique guest book for everyone to sign - a 8x8 scrapbook with pictures through the years of her life. That way the people who attended did not just sign their name on a line, but could pick a picture that might represent the time or place in Sandra's life that they knew her, but also write a note or two either to Sandra or us.

After the service, reading the notes left by everyone was both hard and good at the same time. To be able to have a record of all the wonderful things that people had to say about my sister is a great comfort and I will treasure the book forever.

I will at some point in the future, do memorial pages for Sam, when I am able to (to join the ones for our parents).

Scrapbooking has always been a way for me to preserve my family history and the stories that go along with the photos, and that is even more important now. My sons will be able to remember their aunt, who loved them very much, and whose life ended much too soon.

So, if I haven't said it before - thank you Sam for introducing me to scrapbooking - it has been a blessing and a way to carrying on through all the tough times....

Brenda

Retreat at Timberline - How it Went

Well, Maria and I had a good time at Timberline - not much sleep for various reasons, but a good time. One of the highlights was meeting and getting to know Jessie from "Cherish the Thought".

I managed to get 22 pages done!! Not bad.

I have to say that pre-kitting my pages made a really big difference - both on the speed that I was able to get going on things and just the amount of stuff that I did not need to take with me. On top of that, I ensured that I used my stash first!!

Before the retreat, I had spent quite a bit of time sorting my pictures and gathering any cardstock and pattern papers that I already had on hand and placing them in 12x12 plastic bags. If I had enlargements, I included them as well - so all I needed to do was to pull out the next package and I was off and running.

I also used a form from Creating Keepsakes - a 'to do' form that had space for the title, and if the photos and/or paper was there waiting. I found this to be a big help as it kept me organized.

Now I just need to keep going and I might even catch up to 2006 or even 2007 this year!!

Happy Scrapping,

Brenda