My friend Dawn showed me how to make this adorable mini-scrapbook.  (She learned it from someone else, but since I learned it from her I'll give her the credit.)  It is a wonderful way to creatively share photos with special people without being overwhelmed by an entire scrapbook.  I made this one for my dear friend who lives overseas.  Her birthday is coming up and I wanted to send her something special.  Since her space is limited and so are my finances, I decided to make her this special "birthday card".

Take two paper bags turning them opposite ways.

Lay them on top of each other and fold in half.  (Punch holes on the folded side.)

Then decorate limited only by your imagination.  Here's mine...

The verse says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above...

(See the nifty  pocket inserts.)

"coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows."  James 1:17  (That's the verse in English, not a literal translation.)

Then it says, "I thank God for you."

"We wish you all that is best in life."

(More nifty pocket inserts.)

"Happy Birthday!"

"I love you!  With love, Drewe Llyn"

Friends4Tea asked about my scrapbooking organization.  (Obviously she doesn't know me very well as organized Drewe Llyn is an oxymoron!)  However, her question motivated me to put it into some semblance of order so I could take a picture and post it.  DD11 actually did a lot of the work.

We moved the chair and end table out of this corner.  (Chair to the living room and table to the shed.)  Then I borrowed a square table from our church to put in their stead.  The caddy holds our markers, scissors, glue, stencils, pencils, and pens.  DD15 labled the plastic drawers for each of us scrappers.  Each holds our special supplies we bought for special projects.  Mine also holds all our 12 x12 paper that hasn't been cut.  Cut paper that is still usable is on top of the drawers along with our stamps (most of which were bought at a yard sale.)  The shelf above the draws holds tubs with ribbon, cookie cutters, and punches.  My old scrapbook which I'm redoing is also on that shelf.  On the hearth behind the chair with the red cushion is a box of odds and ends.  I really should go through and organize those, but I haven't got around to it yet.

That's about it.  We try to put things back when we're finished. (Emphasis on try. LOL!)

Here's two more of our creations:

This is DD11 on her 3rd and 4th birthdays.  We take a picture together every year.

This is one of DD15's pages.

Well, that's all for now. I've got some more pages to put together.  Oh, and I've got to do some housework...yuck!

I've caught the bug.  It's really DD15's fault.  She needed something to do this summer so I suggested she scrapbook her band pictures from the school year.  While helping her buy supplies I couldn't help but think of my own scrapbook from years ago done in a cheap album on cheap paper which was now falling to pieces.  I really NEEDED to do something with it, so I bought supplies for myself.  DD11 decided she should "scrap" her camp pictures, so we went supply shopping for her.  Now a corner of our kitchen/dinning room has become scrapbook "headquaters" much to DH's dismay.  We even have labeled drawers (thanks to dd15) with our individual papers and supplies.  Who knew this could be so much fun?!?!?  Part of me thinks it is a waste of time and money, but the other part of me thinks it is great "together" time and we're recording precious memories.  (I'll stick with that part.)

I've been inspired by Friends4Tea who has been posting her scrapbooking saga along with pictures in her Saturday Scrappers corner.  Here are a couple of mine. (I'm going to have to work on getting rid of the glare, but this gives an idea of what I've been doing.)

That top left corner picture is DD15!

Happy Scrapbooking!

I'll post more pictures later.