Scrapbook Look #3 - January 2026

Welcome back to Scrapbook Look!  Our regular inspirational and informational articles are here on the first Friday of every month, with Scrapbook Look on the third Fridays.  

Scrapbooking, however you do it, has a host of relaxing and therapeutic benefits, and this is what makes it extra fun:

"Scrapbooking isn't just re-living memories.  It's re-loving them."  ~Janna W.

This month, I'm sharing a few more favorites.  

First up, when my niece got married she didn't want a traditional bridal shower, so my daughter and my other niece came up with the idea for a bridal fiesta, which was the most fun I'd had in a long time.  Laughing so hard I cry is always my idea of a good time.  I just loved the fun digital papers and stickers I found for these pages.  (Credits below.)

Next, the first page of our trip to Mesa Verde National Park, an absolutely amazing place to visit in southwest Colorado where Native Americans built their homes right into the cliffs!  I loved the neutral design of this digital art kit, with an actual map of the park as one of the pages that I used as the background paper.

the printed version of my digital scrapbook

And last for today is a page layout (the first of the several pages of this trip) where I used a blueprint.  A blueprint is basically a pre-designed page where you fill it in with colors, papers, and embellishments of your choice.  (I actually made a tutorial video about what using a template or blueprint is like if you'd like to see.)  I thought the pictures that look like they're hanging on a wall here was so cute!

CREDITS

• Scrapbook pages made using Artisan software by Forever.  (information | subscription | digital art store)
• Digital art credit: Around the World Latin America by Forever Digital Art, Deckled Frames No. 2 by Katie Pertiet Designs, National Park Project Mesa Verde (CO) by Designs by Mandy King, Crop Blueprint Bundle 2017 12x12 by pixels2pages, At the Lake Bundle by Forever Digital Art
• Digital book printed here (in gorgeous, high-quality pages I fall in love with every time), with the digital version PDF also kept forever there in my private account.  

NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate called an Ambassador (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post. I earn a commission from anything purchased at my website, and being your Ambassador means I'm here to help you with questions, too.  If you're new to Forever and open your free account here to give it a try, you'll get a $20 welcome coupon towards anything mentioned in this post.

FAQ

Why digital?

First, there's no "right way" to scrapbook, except for two things:  1- quality so your book will last for many, many years to come, and 2- something you will love and therefore do.  

I personally choose digital because it's faster and easier, taking up less space in my house than the papers and scissors and stickers (and table space) I needed when I was a paper scrapbooker.  I like that instead of having to crop (cut) a photo to make it fit, I can easily resize, zoom in, etc.

I also love the ability to print multiple copies with just the click of a button, and for safety reasons I like that my scrapbooks exist both digitally and in print.  (I have scanned my old paper scrapbooks for the same reason.)  

Why digital just to print it?

Aside from what I mentioned above:  Accessibility!  Yes, I print my digitally-created scrapbooks because print is an easily-accessible form of seeing and also sharing (and gifting!) photos and memories.  Print doesn't need a full battery in an expensive gadget.  Plus, photo experts still recommend print as an important way to store photos and memories, in addition to digital forms.

Thanks for stopping in.  See you at next month's Scrapbook Look!  (Or, first click the Scrapbook Look tag at the bottom of this post to see more scrapbook pages.)  

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Chick Click: Memory-Keeping Retreat 2026

It's true that spending 10-15 minutes per day on photo goals makes an enormous difference.

But it's also true that spending some extended time on them makes an enormous difference, too! So, how about a long weekend?

You're invited to the Chick Click Memory-Keeping Retreat

July 30-August 2 in Las Vegas, NV!

What It Is

This retreat is being hosted by knowledgeable and experienced FOREVER Ambassadors Carol Stewart, Melodie Jones, and Jennifer Wise. A total of 11 mini-classes will be offered, on topics including

• photo organization
• digital scrapbooking with Artisan
• creating legacy stories
• creating digital vaults for your most important documents, photos, and videos
• and more

What's Included

The Chick Click Memory-Keeping Retreat starts at $389 (depending on the room you choose) and includes:

• 3 nights' lodging in a private home
• work space
• work time
• 3 days' continental/light breakfast 
• lunch and dinner Friday and Saturday
• snacks and select beverages
• pool access
• mini-classes and trainings (optional)
• retreat swag bag

A 50% deposit will secure your spot.  Bring a friend!

What To Expect

TBA in June

Meet & Greet over Zoom with introductions, making an easy photo gift project together, final agenda, GroupMe (for ridesharing, updates, etc.), and Q&A

Thursday, July 30

5:00-6:30 check in 

Friday & Saturday July 31 and August 1

10:00-7:30/8:00 work time, classes, food, and fun

Sunday August 2

9:00-10:00 clean up and check out

Registration is open now, but space is limited, so don't delay.

You'll come away with knowledge and skills, having made a lot of progress on your photo goals, and we'll have fun along the way, too. We can't wait to see you there!

Maybe Your Photo Project Isn't as Big as You Think It Is

It works.  My 10 Minutes Daily Plan really works.

I know it works for other people because they've told me, but to be honest with you, I had never tried it myself because I'm so consistent at saving my photos to the cloud and to my computer (2 digital versions like photo experts recommend) as well as saving them in print (as photo experts also recommend) due to my, well, addiction to digital scrapbooking with Artisan by FOREVER.

When I came up with my 10 Minutes Daily Plan in late 2023, I knew it was a good idea, for all the reasons I mention in the plan, but I didn't realize that it would also work for me!

Here's My Story

My photo preservation habits were only lacking one thing when I met FOREVER in 2021:  a trustworthy cloud backup that could serve as a digital legacy (something I could pass down).  

I already preserved my photos in scrapbook pages along with the memories that go with them, and I already preserved them on my computer with a backup on an external hard drive because I know computers can crash without warning.

But I will never forget the day that I finished backing up my photos onto the external hard drive and placed it in the basket where it goes.  Right next to my computer monitor.

And I realized:  If something happens to THIS ROOM (water leak, fire, anything), all my digital photos are gone.  GONE.

If something happens to my house (since that's where my scrapbooks are), ALL my photos in any form are gone.  COMPLETELY GONE.

It's a much longer story, but let's just say I'm incredibly thankful to have met Forever Cloud Storage through a friend. 

Since then, I back up all the photos on my computer to Forever Cloud instead of an external hard drive.  Photo experts recommend that the 2 ways you store digital photos (and videos) are onsite (at your house) and offsite (in the cloud).  So NOW I can really check that box. 

How I Used the 10 Minutes Daily Plan

But what about photos from 1997 and from my parents' wedding and my baby pictures?

From when I was a teenager in the 1980s until about 2007, I only took photos with a film camera.  I put them in paper-and-scissors scrapbook pages.  They were the only copies of them anywhere in existence.  No backup.  Except those awful negatives.  

So I set out to take my own advice and try my own plan!  I chose 7:00-7:10am every day (which I did almost every day).  I used my home scanner in my office and got to work scanning these beauties.

NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate called an Ambassador (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post. I earn a commission from anything purchased at my website, and being your Ambassador means I'm here to help you with questions, too.  If you're new to Forever and open your free account here to give it a try, you'll get a $20 welcome coupon towards anything mentioned in this post.

What I Learned That I Want You to Know

I was actually a little surprised at what I learned and how much it impacted me.  I know how important our photos really are to our hearts and souls.  So, this is something I really want you to know:

I had been dragging my feet a little about starting all that scanning because I thought it was such a huge project.  Dread kept me from starting.  

But it was the most delightful and enjoyable project!  I looked forward to it every day.  I saw little faces I haven't seen for 20 years (because they're older now), remembered special moments, re-lived and re-loved the memories of my life.

And one day while doing my scanning, I realized that it didn't feel like a big project any more.

Part of that feeling came, I'm sure, from the fact that I was only spending 10 minutes a day on it instead of reserving a whole weekend or something.  But I know, too, that part of that feeling came from how much fun I was having.  It didn't seem like a big deal because it was so fun.

Just Do It!  Please.

Whatever your photo project is, just do it.  Please.  🙏  You will be so happy that you did!  It will MATTER.  It will make a difference.

Get started by following the steps here, or come back next month on the first Friday for a new blog post with a comprehensive tutorial video that will help you with whatever photo project has been patiently waiting for you to make time for it.

Just start with one thing.  And see if that project isn't as big as you think!

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Scrapbook Look #2 - December 2025

Welcome back to our new monthly series, Scrapbook Look, in celebration of our 16th Blogiversary!  

You can still find regular inspirational and informational articles here on the first Friday of every month, with Scrapbook Look popping up on the third Fridays.  Scrapbooking, however you do it, has a host of relaxing and therapeutic benefits, but this is also true:

"Scrapbooking isn't just re-living memories.  It's re-loving them."  ~Janna W.

Here's a throwback to some scrapbook pages from 2023:

I love the cut-out design of the country on this template I used!  (See Credits below.)  I kept it pretty simple and clean overall, but for whatever reason I was so taken with the names of the counties in Ireland that I noted not just the towns but the counties, too, where we traveled.  I loved the Gaelic-style font I found at 1001freefonts.com for these pages.  (Here's how to install fonts on your computer if you haven't done it before.)

I obviously used a lot more digital art for the gingerbread house page.  :)

my digital scrapbook in print

And another thing I love about scrapbooking digitally is the ability to put my videos in my scrapbooks, too, via QR code!  (I know you won't be able to scan that one due to the low quality of a screenshot put into Blogger, but it works like this:

only the one in my book goes to a video I took on this trip at the beach.)

CREDITS

• Scrapbook pages made using Artisan software by Forever.  (information | subscription | digital art store)
• Digital art credit: Europe Mapped - Western Europe by Template & Co, Escape to Ireland by Seatrout Scraps, Baking Spirits Bright  by LJS Designs, Beach Days Bundle by Forever Design Brand, Tropical Paradise Kit by Seatrout Scraps
• Digital book printed here (in gorgeous, high-quality pages I fall in love with every time), with the digital version PDF also kept forever there in my private account.  

NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate called an Ambassador (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post. I earn a commission from anything purchased at my website, and being your Ambassador means I'm here to help you with questions, too.  If you're new to Forever and open your free account here to give it a try, you'll get a $20 welcome coupon towards anything mentioned in this post.

FAQ

Why digital?

First, there's no "right way" to scrapbook, except for two things:  1- quality so your book will last for many, many years to come, and 2- something you will love and therefore do.  

I personally choose digital because it's faster and easier, taking up less space in my house than the papers and scissors and stickers (and table space) I needed when I was a paper scrapbooker.  I like that instead of having to crop (cut) a photo to make it fit, I can easily resize, zoom in, etc.

I also love the ability to print multiple copies with just the click of a button, and for safety reasons I like that my scrapbooks exist both digitally and in print.  (I have scanned my old paper scrapbooks for the same reason.)  

Why digital just to print it?

Accessibility!  Yes, I print my digitally-created scrapbooks because print is an easily-accessible form of seeing and also sharing (and gifting!) photos and memories.  Print doesn't need a full battery in an expensive gadget.  Plus, photo experts still recommend print as an important way to store photos and memories, in addition to digital forms.

Thanks for stopping in.  See you next month at Scrapbook Look!  (Or, first click the Scrapbook Look tag at the bottom of this post to see more scrapbook pages.)  

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The Moose Story: my latest rule to live by

 I live by this rule: It doesn't exist unless it's saved in FOREVER.

This rule can best be summarized by a personal experience I call The Moose Story.

In July, I went to a really fun family reunion where we took a lot of pictures. Each night, I asked my husband to share his with me. (Yes, you can have two phones uploading to the same FOREVER Cloud account!) I realized I was probably being a little annoying, asking this so consistently, so I explained my thinking:

Until it's safely backed up in Forever Storage, anything can happen to it! Phones can be dropped in a lake, after all. It's not safe unless it's in FOREVER where I can see, share, and download it later if I want.

The Moose Story

The next day (yes, the very next day), my husband, two of my nieces, and my niece's husband went kayaking. They had the best time ever. They even got to see a mama moose and a baby moose up close--they just walked out of the bushes right in front of our family kayakers! My niece's husband took a photo of the moose with his phone.

But this photo isn't it. (I found this photo online.) Because a few minutes later my niece's husband dropped his phone in the river.

Yup.

And that's The Moose Story, a rule to live by: It doesn't exist unless it's saved in FOREVER. Because if it isn't saved in FOREVER, it literally may not exist.

Maybe not the end of the world if you can find a similar photo online like I did here, but it certainly feels like the end of the world if those were videos of your baby's first steps or photos of the last time you saw your grandma.

FOREVER Cloud

I shared this story in my Photo & Story Treasures Facebook group where we learn and share things like this every weekday morning, so if you haven't had a daily dose and aren't familiar with FOREVER Cloud, here are the basics:

It's a Cloud storage system for your photos and videos, like Google or Dropbox (etc.), only very much not like Google and Dropbox (etc.) 😅 Your digital memories are private, for one thing, and are also guaranteed to be there for the next generation, and the one after that.

The security FOREVER puts in place for Forever Cloud Storage is unbeatable. 

 

It's better care for my photos and videos than I could possibly give them personally.  

You can learn more here--and you can open a FOREVER account for yourself, too, and get started preserving with 2 GB free.  If you want your photos to last a lot longer than the phone you took them with, this is definitely your solution!

What's Your Experience?

Has something like this ever happened to you? Have you lost a phone, dropped it in water, or otherwise found it unusable? Or, have you ever updated your phone's operating system only to have your photos disappear from it like poor Jordan? Tell me in the comments below!

Share this post with someone you know who wants to make sure 
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buttons at the left and Pinning this image to Pinterest.

NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate called an Ambassador (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post. I earn a commission from anything purchased at my website, and being your Ambassador means I'm here to help you with questions, too.  If you're new to Forever and open your free account here to give it a try, you'll get a $20 welcome coupon towards anything mentioned in this post.

Follow Photo & Story Treasures on social media here:

 

Scrapbook Look #1 - November 2025

Welcome to our new monthly series, Scrapbook Look, in celebration of our 16th Blogiversary!  That's right--this blog turns 16 years old this month.  Over the years, our content has included:

• inspiration for family history stories
• using photos for self-care
• fun DIY and craft tutorials
• tips for photo organization and scrapbooking hacks
• lots of very unique gift ideas
• important information on digital photo storage in the cloud
• how to digitize old memories in outdated media (both photos and videos)

And probably a bunch of other things I'm not thinking of.  After all, it HAS been 16 years.  

You can still find regular inspirational and informational articles here on the first Friday of every month, with Scrapbook Look popping up on the third Fridays.  

I personally love scrapbooking for all the relaxing and therapeutic benefits, but this is also true:

"Scrapbooking isn't just re-living memories.  It's re-loving them."  ~Janna W.

So, without further ado, here are some scrapbook pages I completed recently.

I absolutely loved this digital art collection (credited below) and how the layout came together.  It's just full of darling papers and embellishments.  I do a lot of journaling in my scrapbooks, so I loved the little notecard you see at the bottom left of each two-page spread.  

I often Google layout ideas, and this was a combination of a couple.  Because I'm a digital scrapbooker, I can resize and photos and embellishments by just clicking and dragging them instead of being restricted by the size of a sticker or the space in which I need to get a photo in.  

I love scrapbooking because it really is re-loving memories!  It was delightful to put the experience of this Siblings Trip into something tangible that I can look back on forever. 

And thank you to Joanne at  Slices of Life for the inspiration for this new series.  She shares scrapbook pages and cards she's made each month, and I always enjoy seeing what she's done and getting inspired!  I hope Scrapbook Look will inspire you each month, too.

You'll find Scrapbook Looks every third Friday of the month here at Life Tales Books.  

CREDITS

• Scrapbook pages made using Artisan software by Forever.  (information | subscription | digital art store)
• Digital art credit:  "Travel - To England" by LJS Designs
• When completed, the digital book will be printed here (in gorgeous, high-quality pages I fall in love with every time), with the digital version PDF also kept forever there in my private account.  

NOTE:  I am a Forever affiliate called an Ambassador (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post. I earn a commission from anything purchased at my website, and being your Ambassador means I'm here to help you with questions, too.  If you're new to Forever and open your free account here to give it a try, you'll get a $20 welcome coupon towards anything mentioned in this post.

FAQ

Why digital?

First, there's no "right way" to scrapbook, except for two things:  1- quality so your book will last for many, many years to come, and 2- something you will love and therefore do.  

I personally choose digital because it's faster and easier, taking up less space in my house than the papers and scissors and stickers (and table space) I needed when I was a paper scrapbooker.  I like that instead of having to crop (cut) a photo to make it fit, I can easily resize, zoom in, etc.

I also love the ability to print multiple copies with just the click of a button, and for safety reasons I like that my scrapbooks exist both digitally and in print.  (I have scanned my old paper scrapbooks for the same reason.)  

Why digital just to print it?

Accessibility!  Yes, I'm going to have my digital scrapbook printed because print is an easily-accessible form of seeing and also sharing (and gifting!) photos and memories.  Print doesn't need a full battery in an expensive gadget.  Plus, photo experts still recommend print as an important way to store photos and memories, in addition to digital forms.

Thanks for stopping in.  See you next month at Scrapbook Look!  

To save and share this post, Pin this image.

Follow Photo & Story Treasures on social media here: