Keeping up with Tradition...

Just because it's a new year, I decided to stick with tradition and welcome the annual nasty cold germ with a box of kleenex, several packages of Tylenol Cold and Flu, and a voice that sounds NOTHING like the one you'll hear when you launch the page. (Yep, I added a chat thingie. If you have the volume turned up, it's scary. It talks every time it loads, so I no longer feel like I'm talking to myself! Neat, huh?!)

Scrapbooking is one of the few activities that doesn't have to take a back seat to cold germs, so although I haven't been able to enjoy the scent of felt markers or adhesives while I'm under the antihistamine influence...I still managed to play with paper. I've been making a year-in-review layout every year since I started scrapbooking, so coming down with a cold seemed like a good opportunity to focus on compiling content for the annual project. These are the only pages which don't include pictures in our own books, but they're probably the most-read pages in our albums. Viewers will flip through pages with photos or journaling, but EVERYONE stops to read these. The first one I scrapped was 7 years ago now...I didn't begin making copies to sell until 2005 because they're so much work, but when I read back each year...the things that have changed in less than a decade would already be long forgotten without these little 'notes' and I'm reminded that the labor was worth it. My first effort was a little less polished than today's result---You can definitely see a progression as my scrapbook habit evolved, although the same characters appear indulging in various forms of mischief on all of the layouts. One of these days I'll probably need a whole album for them! If you haven't considered scrapping something like this, I hope you'll be inspired to make your own each year. There's a printable version of the 2006 and 2007 pages at http://www.thatsscrapinc.com if you'd like a head start, and for those who have access to electronic die cutting equipment like the KNK, Pazzles, Gazelle or Cricut with SCAL...watch for the file. It's available in AI, KNK, GSD, EPS, SVG and Bitmap image formats in the cutter files section.