I realize with Riley that we are physically connected to our ancestors whether we are aware of it or not, with Riley I created a deck of playing cards that has her whole family a couple of generations back, she sees pictures in our albums or as I’m sorting them on the computer and she knows their names and sometimes stories about them.  It is cool to me that she has that photo and story connection with them as well as the biological one.

I am taking a political philosophy class, teaching Shakespeare and mothering.   I am as busy as everyone else.  My hands are in many pots and I recognize the value of the family history pot.  It is a treasure, stories, memories, lessons…  The designing part for me is icing on the cake, my life is truly full when I am creating beauty.  Life is great.

I am not a shopper. I have to do it, we have a very large family, we go through gallons of milk and many loaves of bread every week. Little bodies grow and clothing needs to be replaced. We need school supplies…. life requires me to shop.

As we approach the Holidays I just feel overwhelmed. I love to give gifts. My love language though is more doing or serving or working for them. So I have 2 roadblocks to gift giving. I can’t wrap up what I love to give and I have to shop! Argh.

Last year after Christmas I discovered my passion. Creating story books. I have created baby books, little quite books with my kids as the stars, genealogy books, family yearbooks, playing cards, posters, graduation cards…. I have been creating and giving in a way that I love! I have discovered that my gifts are much loved and treasured ( no longer discarded and forgotten). I have gotten requests. My daughter who went to college this year asked for me to create something for her to see her family daily. My mother wants to know what is going on with her grandkids. She loves the albums with stories about each grandchild. My little guys LOVE their baby albums. My middle guys are so excited when they see me on the computer creating their baby books.

I have decided that the difference is my ‘come from’. I love designing, I love serving, I love my family with an intensity that hurts sometimes. When those components combine I am truly giving something from my heart. Those are gifts that are treasured.

This year I have scanned in all the family photos that I could get my hands on and I am organizing them by family. Everyone related to my side and everyone related to David’s side. I am creating a dvd of all of the family photos (I have some incredible generational photos that none of them have ever seen). I have spent a year scanning and preparing. I am working on my childhood story…Before I was your mother for my kids. I also have been working with my father-in-law to get his story into print. I also have designed some awesome posters for the kids. For our children these gifts tend to be treasured stocking stuffers. For our extended family they are treasured gifts. These books and gifts are of excellent quality, I am not handing them a cut and paste pile of papers. I am not bagging on traditional scrapbooking. If I had the ability and love of it my traditional scrapbook gifts would be of excellent quality. I am just completely a clod with scrapbooking. I love designing but it won’t translate to traditional scrapbooking. I am just filled with gratitude this season that I am not tromping through the malls trying to find a trinket, gadget or widget that my parents don’t have and they will likely not need or even want. I am spending my precious time pouring over memories, bringing stories to life, connecting our family generations back. Bringing a sense of connection, purpose and mission to those I love. Because of the new template gallery I was able to finish a book for a “great” grandma with story in 3 hours.

I am actually excited for this holiday season. I have always loved Christmas, it represents all that is great in humanity but I have always DREADED the shopping experience.

Have a beautiful Holiday Season. Give from your heart. It doesn’t have to mean extreme expense. It probably means effort because that is what we do for those we love. Thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you. If you want to visit my website and see what lights my fire you will find it at www.CreatingForever.com

1. You will want to create an account. Click on get started at the bottom of this screen or on my main website and sign up. It is free and you have no obligation. You can’t lose (unless you count losing the fear you have of computers. Oh and… that this can become an addiction- according to my husband).

2. Once I am logged in I like to go to the Template Gallery to see what is new- with the templates you can create a book from start to finish in a couple of hours! They are drag and drop and then you add your text. If you like the template but you need more of some things and less of others, no worries, the templates can be used as is or you can change anything you want- including adding, duplicating and deleting pages. To begin with you have a basic account and there are some templates for a basic account just type it into the search bar and they will pop up for you. If you choose to start with a template just click “get this template”. A pop up will let you know if you can use it with basic and it will warn you if it has more than the standard page amount- remember you can always delete the extra pages)

3. To start a project from scratch, click on Start a new project.

4. Choose the project (if it is a book you need to choose the size- they are not transferable from size to size- meaning you can’t create an 8×8 and order it as a 12×12).

5. Name your project.

6. Choose to upload your photos immediately or later. The prompts will easily walk you through the process.

7. Click Begin.

8. Your project will take a minute or so to load. You need to click on a page in the thumbnail window to the right to edit it.

9. Design Studio parts -quick version:

• Tool box opens on the left of the screen- this is where you crop, resize, make transparent, create borders, choose text, align photos, choose a fill color, create drop shadows, colorize your photo or paper… etc.- you should take a few minutes to explore it.
• The Menu selection at the top left of the design window is worth checking out too. You can lay a ruler over top you design to align your images, paste in place, undo, magnify….
• Across the bottom you will see file folders. Double click on the three horizontal lines in the center of the upper edge of the file section… and the file folders will move up so you can get into them.

1. The Photos folder is where you will find all of the photos you upload into your account. Click on a folder and it will open up. Left click on the photo you want, drag it to your page and you can make it larger or smaller- the border around the outside will let you know if your resolution is good for the size you have chosen. Green is good, yellow is getting dicey and red may look pixilated (I have found that when I have used it into the reds for backgrounds it is still totally beautiful and clear)
2. The Text Box folder is how you add text to the page. You just left click one of the 3 choices and while holding the left button down drag it up to your page and grabbing the corners and dragging while holding the button down you can resize your text box. Double click in it and type. You can change the font, size, color and transparency in the tool box.
3. The Premier Art folder is where you can find all of the elements for scrap booking. You must have a premier membership to access it in your design but feel free to look around and see if it is worth it to you. I love having access to all the crazy cool alphabets and papers. You can use the search bar to search for the elements. For example if I want a pink bow for a baby book I would type Bow into the search bar and select the color pink right below it. You can also go down the menu to check out the complete collection. A monthly membership to premier allows you access to all the elements. You can cancel premier when your project is done and resume when you begin another. ALSO, you get a free premier month with your first purchase, with the purchase of 250 scans and when you buy bulk packages. Your premier months go back to back so that if you get 3 free months you don’t have to renew until those 3 are expired.
4. Basic Art is the next file. You will click on the 3 horizontal bars to open the file upward and you can search the same way as premier. Even though there aren’t as many papers, you can “fill” any cardstock or any text box with any color and make solids (You can color match by clicking on the fill color, you will see a little dropper appear, point the dropper on any color you would like to fill the paper with- you can match your daughters eyes or dress in a particular photo… etc. Another idea is to use your photos as backgrounds. This is my favorite! i just stretch them out and make them a bit more transparent and voila!
5. My Projects file has a record of every project you’ve created or started and each element you used. It helps to recreate pages that you loved.
6. The Quote file is next and that is the quote library. you can search by topic or key words and left click and drag it to you page! you can expand, change the text and color just like any other text box.
7. My Favorites file is for you to keep your favorite art in. You can organize it by what it is or the project that you want to use it in. Just click on the green + sign and name your file. this can be dragged up into the corner or anywhere on the screen to get it out of the way and still access it.

• Up the side you will see your page thumbnails, this is how you choose the page you work on, if it is highlighted yellow that is the page you are on. At the top of that box it says “Manage Pages” click on this and you can add, re-organize, delete, copy pages. You must click save to save your changes.
• At the top of the screen you will see a small picture to the left and a larger one to the right divided by a slide control, this makes your project closer or farther away. the snowflake looking button centers your page.

I know that was long but hopefully it will shorten your learning curve so you can get right into the fun. Check back for more detailed design helps, also tips on using templates.

I am available to you if you need help. Call 801-497-1131 or e-mail me at susan@creatingforever.com

Remember to purchase your credits through me prior to publishing to get the best deals!

GET STARTED

My mother in law working on her Legacy book for her children is what got me investigating my options for publishing. I agreed to assist her in getting it published. I was brought to tears in that process. I was dealing with several online publishers and finally I got a referral from my friend who has published many books for her company LEMI. She sent me to her publisher. Loved them, they were so much easier to deal with than the online publishers!!!! It is far from what I do now but it certainly suited me then. My mother in law’s book came out pretty good.

What she wrote and the way she compiled it looks great but I was responsible for the cover and frankly I didn’t know how to do it. I hired the company to do it at $60 and hour and he did exactly what I told him to and it looks a bit like a funeral program. It is so conservative and plain and just the way it is set up, not the best. Mom in law was happy but it bugs me.

Right after publishing these books and sending them off to Mom in law to distribute to her progeny I went to lunch with my friend and she showed me the cutest little book. It was just a tiny 5×5 that was written by a grandmother for her grandson who’s father was killed in Iraq. The little boy was so sad because he couldn’t remember what his father looked like. It was very touching. The book itself was beautiful, professionally bound, hardcover, full color. She didn’t tell me much at the luncheon, I didn’t encourage a ‘sales pitch’, I was however intrigued. I went home and searched out the company that produced the book. It is Heritage Makers. I have since learned a lot about the company as I have gone to work for them. I LOVE IT. There isn’t one thing I have come across that is questionable. Their help center is amazing, the compensation plan is great. The company is so concerned with their consultants making money and making it worth their time and efforts that they have gone to great lengths to give many options. It has opened my eyes and opened doors for me that I hadn’t before conceived. When I first joined their company I did it because I know me and I know that I will tell everyone about the companies and services I love, in that way I am a bit of a Maven (The Tipping Point). I decided because I know myself I may as well at least get free publishing out of it. I have ended up getting so much more.

My children love their books, my family is enjoying our gifts a heck of a lot more. I have gained control of the mess and clutter of our lives. We are scanning and organizing all of our documents and photos. Joining with Heritage Makers has led us on an incredible journey.

My design skills have improved so drastically that I have begun designing websites for a couple of the businesses I have been interacting with. I have designed many books, I designed and had published the system that I created and have used for many years in keeping my documents in an easy to carry format (Digi-prep Docs) I have had the opportunity to assist many people in writing their family history. It has been such a blessing. I have really enjoyed the ride. We go to reunion next week and they will announce the new products and all of the exciting stuff, I am finding that I am so excited, reunion is happening at disneyland and I think that is very appropriate. I felt the family history monkey on my back and never realized what it was. I have enjoyed the process of writing the stories and getting organized and it has truly freed up my mind for other things! Start writing your story, if you want assistance, contact me I would love to assist you. Do something that lights your fire, grows your brain and builds relationships at the same time! If you want to add to your income, this is a great way to do that as well. If you want to get some ideas here are a couple of my projects. This one is Riley, my baby’s book, she eats breakfast and tells me the “story”. This my twins book, this is actually the first book I ever designed. Riley’s little book is just a template but this one is my own creation. Here are the ‘quiet cards’ I made for Riley, I carry them in my purse and she knows they are there and when it is required of her to sit quietly she always whispers to me to please let her see her cards. So cute and so effective. I have learned that it is important not to procrastinate the family things. I just sent my oldest daughter off to college and it is such a joy to me but also a bit of a reckoning. Have I prepared her, does she know where she comes from? I truly believe that knowing where you come from can help you decide where to go. Sometimes it is by the process of elimination but often it is by inspiration. My family is everything to me. I have grown closer to my parents while preparing gifts for them and assisting them in gathering their stories. It has been a joy in my life. My two cents whether it is worth that much or not is DO NOT PROCRASTINATE! Life is uncertain, the only thing I know is that I am here right now, I am capable right now, I am the best one to write my own story and to document my children’s early lives as are you for your own family. Your kids will not remember the furniture you had or have fond feelings about the car that you drove but they WILL guaranteed treasure the gifts of the heart that you leave behind.  I still prefer Storybooking to scrapbooking but whatever I call it as long as it is digital I have discovered I have a gift and a talent.

He crashed his airplane into an ammo- bunker and lived to tell about it. He was doing touch down landings and woke up in the hospital. It was an absolute miracle no doubt. That his legs were pinned and drilled and put back together and he was able to walk and work is yet another miracle.

There is such a depth of heritage in both my husbands family and my family, I really paid no attention to the stories that have been told through the years and didn’t care much for the stockpile of family photos until the last few years. I don’t know what changed but I know that right now I am just on fire about documenting the fun, scary, heroic, crazy and even the mundane. Perhaps it is the connections and incredible relationships I have seen my children develop with their grandparents. It adds such a richness to their lives. it is a hidden treasure. I am digging and designing and writing away to help uncover that hidden treasure. I am loving it. If you like me recognize the value of Heritage and want to do something to preserve it, check out my website and go on in to create your own free account and begin to uncover and document your family treasure! It is such an wonderful journey, I would love to hear about your family heritage experiences as well. If you are a bargain shopper like me check out these deals on books and here is a deal on cards- if you do christmas cards this is your deal, you can’t beat them. Traditional scrapbooking is much more expensive and messy! It is free, you can’t lose and yet from my experience you have so much to gain!

There is so much to keep track of. Is it an art form or a business? I need to create a monthly reminder to remind me to add and check different components. I need to be reminded to add to our inventory when I add to our storage, replace the water, replenish our first aid kit. A couple of the ways I am going to enjoy the ART of PREPAREDNESS is by adding a set of personalized playing cards to my 72 hour kits, I will make a set for each of my kids with a matching game for my baby, I am going to create a book of family stories of courage- I am going to interview our family members and have them recall a time of great struggle or disaster and to share any gifts or good that came out of it in the end. I am going to design a calendar through Heritage Makers that will give me regular reminders and I will divide up the things I need to add into 12 sections one for each month and perhaps November and April I will put reminders in to update my documents. I can add some cute pics of the kids along with all the family birthdays and voila a valuable and fun tool. I am an artistic person and I do LOVE the process of making the ongoing projects in life beautiful and containing them in a beautiful form. Nothing has to be ugly or boring. I am learning to enjoy the process, in some cases I am happy right now not to hate the process. Where I used to resent some of my ‘duties’ I now look for the beauty in them. Doing dishes is a great time to work side by side with my treasured young ones and have one on one time. Having time to think sometimes in this world of noise and immediate gratification is getting to be more of a challenge for me, vacuuming is such a great pondering time, my kids think I really love to vacuum but the truth is I love that I can’t hear anything else while I do it. I think I subconsciously chose the loudest vacuum possible:). I also believe wholeheartedly that I picked the best JOB! I add to our family income in a substantial way doing what I love! I am a personal publishing coach for Heritage Makers. I get to put my hands on other peoples family treasures ‘their pictures’ and scan them for them, I really value that experience, I am so silly but it feels to me the equivalent of dipping both hands into a treasure box filled with precious stones and letting them pour out between my fingers! I get to coach people through the publishing process – I get to introduce individuals that never thought they were capable to a whole new world of creativity and design and the healing and love that grows from giving these as gifts or working together with family members on a project. I love the sense of confidence and accomplishment that I get to witness being birthed in my clients and it FEELS GOOD! My message is enjoy the process, anything can be a work of art… dishes, laundry, emergency preparedness. Enjoy your beautiful life!

Digitizing our documents has freed up a huge amount of storage space for our family. It has allowed us to protect it by keeping several copies out of our general vicinity (this is vital!).

Digitizing our photos has allowed me to organize them and create fabulous professionally printed products out of them. I am in the process of creating baby books for all of our kids. I have the 30 pound scrapbook albums for the first few of your posterity but life got busy and scrapbooking is messy and expensive. So I tucked everything away for the day that I could fit it in. That day has come in the form of PERSONAL PUBLISHING!

This has truly become my passion. I love it. No mess, my kids can handle and even sleep with their books if they want. If they ruin them I can easily replace them unlike the scrap booked albums. This is also a benefit in the Emergency preparedness vein, all of my projects can be reordered at any date in the future if they are destroyed, I simply have to reorder them when I am able. I have loved creating the books dedicated to my little people and as I began working on these I decided that I want to document our parents lives. They have so much to say and to share with their posterity. SOOO….

I talked my parents and my husbands parents into letting me scan in all the family photos. It is a huge job but it has been so worth it. This will be our Christmas gift to our families.

Digitizing your photos and documents can be time consuming if you are using a flatbed scanner. I decided that I have such a passion for it I needed to make it my business so we bought a high end batch scanner that I am using for our own photos but also for clients. This was an expensive road. If you don’t have half a million photos (slight exaggeration) then you might just want to hire someone to do it. My advice on hiring is:

Make sure the company is local. Some bigger companies that offer the lower prices (for big bulk orders) send their photos overseas! It would be best if your photos don’t leave town without you. Some companies will send a consultant with a scanner to your home! That may be a convenience to you or it may be a nuisance.

Work out the shortest turn around time possible. I have a friend who’s photos were burned up in the warehouse that they were being stored in before being scanned. Bummer.

Storage of your photos is another issue. Regular use CD’s and DVD’s are reported to have a lifespan of 2-8 years. I personally think multiple storage methods are best- I believe in overkill. Because after all the generations of photos that we now have in our collection are irreplaceable. You can use a memory stick but I would back it up with an archival CD or DVD (placed in a safety deposit box outside of your general vicinity)

We use a password protected thumb drive to hold a digital copy of all of our documents and photos inside our Digi-prep docs kit- It would make me sick to have our originals destroyed, but my living children are more important and they have evacuation priority. I know we can reproduce every single photo with our digital copies. If hasty evacuation were necessary, my kids and my Digi-prep Docs are what take priority. My plan for Christmas is to give a photo disc to each member of both sides of our family with applicable photos which will bring joy to our family and also ensure multiple back-ups for everyone.

Software improves with every year that goes by. To me that meant that I didn’t have to stress out so much over my photo organizational system. That was always my hang up. I just scanned them in and as software has improved and come down in price I purchased a system that I have been using to sort my photos into detailed files. Heritage Makers online design studio is very soon coming out with a system that will allow you to sort and share your photos with other family members in full resolution! This is where I do all my online publishing and I love it!

I don’t have the best opinion of online storage companies in general. I have experience with Heritage Makers and trust them with my photos but I have read up on other storage facilities and have discovered that some store thumbnails and when you go to retrieve them you don’t have full pixilation. You should be sure before you trust any source. I would NOT store digital copies of my vital records on any online source!! Be wise where you store your documents.

However you do it, Do it! Get your photos into a digital format. For more information you can visit my website www.creatingforever.com. Having your photos professionally digitized isn’t as expensive as you might think, My fees are .39 a scan from 1-100, .29 a scan from 100-500, .19 a scan for batches over 500.

This is a bit time consuming- less so if you do it at regular bill paying time- but you are gathering information that will come in handy many times over. I use my Digi-prep Docs kit all the time. I take it with me when I need to handle business while waiting for my kids to finish their classes or sports practice. I pull it out if I need to call the mortgage company for a question. I have a great filing system, it is organized but it is still bulky and it takes more time for me to dig through the files than to grab my Digi-prep Docs. I can grab and go. This is invaluable to me. I am a mom of 9, we are landlords as well as tenants, business owners. Just like you, our lives are full and I welcome anything that helps me to multi-task and make use of what used to be dead time so that I can spend the time I used to be attached to my filing system doing what I love. Another bonus for me is that this method saves my filing system. My husband is a menace in our filing cabinet. He doesn’t have the patience to put things back, this makes it simple for him.

So to re-cap. Get ready, I promise you it will be worth it: In case of emergency it is an absolute have to- if you have this information gathered and your identification with it, it will help you put your life back together much quicker and less painfully. On a day to day basis it will assist you by helping you manage your time more efficiently.

Begin gathering phone #’s, addresses and account #’s with your contact names if applicable to get this information into your emergency preparation kit. Nothing is too trivial. Even your dog groomer could be important or at least convenient.

1. Order your kit at www.Digi-prepDocs.com

2. Get a photocopy of the vital documents for each family member. Birth certificate, social security cards, drivers license…

3. Collect a small recent photo of each family member. Begin making notes on health issues of each member so that when your kit arrives you can just fill in the blanks. For example, allergies, medications, any health conditions, anything that might be needed for emergency care….