winners

How do you like this - two posts in one day!?

I finally got through all the entries for the simple question I asked: What would you like to see on my web site? And seriously - so fun to read. Thank you for your feedback! Here are the four winners:

Rochelle from Utah suggested creating a play list so readers can listen to my favorite music while reading my blog.

Heather from Alberta, Canada suggested that I answer some of your questions "live" with a web cam once in a while.

Kathy from South Carolina suggested that there would be a way for readers to post their projects, layouts, etc. that I have inspired.

Christine from Pennsylvania suggested that I include a section for beginners ... those new to scrapbooking.

These gals threw out ideas that really got the wheels in my head turning. I don't know if they'll "make it" on the web site or not (still working on the development of that) ... but they inspired me, nonetheless.

Congratulations, girls! E-mail me at bhiggins@ckmedia.com and let me know which of my books you'd like to have.

gratitude quote

I rubbed another vinyl quote on another wall in our home. This is in our kitchen area and serves as a daily reminder to be grateful.



So what are you grateful for today? Add your comments below & give us a short list of THREE random things - big or little - that you are grateful for TODAY.

PS - I filled you in on what my next book will be & now I can show you the cover and also let you know that it is available for pre-ordering here.



One more thing: Cindy asked about where to buy that adhesive. In that last post, just click on the green "Duck Easy-Stick" words and that's a direct link to purchasing it on JoAnn.com.

Whenever you see green words among my black text here in this blog, that's a link that you can click on.

Yes - winners still to be announced. Coming soon.

busted.

I'm so guilty. Had a great scrapbook night with my gal pals before the holiday weekend, and didn't accomplish a SINGLE THING. So I don't have that layout to share with you ... YET. In the meantime, I wanted to tell you guys that you ROCK. Holy feedback, Batman. You have fabulous ideas for my web site ... some already "in the works" and some I hadn't thought about yet. Thank you! I'll be in touch again soon with the winners. Still trying to get through all the responses. : )

Addressing a few more questions for today:

{ OLD OFFICE }

Julie inquired about an article in CK that featured my office several years ago. I don't remember the exact issue, and it would take me a bit of time to track it down, but what I can do is share with you a picture that's never been published before.



This was my attic office in Ohio. It's all Cropper Hopper cubes & totes, etc. And the two-tiered island we built in the middle of the room has melamine boards on top. Same with my other desktop areas.

Since that time, Lisa Bearnson & I have been working with the Cropper Hopper team to develop a line of organizational and home dec products (some of it is already available, as you know). I moved with my family across the country last year and have a new home office now. I just don't have it totally done yet. When I do, I'll share some pictures.

{ LABELING EXPOS }

Susan noticed how I organize a lot of my stickers in the Cropper Hopper Expos (p. 207 of CK's latest book, "Organization Tips for Scrapbookers"). My labels on the outside just describe what's inside. So one says "rub-on letters", another says "phrases, definitions, and words", etc.

{ CONVENTION CLASSES }

Laura (who is wondering what I'm teaching at the conventions this year), I am currently developing my classes for the Phoenix (Sept) and Kansas City (Oct) conventions and I will share info & links as we get closer. I'm SURE sketches will be involved though!

{ ADHESIVE }

My current favorite is the Duck Easy-Stick. Works especially well with the textured Bazzill cardstock that we all love.



I'll check in tomorrow & announce the winners.

I was thinking ...

I hope you're looking forward to a FUN weekend ... or relaxing or project-oriented or do-nothing or pampering or catching-up-on-little-stuff or whatever you want this weekend to be.

I just signed a few books (for a fundraiser) and am getting ready to ship them off to the winners. And I was thinking ... you know, I have a couple extra books here. Why not give a couple more away?



So add your comments below, stating the following:

1. first name only
2. the state or country where you live
3. one idea of what you think would be just so cool to see on my web site

That last part is for fun. My web site will soon be much more than just a landing page, so of course I'd love to hear your ideas. If something really strikes me as interesting or fun or "man, I've got to do that!", then you just may be receiving a book in the mail soon.

Deadline? End of day on Tuesday - the day after Memorial Day.

wall transfers

Last night I rubbed a quote on my office wall, just above the door that goes from the office to our backyard. Fun stuff.



This is one of six wall transfer quotes available in the Lisa & Becky line (you can see all 6 quotes on the web site). The wall transfers are in stores now, but if you can't find them locally you can always order them directly from Advantus (904.482.0092). You'll soon find the Lisa & Becky products in Recollections and Archivers stores ... even target.com next month.

More pictures of my office to come.

questions for monday

I hope this finds you all well & refreshed for the new week! Addressing more of your questions:

[ RANDOM PICTURES ]

Lisa asked about how to scrapbook random pictures that she receives from loved ones throughout the year. I have a couple ways to address that question. First of all, we have a collection of albums that are entirely dedicated to the baby, wedding, and graduation announcements that we receive. These pages are 100% simple. You won't find a single sticker or accent or rub-on anywhere in these books. What you will find is page after page of "life announcements" from friends & family, each one adhered to a sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock and placed in a page protector. These are chronologically organized in 3-ring albums. Note: Each announcement has a small block of text explaining the person's relationship to us (for example, "Tanner is David's cousin" or "Carol is Becky's college dorm neighbor" or "We met the Mickelsons when we lived in Ohio"). I think this is important so that anyone looking through these albums will always be able to tell who these people are and why we received their announcements.

My second approach to your question, Lisa, is about those random pictures that are NOT associated with announcements. So these are the look-at-how-little-Joey-has grown type of pictures or the ones you get from Grandma since she doesn't use e-mail, etc. What about creating a layout (or however many you need) each year that holds all of these random pictures that you don't want to toss? Maybe you could call it "Keeping in Touch: Miscellaneous pictures from loved ones this year". This way you're creating a theme out of pictures that don't otherwise have a commonality.

I'm really practical when it comes to titles, by the way. I just like to say it like it is.

[ CHICKEN NOODLE CASSEROLE ]

I think it was Amy who requested this recipe. I LOVE this casserole dish and have eaten it every Christmas Eve since I can remember. And who doesn't love thinking about Christmas in the summer, right?

You need:

4 pieces of chicken breasts, cooked & cubed
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/4 c. chopped green pepper
Margarine
3 Tbsp. flour
1 1/4 c. milk
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 sm. jar of pimentos
2 cans (8 oz. total) sliced mushroom pieces
stuffing mix (I prefer Peppridge Farm brand)



Cook chicken first (boil) and allow to cool. Cut into pieces and set aside. Cook noodles. In a saucepan, saute onion and green pepper in margarine. Make a white sauce of 3 Tbsp. margarine, flour and milk. Combine sauce with onion and green pepper mixture and bring to a boil. Add cream of chicken, pimentos, mushrooms and chicken. Combine this with the noodles. Place in casserole and sprinkle with stuffing mix. Dot with margarine. Bake for 1/2 hour at 350, until bubbly and lightly brown on top.

I'm making this for dinner tomorrow night for sure! Thanks for inspiring me.

[ PERSONAL SCRAPBOOKING ]

Someone asked about how often I work on my personal scrapbooking. One of the great aspects of my job (there are many; I am blessed) is that most of the pages, layouts, and projects that I create for articles/books/classes are ultimately for me & my family. So in a sense, I'm doing my "personal scrapbooking" on just about a daily basis.

But I think what you're asking about is the stuff that I do that is not work-related at all. In that case, I sometimes go months without getting to do much with personal scrapbooking. I very rarely scrapbook in my "spare time" these days. My spare time is family time ... or date night or catching up with e-mail or hanging out with friends or going for walks or swimming with the kiddos.

BUT (and this is the key) ... I SCHEDULE it in. I'm trying to get back on track with doing this every month or so. "Scrapbook Night" with my girlfriends. In fact, there's one this week. My friends come over, we have a variety of munchies, we enjoy each others' company, and maybe - just maybe - we'll get some work done. The key for me is to PLAN AHEAD.

[ PLANNING AHEAD ]

Have you ever gone to a crop with a box full of pictures, a couple totes worth of scrapbook supplies, and really good intentions on getting some layouts done? And then you get there, you start pulling out a few photos, and you immerse yourself in catching up with your friends for hours. And by 11:00 pm, you're sitting there with the same scattered pictures in front of you. Raise your hand or giggle at your desk a little bit if this is you.

This is going back to the practical side of me. I love socializing, and sometimes I love it even more if I can get something done at the same time. (This reminds me of my friend Tina who can't watch TV unless she's folding laundry at the same time.)

The solution? I always have a few layouts "ready to go", whether I'm preparing for Scrapbook Night at my house or if I'm going to scrapbook somewhere else. This means the pictures are photoshopped & printed and I have chosen the cardstock, papers & other supplies that I plan to use, even a sketch of how to layout the pages.

Preparing in advance means I don't have to THINK about what I'm doing with the pictures while I'm also being social and engaging in conversation. I seriously have issues with multi-tasking sometimes, so this is important. For example, here's a layout I have prepped to do this week.



Uh oh. Now you know that I HAVE to get this layout done! I love challenges, so I'll consider this my challenge and promise to post the layout later this week.

beautiful

This is completely random, but I noticed how much TEXT there is on my blog. It's begging for a pretty picture! So I pulled out one of my favorites. I took this a few years ago while visiting Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia. This is the place where my mom (who was traveling with me) and I discovered Nanaimo Bars. Have you heard of them? My Canadian friends know exactly what I'm talking about. OH MY. Talk about yummy! I'll share a recipe for that some day, too.

But back to the flowers - do you love that summer is here? Have a great weekend, everyone. Enjoy some sunshine. I'll be back to answer more questions.

trimmers and magazine and albums, oh my.

I'm enjoying your questions. It's fun to have more insight, to know what's on your minds. Here we go with some more answers:

[ GENESIS TRIMMER }

Yes, I still use the Genesis trimmer and I still love it too. Such a quality tool and a must-have for my personal scrapbooking, card-making, and other projects (I've had mine for almost 10 years). The company is going through a huge transition right now (including a big move from Maine to Georgia), so production is on hold and they're currently not taking orders. I know that's not what you want to hear, but in the meantime, you can check out their web site & explore the product a bit. Stay tuned for when they're up & running again. It's worth the wait.

[ SKETCH COLUMN ]

For the "Becky's Sketch" column in Creating Keepsakes magazine, I am actually not involved in the process of choosing layouts for that column anymore. This leaves me more time to "produce" (ideas, articles, classes, products, etc.). There are wonderful people with great taste involved in choosing the layouts from those that are submitted. If you're interested in submitting to that column, go here.

We're not looking for any one "style". As with anything else in the magazine, we want to share a variety of styles, colors, subject matter, etc. So to answer Hildura's question about language, I don't think that it matters if your journaling is in English, French, Japanese, Dutch, or any other language. How cool is that? There are scrapbookers all over the world!

[ BIRTHDAY LAYOUT ]

In the June issue of CK, there is a "Celebrity Toolbox" article and there are video clips on CK's web site for more tips on how we use our favorite tools. In my demo, you can see bits & pieces of a layout, but the full birthday layout is not shown in the video, but you can view it here.

[ RESOURCES FOR SUPPLIES ]

Stacey's looking for the supplies I used in a project featured in my Family History Scrapbooking book. That little black "album" (it's really just cardstock) and the foam letter stamps are both from Making Memories.

[ ALBUM COLORS ]

Our chronological family albums are all black. Our son's albums are & will be all the same color (which is green) and our daughter's albums are & will be all the same also (which is lavendar). I got them here. To be honest, I'm not sure they even carry "my" colors anymore, so I need to look into other options. There are a lot of wonderful online stores, so if anyone wants to chime in with great places to buy albums, bring it on.

[ LAYOUTS FOR OTHER PEOPLE ]

Amy asked about how some of my layouts appear to be for other people's scrapbooks. That is correct. Between my books & CK magazine, I publish a lot of layouts. I don't want every single layout that I publish to be about my family, my life, my experiences. (I have a lot of layouts in our scrapbooks that are more personal and I have no interest in sharing them publicly.) So to "mix it up", I use photos from friends & family once in a while (especially in my books).

It's win-win-win. You, the reader, get more variety in what you see. I still create the number of layouts I need to create without exhausting my personal stash of photos. And my friends end up with completed layouts that are done for them! It's fun & I love the process. By the way, you'll always know if the pictures in my published layouts are someone else's because I always credit them with "Photos by so-and-so".

mac, classes, the next book

Hi there. Some great questions, ladies! I'll take on a few at a time ...

[ WHY MAC? ]

I have been a Mac user for almost 3 years and, in my case, it's true what they say: "Once you go Mac, you never go back." In response to the "URGENT!!!" question that was asked, there are so many reasons why I prefer Mac over PC. I'm no "techie" but I've come to appreciate the great qualities found in Mac products. Instead of making this blog entry super long, I'm just going to send you (and your husband, since you mentioned that it's HIM you need to convince) to this list for the top 15 reasons why Mac is fabulous. Good luck with your purchase this weekend!

PS - My brother (a.k.a. big-time techie) has an archive of Mac Tips that can be really helpful for Mac users. This is something that he did for quite a while (in his spare time) and although it's not currently maintained, the tips are totally relevant.

[ MY CLASSES ]

I don't teach much locally. However, I can tell you where I'll be teaching this year:

June 14-16: Anaheim, CA (CKU)
August 23-25: Nashville, TN (CKU)
September 13-15: Phoenix, AZ (CKC)
October 11-13: Orlando, FL (CKU)
October 19-20: Kansa City, KS (CKC)

You can find more information here. Just click on Conventions (CKC) and Creating Keepsakes University (CKU) to get the scoop. Incidentally, registration for CKU-Nashville launches TODAY.

[ MY NEXT BOOK ]

Yes, I do have another book coming out and yes, it is a sketch-based book. This one is a compilation of all my sketches from books & magazines over the past 5 years. It'll be spiral-bound in a cute, smaller size and very user-friendly. So almost 200 sketches in one place (yay for that) but the added bonus is that I worked for months and months on creating a brand-new, fresh, current layout to accompany every single sketch. All visuals in this book are by me, which is unique to my other Sketches books.



This is a picture of one of my shipments of layouts for the book. Holy nervous to ship, Batman! You have to have a lot of faith in UPS when you ship something like this.

I'll let you know when the book is available for pre-ordering.

submit your questions

You guys have some great questions and I'd love to address as many of them as I can get to. So here's a place to formally submit whatever your questions are. I may not be able to answer every single one, and it will undoubtedly take some time to answer them (a little here, a little there with my blog entries), but I'll do my best. Simply click on the green-colored word "comments" below and ask away.

a couple yummy ideas

First and foremost, I hope you had a really nice Mothers Day. And this isn't a shout-out to JUST moms. To all women, I genuinely hope that you've enjoyed your weekend.

Next, I need to throw out another yummy idea. I made those Andes Mint cookies (see May 9th entry) for a girls get-together at my house on Thursday - which was super fun, by the way. I love my friends. I ended up making another favorite treat too. And I am seriously committing to working out every day this week, by the way. Oh MY. Thank you to my cute friend Zipporah, who told me about this several months ago.

NUTELLA ROLLS

You need:
crescent rolls
Nutella (it's a hazelnut spread; found near the peanut butter)
optional: banana
optional: powdered sugar



Don't knock it 'til you try it.

Spread out a crescent roll triangle, drop a dallop of Nutella in the middle, add a slice of banana if that sounds good to you, and then wrap it up. Do this with as many as you want to make and place them on a baking sheet (again, big fan of the Pampered Chef stones). Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and put them in the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes, or whenever they are golden and look baked.

On to other things ...

FRIDAY

I taught a class locally on Friday and met some really neat women there. Say hi to Dina:



Cute page, eh? What a fun scrapbook style. And she's a great photographer too. I saw some of the portraits she did for some friends that also attended. We did sort of an "All About Me" layout since most of these women really never, ever, ever get out from behind the camera and get themselves in the scrapbook.

The idea of the layout is to include just one current picture of yourself and also a large, blank block of cardstock for journaling. And then you fill that block with random tidbits about yourself, right now. Big stuff, little stuff, serious stuff, funny stuff, quirky stuff, heartfelt stuff. Whatever you want. You don't have to write an autobiography. Just get some things about yourself in your scrapbook once in a while so your posterity will get to know you as more than just a person who put together scrapbooks.

Two of the gals that attended made their very first layout ever that night and I got to be a part of it. How cool is that? The reason it's so cool to me is that there is potential that they will feel inspired to keep going, to get their pictures and their stories and their insights preserved. There is potential that they could unleash the artist inside of them, that their creative spirits will really come out and play and they'll discover a whole side of them they never knew before. And there is potential that, because of their dedication to scrapbook, their kids, gradnchildren, etc. will someday have the honor and priviledge of looking through albums of wonderfully documented memories. THAT is so cool to me.

Addressing more of your questions ...

CAMERA LENS

My favorite lens is the Canon 28 - 200. It's so "all-purpose" to me, with a really nice amount of zoom for a not-too-big size.

PEPPERMINT FUDGE

Lisa noticed my "Chocolate" layout in the February issue of CK and was interested in the recipe for "the brownies with the white frosting". That's actually peppermint fudge and I'm delighted to share this with you. It's sooo good.



[Fudge Layer]
3 tsp. butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
4 c. powdered sugar
6 Tbsp. baking cocoa
1 tsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

[Peppermint Layer]
2 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. milk
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
1/4 c. crushed peppermint candy (about 18 candies)

Line the bottom and sides of a square baking dish with foil. Grease foil with butter; set aside. In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, cocoa, milk and vanilla. Spread into prepared pan. Chill for an hour until firm. For peppermint layer, beat cream cheese in a small mixing bowl. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, milk and extract. Stir in peppermint candy. Spread evenly over chocolate layer. Chill for an hour or until firm. Using foil, lift fudge from pan. Gently peel off foil and cut into squares.

Okay, you've had plenty to read. Be sure to compliment 3 people today - sincere compliments. And if you're feeling rather chirpy, maybe go out of your way to introduce yourself to someone you don't know (especially if you see them on occasion). Random challenge, but there's potential for you to really brighten someone's day today. So why not?

random stuff

I wanted to address a few more questions/requests while I had a minute:

RSS FEED
This is now up & running and there is a link to the right if you want to subscribe.

A FEW OF MY FAVORITES
On the Creating Keepsakes' home page, there is currently a video of me talking about & showing a few of my favorite scrapbooking tools. (Question to self: Do I always talk that fast?) You can watch Lisa Bearnson talking about a few of her favorites too. We did these segments in her home. So no - that's not my office; that's Lisa's super cute room. I know I need to post pictures of my space and I promise - I *will* get to that.

SCRAPBOOK VOLUMES
This is in reference to the picture of my chronological albums (vol. 34, etc.) that I posted on April 28th. Volume 1 began in 1994 when I graduated from high school.



Oh yeah ... check out the locks! That's when I began scrapbooking, so I just started from there. Everything since then has gone in subsequent albums, in chronological order, and - like I said - I also have a bunch of theme albums and now, our kids have their own ongoing albums. In our family chronological albums, we're currently in volume 41. Okay. That's just crazy, I know.

The thing is, I started scrapbooking when I was young & single and it wasn't too long after that that I began teaching scrapbooking and then working for Creating Keepsakes magazine. So needless to say, scrapbooking has been a really big part of my life and I was doing it for 8 years before we had our first child. I also am an "efficient" scrapbooker, meaning that while I totally enjoy the process and the artistic side of scrapbooking, I equally enjoy the organizational and "having it done" side of this hobby as well.

The great thing is I'm never done. Nobody is. We're not in this to be "caught up" by any means, but it is nice to have as much of our life, and our family's life, documented as we can. I've learned a lot over the years, like what I want to be sure to get in the scrapbooks, and what's really not all that important. If I knew then what I know now, I'd probably have fewer volumes with more "important" stuff. Know what I mean?

andes mint cookies

One of my very best friends just moved in this week - 2 minutes away from us - so her 3 cute kids have been at our house a lot (maximizing her productivity at HER house). It's been a party, the kids are having a ball together, and they were great little helpers in the kitchen. If you like chocolate and Andes mint you will love these cookies! We made a ton of this cookie dough so we have plenty of cookies for their family, some for other neighbors that just moved in (tis the season!) and even more for a girlfriends get-together I'm hosting tomorrow.

I think I've finally mastered these cookies, after several batches and enough taste-testing over the past several months. : ) Sometimes it takes me a few rounds of baking to finally nail the perfect time for a certain cookie in my oven. So here's the recipe. Have a sweet tooth today? You must try this.



ANDES MINT COOKIES

3/4 c. butter (or margarine)
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
2 T. water

Melt in a saucepan over medium heat until melted and then add:

2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips, stirring until completely melted.

Cool for 10 minutes. Pour into a mixing bowl and beat in 2 eggs.

Add:
2 1/2 c. four
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix together and chill for about 45 minutes. Roll into balls (like 1 - 1 1/2 inches big), flatten slightly, and place on cookie sheet (In only use Pampered Chef baking stones). Bake at 350 for 10 minutes (for my oven, this is the perfect time, keeping my cookies soft; your oven may be slightly different).

When cookies come out of the oven, place an Andes mint on top of each cookie and allow to melt for a few minutes. Swirl the melted chocolate like icing. Allow to cool.

Oh YUM. Need to go have another cookie before I do anything else right now. : )

teachers

Happy Teacher Appreciation Day! I'm so thankful for teachers in my life and wanted to say a special hello to those of you who are teachers. Porter and I put together some cute little bags filled with chocolates and he took them to his pre-school teachers this morning. Speaking of appreciation, if any of you need an idea for a last-minute teacher gift, you could make a quick set of cards for them. Who wouldn't love some homemade cards to have on hand?



I made these cards for Porter's teachers last Thanksgiving. Three sets of cards in 30 minutes. I literally was in a pinch for time and just grabbed my new favorite stamp at the time (the bracket stamp from 7Gypsies), some darling Crate Paper scraps, flowers, brads, and a fine point black pen. I always have a stock of white cardstock and standard white envelopes too, so it really was a snap to put these together. So in a half-hour I had a set of cards for both of his teachers and an extra set for someone else.

answers to your questions

Thanks for your warm messages and kind words! You guys are great. You have some questions and I want to do my best to answer them. So here we go with some random topics, based on a few of those questions:

CAMERA
I use a Canon 10D, which is a digial SLR. Our digital point-and-shoot is the Sony CyberShot. We mostly use that for short video clips (LOVE that point-and-shoot cameras do this) and it is always in my purse for "just in case" moments. To be honest, I'm not 100% happy with it, especially after playing with my brother's camera last week. Kevin uses the Canon SD900 and it's awesome. I think we'll be trading ours in soon.

PRINTING
I do *not* do my own photo printing. I upload my digital images to costco.com and pick them up at my local Costco. They do a fantastic job & print with their digital processing machine, the Noritsu. I typically print glossy (for a more refined, sharp image) but sometimes I'll do matte if the photos will be "handled". But I do print at home once in a while if I'm in a pinch for time. In this case, the HP Photosmart 245 has been great. It's portable too, since it just prints 4" x 6" prints - nothing larger. I also have an Epson PictureMate and, admittedly, haven't tried it yet. I will report as soon as I do.

ALBUMS
Our chronological family albums are in 12" x 12" albums but it's the page protector size that really matters, not the album dimensions. That said, yes - my top-loading page protectors are a true 12" x 12" size and fit my pages perfectly. The brand is C-Line and I've been using these for as long as I can remember. They're fantastic.

Creating Keepsakes' web site has recently posted my answers to many, many other questions. If you're bored, you can check it out here.