Scrapbookin' Navy Moms

Anyone know of a scrapbooking store in the northcentral Wisconsin area or what are some good websites?

suems2 - where in NC WI.?  there are some nice stores in Wausau- JoAnn Fabrics has a nice scrapbooking section as does Michaels. 

My advice is to pick one theme...  for example... the first scrapbook I did was for my sons sports...  I started with baseball and then moved thru soccer, scouts, youth group, holidays, etc... 

I bought a large pack of various color solid paper and some patterned in the team colors...  a few themed stickers and cut outs and went from there... my first pages are very basic... the pictures all mounted on coordinating paper...  headlined pages with a few stickers or cut outs... the best thing I did was journal about the memories of that team or season!!

My pages have evolved a bit now...  I have a cricut and can make them a little more detailed...  pictures overlapped or cut into collages or shapes!!  When I go back and look I am sometimes tempted to jazz up those first pages but have resisted doing so... it just shows the progression and my sons love looking back at the memories... they really don't care how fancy the pages are!!

I hate when I misplace photos I know I have somewhere. It is just as bad as scrapping pictures twice because I have double prints and didn't check to see if they were on pages first. Right now I am putting all my pages in albums and checking pictures before taking the time to scrap them.

The pages I am working on now are from 1985 when my husband and I drove from VA to San Diego for his first ship. I had most of them and found the rest in another place. I will have to fill in with journaling the pictures I did not take. It is fun to look how farwe have come.

Quilt lady...  you will love all the fun things you can do with that cartridge!!  I make lots of cards to send to the military kids that don't get mail!!

Anyone who lives in NC, the Brevard, Hendersonville, or Asheville area who likes to scrapbook we are having a FREE 2 day crop at a local school on Saturday and Sunday (21st & 22nd) Just bring your pics and paper, you can share our tools and Cricut machines and cartridges. Between us we have 60 to 70 cartridges to choose from. We always have a great time and would love to have you join us. Let me know if you would like to come. Send me a message on here or an email to uniquememorymakers@yahoo.com

Going to start my son's Navy scrapbook today while watching the Superbowl with my best scrapbooking buddy.  Sounds like the perfect day!

I recently started my sons Navy scrapbook and will post pics of them shortly.  I started out with MEPs and then his PIR and did his assigned ship - loved the way the game out and I will continue with pics of his deployment and all the ports he will be visiting.

Lala Ribbon Queen - I made an awesome page with your ribbon I got for PIR. will post pics shortly :)

momoftwosons - I would love to see pix-  i have got some supplies to start a scrapbook but lack the creative gene LOL - Pix would help so much

Momoftwosons that is awesome, I can't wait to see the pics. Post it on my facebook page too please. I am so excited. 

Doreen that sounds like the best super bowl that I could even imagine :-) Make sure and post pics Please!!!

Yes, I had a really good time today.  I got a few pages done.  I will try to take some pictures and post them this week.  I am an accountant which means I lack creativity, but I do try to be creative with my scrapbooking LOL I am trying to journal, too.  I was going to try to do this like momoftwosons and scrapbook postcards from all his destinations over his career. 

I am having a hard time finding Navy die cuts.  Not much in the stores.  Anyone ever bought stuff off ebay for scrapbooking?  I see a couple of things on there that look pretty nice.

I have used eBay to purchase lots of different things, I sent you a message :-)

No, my sister-in-law has a cricut though.  She doesn't have the military cartridge, but maybe I'll buy it and she can let me use it.  Good idea!

Just found this group.  Got excited because I am a borderline fanatic.  You should see my craft room!  I have been doing more scrapping and card making since my son went off to BC.  It really helps to ease the loneliness.

Welcome to the group Cathy, I am a fanatic too only not borderline lol. Feel free to post pics of some of your creations. We love sharing ideas. I do all my work form my kitchen table and I cannot wait until I have a craft room. In fact I have a storage building full of shelves and cabinets and counter tops to make it all perfect. I also have 2 seniors in high school, one joining the Navy and one going away to college so I plan to make very good use of one of their rooms lol. I am hoping organizing it will keep the empty nest blues away :-)

@Lala Ribbon Queen PIR Ribbons - Get rid of a kid!  You need a craft room.  I got mine when my daughter got married.  When I took over the room I thought I would never fill it.  Twelve years later I am busting at the seams.  I keep finding more things that I absolutely must have.  I'm out of control.

@Catherine Elizabeth - Great idea!  I had the same idea although I'm going to handle it differently.  I saved everything my son got during hid processing in(e.g. DEP card, papers)  I also took pictures of all the going away activities.  When he was ready to leave, I took pictures  of each person saying good-bye.  I will continue as he gets pictures along the way of his Naval career.  It should be great fun to document his progress.

catherine--i did something like that for my son's high school graduation present. i gave index cards for family to write messages and the took a picture of them eith my son. i put it in a8x8 scrapbook. it is a good size. not too big or too small. now is the time to plan and start. you will not be rushed to get it done quickly.

cathy I already have enough "STUFF" to fill 2 or 3 rooms lol. I have been collecting shelves and cabinets and tables and everything imaginable to organize for so long that I have a whole storage unit full. I will have to have a huge yard sale to get rid of all the extras lol. I make little drawings of what I want to do lol and I have enlisted the help of a friend who is willing to help me set it up and get it organized. I will have a whole area for sewing, another for scrapbooking, another for making the ribbons, and a small desk area for my laptop. I may even throw in an area for doing stained glass but probably only if I end up with the bigger room. I am glad it will all keep me busy so maybe I don't miss them as bad when they leave. Once I have it done I am going to throw a huge scrapping party and invite everyone i know lol, even all my N4M friends and I am sure some of them will make the trip lol. I will have to put together goodie bags of Navy Themed scrapbook stuff for each of them as a gift :-) I am so excited. Do you think my son would notice if I put his bed in storage? lol JK

@Lala - sounds like a plan to me!  My husband always  called my craftroom the therapy room.  When things would get to me he would send me to my room.  I so willingly went and didn't come out for hours.  You will enjoy yourself immensely once you get your room.  Don't forget to come out and eat once in awhile,although it does help if you are dieting.  If you run out of room Michael's has put together storage cubes that you can stack.  I just had to add another level.  I really must stop buying toys.

Catherine Elizabeth - I created a scrapbook for my son.  I did alot of journaling talking about him signing up in April, what he was doing before, etc.  Then I scrapbooked his swearing in.  Since he was in basic and I had no other pictures, I scrapbooked each letter he sent.  I then did a brief overview of what was in each letter on that page.  I used brads to connect the letters so they could still be taken out and read.  Now I have to order the pictures of PIR and finish this book.  Then I will do a book of A-School, etc.  Have you seen the scrapbook that is their Navy Blues.  It looks just like their uniform, so cool.  I found it at Hobby Lobby. Good Luck, scrapbooking 7 days with my friend while he was at basic helped me alot. 

cathy, I have lots of "tool" lol, I am always buying something, some new gadget or the latest "must have" and of course cricut cartridges lol. I am up to more than 40 now and I am expecting 2 more in the mail this week. So excited to try them out. i use them and my cricut for everything. Greatest investment I ever made for scrapbooking and crafts. I have a linen closet at the end of the hall. It doesn't hold our linens, thank goodness we had two closets. This one hold as much of my craft goodies I can possibly fit in there. My Sailor calls it the closet of fun lol. When she comes home she always asks if I have anything new in the closet of fun :-) ANd of course I so, unless it wouldn't fit.

Doreen, I saw the scrapbook you are talking about online. It looks very cool. I got one from Michaels that has the Navy Emblem on the front. I have never even seen my Sailor in her Dress Blues and she has been in almost 2 years lol. They may make one that looks like the white uniform as well but I think it might get dirty pretty quick, who knows lol. I am finally getting ready to start a scrapbook for my daughter/Sailor. I have pics from swearing in (twice) and from bootcamp and from PIR. I was afraid to take pics of the base because you are not supposed to but I found several online and saved them to my computer. I also have some pics of her with the jets she works with, one even has her name on it but I may make a different book for her first base. I will have to see how big the first one is. I already made her the scrapbook in a box that is in the discussions above. 

I'm a Sizzix fanatic myself.  I started with it years ago before anything else was available.  Once you start, you can't stop!  I have literally hundreds of dies for it.  Today I had to buy another storage unit.  I keep saying I won't buy anything else until the Scrapbooking Expo in June but then I get a coupon and off I go again.  I think I need help.

I have a ton of Sizzix as well. I just haven't used them in a long time. I am sure I will use them again once I get my room though :-) I hope that expo comes close enough to so that I can go to it this year. I had to miss it last year when it came to Charlotte.

Sizzix has just come out with matching stamps.  I haven't gotten any yet but I will.  I made a deal with myself not to buy anymore Sizzix til it hits the Sizzix.com outlet.  Of course I just bought some Shapeabilities while browsing on the Joann's sale page.  They had free shipping so I was forced to buy.

Sometimes you can't help it when you are forced lol :-)