Happy Thanksgiving! Wordless Wednesday & Treasure Chest Thursday Combo

More of my mom's handiwork.

2010 Calendar How-To

You can create a beautiful 2010 calendar in about 30 minutes with Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0. Below is a step-by-step guide for creating a traditional calendar. You can also use the predesigned pages in the software or create your own embellished pages for more intricate designs. Each calendar page is perforated so you can remove the 12×12 photo after the month is over and add it to a scrapbook, album or wall display. Click on the photos below for larger versions.

Step 1 — Create a New Project: Open StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 and select “Create a new project.” Choose “12×18 Calendar” under project type and then select your preferred format (predesigned or basic). Click Next.

Step 2 — Add Your Photos: In the next step, you will select your photos for including in the project. Hold down the CTRL button to select multiple photos at the same time. Click “Get selected photos.”

Select Next.

Alternatively, you can load photos from Memory Manager. To select photos from Memory Manager, create the project and then select the Insert tab at the top of the window. Click the Photo icon and select “From Memory Manager 3.0.” Follow the prompts to insert photos onto the pages of your project.

Step 3 — Name Your Project: Give your project a name, select the location where it will be saved and click Create.

Step 4 — Design Your Calendar: Now you’re ready to dig in. Before you is the January 2010 page. Click on the Photos tab in the right-hand window.

Drag the desired photo(s) to your calendar page and arrange. Resize, if needed, by clicking and dragging the corners of each image.

Use the Aspect Ratio menu to reshape the photo to fit the square shape of the page by right-clicking on the photo, selecting “Aspect ratio” and clicking on Square.

Step 5 — Add Important Dates: Customize your calendar by writing in birthdays, holidays and other special information. Use the zoom bar in the bottom-left corner of the window to zoom in on the days of the month. Insert a text box by selecting the Insert tab at the top of the screen and clicking on Text. Drag the box to the desired location and resize.

Double-click on the text box and type in your information. To resize the text, highlight the text with your mouse. Select the “Format Text” tab at the top of the window. Click on the text-size button and select the desired text size.

Step 6 — Repeat: Save your work by clicking on the Save button at the top of the design window. Click on the Pages tab in the right-hand window and select the next page in your calendar. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 for each month.

Step 7 — Order Your Calendar: Click on the Home tab at the top of the window. Select the Order icon and click “Order this project online.” You will have an opportunity to preview your calendar. You then will be asked to log in to the Creative Memories Digital Center (you can create a new account if you don’t have one already). If you are asked for a Creative Memories Consultant ID number, please enter 65148777.

The CM Digital Center will open in your browser window once you login. Click on My Projects and select Calendars. You should now see the Calendar you just created in StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0. Select it and click on “Add to Cart & Checkout.” Follow the prompts to complete your purchase.

Visit my Creative Memories site for more digital and traditional scrapbooking ideas and products. Questions? Email me!

Treasure Chest Thursday: Entrepreneurial Spirit

Wooden Halloween Art

There is no doubt that my entrepreneurial spirit comes from my mom. She was a stay-at-home mom for most of the time that I was in school, but she created a workshop for herself in each of the houses we lived in. In fact, the house we lived in from 1985-1994 was chosen specifically because the basement level afforded her enough room for a workshop and showroom space for her fledgling business.

She sold a variety of crafts over the years, everything from room boxes done in miniature (she could recreate a dollhouse version of any room in your house based on a photograph), gift baskets, country-themed wooden pieces like the ones pictured here, Tole painting, tiny dioramas molded out of clay — the only art medium that I never saw my mom make money off of was photography.

Trick-or-Treat Detail

I’m so glad that I have some of her handiwork — I’m including a couple of examples of wooden pieces she decorated for Halloween now that it’s October. I have similar pieces she did for Thanksgiving and a couple of Xmas ornaments as well.

Each of my aunts and many of my friends have pieces that my mom created. At one point, she would paint a person’s pet or house from a photograph to scale on a piece of wood cut into the correct shape using a jigsaw — when my best friend’s cat died in high school, my mom painted a wooden replica of Tabby from a photo I happened to have.

I’d like to think I may have inherited some of my mom’s talent, or at least the desire to work with my hands. I can’t paint as effortlessly as she could, but she always encouraged me whenever I expressed an interest.

Signature

I’ve thought about my mom an awful lot over the past couple of months as I have launched my own business. I marvel at the courage she had as a single mom to pursue her home-based business as a way to support our small family, stay at home with us and do what she loved.

I treasure the pieces pictured here not only because they remind me of my mom and how talented she was, but also because they inspire me to follow in her footsteps and make my own way doing what I enjoy most too.

B-O-O Blocks