Confessions...

Lately I have been a blogger who doesn't blog and a scrapbooker who doesn't scrapbook {much}. Last Sunday, however, I did make a deliberate choice to work on my youngest's baby album rather than work on taxes. He will be 7 in a couple of weeks, so I really wanted to get those last pages of his book completed! I actually got 17 pages put together, which felt really good. I need to write on and decorate those pages still, so can't yet show them here. Which is one of my problems... lots and lots of unfinished pages and projects! Anyone else have that issue?!?

I am motivated by two things:

1. Deadlines!
2. Saving money!

Both of those situations came into play this week as I started and completed two projects. I made two different 7"x5" softcover StoryBooks this week!

The first project was definitely deadline-oriented. Tuesday afternoon, Abbie came home from school with the news that one of the most popular boys in her class would soon be moving back to his home country of South Africa... soon as in next week. Even though he was new to the school this year, he had made many friends. She said her teacher wanted to do something special for him and have all the kids participate. So Abbie, my good girl, raised her hand and volunteered her mommy to make him a scrapbook! Of course I was happy to lend my services, and let her teacher know that when he called later that afternoon. I offered to make a little, 20-page digital StoryBook for Austin.

Wednesday, I went into school in the afternoon and took pictures of all the kids in the class. Thursday, Abbie came home with letters all her classmates had written to their friend. At first I had thought I would re-type all their notes, but after looking at them, I knew I needed to include them as is. So I photographed the letters and added them into the book. Thursday evening I got busy dropping photos of kids and letters into pre-designed layouts {tweaking the layouts as needed to fit everything in}, and by 11pm the book was mostly completed!

Friday morning, I put the finishing touches on the cover, uploaded it, and got it ordered! It will be back in time to give to Austin on his last day of school this coming Thursday. This slim little 7"x5" book will be easy to keep and transport, and will continually remind him of his friends here in the USA! This one page gives you a glimpse of how it turned out. I used the Primary Elementary Digital Kit & Predesigned Pages. {I used this same artwork in the traditional teacher albums I made last year for a client.} This project turned out really cute, I think!

So my next project was motivated by saving money! When ordering a StoryBook, it is always a better deal to order more than one. Why? Because the shipping for one is $7. But when you add another book to the order, the additional shipping charge is only $2! So the average shipping cost goes down the more books you order. And order 10 books or more at one time, and you even get an extra 10% off of each book. I wasn't ready to order 10 books, but I was motivated to take advantage of a savings on my shipping charges.

I also needed a sample to show of our 7"x5" StoryBooks. I have 11"x8.5" books, 8"x8" books, and 12"x12" pages to show off, but none of these little softcover books. I thought the perfect project for my sample book would be to use photos of my new niece for a little brag book.

My sister and her husband look soooo happy as they greet their new daughter! I started this little book Tuesday night so that I would have it done before I started the goodbye book for Abbie's classmate. Just let me say, making this little book has actually been on my To Do list for two months. Yep. But the deadline worked! In less than two hours I had all 20 pages of this sweet little book completed!

I wanted to keep this book simple, so that I can show how easy digital scrapbooking can be. I simply made each picture the page background {truly, just one click in StoryBook Creator}. I then added embellishments from a few different artwork packages I have from my vast array of Creative Memories digital products. Many of the embellishments were actually black --- but again, one click and I was able to change them to white. This is a sweet little project! I can't wait to get it in my hands, and have photos of my sweet little niece to look at off the computer.

Friday morning, I ordered both these books. I met my deadline and saved money. I even got some scrapbooking done this week! Oh, and I also saved even more... because 7"x5" Softcover StoryBooks are $5 off through April 30th! What project would you use a little book like this for?