What is a Crop?

A CROP is a planned quality time to work on your album or project without the interruptions of the phone ringing, the kids or husband calling, the housework or the other 19 other projects beckoning around the house! It is a time for exchanging ideas, learning new techniques and tricks, meeting new people who share your passion for preserving memories, laughter, stories and sometimes even tears! CROPS are a great deal of fun and wonderful for catching up on your pages and projects.

What do I bring?
All you really need to bring to a laptop crop is your laptop. However, if you have photos that you want to have digitized or traditional scrapbooks that you would like to have digitized, you may bring those to be scanned while you crop.

May I shop during the crop?
Absolutely! There are great specials available at crops, so by all means take advantage of the sales!


Can I bring a friend?
Absolutely! Seating is limited at crops, so make sure you call ahead to see if there is ample space.


Can I bring my children?
No. If for some reason your sitter falls through, we do ask that you reschedule. This is a time for you and the other ladies to get away from your children and responsibilities. However, storybookers in training that are over the age of 12 are welcome along and nursing moms may bring quiet infants.


Where can I find the crop schedule?
Join our fan page The Storybook Life to receive crop calendar notifications and view the schedule. If the crop schedule does not fit your needs, call or email us. We are happy to plan an unscheduled crop for you and 4 friends.

Creative Break Through

First let me say that there is nothing like operating under a deadline to get your juices flowing. HM is discontinuing the publishing of 12x18 posters. A few months ago I had come up with the idea of putting my daughter on the cover of 3 magazines and making them into posters to decorate her room. I did the first one and never completed the other 2. This past weekend, not only did I complete the other two, but I did two additional posters, a deck of cards and completed a first grade yearbook! Only 2 weeks left to get these published. For clients that still have 12x18 credits however, these will be transferred to the 18x24 poster size.

I love when I catch her in motion. Obviously she loves to dance. The lead photo used here was her doing the macarena in the rain. I don’t ever remember my parents letting us dance in the rain. Once in a while you just have to throw caution to the wind and live a little. It was actually kind of fun and your children think that you are the coolest ever! Anyone else ever danced in the rain?

Top 10 Signs of a Storybooking Addiction

10.  You're in a fender bender and your first thought is, "I wonder if there is an HM template for this event?"
9.  Your three year old wants to know if her coloring book is "archival quality."
8.  You decide to give your child piano lessons so you'll be able to use the musical instrument embellishments that are in the art gallery.
7.  You redecorate your family room to coordinate with your storybook covers.
6.  Your child is the only one in agriculture class who thinks "crop" is to cut your photos.
5.  You buy a new pink swimsuit because it coordinates with the new Cocoa Couture art collection.
4.  You try to claim your premier membership as a medical expense because storybooking is such good therapy.
3.  A regular sandwich is no longer acceptable--it must be cropped or cut with decorative edges.
2.  You are more likely to have a camera on your shoulder than your purse.
1.  You're the only one at a social gathering yelling, "Just one more photo; I don't have enough for a two page spread!

Hello everyone! My name is Yolanda and I'm a Storybooking Addict!

How I Became "The Memory Keeper"

Although the seed had been planted a few months before, it started in early 2002. I took a weekend trip to New York and decided that while I was there, I would visit Ground Zero. I'm not sure exactly why I wanted to go, but I felt it was something I needed to do while I was there. I came across a vendor selling brag books of photos from the attacks to the clean up as a fundraiser. He was uniformed, so I believed this to be true.

I had absolutely no idea what I would do with this photos. As I contemplated buying them, I thought, one day I will have a child that may be doing a report on this event in history. So, I purchased the photos and continued with my visit. I  have to say when I approached the wall of messages and memorials, I had a very emotional experience. I don't know that I can really put that into words. I came on home with that experience weighing on my heart.

A few weeks later, I was cleaning up my spare bedroom and found (underneath an unfinished project) a laundry basket full of envelopes of photos. There must have 20 or so envelopes! Anyone else out there take photos, get them printed, look through them and then stash them some where? Here they were, precious memories that I had captured, so excited to have them developed, and then toss them aside. I recalled a conversation I had with my friend The Hair Whisperer about scrapbooking. I was adamantly against doing anything crafty because I was not a crafty person. But I thought, I can make a scrapbook to preserve these photos.

A few months later, I found out I was pregnant with my first child. I decided I would have to give scrapbooking a try so that I could make a baby book when my daughter was born. So I went on a mission to find out what I could about scrapbooking so that I would be a pro by the time my daughter arrived. Let me just remind you here, that at this point in the story, I still had not started the 9-11 book yet. I walked into Michael's for the FIRST TIME EVER! I was overwhelmed, but I picked up a few kits and decided to scrapbook my entire life up to this point. I became a fanatic! I soon discovered the local scrapbook store, Scrapbook Plaza, which is no more, but it became my second home. I took classes, made friends and developed my skill. I even earned my Bachelor's and Master's in Scrapbooking from Scrapbook Design University!

In 2004, I took my first scrapbooking weekend retreat and finally completed my 9-11 commemorative album. The photos that launched my VERY FIRST HOBBY, my passion, and my business was finally completed 2 years later. 

Are there any other crafters out there? What's your craft and how did you get started?

Mari's Morning Room: The *Best* Time

Mari's Morning Room: The *Best* Time

Wordless Wednesday

 The Storybook

Bowling With My Boy

So, Zachary turned 4 last week. I can't believe he's already 4! They grow up so fast. We started the day with him opening his gift. If we are friends on Facebook, you probably already know how much he loves the movie Cars. So he got a Cars bicycle. Since he wanted Handy Manny tools (and costume) for Christmas, we thought he might enjoy putting it together. So he got dressed up in his hard hat and tool belt and went to work. One word~ADORABLE!

Times have been tight financially, so we didn't have a party. In retrospect it would have cost me less, if not the same amount of money to have a party. When exactly did bowling stop being an affordable family outing?!?! I was shocked at how much it cost for shoes, the lane (per person/per game) plus food and drink.

Ok, the cost aside, my little man had a blast! We asked him what he wanted to do for his big day and gave him 3 choices. Hannah and Lauren wanted skating or Monkey Joes. When we weren't around, I am pretty sure they tried to convince him to go somewhere else. However, when we all got in the car, I asked him one more time and he said he wanted to go bowling. He was so funny! I wished I had taken video because the lighting was so bad my pictures didn't come out very well. But I will forever remember the happy dances and the jumping around in excitement whenever he knocked some pins down! It was so worth it! I don't really bowl but I think he did pretty good; he bowled a 68.

We finished off the afternoon with a stop at dairy queen for blizzards. I selected a few pictures for this month's photo spotlight.