Just a little back story... for those of you who know me well know that I love photography.  This has morphed into a love of scrapbooking and with my techie skills I quickly picked up digital scrapbooking.  I have loved being part of the digital scrapbooking community and getting and sharing ideas with other digi-croppers on the Facebook page for Pixels2Pages.

Pixels2Pages started off as an almost underground community for users of the Creative Memories digital scrapbooking software - Storybook Creator.  Then they became a subscription support service.  All the while they were developing a community of storybook creator users on their Facebook page.  Pixels2Pages would share ideas, post training videos or give design challenges on their training site and then... ask their subscribers to do their homework and post it on their Facebook page.  The great thing about this is that it's fun to share your finished pages and get feedback, but also to see how others completed the challenges or used the new techniques. Fun, fun, fun.

Flash forward about 8 years and Pixels2Pages were partnered up with Forever, which is now the company that develops, sells and maintains the software I use to digital scrapbook - Artisan.  If you have an account with Forever, you get regular updates and often links to try out the training site by Pixels2Pages.  I have been noticing that they would show a link to a magazine called "Pages," but never clicked on the link.

This month there was the latest issue published.  It is an online issue that can be read through an interface called issuu.  The cover below caught my eye so I opened it.

I was paging through and... actually squealed when I saw my own page in their magazine (mine is the one on the bottom right).  Later in the issue I saw that my page was one they used to advertise their services.  What an honor!

My next thought was, hmmm... I wonder how long this magazine has been out and maybe there are more of my pages in their magazine.  So, I was browsing past issues and came to July 2016.

In this issue they didn't have just a single page of mine, but three double page spreads. Whoa!  The one one the bottom left is one I shared about our day at the zoo.  The next one is at the top right.  This is a template I created after they had a lesson on using repetition as a design element.

The third two page spread is below on the top left.  One of my favorite pages artistically.

Close ups below.

So after a high like this - what does a digi-cropper do? Well, share more pages on Pixels2Pages Facebook page - of course. :)

Scott and I just visited one of his childhood friends, Michael Alltop, his wife Whitney (friends since college for me) and their family.  While we were there, the family celebrated their oldest child's 16th birthday. Mike made a photo book for his son's birthday. The picture above shows how amazing a gift a photo book is.  The family gathered around the book and laughed as they relived some favorite moments of their lives together.  It was a great moment to be a part of.

Before the gift was given Mike talked making the book.  It was so fun to hear the excitement as he talked about how easy and quick the process was.

Easy solutions to bring photos into families' lives is what is important to Ahni & Zoe by Creative Memories.  Even though this product wasn't ordered through AZ, it encouraged me to find more people like Mike who want to do something with their photos and their families who will be blessed by the end result.

MAKE IT SIMPLE, GOT IT. :)

For my birthday this year I asked my family for one present: de-clutter our house and hire someone to come in and deep clean.  I have been working a 2nd job now for 6 months and it has been hard to keep up with the clutter that likes to grow and have babies all over my house. :)

So, last night we worked as a family for 2 hours.  Huge dent in the mess was made.  It felt soooo good. 

My son has a hard time letting go of toys, school projects, etc. because of the memories that they hold for him.  I said, "What if we took a picture of them, would that work the same as keeping them to look at and remember them?"  He said... yes. Yeah!

So, there we were in my front yard last night (while it was still light out) taking pictures of him - making crazy faces - with his toys and art projects and other "junk" that meant a lot to him.  We were able to fill up a box of donations and a couple of trash cans full of trash that he can now "hold on to" via pictures.

I joined the donation train and donated some decorations I had that I loved, but really no longer had a home in my house.  They didn't fit with the décor and I just wanted to not have them cluttering up my home.

My husband spent the two hours de-cluttering his den - which had become the electronics graveyard for our family.  Computer dies - put in den. Get new TV - put old TV in den.  Get new Blu-ray player & sound system - put old system in den.  Last night he filled the back of my van with these relics and I am going to L.O.V.E. recycling them today.

I texted a friend's house cleaner last night and requested the deep clean for next week.  This was before we started.  I was committed to getting this done.

Loving my birthday gift already!!