If you love scrapbooking and could use a little extra motivation to help you get your real life stories onto your pages, you’re going to love hanging out with us in February!

Throughout the entire month, we will be featuring a fun challenge focused entirely on journaling. In addition to being inspired to journal in fun and creative ways, participants will have the opportunity to earn points and prizes … and get lots of scrapping done at the same time!

You’ll find out all about this challenge on Monday, but first you have an opportunity to earn a special bonus point just by helping us spread the word. The more participants we have in the challenge, the more inspiration and fun we’ll all have along the way!

If you have your own blog, you are invited to take part in our Sweet Talk Blog-Cast this Monday! We’ve made it very easy to do so … and you’ll earn your first Sweet Talk Award before the challenge even begins!

Here’s what you need to do…

1. Visit this page on our blog.
2. Copy and paste the text & images you find in that thread into a new post on your blog.
3. Double-check that the links in your new post are working, as designated in the instructions.
4. Schedule your post to be published first thing Monday morning, February 1. (The links will take your readers to a post here on the Log Your Memory blog that won’t be published until 1:15 a.m. Mountain Time Monday morning.)
5. Once your post has been published, visit the Sweet Talker thread in our Community Forum and link us up to your post. Feel free to tell everyone you know about your post too, so they’ll visit your blog and find out about the fun.
6. After your post has been verified, you will receive your first Sweet Talk Award and be well on your way to becoming a Log Your Memory Sweet Talker!

That’s all there is to it, other than reading our Monday post yourself so you can begin taking part in the Sweet Talk Journaling Challenge yourself!

See you then!

Please share your comments through our community forum…

It seems like we all have fond memories of at least one childhood game. Sometimes we don’t recall how the game started, and as adults, the rules may seem a bit strange. But something about that early experience sticks with us and creates a story we want to share with others and if possible, replicate for our own children.

Such is the story behind today’s Layout of the Week. “How to Play” by Jackie Doremus, aka tettletop20, tells the story of “The Thimble Game” played by Jackie and her two sisters. I chose to feature this layout for a couple reasons – first, I like the way Jackie modeled her design after a typical board game’s rules. But even more, I love that she told the story of the game’s past, as well as her hopes for its future. Read her journaling for yourself…

"How to Play" by tettletop20

Growing up I remember playing this game with my sisters in the “front room” of our home. It’s the only place Mom and Dad would let us play indoors. I think because it wasn’t the main living area of the house. On warm days I remember sitting outside and playing it. It’s a game that Dad taught us. He played it when he was growing up. It’s funny looking back on it now because there is no way I’d play it today. I’m not into getting wet just for guessing a color correctly! Although, I do have to say that I will be teaching it to my boys in hope that they will grow up with fond memories of it too.

Congratulations to Jackie on having the Layout of the Week for Logbook Challenge Week #4. She will receive 10 bonus points through our Real Deal Book Club Rewards Program. Be sure to check out the other layouts in the Week #4 challenge gallery … there are lots of wonderful memories of favorite family activities shared there!

Be sure to check our Blog tomorrow for information on the Sweet Talk Journaling Challenge, our new month-long challenge that will begin Monday, February 1st! Included in tomorrow’s post will be information on how you can get a jump-start on the challenge and earn bonus points simply for helping to spread the word about this fun event. See you then!

Please share your comments through our community forum…

As someone who enjoys a great photo of my kids much more than an expensive piece of jewelry or fancy new gadget, there’s one thing that used to keep me awake at night with worry … the fear of losing our thousands of digital photos to fire, computer malfunction or other similar trauma.

I had visions of trying to grab my babies in one hand and my bulky computer tower in the other while fleeing from the house in the middle of the night. Not a pretty picture. And not the best backup plan.

So finally, after one such sleepless night a little over a year ago, I finally decided enough was enough. With all of the technology at our disposal these days, there really is no excuse for not backing up those irreplaceable photos, not to mention the digital scrapbook pages we spend hours putting together or the valuable digital products we spend our hard-earned money hoarding.

I now have a system, which I thought I’d share with you today. My system may not work for you, but hopefully my sharing it will help get you thinking about something that would work for you so that you don’t become one of the many who have lost their valuable files because of the all-too-common computer crash or other mishap. I’m also hoping that if you do have a system in place that works for you, you’ll share it in a comment so that others may be able to learn from your example.

Kristin’s Backup Plan

My approach to backing up my photos and digital scrapbook-related files is relatively straightforward. All of these items are saved in multiple locations – on my computer hard-drive, on an external hard-drive, burned to CD-ROM, and/or uploaded to an online storage service. That may seem a bit extreme, but this way I figure I have my bases covered for a variety of possible circumstances.

Specifically, here’s how I handle each type of file…

Digital Photos

1) I’m a Mac girl so all of our photos are downloaded into iPhoto and then automatically sorted into “Smart” albums (folders) by month & year. My iPhoto file is stored on my external hard drive (EHD). Every couple weeks, I export my recent photos into a temporary folder on my computer desktop (hard drive), just to make sure I have a backup in case something happens to my EHD before I get to the next two steps.

2) I maintain a free account at Shutterfly.com and this is my primary online backup source for our photos. At least once a month, more often if I’ve been taking tons of photos, I upload every single photo to one folder at Shutterfly. For instance, every single photo we took in 2009 now lives in one Shutterfly album titled “Yearbook 2009″. These photos have not been edited in any way and I would probably not print directly from this file without sorting, weeding & editing first. It simply serves as an emergency backup file in case I ever need them.

3) Next, at the end of every month, I burn all of that month’s photos on a CD. These CDs are labeled and stored in a nice little box right on my desk next to my purse. In case of fire, that’s the box I’ll grab (along with my kids…LOL).

Digital Scrapbook Layouts

1) I create all of my scrapbook pages in Photoshop and save them as PSD files while still in progress. Each page is saved into an “Albums in Progress” folder on my hard drive and sorted by specific album (ie. Skylar’s First Year, the Story of Us, All About Me, etc.). Once a page is complete, I immediately save both the full-size layered PSD file and the flattened PDF file in that same “Albums in Progress” folder, plus save a copy of the flattened file in another folder  on my hard drive labeled “Layouts to Print.”  At the same time, I also save all of these files in folders of the same names on my EHD. That way, I always have at least two copies of everything. It takes up more storage space, but the peace of mind is worth it to me.

2) At the same time that I’m uploading my pages to my favorite online galleries (which is generally as soon as I finish a page because I love the immediate gratification!), I also upload a full-quality version to my free Shutterfly Share site. This serves two purposes – one, it helps me maintain an ongoing portfolio of all of my scrapbooking which is shared with friends and family, and second, it creates a reliable archive of all of my layouts at their full file size & quality.

3) At least once a month – and more often if I’ve been scrapbooking a lot – I upload any pages in my “Layouts to Print” folder to my favorite printing service, which is generally Scrapping Simply or Scrapbooks To Share. Even if I don’t order prints right away, they are safely stored off-site and will be ready for me when I am ready to place an order.

The one thing I don’t do yet that I probably should start doing is regularly burning all of my scrapbook layouts on CD. Somehow I need to squeeze that into my routine…

Digital Scrapbook Supplies

This is probably the weakest link in my current backup plan.

1) As I download files, I save them to my desktop and then immediately move them into a single “New Digi Scrapping Files” folder on my desktop, plus copy them into an identical folder on my EHD. I tend to want to scrap with my new stuff, so having this folder right there where I can see it makes that easy.

2) Once that folder starts to get a bit full, I move everything out of it and into my more permanent “Scrapbooking Files” folder on my hard drive. There I organize everything the way I want it, then copy the entire folder onto my EHD as a backup. Then I empty out both of my “New ….” folders so I can start filling them up again with new purchases.

This is another group of files I haven’t started consistently saving on CD, primarily because they take so much room. Once I get the hang of burning such files on DVDs, that’s what I plan to begin doing.

That’s my system. As I mentioned, it’s probably not the best system for everyone and may not work for you, but at the moment it’s good enough to help me sleep a little easier at night.

So … now it’s your turn. How do you protect your photos and digital files?

Or DO you?

Please share your comments through our community forum…

You’re in for a special treat in this week’s Story Board, brought to you courtesy of our lead Calendar Girl of the month, Heather Guenther! Get ready to be inspired with these fantastic examples of “real life” scrapbooking and commentary by Heather …

"Love Letter" by taracotta7

Love the heartfelt journaling and the appearance of a handwritten letter. These days, we often so many more emails than letters that there is something extra special about the look of a handwritten letter to me.

"Eating Dirt" by ahillo5

Love the pops of teal with the neutral color palette. A little dirt never hurt, but oh my, finding a brown recluse would definitely be the last time I went near that area too.

"Happiness" by kaleandkiara

I really love the monotone coloring to this layout with just a tiny bit of color. The black and white photo against the gray page is very striking and soothing at the same time. I love the documenting of such an everyday moment and how it touches her heart so dearly.

"Snow Play" by hondachicc

I wish I had documentation of these types of days as a child as the memories are so faded at my age now. I really like how the photos are laid out with the framing and touch of metallic look in the circles to give it that touch of texture, cold weather touch.

"Seven Random Thoughts" by nininano

Wonderful list of 7 random thoughts and I love the clean color palette and design. The blended image with it is very powerful. A great page for looking back on later and remembering the random thoughts we have everyday.

"Nini's Spotlight" by schneeflocke

Another in the 7 random thoughts challenge. Again, I adore the simple use of a single color to bring a page alive. Seeing these pages, I think it would be wonderful to add a seven random thoughts page monthly to my projects to see how a year of random thoughts would look at the end of it.

"All About Me" by saintamara

I love the reflective journaling of this page, as well the blending and coordinating images. The effect is a very soothing, reflective feel to the page.

"Chaos Theory" by Mindy Hanson

How can you not be drawn in by that photo and want to read the journaling? The journaling is great and hopefully was very therapeutic for her dealing with everything that she is dealing with. I love her sense of humor in the photo and can see myself feeling that way at times, too.

"Emerson" by digikiwichick

I adore the colors of this page as well as the simple yet striking design styling. The questions and answers are a great way to capture how your kids are feeling at this particular moment in their lives. I especially adore how she added in the “runs off to check” in her journaling as to whether her room was messy or clean. It gives it that touch more personality and memory to smile about years from now.

"Together We Stand" by ANJnMDS

The design of this page drew me in and then reading it, I was deeply affected. Beautiful journaling about the unfortunate events that have happened, but also a cheerful, hopeful page in the personal way that their lives were touched.

"Secret Recipe" by chengie

Beautiful photo and love the journaling to go with the empty recipe card. There is no doubt from this that it is a wonderful, treasured family recipe which is to remain secret.

Thanks, Heather, for sharing these great finds from around the Web! Check back next Wednesday for even more inspiration … and until then, happy scrapping!
Today’s Story Board brought to you by …

Interested in seeing YOUR business, store, Web site or favorite designer promoted here? Sponsorship opportunities are available … to find out more, inquire through the Contact Us page.

Comments regarding this post are welcome via the Log Your Memory forum.

Thinking about doing something a little extra special for Valentine’s Day? There’s still time, if you get started right away.

Personalized hybrid mini-albums are among my favorite items to give, particularly the ones I put together last year for my husband, two boys and oldest daughter. Each album, called “10 Things I Love About You,” features 10 photos of the person for whom the album was created, plus brief journaling on each page describing one of those 10 things.

For instance, my oldest son’s 10 things were…

1. You’re a lot of fun to play games with!
2. You have a great laugh that’s really contagious!
3. You have lots of talents that you’re putting to good use!
4. You love a good set of Legos (just like me!)
5. You are just so creative!
6. You are a great big brother to all of your siblings!
7. You’re a great friend!
8. You’re not afraid to show your enthusiasm!
9. You’re such a great sport with all your little girl cousins!
10. There’s no one else in all the world exactly like you!

At the very end of each album, I also included a little picture of myself and a handwritten message to the recipient. I could hardly wait to give these to my family last year, but it was well worth the wait. They LOVED them.

They loved seeing 10 great photos of themselves. They loved reading the 10 reasons I think they’re awesome. They loved that the entire book is all about them. And I think they found it pretty cool that I took the time to focus on them that way.

It’s the best Valentine gift I’ve given so far … and believe me, I’ve tried to be creative with this holiday on more than one occasion.

I had so much fun doing these albums that I created a downloadable quick-page kit so others could do the same. As of today, you’ll find the complete kit in our on-site store.

Just purchase & download the kit, choose your recipient, come up with 10 things you love about them, choose 10 photos to go with it, drop the photos into the openings using your favorite scrapbooking software & add your journaling. Print the pages and the included covers, adhere to CDs or a round chipboard album kit, bind it all together … and you’re done!

To get you started & give you a little taste of the colors & patterns of the album, I’ve even got a free mini-kit to share with you right here. Simply click on the image below to download this digital scrapbooking freebie! (File size: 21.1 MB)

Click on “comment” below to share your thoughts…

If you just couldn’t wait until today to visit the new and improved forum and gallery, you were not alone! After a couple intense days of tweaking, crossing my fingers, scouring help forums, drinking gallons of coffee, and even a little praying, our site is back up and running at full throttle.

I hope you’ll take some time to look around and play with the new features. There are too many to mention now, but here are the biggest changes you’ll want to be aware of …

• The Community Forum is entirely new and has a new URL. You now access the forum at http://logyourmemory.com/forum. If you had the old forum bookmarked, please take a minute to re-bookmark it at the new address.

• The user profiles for the Blog, Forum, Layout Gallery and Chat Room are all now integrated. That means you just need to register once to be a registered member in all four places. You also need to only sign in once to get full access, with the exception of the chat room which requires a sign in every time you enter. If you are already a registered member, you do not need to re-register. You will need to sign in the first time you visit, however, even if you were previously signed in “forever.” All registrations and sign-ins for the blog, forum, gallery & chat room begin from the forum home page. One note – our on-site store is still a separate system and requires it’s own registration & log-in.

• The Community Forum is now truly the heart of the Log Your Memory Web site. The blog will continue to be located at LogYourMemory.com because it is a bit complicated to change things around at this point. But I hope most will make the Forum your first stop each day. Once you visit, you’ll see it’s now the hub of activity. Features include…

• Central management of all registration, sign-in, user profile and messaging activities.
• A sneak peek at the latest additions to the Layout Gallery.
• An introduction to the latest Blog update, with links back to the full post.
• A look at the most recently added forum threads, followed by the forum as a whole.
• A list of the week’s “hot topics.”
• A snapshot of how many users are online throughout our site at any given moment, plus a list of everyone currently chatting in the Chat Room.
• Easy access to current site announcements and contest reminders.
• A list of today’s birthdays for registered users who have provided that information via their profile.
• And more … updates & changes will continue as we grow and change!

• Our new forum has tons of features we didn’t have before. This is particularly true in the area of customizing your profile, sending messages, connecting with others, starting and participating in groups, and more. For now, take some time to play around and discover the new features on your own.

• You will notice your signature and profile photos need some tweaking. That’s one of the downfalls of moving the forum across cyberspace. But hopefully the improvement will be well worth the inconvenience. One thing to note – you no longer need to upload your profile photo to our layout gallery. You can now upload your photo directly from your computer. I strongly suggest you upload your profile photo first, then use that same image for your avatar. Your profile is customized through the User CP tab in the navigation bar at the top of the forum.

• We now have a brand new Chat Room! Our new chat room has tons of features we didn’t have before, many of which you can customize to suit your own preferences. Simply sign in using your regular username & password, then choose a room and start chatting! We’ll also start holding more regular scheduled chats, so watch for a poll very soon where you can vote your preference for day and time.

• We also have a new Chat Box. This is a box at the very top of the forum home page where you can leave a quick message for other visitors or simply say you stopped by!

• Be prepared to find an occasional broken link or formatting snafu. The process of importing information for hundreds of users and thousands of threads into a new forum and system is a bit touchy, to say the least. As a result, it’s pretty much inevitable that there will be a few things that don’t transition perfectly. Please be patient with these things if you find them … and if they seem important enough to fix, drop me a line and I’ll do my best to take care of them.

• More changes planned as time permits. I am constantly on the look-out for new features that will enhance your time on our site, so you can expect more tweaking as we go along. Among the items on my list are mini-overhauls of the blog and store to help them coordinate better with the rest of the site.

Click on “comment” below to share your thoughts…

My husband likes to tease me that my mode of home improvement is along the styles of “While You Were Out.”

In other words, I like to keep big room makeovers and other such projects a total secret, doing lots of prep and planning behind the scenes, and then complete the whole project in one intense work period while the rest of my family is gone, later to spring them with a final “ta-da” once the project is complete.

So when it comes to making significant improvements to the Log Your Memory site, my first tendency is to take the same approach. Unfortunately, that’s not particularly realistic when trying to work around an online biz and it’s 24/7/52 way of functioning.

My list of things I’d like to revamp on our site has been growing nearly since the first day we launched just over three months ago. And after doing lots of testing & tweaking & playing around with some “stuff” behind the scenes, I have a handful of initial changes I’d like to implement that will hopefully make your time on our site even more enjoyable … but it’s going to require a little time this weekend behind proverbial “locked doors” to get it done smoothly.

So, as of this post, our Layout Gallery & Community Forum are closed for just a bit. I’m hoping for everything to work out as planned, but as anyone who has messed around with Web sites & coding & all that “fun” stuff knows, things don’t always go just as planned.

Cross your fingers the Web is our friend this weekend … and check back first thing Monday to see {hopefully} the new improvements to our site. It won’t be a total overhaul, but I think you’ll notice some significant changes – with more to come down the road.

It’s not quite “While You Were Out” … but it’ll be pretty close!

Click on “comment” below to share your thoughts…

Journaling is sometimes the most difficult part of scrapping our real lives, particularly when the topic is very personal. But sometimes you can let someone else do much of the talking for you, particularly if there is a song that really conveys the message you are hoping to send.

Such is the case with “When There’s No One Around,” this week’s Layout of the Week by SierraB6. The lyrics provide the perfect springboard for the heartfelt journaling describing this artist’s most inner thoughts and feelings. Read on…

This is my song. This is my life. It’s not just the lyrics that speak to me, even the music swells in my chest and communicates with my soul. It’s a song about the inner me, the one no one sees. The one I don’t necessarily want anyone to see. My failures and fears are hidden in this secret place but so are my deepest joys and hopes. This is where my happy place is. It’s not perfect but it is all mine. This is who I am when I don’t have to be anybody else.

Congratulations to SierraB6 for having this week’s Layout of the Week! She will receive 10 bonus points through our Real Deal Book Club Rewards Program. If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to check out the other layouts in the Week #3 challenge gallery. It’s sure to bring a song to your heart.

Please note … the Layout Gallery and Community Forum will be CLOSED this weekend (January 23-24) for maintenance, updates & improvements. My apologies for the inconvenience, but please be sure to visit Monday to check out what’s new!

Click on “comment” below to share your thoughts…

I’m always curious to hear the “why” behind why others have chosen to practice the art of scrapbooking. So when I received the following email in response to this post, I asked the author, Annette, if it would be okay if I shared her story with you, as well. I was thrilled when she accepted.

If this doesn’t motivate you to get busy documenting those memories, I’m not sure what will. Read on…

This is why I scrapbook … I had a LOT of backlogged pictures and memorabilia, but fortunately, not so much anymore. Like you, I went through a divorce and scrapbooking those times and pictures… not fun. It was only a short snippet of history, but to try and save those memories? I’d really rather not.

Guest Blogger Annette

A few years ago, right before my grandmother passed away and just before I became pregnant with my third and last baby, I learned that my family (on my father’s side) has a tendency toward Alzheimer’s.

My great aunt had it for many years before she passed away. I came face-to-ace with the disease during the time of my grandmother’s passing. While I knew her sister was in the final stages of the disease, barely recognizing her own sister… I witnessed my own grandmother not only fighting lung cancer, but the early-mid stages of Alzheimer’s. Fortunately for her, the memories stay mostly intact at the end, but it was so hard watching her move in and out of clarity and reality.

It renewed my urgency to scrapbook what my kids were living NOW. My childhood. My husband’s career. Blogging, even. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I fear that I will have Alzheimer’s and those memories that I cherish now will be like leaves in the wind.

So I scrapbook. Slowly. Oh so slowly. But I am working steadily through the pile. Sorting through what really IS worth scrapbooking and saving, versus bits and pieces of construction paper from a long forgotten project that even the child who made it doesn’t remember.

Last month, my mother told me that she believes my father is in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s. He’s in his 60s. For all of his life, he has been able to recall the tiniest detail of the most amazing events. And to hear that he can’t remember how to tie a tie? Devastates me. Because it again reinforces the “why” I scrapbook. “Why” I need to preserve those memories.

It may seem selfish to try to record my own memories in addition to my children’s and husband’s. So many of us find ourselves taking the pictures or focusing on other pages about other people. But for me to be able to save a small piece of my life for my family to help me should I fall ill? Worth every moment of trudging through endless photographs and writing the memories down while I know I still remember them.

Thank you, Annette, for sharing your story!

Click on “comment” below to share your thoughts…

It’s time for another round of “real life” scrapbooking inspiration! Check out these great finds from neighboring galleries this week…

"Being Your Mom" by misfitinmn

In “Being Your Mom,” misfitinmn goes beyond the cute baby photo to share insights into what it’s really like to be a new mom, from the pure exhaustion to the complete pride and adoration. A great keepsake for when this little one gets big, which will happen all too soon…

"Rebuilding in Review" by nevache

Home construction and remodeling photos are always a fun thing to look back on … AFTER the dust has had time to settle and normalcy has returned! “Rebuilding in Review” by nevache will be a great springboard for those “remember when” conversations when that time comes.

"Crabby" by Carolee

Though relatively simple in design, “Crabby” by Carolee actually provides a great deal of insight into this particular scrapbooker’s “real” life, from her astrological sign to the things that cause her mood to swing to a great variety of words she feels describe her many characteristics. This one jumped out of the gallery at me.

"Me & You" by amandajane

I really enjoyed how “Me & You” by amandajane describes the many ways this mother and daughter are alike beyond the obvious physical characteristics. The sweetly sophisticated design was just the icing on the cake!

"Tween" by novita

I’m always attracted to pages that share insights into those difficult “Tween” and early adolescent years, such as this layout by novita. The colors are perfect for this fun but no longer “childish” age, and the journaling really helps describe what it’s like trying to navigate the unique challenges that come with this age group.

"Life Changing" by kellig

‘Tis the season to document goals and resolutions. Kellig provides a great example here in “Life Changing.” I was immediately drawn to the simple, yet interesting design and color scheme. I also like the way the journaling outlines the “why” behind this couple’s goals.

"Don't Ever Change" by Manderin Oranges

The cute kiddos first drew my attention to “Don’t Ever Change” by Manderin Oranges, but mom’s admissions about her weaknesses as a parent and message to her kids to just be who they are made it a page I wanted to share. A nice reminder to take a moment to see what is rather than what is expected.

"Grown Up Girl" by lunafaerie

When our kids are little and we spend hours just adoring their cute features & behaviors, it doesn’t seem like we could possibly ever forget them. But the time goes so quickly and unfortunately, all too often we lose those little details. This won’t be the case, though, for lunafaerie and her “Grown Up Girl.” The journaling does a great job of describing just what this little one is like and how she’s changed in this early stage of her life. Plus, it’s simply a beautiful page.

"Today You" by rsowers

I’m a big fan of pages that simply share an everyday moment, such as this one described in “Today You” by rsowers. The full page photo treatment is perfect, as is the subtle journaling on the beach. So simple in design,  yet I loved it the moment I saw it in the gallery. This one would be great made into a canvas for the wall.

"In My Office" by annaaspnes

If you aren’t familiar with the unique style of designer Anna Aspnes, you should check her out. I love this page that she shared this week, not only because it’s an example of her amazing design sense but also because it documents a part of life that often gets left out of scrapbooks – our work lives. Plus I must admit – I was glad to see mine isn’t the only less than immaculate office!

That’s it for another week! Check back next Wednesday for another series of inspirational “real life” scrapbook pages from around the Web … and until then, be sure to add a few of your own to the mix!

Click on “comment” below to share your thoughts…