Easy Peezy Lemon Squeezy

When people see the beautiful books that I've made through Heritage Makers, one of their first comments is, "I could never do that."  My response is, "Oh yes you can...you're selling yourself short!"  Allow me to give you a few pointers that I have learned in my short time with Heritage Makers:

1.  Use the Creativity of Others!

I. Am. Not. Creative.
There I said it.  I've gotten it off my chest.

One of the best things about Heritage Makers is that you don't have to be creative...you can use other "creative" peoples ideas!  (Which is what I do most often)  Between the art gallery and the template gallery I've covered all my bases, and my projects end up being just what I want them to be.

2.  KISS...Keep It Simple Sister!

Projects do not always have to be complicated.  Ideas do not always have to be complicated.  Not everything you do has to have beautiful embellishments or cute paper with it.  In fact, I think that some of the cutest things are the simple things....which in turn makes them very easy!  Heritage is a million everyday moments....let those million everyday moments make up the storybooks (or projects) that you do because that is YOUR life!

3.  Just get it done!

Just start by doing a general outline of what you want to do.  Get your pictures on.  Write your text.  Once everything is in, actually completing your storybook doesn't seem like such a daunting task.  If you sit there and look at a blank page, it's easy to become overwhelmed.  You can always change the paper out, swap embellishments, or tweak the layout until you have it just have you want it...the key is to have something to start with!

4.  Let your pictures tell the story! 

A picture is like a thousand words...or so they say.  Sometimes it's best (and easiest) to tell your story with more pictures and less text.  You need to include some text to remind you of what is happening in the picture (another favorite saying by one of our company founders goes something like this:  "A picture without a story is a memory lost"), but that doesn't mean that you need to go on, and on, and on, and on....with your text.  Let your picture tell the majority of the story, and let your text be the background.  (With that said, there are certain storybooks that you'll do that you'll need to let the text tell the story and the pictures be the background...but we'll talk about that later *wink wink*)



I took my own advice, and used these tips to complete this storybook in about 3 hours.  Yes that's right...cover to cover in about 3 hours, give or take a few minutes.  I actually completed the whole thing at a digi-crop that I went to last weekend.  (It wasn't the template gallery, but all the wonderful women and their great ideas that inspired me (Tip #1)...And I won a prize for completing the most pages that night.  Yay me!).  I had a 7x5 book credit that I needed to use before it expired, and honestly, I had almost given up hope that the book would get done.  I could not think of anything to storybook about.  Then July hit!  It's one of my favorite months of the year.  It's filled with birthdays, holidays, our anniversary, and just all out summer goodness...life, love, and freedom, so that's what I decided to do my book about. (Tip #2)  Once the idea came, everything else was really quite simple.  Because the book is smaller, I let the pictures tell the story (Tip #4) and used very little text.  I also used a very simple layout....not a lot of frills or embellisment.  I finished the book and then went back and tweaked little things on each page until it was how I liked it. (Tip #3)  Voila!  Finished book....memories preserved...and I still have time to play with the kids (or more likely, clean the house)!  I ordered it on Monday...it's supposed to get here today!  Can't wait!

So what are YOU waiting for???