Sunday, March 29, 2009

Scrapbook Albums

Sometime after we found out about Emma's diagnosis, Tim's cousin Jamie sent us a pre-made scrapbook album. It was adorable and I loved it (still do)! In the hospital, we were sent home with another pre-made scrapbook album (by pre-made, I mean all the pages are cute and decorated already and they are just waiting for you to put your pictures in). We filled both of them with pictures right away and were able to display them at Emma's memorial service. Pictured below are both of the albums, the one on the left being from the hospital and the one on the right being from Jamie.

About a month after Emma left us, we met with the sweet ladies from Angel Watch again. Two of them had already seen Emma (one was our nurse when Emma was delivered and the other one came in afterwards and helped us bathe and dress Emma, took pictures, and did molds of her hands and feet). However, the third lady had not seen Emma and asked if we had any pictures. I brought out these two albums for all three of them to look at. They loved looking at the pictures and both the nurse and Carolyn, the lady who had not met Emma, were astonished at how beautiful they were. I told them that Tim's cousin had made one and that Heather had given us the other one (Heather being the one who helped us bathe and dress Emma, etc.). Heather then explained that a mother had donated about 100 of those albums and she was able to give them out to families that lost their babies or young children, but that she was almost out of them.

I decided to contact several scrapbook stores to see if they would donate any supplies so that I might be able to make some more books like these to pass on to other mothers. I didn't think I would get much of a response, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to at least try. Well, a sweet lady from amillionlittlethings.com responded to me and told me that she would love to help. She said that she would put a box of things together and send it my way. I received that box yesterday and was completely amazed! There was probably hundreds of dollars worth of stuff in there! Take a look for yourself at the stuff she sent (and I don't think the picture does is justice because you can't see all of the stuff underneath other stuff). There's tons of paper and embellishments.


So now Tim and I are trying to figure out how to best go about this all. The thing we most need now is albums to hold everything in. We've discussed various ways that we could home-make some albums, and we've looked a little online at albums we could purchase. I'm wondering if any of you have any great ideas of what we should do for albums. We like the 8x8 size, but most of the paper is 12x12 so we could do that size as well. Also, we're totally fine with not having everything uniform. If some are 8x8 and some are 12x12 and some are 6x6 and some are 8 1/2x11, we're totally fine with that. But I'm looking for your guys' input on any ideas on the best way to make/purchase albums.

Next thing we're trying to figure out is the process of assembling everything. We talked of offering it to one of the young men at our church who might use it for an eagle project or working with a young woman on it for a value project or discussing it with the Humanitarian Committee, doing it for a mutual (youth group) activity, or just putting something together ourselves and just inviting whoever wants to come and help to do so. Any thoughts? Would any of you be interested in getting together at some time and helping us? Also, if it's something that we put together ourselves and you're interested in joining us, would some time during the day be best or in the evening or on a Saturday? We were thinking that we might just set up some tables in our church's gym so that we can spread everything out and work on it.

As you can see, we're a pretty indecisive couple. So I'm writing this because I'm way excited for this all to take place and because we're trying to figure out the best way to go about it all.

Also, if you're someone who loves to scrapbook, but have switched to mostly digital stuff, we'd love to take any donations of your old stuff that you'd be willing to give. Or if you're interested in contributing in a monetary way to help us purchase albums, that would be more than welcome as well. Or if you know someone who could get us a discount or really anything you can think of. So if you have any thoughts or comments or are interested in participating or helping out in any way, please leave a comment or email me at emmasstory@gmail.com (or my personal email address if you have it).

Thank you!

13 comments:

Brittanie said...

I would definitely be willing to help with assembly if you decide to do it yourself. Mostly evenings work best for me.

Jamie said...

My suggestion is to check out the dollar stores around town. They often have albums (be they smaller than 8x8, but you might find that they are what you want). Also, I know they have sheet protectors for the 12x12 size (10 or 1$).

I would love to help, but we are so far away. If you are still working on the project come summer, let me know!

Heidi said...

I'm not very good at scrapbooking, but I would love to help. I think the yw would love to get involved. I am supposed to organize a service project in August for the YW. Is that to far away? You probably want to get going on it sooner. Let me know.

Matt and Lecia said...

You know I'm always willing to help. I'm definitely in for whenever you decide to do it. Also, if you need any help beforehand -- someone to go shopping with, or someone to help spread the word -- let me know.

Whitney said...

The whole time I was reading this I was thinking, "I want to help, I want to help." Then you wrote asking for help! So, YES, I want to help! Whenever, wherever. Just let me know!

Kim said...

I want to help too. I will probably be there the month of june. I also have stuff I can donate to the cause. I know seagull book had albums 8x8 for $2.99. Also did you try the scrapbook stores for donations? I worked for Archivers and they always have stuff they have to junk like stickers because it's missing one, and that. You could also get chipboard and make albums that way. Let me know what I can help with. I'm excited for you guys to do this project.

Erika said...

I don't know when you'll end up doing this but I would love to help. Maybe I'll just use things I have and make a few and bring them up sometime. Let me know what you think!

Jennifer Rose said...

After school ends I would love to help put some pages together.

Kristen Brady said...

I'm all for helping, and I have TONS of scrapbooking stuff I would love to donate - just let me know when ad where!

Camille said...

I would love to help & drag all my Young Women with me! They would love it!

Janet said...

As you know, I'm not at all creative! However, because I switched to digital scrapbooks, I have some paper and things that you are welcome to. What an awesome idea! You are the coolest.

Unknown said...

Your scrapbooks are so pretty!!!!

Scrapbooks take me forever and a day to do.....I am SOOOOO indecisive as well.....There is just so much awesome stuff to choose from and so much you can do.....OY!!

The woman who sent you all of that beautiful stuff was really soooo kind!! It's so nice to see people helping each other like that!!!

Thank you for creating your blog and sharing your story!!

Blessings!!

Alyson - Mommy to Evan and Avery (severe PPHN)

jandbfillmore said...

I, too, am not a scrapbooker... it takes me sooo long to complete pages. Ha! I like doing it though so when you decide how it's all going to work I'd love to help with a service project activity. You really are the coolest!