Not just jpegs anymore!

Mothers, don’t let your children grow up to be jpegs.

I first heard this from Stacey Julian in the keynote speech at the Close To My Heart convention this summer. (I Googled and was not able to determine who said it first). Anyway, the point is that we take tons of pictures these days, but often they are unaccessible. We have cameras in our phones, our tablets, and mp3 devises. But most of these pictures reside on our devises tucked away and out of site.

 

Today, we are picture rich, but memory poor

I can hear you, “But what about Facebook, Youtube or Twitter?” Think about it; Do you want to depend on these services to tell your story? Even if you were sure these sites will be available 20, 30, 50 or more years from now, do they provide the context needed to understand the story behind the pictures?

Not all pictures are created equally

(Another Stacey Julian quote.) Today it is so easy to take pictures and that makes it overwhelming when we think of printing some to frame or put into albums. Instead of feeling obligated to treasure each and every pictures, consider which ones make you smile most.

First, pick some of your very favorites to display in your home. I love going to peoples houses and seeing the progression of their babies growing up, wedding photos and family portraits. Collage frames are a wonderful way to display lots of related (or unrelated) snapshots.

Then consider placing the best of the rest into an album for the family to enjoy. A great way to do that is digital scrapbooking. Using the Studio J online program you can quickly and affordably turn your pictures into great memory pages. Don't try to do it all at once. Just pick a recent event you would like to document and go from there.

For the paper scrapbooker, Studio J layouts integrate seamlessly with your paper pages. When placed side by side next to your paper layouts in an album, they look like they belong.

Not a scrapbooker? That’s fine to. When you get these prints, simply place them in any 12” x 12” scrapbooking album to create a beautiful memory book.

Here’s a couple layouts I created after our final summer outing with the family.

Footloose Kit

What I love about this layout is that is it simple and clean, yet has great detail. I love the stitching, especially the “waves” along the bottom.

The last thing we did before we left the park was take family pictures. They may not be professional but they capture the memories of a fun outdoor weekend perfectly.

Flirty Kit

There was no one around to ask to take our picture so we used a claw type tripod to secure the camera to the rail. Worked great except for the big hand rail in the lower right corner. I camouflaged it somewhat with a flourish and Stickease.

 

You will not believe how easy Studio J is to use. Click here to open an account and start trying it out for free.

Two reasons NOW is the best time to get started:

1) During the month of October, when you buy 9 Studio J layouts you get one free!
Email me to RSVP to Studio J Café or to send me any questions you have.

2) I’m hosting “Studio J Café” next Monday evening at 7:00 – 8:30. Anyone interested in learning how to get started is invited to come. Absolutely no obligation! Simply bring your wifi enabled laptop (or let me know if you need to borrow mine) and a few digital pictures. Email me to RSVP.