Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Happy New Year!

What did you do to say goodbye to 2008 and ring in 2009? Since I am loaded with a sinus cold, I didn't head out to a celebration party as was planned. Instead I stayed at home, drank lots of tea and created a 2009 Highlights Storybook!

I went back through my photos from 2009 (easy to do using my Memory Manager software software, then using Storybook Creator Plus software I plopped them into a 8x8 template to create the bones of the book. Then I added the background pages using the MOD Digital Kit and some point form journaling. The resulting book will be sent to me within a week or so and will be a great review of the entiure year...and I did it in only a couple of hours!

Here are a few pages from the book:

First and last pages:

March:

June:

December:

Pretty cool, huh? I love digital!

Lots of us make resolutions at this time of year that only last a couple of weeks or even just a couple of days. I am really going to try to keep my (scrapbooking) resolutions and stay on top of
"keeping up" with our family memories. Have you thought about how you might keep track of all the memories to be made? I am definitely doing this and am thinking about doing this. Both are great ways to start and STAY organized in the process of memory keeping. And just think, on New Year's Day 2010, my 2009 memories will be safely tucked away in an album...complete and ready to look back upon with fondness! (Is it strange that I am so excited about getting organized???)

I am also excited because the January 1st challenge is up at Christmas Cards All Year Round! The challenge was to create a traditional card using red/green, a stamped image or rub-ons. Here's mine:

I was itching for a chance to use the new Christmas papers from American Crafts, so I punched some squares out of the fun patterned paper, inked up the edges and arranged them on a 5 x 5 card base. I liked the brown in the patterns, so I used brown cardstock as the base for my rub-on sentiment from Memory Makers. A fun little star brad finished it off. It probably isn't as traditional as it could be, but I do love the colors and patterns together. (And I have to say that I am tickled to see my work posted as a Design Team member!)

Staying with the idea of looking ahead, if you did each card challenge from CCAYR over the coming year, you would have plenty of Christmas cards for NEXT CHristmas! So, get started already!

Whatever your plans for the upcoming year, I hope it is happy and full of blessings. I look forward to saring more memories with you in 2009.

Happy Scrapping!
Noreen