Super Sweet, But Not Candy

Move over Dragon. Make room for Love.

Let’s take a quick inventory of things KIDS LOVE:

• candy
• games & activities
• candy
• stickers
• stories
• candy
• photos

If you’re looking for a sweet gift this Valentine’s Day, check out Snap Stories. Better for your body than candy, and good for your heart in every way :-)

For $12 you can gift someone with a story that really sticks!

A fun activity designed to trap printed photos INSIDE the pages of a whimsical, yet sturdy, book.  It’s peel and press fun that results in a keepsake.  Cool, huh?  We’re offering FREE SHIPPING on all orders from now through midnight Tuesday, February 14th, the pinnacle of loveliness.  Plus we’ve added gift wrap as standard on all orders, no charge.

Now that sounds easy-peasy, super-sweet-that-can’t-be-beat, doesn’t it?

Use the code PHOTOLOVE.

Happy Snapping,

Resolve to dissolve PHOTO GUILT

Ring in GUILT-FREE photo fun in 2012!

Oh boy!  Photo-scouting for 11 Favorite Smiles of 2011 challenge crystalized the reality that my e-photos are a royal mess.  I have guilt to resolve, photos to tag, and loads of photos to delete!

DETAILS…

Join THE TEAM & I will email this icon, to place wherever you need a reminder.People I know are guilt-ridden for:

• not taking enough photos
• not editing photos
• not printing photos
• not organizing photos 

If one of these is a source of frustration for you, join THE TEAM by emailing me (emma -at- snapstories -dot- com).

Make a commitment and check in, via email, everytime you work to implement your goal.

We will share a Google document that will list our stated photo goal & incremental progress.  We can learn from each other, and monitor our own (and collective) progress.  I can promise that this will be an intimate group, because Snap Stories & my voice/audience still has a small reach… That said, feel free to invite anyone you know who has voiced self-critique in managing their family’s photos.

Join any time during 2012, for each month you are actively participating and keeping up with your goal, your name will be added to a drawing for a FREE SNAP STORY!  Anyone can join at any time, and if you check in with progress two times that month, you’ll be entered for that month.  Of course, the bigger payoff will be resolving the guilt!

Below I’m listing some tips I’ve distilled from scouting around.

Shoot More.

Some of my absolute favorite photos are the ‘randoms’ taken on Any Day, USA (verses the birthday shots, the the photos with Santa, or the everyone-look-and-say-cheese shots).  Plus, I feel more at ease peeking around the corner to snap my kids playing together, rather than trying to light the birthday cake, sing Happy Birthday AND get the right photo!  Often, it’s the everyday moments that hold the real emotions you want to remember.

Keep Less.

It’s SO EASY to take digital photos.  The hard part is figuring out which ones are worth keeping.  To me, it almost feels disrespectful to DELETE even a digital photo that has my cute kiddos’ mug smiling back at me.  I have to remind myself, “you have six great shots in that sequence.  You don’t need all six!  Pick your favorite and delete the rest.”  It’s true, seeing just that one moment (verses all similar six ones) will do the emotional job of ‘bringing me back to that time & place.’

Print More.

What would bring more photo joy to your life?  A few snapshots on the coffee table, or the dash board of your car?  Maybe tucking a photo into your child’s lunchbox once in a while?  Or your spouses suitcase when they go on a business trip?  It takes just a few clicks to print from your phone or computer (or you could invest in an instant-print camera).

Organize All.

Better to start where you are, rather than at the beginning.  When you get (or make) a little time, you can go back to other years.  (It can be too daunting to go back and organize the photos from when your child was born, rather than today, when they’re 4 years old.)  Create a folder for each year & month.  Each download should be a new file, within the appropriate month folder, titled by theme (playdate with Williams, Tia’s visit, Joey’s 5th b-day, snowman+, etc.).

 Save each month to a CD.  Put the CD in a safe place or CD album WITH a printed out contact page of the photos on that CD.

11 smiles for 2011

eleven  11  ELEVEN  !!  e l e v e n

It’s the number of the year, but it’s more than that (to me).  It’s a magical little number, standing tall and clearly waiting to dance with itself….

Here at Snap Stories, we did something fun around this time last year.  In 2010, I came up with 10 INSTANT, THOUGHT-FULL GIFT IDEAS and shared one each day, in countdown fashion.  Like so:

• 10.  Calling Gifting All Crafters (take handmade to a new level)
• 9.  This (over)board book rocks! (a buoyant gift for water-lovers)
• 8.  Photo Fun for Everyone (especially budding photo-journalists)
• 7.  Girls Travel in Groups (celebrate your circle of friends)
• 6.  Grand with a Capital “G” (for grandparents)
• 5.  Project:  Snow Day (perfect, instant, at-home project for school-age kids)
• 4.  Brag Book (for grandparents, parents, or baby!)
• 3.  The Wanna-be Explorer (adventure photos to the rescue)
• 2.  Right for Tween (photo peek from be’tween the pages)
• 1.  Hands-on Teacher Gift (earn bonus points, for sure)

The countdown was a hit!  But we can do better.  I’m sure I can get more creative and sappy (er, snappy) than that!  Without further rambling, here’s how you can join me in rounding out this lovely, oddly odd year.

I want to challenge you to scout through some of your personal photos & find your ELEVEN FAVORITE SMILES OF 2011.

It’s pretty simple, either upload the album to the Snap Stories fan page on Facebook, or send me (emma -at- snapstories -dot- com) a link to the “Eleven Smiles for 2011” album whereever you store your photos (picasa, Shutterfly, Snapfish, Walgreen’s, etc.).  The deadline is January 11, 2012.  5 people will win a One Big Adventure Snap Story.  One person (the Snap Smiling-est King or Queen of 2011) will win ELEVEN books, plus one to grow extra-happy on.

I can’t wait!  What a way to wrap up a year….in smiles.

Good Ol' Thanksgiving: just picture it

If it’s not blaringly obvious, I’ll state it now:  I’m a sucker for nostalgia.  Holidays like Thanksgiving are delicious to the core, oozing nostalgic sentiment at every angle.

Family & friends, turkey & cranberry, sharing & giving, remembering & making:  yum, yum, double yum!

In that vein, I’m also a sucker for printed photos.  Nope, NOT the photos trapped on your phone or home computer, the other (near obsolete) version of photos that in days past adorn the refrigerator with mismatched magnets, dog-earred and curly, but present and touch-able.

In the spirit of giving, I wanted to share a few ideas to jumpstart your family’s nostalgia.  By the way, if you are inundated with offers from Shutterfly, TinyPrints, Snapfish, and the like, don’t worry—this isn’t like that.  These ideas are much easier than composing a photo card or getting caught up in the sea of fabulous design options…  These ideas work with any ol’ snapshot, and they can happen without much thought or time spent selecting photos.  I call it Instant Nostalgia.  Wanna give it a whirl?

1. Print out* 20 or 30 photos that you like.  Don’t deliberate over “are these the best?” or anything like that, just do it.  Put the stack of photos on the coffee table (within kid-reach of course) and let the conversations begin, or lay them on the seats at the holiday table (a fun surprise as everyone is sitting down), or use them as “bread crumbs” when your kids wake up Thanksgiving morning, leading to a note at the kitchen table that says “HAPPY THANKSGIVING—-I’m so thankful for YOU!”  *(just take your phone to Walgreen’s or Target with a USB connector cable; it’s that easy.)
2. Again, using images from your phone, pick out 10 fun photos.  Get double prints of these images.  Use the photos as a simple, instant game of memory (also called concentration) by turning all the photos over (back side facing up) and try to find the set of matching photos.  Nothing fancy, literally, just the photos.
3. Printed photos these days cost about a dime, so (unless they are really old & irreplaceable) they are, well, completely replaceable.  So go hog wild! Cut them, tape them, write on them, spray them with perfume(!) and otherwise simply enjoy them.  I like to cut out people in photos & tape the cut outs on all sorts of things and even in snack bags as an added (sugar-free) surprise….even sprinkled around the kids’ holiday table!
4. Of course you could layer Snap Stories into the fun.  Most families have a box of random printed photos.  Pull out that dusty box and add a few Snap Stories to the mix.  Sit together as a family and snap together stories of family adventures, old baby pics, or birthday keepsakes.  You could also buy an (old school!) three-ring photo album and stick the photos into an album…don’t worry about chronology, just do it!  A baby step is better than no step—-it’s the perfect family activity for young & old to tackle together.
5. Or, if you’re hosting and looking for something to keep the kids busy while the adults catch-up, have the big kids (8+) help the little kids (4+) make a Snap Story to give to the grandparents when the pumpkin pie & whip cream is served.  Surley your family has photos from a summer trip, or celebrating a special birthday, or of a new baby in the family.  The act of making the book will bring everyone into the experience, even if they aren’t front & center in the photos.  (This is a serious esteem booster PLUS family-bonding opportunity!)

Wishing you a Snappy (& Happy) Thanksgiving holiday,

 

Looking for more, see a few of my ideas from the past:

Bring Photos to Your Holiday Table

Photo Fun for Everyone

Also, you can now pick up Snap Stories in the Whole Body department at Whole Foods in Town & Country, as well as I Am What I Am in St. Charles.  For a list of all Missouri retailers, click here.

  

a rosy look at travel blues

We have had so much travel in our home this past month!  Work took me to California recently, and then Carter to Poland and Germany for a few weeks…

It’s exhausting to be at home, parenting solo, while my husband travels; and I know it’s hard for him to be away from his family.  He even told me he didn’t want to call and hear our voices because he missed us all so much.  He said, “You have no idea how many times I watched the videos and looked through the summer photos on my phone.”

Similarly, on the home front we looked at an above-average number of photos featuring “daddy playing with the girls.”  No surprise, we have Snap Stories on hand to jog our memories, too.  (And daddy has a My Baby Face for each his girls as babies.  He keeps in his suitcase and sets up like a frame on the night stand at hotels.)

In fact while he was gone, we had an evening activity of making a One Big Adventure storybook for friends we visited this summer.  It was one of those ‘deeper’ activities that I get a kick out of because the kids loved it, I loved it, and —BONUS!—we have a fabulous thank you gift to give to a dear family who I know will love it, too (AND I can cross sending the thank you card off my list)!

It made me feel good to know that during the time we were missing daddy, we were making something for Grant, who’s daddy also travels a lot.  Lilah, 4-years-old, acknowledged that by saying “Grant can keep this with him on his cot at nap time if he wants.”  Her sentiment was so sweet, and although Grant doesn’t go to day care like Lilah and her sister do, I know he will keep the book close by.  He can take comfort in glimpses of his dad and mom during the day (—-not to mention his two new coastal playmates:  Lovely Lilah and Crazy Cali).

Take a look at what we made in 20 minutes:

should say “my mouth ached from screaming!”

Pretty cute, huh?  I hope it’s a story Grant (and his parents!) will want to visit over and over for years to come…

Happy Trails & keep some family photos in your suit or brief case, as you never know when your fancy phone may fall in a margarita…. and zap!  (yes, it’s happened :)

Photo Nostalgia in phone-land

Ok, Friends,

How ironic is this:  I’m sitting in a cafe typing out the title of my blog post —poised to tackle the nostalgia-inspired photo trend for smart phones (hello instagram, ShakeItPhoto, & Hipstamatic)— when a friend of mine walks by the window with her 2 year old son.

We’re chatting, then I say “Oh, I almost forgot!  I have the cutest photo of Anderson from the other night at Katie’s.  I’ve been meaning to email it to you, but here, check it out.”  I opened iPhoto and quickly found the photos.  She smiled at the sight of her adorable son (who wouldn’t?), then said:

Patrick and I were just saying that we need to take and print more photos.  We recently lost a friend to cancer and he put together a photo-look back at his life.  It was so amazing.  One thing it really made us both think was that we need to print more photos.  In fact I went on Craigslist last night to see if I could find a Polaroid but since they aren’t making Polaroids & Polaroid film anymore, it’s all extremely expensive…”

I said, “I hear you.  And if you did get to the point of taking & printing the photos, what would you do with them?  Put them in an album? Store them in a box or drawer somewhere?”

She said with a smile, “Well, I would make Snap Stories…” which was the perfect tongue-in-cheek response.  Yes, that’s exactly the space Snap Stories fills, but the current four Snap Stories titles are not (by any stretch) the answer to the “photo-situation” we face here in Phone Land.

An App For That…

I don’t have a complete answer to the problem.  But if I can raise the capital, I’m going to take a bite out of the problem with a simple phone application (aptly called the Snap App).  I believe the problem to printing photos —and therefore enjoying them for years to come— starts with editing.  Optimized memory space, allow us to snap and store photos till we’re blue in the fingers.  So, I have conceived an app to help with the editing part (printing your favorite photos is then just a click away).  Who (besides James Bond) would have thought phone=photo?  Yet, today it does.

Still, all the apps in the world won’t take us back to the time and place of flipping through albums with printed photos, or walking into a friend’s kitchen and seeing a refrigerator door covered with snapshots, or tucking photos into a thank you card, or opening a novel and seeing a snapshot that was used as a bookmark…

Funny candid photo from AccidentalMysteries.comI realize folks aren’t just attracted to the emotions of time-worn photos, they are attracted to the look.  I think it was a brilliant juxtaposition to make high resolution, immediate-gratification digital photos look like old, grainy, chemically-developed aged prints!  I think we’ve become a little numb to how great photos look, such that the lower quality, “mysterious” images are more interesting.  It’s this fascination that my friend John clicked into years ago, and catalogs online at Accidental Mysteries.

Here’s where I shed a tear.  Why? Because there is a magic in holding something.  In passing it, literally, to someone else and seeing their reaction.  That hand-off is a connection, a “touch” between people.  There is also a sense of cause and effect in seeing the edges curl over time.  In the bigger sense, what I see in the loss of printed photos is the lost of tangible things as they are replaced with digital ones. My husband and I were talking about this the other day.  Without missing a beat, he hilariously said something to the effect of soon there will be an app for touching each other.

I’ll end my jaunt down memory lane with a look forward:  we don’t know what we’ve got till it’s gone.  Please, let’s not let printed photos be a thing of the past…

Happy Snapping,

My friend Suzanne snapped this Hipstamatic of me at a trade show in April.PS.  If you’re interested in being a part of the new Snap App, let me know!

3 Tips for Vacation Snapshots

Tis the season for summer fun!  Should you find yourself at the beach, atop a mountain, paddling a canoe, or scampering off for Disney fun, chances are you’ll snap a couple (hundred) shots to hold onto the adventure a little longer.

I have three photo tips for all your trips.

1)  Get the grown-ups in on the action.  My camera is always pointed at my kids.  Once in awhile (note to self) I need to get in a photo, so that looking back, I feel like part of the action, too.  When the kids are old enough (4+) they can handle pointing & shooting a camera, and they like to be included in the snap-happy fun.  Or, better yet, go ahead and ‘bother’ a stranger to get your whole family together.  THESE ARE THE PHOTOS you’ll appreciate.

2)  That leads perfectly into my next tip.  When you see someone in the moment of taking photos of their family or friends, offer to take a photo of all of them.  (Especially if you see them trying to do that straight-arm-out-I-can-get-all-our-faces-in-if-we-squish-really-close-together shot!)  I can’t tell you HOW GRATEFUL people are for the offer.  Just imagine if it was you, and you really didn’t want to ‘bother’ someone to take your picture.  The smiles of appreciation I’ve received when I make this offer still surprises me.  I mean, it’s literally two minutes of my time & it’s no effort at all. 

3) Take some photos, then take a break.  It’s great to have photos (clearly), but the point of your vacation is to claim pure moments of happiness.  For this you have to engage in the moment and “live it the first time” WITHOUT trying to capture it for future enjoyment.  Find the balance between having your camera handy and having your hands free to hug your kids, walk hand-in-hand with your honey, and wave adios to your worries.

Wishing you safe & happy summer fun!

Kindly,

Is the Easter Bunny made of magic or sugar?

Today is Wednesday, a full four days before Easter, and my daughter had an egg hunt at preschool.  This marks the first of many scavenging events to come this Easter season.  When she realized —half way home in the car— that her candy from the hunt was still at school, she had a screaming melt down.  Unfortunately, this marks the first of many tantrums centered-around-candy to come during this season, too.

For the most part, it is what it is.  Just like Halloween, and Valentine’s day there is an abundance of candy and it’s just a natural part of the fanfare.  That said, I’m hoping to creatively curb the candy in the kids’ baskets this year.

Not surprisingly, I turn to the magical powers of photos to add a bit of interest to the ordinary.  I cut bodies out of 4x6 snapshots to see if they fit in the eggs.  They did and, I have to say, I love it!  I used “jumbo” size eggs from Walgreen’s (6/$1).

Oh, the other goodie I’m going to tuck in the eggs is miniature molded farm animals.  How funny (to me) that an egg can “hatch” a horse or a pig!  I crack myself up sometimes.  I’m sure my kids won’t catch the irony, but they do like those little stand-up animals.

Last year, though, hands down, my sister delivered the Easter gift the kids loved the most:  a motorized bubble wand & soap.

I personally love candy—and am clearly addicted to chocolate—but I don’t love my kids gobbling an endless load of it all at once.  And I don’t love them crying several times a day about when they can gobble up some more.  I hope the injection of imaginative toys into the Easter mix this year will keep the magic of the season alive without over-sugaring it (and, more importantly, keep my kids distracted long enough that I can swipe the best chocolate from their baskets)!

Happy Spring,

A Story of Birthdays

I’m hoping no one really noticed that it’s been [well] over a month since my last blog post.  All I can say is I fell into a vat of birthdays and —although tomorrow is my OTHER daughter’s birthday!— I’m just now standing up and dusting myself off…

I really like celebrating birthdays.  Even more than other holidays because birthdays are really, truly, honestly all about the birthday girl/boy.  I do wish our families birthdays were more spread out, but what can you do?  They come in waves.

February 14th was Lilah’s 4th birthday.  We celebrated with a few friends and the help of a small entity called Amtrak.  A friend of ours took some stunning photos throughout the day (jpollackphoto.com).  I ended up making TWO Snap Stories for Lilah this past weekend.  Click through and check them out.  Lilah was thrilled when she saw the books with “her photos” in them!

My birthday is February 21st.  This year I spent it solo in San Diego.  I welcomed in 37 with a glass of wine watching the sunset from the same vantage I watched it when I lived in San Diego right after college.  The view was delicious, delightful, and completely dive-in-able!

My mother-in-law’s birthday is March 5th.  This year, I essentially forgot it completely.  I remembered the Monday before and reminded myself to get a gift & card in the mail, and then promptly forgot about it until my husband handed me the phone to share my own birthday wishes with her.

Guess what she asked for as a gift (if I had enough time, she added).  She wanted a My Baby Face Snap Story of Cali.  Since I had given her a baby book with Lilah’s photos, now she wanted one of Cali.  I had to chuckle because I was becoming sensitive that she may be sick of hearing about Snap Stories.  Needless to say, I was very touched that she requested (another) one, and I can’t wait to make it for her.  Cali makes the funniest faces & really loves life!  (Check out the current Photo of the Moment page.)

Yesterday was my sister’s birthday.  This is another example where I was really wary of over-using Snap Stories.  Anyway, I had a great photo of the two of us (thanks again J. Pollack Photo) and I was just going to frame it.  Then I started thinking about the fact that she’s prepping her house for market, that personal photos are a no-no, that  then she’d have to dust the frame, etc. etc. All the signs were pointing to the Go Go Girlfriends Snap Story.  What can I say, they simultaneously serve as a frame, a book, a card and a keepsake.  (Plus, no pressure to display them.)  Click the image to see the whole book.

One of my favorite photos ever was taken 34 years ago, of the two of us.  No way was I putting that photo directly in a Snap Story (the other photos from college, road trips, etc. sure I could part with those).  But this photo I scanned, printed a copy, and snapped that into the back cover.  Putting my original safely back on the wall.

Yep, that’s my baby sister, 34 years ago wearing a bonnet(!!).  And that’s her proud older sister, taking the responsibility of a baby and a pet very seriously, it seems.

Birthdays are a great excuse to revel in everyday, ordinary family photos. Enjoy,

photo therapy

Go ahead…sneak a peek.

Myles, entranced with his ‘Baby Face’ Snap Story.Have you ever heard of photo therapy? (I don’t mean phototherapy.  I mean photo therapy, two words.)  I’m not sure it honestly exists —let’s just say it’s not in Wikipedia— but it should.  It’s that great feeling of walking down memory lane through the power of a photo.

Printed photos are great for this, but digital ones can do the trick, too.  Last week, I was sitting in bed with my laptop at the end of a long day and I wanted nothing more than to lose myself in the memory-fog of photos.  I’m prone to do that (often).  I have iPhoto on my laptop and I can easily browse through months of photos.  Almost instantly I was lost:  I went from depleted to renewed.  I chuckled to myself that it was photo therapy, just like some gals joke that shopping is “retail therapy.”

(If you’re coming to this post from Cupcake Project, Welcome!  Stay tuned!  Details on the give-away are just around the corner…)

I started to think about it more and it all made sense.  You may be different, but I don’t take a photo of something unless I want to remember it, preserve it, re-live it.  I don’t pick up my Canon PowerShot or switch my phone to camera mode if I’m irritated or sad.  Therefore, my photos are mostly of good times with friends, great moments with my kids, and generally documenting occasions that are worth re-creating.  This is why I can hole-up with my photos after a long day of kid craziness and too many emails still unanswered, and know in my heart that my kids are happy and my life is much more than half-full with goodness.

When I want to see the “half-full-ness” on my own face, I can just look at the above photo my four-year-old took.  Since 90% of the time I’m taking the photos, I welcome any (blurry, eye-less, toothy) indication that I was actually a part of the action.

That said, I was more than thrilled when my friend Jonathan Pollack —clearly a very talented photographer—sent me this photo.  This is proof-positive that not only was I genuinely happy the day he snapped this shot, but I don’t have teeth on my chin as my daughter’s recent pic suggests!  Snapshots are the stuff of the everyday, and that is priceless (to me).  But great professional photos go deeper to tell a story and capture the emotional essence of a moment.

Photos make us feel good

That’s precisely why I created the Snap Stories series.  Now it’s a snap to enjoy everyday photos in the convenience of a light-weight, but sturdy storybook.  Since the books hold 10 photos, they’re like a frame, but 9 times better!

How about you, are photos one of your feel-good therapies?  If so, leave a comment below and you’ll be entered in a Snap Stories’ give-away.  Let me know 1) what you use to take photos, and 2) which title in the series you’d like (check out the four titles right here), and how to reach you, should you be picked.  My daughter will randomly pick one winner for every 15 comment entries.  We’ll do this on March 1, 2011.  Leave a comment and you’ll qualify for a FREE Snap Story, even if you live in Cancun or Mongolia! One final note, IF you win and you happen to also be a Facebook fan of Snap Stories, you’ll get a free book PLUS a special (sticky) surprise, so come join the fun on FB.  OK, that’s all the fine print.  Mostly, I’m just excited to hear from you.  Good luck…

**March 1st Update**  TWO WINNERS HAVE BEEN CHOSEN.  With the help of Dora the Explorer counting cards (and some fancy math skills), Lilah and I picked the numbers:  3 and 28.  (3 was on the most cards; 28 was all the cards added together.  The Dora cards selected either had something to do with cupcakes or the Snap Stories’ logo, in case you’re wondering how we narrowed into those four cards.)  Thanks for playing :)

Snap-happily,

free [shipping] love

Today, I love Valentine’s day.  It’s the day I met my husband.  It’s also my daughter Lilah’s birthday.

Back in the day, I did NOT love Valentine’s day.  In fact, I found it downright depressing.

When the love-holiday rolls around and red hearts abound, I find myself in a mix of memories from child birth to —many years prior— partying with my friend Amy in San Diego.  Amy and I went to a housewarming party where we knew there would be great desserts.  It just so happened that this party was on Valentine’s day, which was a nice distraction since both Amy and I were single.  This story makes me smile now because I clearly remember telling her that I had officially sworn off men.  I had gone on too many bad dates in too short a time period.  I felt I would much rather spend time with my girlfriends than futz around with dating.  Amy and I had a night we will never forget, in part because that was the party where I met my husband!

I share this story because Valentine’s Day can be tough for our single, divorced, or widowed friends.  Romantic love is great when you’re in it, but when the rest of the world is celebrating that joy and you’re not, it can be lonely.

I’ve devised a Snap Stories’ SPECIAL OFFER to go along with this sentiment:

Go-Go Girlfriend and One Big Adventure books for $10 PLUS free shipping.  Just enter code LOVEU from now till Feb 11, 2011.

Use the $2 you save to get prints of that girls-get-a-way to Cabo or the fabulous foxy outfits you wore to the sorority events in college or the Euro trip that truly was One Big Adventure or the bachelorette party that will go down in history.

And let’s be honest, I’m not going to send the police to your house if you take advantage of this offer and then make a One Big Adventure Snap Story for your Valentine with photos from your honeymoon, or just attach a note that says “who knows what adventures are in store for this year, but I’m happy that we’ll be on them together…”

Sharing photos and memories of life together is an act of love we can *ALL* participate in.

3 ways to 'recycle' holiday photo cards

You are probably more organized… but this past Saturday I was trying to figure out what to do with the holiday photo cards hanging in our dining room.

I had a window while the girls napped.  Here’s what I did, for FREE!  I took the cards off the ribbons that I had thumb-tacked into the picture rail.  Then I made three piles.

• cards (no photos)
• photo cards printed on cardstock paper
• photo cards printed on photo paper

The cards with no photos were recycled.  Literally.

THE CARD LOOP

The cards with photos printed on cardstock were put into piles of approximately 10 cards.  I punched a hole in the top of the card and threaded grosgrain ribbon (that I had hung them up with) through the hole.  The cards were pushed next to each other on the ribbon then I pulled about 8” of ribbon in front of and behind the cards.  In a finale move, I tied a bow at the top.  It looked really cute!

I put one on the door knob of our guest bedroom (some of those featured in the cards will probably visit us and stay in that room this coming year).  I also put one in the car, between the two car seats.  It have to say it is a BRILLIANT distraction.  Cali, age 1, says “DD” and “baby.”  My older daughter Lilah, age 4, asked “Who is this?” and we get to talk about friends and cousins she has yet to meet or may not remember.

THE MULLET

inside a cabinet door (party time!)I’ve talked about this idea before in a blog.  I taped half of the photos that were printed on photo paper behind cabinet & closet doors.  I call this memory-jogging-maneuver ‘The Mullet’ because the cards don’t obscure or clutter the visual look in your room.  In fact, you never see them until you open the cupboard door.  It’s all “business in front / party in the back,” like a mullet. 

HIDE-AND-FIND

I was sitting right next to the book shelf so I took a pile of the kids’ board books and started taping the photo cards to the back of the books.  This part of the bookdoesn’t have any “story” anyway.  It’s usually just an ugly barcode and fine print.  I had to trim some of the cards down, but I was able to fit the important stuff.  See.

front of books…back of books.

I also grabbed a stack of cook books off the shelf and sprinkled the remaining photo cards randomly in the cook books.  This year as we’re poking around for dinner ideas, we’ll be surprised by by friendly faces from the past (literally).  I especially liked when I dropped a card inside one of our Middle Eastern cook books and it looked like our friends were standing in the desert.

 

I’ll be honest, I will eventually recycle (as in put in the recycling bin) these cards.  Maybe when a card falls out of a cook book and it’s closer to the trash can.  Maybe when the kids get goo all over the ‘card loop.’  I’m totally fine with pitching them after I get a few more months of smile-mileage out of them…

What did you do with your cards this year?  Any other bright ideas? 

I [heart] Will Welch

OK, I’ve never met Will Welch, but I just stumbled upon an article he wrote for GQ back in October, and, now, I’m his biggest fan!  Here’s the article:

Learn How to Use That Thing!:  12 Foolproof Rules for Making Smarter, Edgier, Better Digital Photos.

If you want some quick pointers for taking better photos (on the go), read Will’s quick tips.  I learned a lot, like exactly when to switch on the low-light setting…I’ll try it at least.

But it was his last remark that made me want to tattoo a WW inside a tiny heart right on the end of the finger I use to snap photos.  He said:

Bring Back the Refrigerator Photos…and the photo-filled shelves, walls, and bathroom mirrors. Because what good are your perfectly lit, expertly framed, life-affirming photographs if they’re sitting un-looked-at on your damn hard drive?

The refrigerator door is the exact analogy I use when I’m clarifying the way to use Snap Stories.  I say, “No, they aren’t like photo books you make online.  In fact, they aren’t albums.  They’re just a glimpse, just a sequence of moments that serve to bring good memories to life whenever you flip through them.  That’s it.  They’re fun, happy, touchable, lovable, and low-maintenance.  Basically, they’re the portable version of your refrigerator door.”

So if you haven’t yet, click through and read the article.  I’m off to doodle Will Welch’s name all over my notebook (hee hee), so I’ll leave you with one more nugget of his brilliance:  “Learn to take photos on the fly, when your friends hardly notice they’re getting snapped.  That’s when you start to capture offbeat, funny, real moments.”  Like Cali’s blue paint mustache, for example.

Have fun & resolve to print more of those now-improved shots!

a solid "B"

click the photo to see the whole book…I never liked the Pass/Fail model, and since I created the challenge in the first place, I changed the rules and gave myself a “B” on the 90-year birthday book challenge.

I didn’t get an “A” because I did play around with the photos a tad more than I probably should have.  But, all-in-all, it was a good effort, and I created a book I’m really happy with (and I really enjoyed doing it).  

Total time spent (from opening the online album to snapping in the last photo) was 2 hours, with the biggest portion of that being photo-selection.  There was no editing done in the album that was sent to me, so I got to slideshow-view all 201 photos.  Actually selecting which photos I wanted to print was pretty easy, I picked shots that had good smiles and really showcased the happiness of all these people getting together to celebrate such an important milestone for Norma.

I also discovered that Shutterfly is now set up so that you can pick photos up at not only Target, but Walgreens and CVS, too.  That is GREAT news (in my opinion)!

OK, over the hills to the Post Office I go, laughing all the way!

Ho ho ho,

90-year challenge!

BIG SURPRISE:  I love making Snap Stories for people!

In fact, it’s something I do regularly, although I don’t talk about it much.  Have you ever seen the FULL [snap] SERVICE option?  It’s great.  I’ll make a book for you (or for you as a gift for someone else), for $35.

Today —amid the other holiday buzz— I got a rush ‘service’ job to make a Hip Hooray It’s Your Birthday storybook to commemorate a great party and the milestone accomplishment of a 90th birthday!

I’m really excited, but here’s the challenge:  I really truly only have no time to do this AND I just looked at the Shutterfly album the gal sent and it has 201 photos.  How am I going to choose??

Can I do it quickly & get it in the mail to her?  Here’s my plan & I’ll report back tomorrow with “F” fail or “P” pass.  (Drew, I can’t help but think of you anytime I say “fail,” and you know why!)

I’m going to chose my favorite 15+ photos, pick them up at Target later today (where I have to go anyway) and then snap them in tonight or tomorrow before I hit the Post Office.

Stay tuned!  This is a real challenge for me, because I like to play around with photos (clearly I’m the monkey in this scenario!)

AAAhhh….

PS  The last stop on the Keepsake CUPCAKE Tour is TODAY in Lafayette Square at 3pm…

calling all creatives

sweet gift idea #10

I make it a rule to distance Snap Stories from scrapbooking.  If I say that word, (most) people get jittery thinking of the time, supplies, photos, skills, space, and energy it conjures.  Just to be clear, Snap Stories are not scrapbooks.

back page has a photo cut-out taped over the book’s bar code OK, now that we’ve established that rule:  time to break it!  Just like grammar or o-chem, there are always exceptions.  Same with the crafting boundaries of Snap Stories!  Some folks just can’t turn off the creative crafting juice that pulses through their fingers.  These folks, as well as the rest of the planet, can have fun creating and “altering” Snap Stories.

To make a special, unique gift for a friend or family member who is crafty & creative, buy one of each Snap Stories title, tie with with a ribbon, add a note that says “This year if a life experience calls to be commemorated with photos and your personal creativity, you’re set.  These books can be the starting point to great gifts that come to life with your special, hand-crafted touch.  Have fun!  Create Away!”

I’ve seen people take the Hip Hooray It’s Your Birthday storybook (great for boy OR girl) and add stickers to make it lean more girl-ish or boy-ish. It’s also practical to use stickers to cover up things in snapshots that aren’t awesome. (Example:  In ‘Poppy’s 61st Birthday’ stickers are covering up the medical equipment in the hospital as he’s holding his newborn grandbaby.)

the husband-son were cut out and taped in below the photo opening, and another grade school picture was added in the right corner by the roller skate.My favorite new ‘technique’ is to take a photo that I didn’t use in one of the photo openings, carefully cut out the main attraction and use double-stick tape to add it into the mix of doodled craziness in the story.  I have also cut out heads from photos and taped them over owls, cows, inside Mini Coopers, and peeking out of baby carriages!  If the book is for a baby, I’ll cover the cut-out in clear packing tape, just to secure it from being pried or sucked off.

Just to be clear:  it’s not scrapbooking.  We like to call it “snap-booking”!

Hope to see you on the Keepsake CUPCAKE Tour,

This (over)board book rocks!

sweet gift idea #9

I think one of my friends has psychic powers.  I knew I was going to write about Snap Stories being a perfect fit for hydrophilic-friends on your holiday list, but I hadn’t told a soul.  Then my friend Kelly emails me this morning, raving about One Big Adventure with her photos from Nantucket:

Hi! i just wanted to tell you that i put together another “one big adventure” last night with photos from our trip to Nantucket. i love it so much. i’m not sure someone can really understand how amazing these books are until they make one themselves. i just about cry every time i look at it.

it makes editing the right photos from an event so easy. you cant go wrong because it just makes each pic so meaningful and the cropping is perfect.

i usually end up saving these envelopes full of redundant photos from an experience because i dont know what else to do with them besides agonize over which ones to put in expensive framing (which i have no room to display) or pour them into chunky boring albums that just collect dust. Having a collection of snap stories is so perfect. They hardly take up any space on the shelf and when you take them out to show someone, it gets right to the point - unlike boring someone with a giant album   which includes photos of everything you ate on your vacation!

It sounds like I paid her, but I didn’t.  (Although I will throw a free book her way just because her comments made me so happy!)

I wrote & illustrated One Big Adventure to be independent of season, location, gender, or age.  However (probably because I LOVE the beach!), water-themed photos in this particular book look fantastic.

One super-fun (and extra thoughtful) way to package the books is to create an “instant activity kit” for the lucky recipient.  If you happen to have photos of the person or family, take the extra time to get (12-15) photos printed and enclose them in an envelope with the Snap Story book.  Now what kid or grown up wouldn’t love that kind of instant photo gratification, kind of like the fun of a Polaroid, remember those?

Happy giving,

photo fun for everyone

sweet gift idea #8

Yes, the sweet ideas are piling up & will go on tour in two days!  Mark your calendars to join in all the KEEPSAKE CUPCAKE TOUR fun!

photo taken by Lilah, age 3Do you know a budding photo journalist?  Someone who likes to take photos?  Someone who likes to be in photos?  Someone who is good at posing (ahem, Dori? Cicely?)  Someone who can say “CHHEEEESE”? Someone who likes cheese?

OK, before I get completely off track, I want to share that Snap Stories are a fun gift for anyone who likes taking photos (even this someone is of the younger set).

• How cute would it be for an older cousin to snap photos of their baby cousin to make the wee one his or her own My Baby Face storybook?
• How awesome to have a Boy Scout taking photos of a wilderness adventure and then snapping together a One Big Adventure book for the Scout Master?
• Would you not *LOVE* if your child focused & created a birthday book for their friend’s birthday gift??

How do you take these ideas and make a thoughtful gift?  Buy Snap Stories of various titles, tie them with a ribbon, write a simple card saying “I know you like taking & seeing photos.  These storybooks will help you showcase your photos to make books for yourself or for other people as gifts.”

Love it!

Happy giving,

 PS.  I love giving gifts that enable that person to be a good gift-giver (especially kids who are in the process of learning about thoughtful gift-giving).  Those kind of loop-de-doo gifts-that-keep-giving, give me a personal little thrill!

Girls travel in Groups

sweet gift idea #7

People make jokes about it, but it’s true:  girls like to travel in groups.

Today’s gift idea is just for those girls.

Calling all…

• team players
• sorority sisters
• globe-trotting gal pals
• slumber partiers
• Junior Leaguers
• play-groupers
• MOPS
• bridesmaids
• thesbians
• cheerleaders
• Red Hat Ladies
• and BFFs…

If you snap-together a Go-Go Girlfriend or One Big Adventure storybook for your circle of friends, you’ll be “golden” to your girlfriends forever.  Last year, at the Ladue Chapel boutique event, I remember a (very pregnant) gal buying 5 Go-Go Girlfriend books for her circle of friends for Christmas.  She said she was going to print out a photo of all the friends together and slip it in the front cover opening, then add a card that said, “Ladies, let’s fill this book up with great photos this year!”  Is that great, or what?

First person to comment below with the correct definition of a “dramedy” (pg. 2, GGG) will receive a FREE Go-Go Girlfriend storybook!

Happy Snapping,

Grand with a capital "G"

Sweet gift idea #6

click to see all the FABULOUS photo pages of this book!Today, I’m just the messenger.  In the span of 24 hours, I had two unconnected friends tell me they were giving Snap Stories to their parents this holiday.  My friend Lisa made a book of her extended family’s vacation in the Smokey Mountains.

My friend Megan made one of her entire family’s (years-in-the-planning!) vacation to Disney.

It turns out in both cases, the grandparents had orchestrated the “group vacation” so the Snap Story book would serve as a holiday gift, a great keepsake, and a sort of thank you for the trip.

I begged my friends to send me a few photos of the books, and they did!