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First up, after our trip I set out to design my own kit using the color scheme in the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Main Street parade with catchy music that was performed several times a day.

Magical Events

More general Disney themed kits include:

Enjoy the Moment bySahlin Studio

Magical Vacation by Tracey Howard

I also used Secret Garden by Sussie M Design for the cover of my book and a few pages for scrapping Fantasyland.

Secret Garden

More Fairytale styles by my friends at MyMemories.com

Do you Believe in Magic Part 1 by Magical Reality Designs

Once Upon a Time by Indigo Designs

Great word art is available from Elegant WordArt by Bethany

Magical Vacation Word Art

This looks like a fun Alice in Wonderland themed kit by Irene Alexeeva

Through the Looking Glass

Kissing Frogs by Lindsey Riches is another fun princess fantasy style kit.

Kissing Frogs

Fairytale Overlays by Flergs

It is a $10 Weekend at the MyMemories Design Shop.

Just enter the promo code: Save10AprW2 when checking out and save $10 off your order!

(Magical Events, Enjoy the Moment, Once Upon a Time and Do You Believe in Magic are all available at MyMemories.com)

Photos collages of vacations are so much fun! They capture the whole feeling of the trip in one place making it easy to show off all your favorite photos. Your collage can then be used as the cover of your photobook, used to make a custom mug, have it printed on a plaque, frame it, etc..

Disney Memories

Slideshow/DVD can be fairly easy to put together. Mix video clips and photos together, throw in some fun Disney’ish tunes and burn it all to a DVD.

Photobooks of course. Mine is over 100 pages for our trip this past August! My own hundreds of photos along with Disney’s  Photopass CD pictures, I just couldn’t narrow it down much more than I did. I swear! There is a good Photopass post with tips over at the Daily Digi this week. I designed my own pages and was inspired to create this digital scrapbooking kit/template set from the pictures of my trip. It’s available for sale at MyMemories.com (available for download for MyMemories Suite scrapbooking software and general download for Photoshop or Elements users).

Disney Photobook

Shhh…here is a little secret, “like” Cherish Collages on Facebook to snag a coupon code for $7.00 off at MyMemories.com or mention you are a “fan” when you order a collage for a 10% fan discount.

FOR ONE DAY ONLY-

* 30% off selected products in our online store!
* FREE Storybook Series Upgrades!
* 50% Off Hardbinding Upgrades!
* FREE gifts with a cart charge of $150+

On November 26, 2010, submit your story books and enjoy some of the best deals of the year with your personal publishing.

Save 30% off selected Story Starters, Lifeprints, Chat Cards, Journals, and much more! Visit our online store on Black Friday to take advantage of all the deals!

FREE Storybook Series Upgrades! Create your own Storybook Series book from our most popular storybook designs for NO EXTRA DESIGNER FEE! You will save $14 on EVERY Storybook Series book! These books are pre-designed so that with or without photos, you can create a beautiful book in 30 minutes, and the corresponding Story Starter questions are already inside! (Choose from: All About Me, Tribute, Recipe, Love Story, Best Friend, Hero, Family Yearbook, Top 10, etc.) Just use the coupon code on the flier to save big!

Get 50% Off all hard binding upgrades… usually $17 for only $8.50. It’s a GREAT time to create new books and order additional copies of your favorites!

Visit the Black Friday Specials page for all the details and coupon codes.

Solution! Display the art in creative ways without cluttering up the fridge or piling it away in a box. Selectively of course.

Land of Nod Display

Go Digital!

Photobook of Kindergarten Artwork

One of my favorites is a year end photobook of all those school masterpieces. I scan or take photos of the pieces and then have a photobook printed by a professional photobook printer online. I use Cherish|BOUND or Shutterfly as I have found they have the best quality.

Another digital alternative, have it printed on photo gifts. Sites like Shutterfly or Artscow offer tons of photo gift options like coasters, mugs, tote bags, mouse pad, necktie, aprons, t-shirts, and the list goes on. Create a modern block style collage with photos of each piece and print in large format size to frame.

Dynamic Frames

Ideas I’ve seen are to hang the originals in the garage, create a collage or artwork out there. Framing some of the best pieces and displaying them in a prominent area of the home can really boost a child’s self esteem too.

This does not have to be expensive either. Buy low cost frames on sale at Walmart or the like. Use colored framed or mats for visual interest. Clip frames and floating frames are easy to work with.

Walmart Floating Frames

Floating frames use your wall color as the mat and with clip frames, use construction paper or cardboard as your mat in funky colors to play up on the artwork. Give the originals as gifts to Grandparents. Hang a clotheslines or wire and hang from clips to display. Dynamic Frames offer boxes that make changing the artwork easy.

West Elm Floating Boxes & Ikea Colorful Frames

Son's artwork in clip frames with construction paper matting

Sources: Land of Nod, Ikea, Walmart, West Elm, Dynamic Frames

Here is just a snippet of our trip, the favorite ride by far was Splash Mountain and we got wet every time, sometimes, downright soaked. The more soaked (I wanted to say soakier) the better as far as the boys were concerned. We rode it 7 or 8 times all week, 4 times in one day. Luckily the lines were short if they existed at all.

This collage was created quickly using a Blog It Board from MCP Actions.

Storyclub is like a lay-away plan for your life’s memories. Each month you can receive story products or bank your credits towards publishing your books. I publish several books a year for myself and some as gifts as well, so I have already enrolled in Storyclub to save some money and make sure to keep memory keeping for my family a priority.

To learn more about Storyclub, check out this great video featuring Cherish|BOUND Founder, Carol Rice…

There are 3 different commitment levels to choose from, 3 months for $21/mo., 6 months for $19/mo., and 12 months for $17/mo. Each month there will be a selection of Featured products, valued at $24 (or more), that will automatically be sent out if no other selection is made, or you can choose your own items equal to $24, apply the $24 value to publishing credit, or opt-out of the payment processing for that month.

Storyclub saves money and keeps those family memories front and center. If you love creating photobooks and storybooks and keeping your families memories alive, check out Storyclub today.

During Preservation Week at your library, themed “Pass it on,” participating libraries will offer special programs and services that will help connect you with preservation tools; promote the importance of preservation; and will strive to enhance knowledge of preservation issues.

“Libraries offer more than just books, they also are an excellent resource for high-quality information and expertise on how to preserve family keepsakes,” said ALA President Camila Alire. “Preserving items such as old photographs, letters, collectables and family movies, provides a map of the past and access to a full range of information that can impact the future.”

Why is preservation so important? Over 4.8 Billion artifacts are held in public trust by more than 30,000 archives, historical societies, libraries, museums, scientific research collections and archaeological repositories in the United States. Some 2.6 billion items are not protected by an emergency plan such as national disasters, and 1.3 billion of these items are at risk of being lost. If billions of items are at risk at our heritage institutions, than plausibly trillions of items held by the general public are at risk.

Just think how disappointing it would be to have all your pictures and memories destroyed in a natural disaster of some sort. This is one of the features I love about Cherish|BOUND, they archive all the books you create, so if anything were to happen to your books at home, you can re-order them. You won’t lose them forever. This is not a common feature of other photobook manufacturers.

Key environmental factors that place collections at risk include light, pollutants, moisture and heat. Items that can benefit from preservation both at home and in U.S. collections include books, manuscripts, photographs, prints and drawings, objects such as maps, textiles, paintings, sculptures, decorative arts and furniture. They also include moving images and sound recordings that capture performing arts, oral history and other records of our creativity and history.

Preservation Week  is a collaborative effort supported by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association, The Library of Congress, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

For more information on Preservation Week at your library please visit www.ala.org/preservationweek.

Been a crazy week already and it’s only Tuesday. Okay, so well I obviously have tons of options for collages to pick for this, but I wanted to show off one of my favorite photo collages of all time, it’s one of the first ones I did for a friend of her trip to Thailand when I was just starting my business years ago. The pictures just blended so well together, I loved it. I still love it.

I love that photo collages can tell a story and bring the pictures and memories to life. I love that I get to create these pieces for people all the time.

Visit I Heart Faces this week for more collage fun!

Gather up those photographs and have a beautiful, unique photo collage created. Your cherished memories are blended together in one unique photo print suitable for framing and take center stage on a prominent wall in your home. It makes a wonderful conversation piece for anyone visiting your home as well. Relive your memories everyday with all your favorite photos on display.

Husbands, this is the perfect gift for your blushing bride, surprise her with a sentimental gift. Brides, this is a great dual gift, wonderful to commemorate your first year with your husband and you’ll enjoy it as well. Mom’s and Dad’s, give a gift your daughter or son and their spouse will cherish forever.

Another idea is a to have a photo collage created of your first year together, starting with the wedding day. Include the wedding, honeymoon, any special events like the purchase of a first home, family events, birth of a first child, and any other special moments from your first year together.

A custom created photo collage of your lives together is the perfect “paper” wedding anniversary gift. A traditional symbolic gift with a new modern twist.