Well, I tried and I tried and I tried (by staying up til 4am multiple nights) to get the anniversary scrapbook done, and I missed. All the pages were setup with the designs, embellishments, dates and some journaling, but I only had a bit more than 1/2 the pictures I needed.
I decided to *give it to them* anyway because I had a lot of the *important stuff* done. (I also had the box of dated pictures with me that were to go in to it.) I explained my premis of 45 years of accomplishments and explained some of the different elements that were in it and they loved it! The rest of the night was spent with different people looking at the book and looking through the box of pictures (they're all scanned, color copies- so if there're too may fingerprints, I can print a reprint.) and let's just say that everyone LOVED it!
Next week (after a family wedding this weekend) I'll get the whole thing back and get the rest of the pictures sorted and placed. Once that's done, expect to see me starting to post scanned pages...
Everyone was stunned that I did as much as I did AND basically planned the weekend and had a few other *minor* projects that I was giving out while everyone was home....................and dealt with my two little angels. (HAHAHA!)
Ok, now I am going back to losing the rest of my sanity.
Theresa in IL :-)
Ohhhhhhhhhh boy!
> Did I bite off a bigger project than I think I was ready for!!
> ...and it has a deadline. Aug 14th.
>
> My parents' 45th wedding anniversary was this year back in June. Since the
> beginning of the year they said "no surprises" and "no parties". OK. We
> (the kids) complied.....kinda. On the day of their anniversary, I gave them
> 3 old pictures framed. The first was on their wedding day; the second was
> the oldest picture I could find of my siblings and I together (1972) and the
> third was of mom and dad with their grandkids when my youngest was born-
> we've had a new one since. (My brother and sis-in-law just adopted a baby
> boy.) Ok, along with the pictures was a note saying that it was time for
> new family pictures and that everyone would be home for the weekend of Aug
> 14th. No surprise- they're warned......and they have to pick up people at
> the airport and let them stay at home. :-) No party- we're all just coming
> home to bicker and fight so they can remember why they like retirement. :-P >
> Ok, so I've kinda planned out the weekend and things were going toooooooooo
> easy and I decided that I needed to make a memory book for their 45 years
> together. Actually, I was thinking of it as a "book of accomplishments"
> because if you look at the big picture, there were a lot of things "done
> good". I made a timeline from when my dad was born, then mom, then when
> they emigrated to the US, and hit the major points from there to their
> wedding, to kids being born, to major events, etc... I sent this timeline
> to my siblings and had them fill in the blanks where I was missing stuff or
> had things wrong. And then began...
>
> I went through their closet where the boxes and boxes and BOXES of pictures
> are stacked, and would go through 3 or 4 boxes, post-it note where I took
> stuff, came home, scanned and *fixed* and printed pictures, took them back,
> got some more, repeat as necessary.
>
> So, now I am assembling this monstrosity. I started with a current picture
> of them for the opening page; made a 2-pg layout of my dad pre-mom; a 2-pg
> layout of mom pre-dad; and then 4 pages for their wedding. Then every year
> after gets a 1-pg layout and each "5" (5, 10, 15, etc...) gets a 2-pg that
> includes a dMarie TimeCapsule for that year. (Are you counting pages? This
> thing is getting BIG!!) Then I added a few special 2-pg layouts to include
> "School Days" (that counts up all the different school activities they dealt
> with in 4 kids) and "Remodeling Projects" (my dad is really proud of the
> workmanship he's put in the house over the years) and a few others that I
> thought would mean a lot to them.
>
> I was smart (I think) when I started this because I limited myself to 5
> shades of blue (they came in a pack) and a limited stock of embellishments
> to keep the "theme" going........THEN I made blank "power layouts" for each
> year including "year appropriate designs" and the year block (the year
> numbers all match too). With all the layouts pretty much made, I'm just now
> adding pictures from each year that I borrowed/scanned/printed as
> appropriate. With only a few weeks to go, I am pretty happy with how much
> is done. I'll probably even make it in time for the Saturday dinner
> (...barring my kids being daredevils! They have no fear yet.)
>
> As soon as I have it done (the timeline is part of the journaling and is
> getting done last in case I missed something as I go along) I will scan it
> and post it for y'all to see.
>
> Just thought I would let you know what I've been up to!
>
> :-)
> Theresa in IL
>
> Pages scrapped: 30+ in the last month
>
>