Thank you for sharing about your Brother, Erin, we all have a story behind our smile. It is a gorgeous Layout. 🙏😍

Scrapbooking does matter... our memories matter. Thank you for sharing your story.

"As scrapbookers we document everything!!"....thanks for sharing!! I was so intrigued by the hidden journaling spot idea. Just love it. I am one who scrapbooks funerals as remembrances so I get it! Your brother was part of your life story and life is both sad and happy!!

Thanks for sharing and reminding us why it's so important to preserve our memories of loved ones. Another beautiful layout!

Very sweet layout. We do document sad things in our lives as well the good because that is part of life. Love the colors in that paper collection. Thanks for sharing❣️

I like the idea of a lost memories album for all those memories that don't work in our chronological albums. One of these days (months) I need to get started on documenting my older photos. My dad passed away 48 years ago, when I was 20. I need to document memories for my children and grandchildren to have. Thanks for the inspiration!

All of our stories are a part of who we are! Important to document the happy and sad stories. ❤️

Wonderful layout of you and your siblings Erin! Thank you for sharing the story of your brother and am so sorry you lost him at a young age. Don’t feel bad if it brings the tears. We never forget! I lost my first husband in a tragic mid-air collision in 1990 when my son wasn’t quite 3. Twenty years later when Nathan was 23, he was drunk, on the highway, went off the road and rolled his Explorer. He was ejected and doctors felt he landed in some trees as he didn’t sever his spinal cord, but it was “overstretched” leaving him paralyzed from waist down. He almost died in the accident. It was January in Michigan, he was found face down in the snow breathing 2-6/minute and paramedics when they got there had to do CPR. Not sure how long Nate laid there but likely at least an hour as kids at the bar said he left around 2:30am after they tried to get him to give up the keys. State trooper got to the scene at around 3:45am after someone called in that lights were shining up from the road in the ditch. He suffered a severe brain injury…..left frontal lobe, left ventricle along with a bruised brain stem. Shearing injury to boot. Doctor thought he would be in a vegetative state the rest of his life…….he’s not. His speech is somewhat affected and he does have some deficits with arms….. more left than right. I had to make the decision for back surgery. They placed a foot of rods in his back to stabilize the T4-T8 fractures. He is lucky to be alive. As he says, “had this accident not happened, I likely would have been in prison”. He was a very angry young man. We adopted him at 2 days old. He has a different set of genes and not having a father to help ”bend” him in a better direction didn’t help. But….he is alive and a better mindset today at almost 36. Finally! PTL!!!

Love how you added a journal box on the back of your "picture area". Clever, clever. Thank you.

I love that you refer to scrapbooking as "art". I keep calling it a craft but my husband refers to anything I do on paper as art. Somehow it raises it a level in my mind. Thanks for sharing your personal story. I've been doing a mish mash of old photos and there is not proper order. Just the order I do them in. I'm not really happy with it but can't figure out another system.

Another amazing layout, Erin! Including the memory of your brother with this beautiful picture is a wonderful idea. I like how you tucked this personal dedication behind on a tag. Thank you for sharing, and I’m sorry for your loss. ❤️ Monika

Thank you Erin for reminding us why we scrapbook. I started my first album when my parents passed away - 9 months apart. Telling their story really helped with the feelings of loss. Then I just kept going and love this hobby.

Scrapbooking the difficult memories can be therapeutic and/or provoke the sad emotions. I lost my best friend in 2018 and I haven’t started on preserving her photos because I don’t want to ugly cry. But I know it would help me remember her and the happy memories I have of her. Beautiful layout and ideas! Love the embellishments behind the picture to journal!

Oh my goodness--the paper pack is made for your precious photo! Beautiful layout--you are so blessed with the gift of design.

Erin...you haven't changed a bit! Thanks for sharing how you are doing your hidden journaling...that's a great idea! And a great page to have that journaling about your brother.

I'm sorry about your brother. That must have been so hard for your family. It makes layouts like these even more special as they bring honor to those we love and have had the blessing to have loved while on this earth.

I love watching your videos and hearing your stories. Hugs and prayers for your loss. No matter how old the memory, documenting is so important. My grandson is lucky enough that we had 5 generations. My grandpa died shortly after his 4th birthday that was spent with gramps. My daughter's were also 5 generations with my great grandma on other side. Love that they knew her. We are very blessed to have this way of celebrating our memories.

Thankyou for sharing and reminding us all why we do this wonderful hobby..as we age our memories are important good and sad memories. I started scrapbooking after I lost 3 of my parents(2 were in-laws) one right after the other…scrapbooking helped me heal and I’m thankful now for every photo and memory

Hi Erin! Another beautiful page. 💕My albums are strictly chronological. Mainly because I am a lazy person, and it is the easiest way!😂 But seriously… it is a lot easier to find pages afterward, if they are in order of date. Have a good week, everyone! 🌈

I keep an album specifically for these kinds of layouts. It’s very random and they’re not in chronological order. It’s just a spot for these precious photos and the stories to bring them to life. I love this kind of album not only so that I can remember the people I’m documenting, but also so that I can share my memories of people I love who are no longer here with my children.

A really beautiful page but then I love mauve & am wearing the summer pants today that match the background of your page. I couldn't believe it when I saw your unveiling of this catalogue & there was my summer pants!! So of course I bought a pack without the owls as I am not partial to owls with their heads looking like that!! I have been scrapbooking for over 15 years & I have my albums set up as a mauve coloured album called, My Story in which I document anything that has to do with me. Then I have an album called, Family Tree which documents anything to do with the history of my family, the rest of my albums start with my marriage, then the birth of my children. I then have a later one called Growing Years, that shows the photos taken of my kids & home. Then life finished with the break up of our family. Later I started individual albums of each one of my grandchildren which will pass onto them, Also an album called Weddings in which I document all the weddings of my siblings & any weddings I have attended down through the years. Now I am starting an album for my great granddaughter that when finished will go to my grandson to keep along with his own album when it is finished. Finding photos is always the hardest part of any collection. So I will have more of my g/g/daughter than anyone else thanks to today's technology. She is four years old now & I probably have more than 500 photos so far in my computer as they upload from their phones onto a family page where I can download them from.

The sad memories are having d to document, but so important for future generations ♥️♥️ I do love purple and it is hard to incorporate with boys! But I have lots of pictures from high school ❤❤

I love this with the older photo. I have childhood albums for myself and I put my childhood photos in that album. 😊

Love your layout, I’m partial to the owls. Nobody understands why we do what we do and why we document things, good or bad. This is a wonderful way to preserve your memories of your brother. Thank you for sharing🥰

Wonderful page. Great tip on using the flip flaps for hidden pockets. Had not thought of that. Thanks, Erin!

A beautiful layout. I was so sorry to hear about your brother. I am currently working on baby and toddler photos of my son who died at age 40. It is certainly bittersweet to revisit and document those times.

Thanks for another beautiful layout. I started scrapbooking when my mother passed away. Its been quite the therapeutic activity for me over the years. A page like this about my siblings would go in my "People We Love" album, in a close to chrono sequence. I use the Stacy Julian system; albums are categorized into People (All About Us, People We Love) Places (Home, Florida, Non Florida Travels) & Things (Gatherings, Things We Do) . Thanks again for sharing your amazing creativity and your heart.

This is an excellent layout once again but I am indeed crying. I am sorry for your loss Erin.😭💜. Feeling sad for your mother too.

❤❤❤❤❤ raw and real, 😢❤ sad and what a blessing, beautiful

Aww, what a sweet photo! I'm sorry about your brother! I have 4 Brothers and we lost the youngest one of ours! When I scrapbook pictures like this, I just put them in an album called my family! There is no particular order to them. Like you, I just randomly find them, and get them on a page and into the book!

Sometimes scrapbooking can be therapeutic. When I first started scrapbooking, I did a whole album of old family photos. I'm sorry for your loss - I also lost a brother to a car accident (he was 19, I was 23), and somehow, I never have done a page dedicated my memories of him. You've inspired me to do exactly that. I also often scrapbooking out of order, and have a D-ring album that I just plop them in mostly in the order in which I scrapbook them, but eventually I will create dedicated albums when I get enough of a theme, or I will start an album of random layouts but in chronological order. Just haven't gotten around to that yet and my D-ring is getting quite full so might be time to finally do it.

So pretty! Love the colors and glad you used the circle paper ❤️. TFS

I put my pages like this in what I call friends and Family, it’s pages that are just random pictures that don’t go into my yearly books, ones of me and my siblings when we were growing up and other family ones. I’m so sorry to hear about your brother, but it has given me an idea my baby sister die when she was young and I’ve done pages on me and her but haven’t journal about her story so that’s what I’m going to do. Thanks Erin for sharing yours with us.

Scrapbooking is art and can be very cathartic as well ❤💖 I have tons of older, vintage photos and I went through a phase where I was documenting quite a few of those. I place them in an album of vintage photos, (the ones that actually MAKE it into an album that is! 😂😂) not in any particular order either…. TFS Erin, this is a sweet layout ❤

Beautiful layout and touching memory, thank you for sharing! I follow Stacy Julian’s Library of Memories system, so this would go in one of my people I love albums.

Lovely layout, Erin. I have a " Family" album for these older photos. I separate my pages into family groups and a "Friends" album. I have one for Mum in her single years and also for Dad then as they became fewer once married they go into the family one. These are all chronological with the album.. It works for me .

Love this layout! Thanks for sharing the story of your brother. Many of us have similar stories to tell. ❤

Love the layout. You were wondering about what we do with our random layouts. I have a miscellaneous album which I leave on my coffee table in my living room. It is a great coffee table book.

Love this layout. Precious memories!💕

I'm so sorry for your family's loss! ❤ Your question about where to put these throwback layouts is one I was wondering myself recently. Since my grandma passed, my dad has been going through old pictures and giving random ones to me. I'd like to start preserving them, but I'm not sure what I'll do with the pages!

I started scrapbooking in 2009 and started with an album titled "2009 and Before" (not very original I know). I have albums for each of four granddaughters, one album for twin grandsons, a trip out West to NM and CO, our Caribbean/Costa Rica/Panama cruise, and yearly family albums which are chronological.

I love your videos.

Hidden journaling pocket? More like "High art that's very nice to look at!" 👍

Scrapbooking became my therapy after my mother suddenly passed away 16 years ago. It has kept me from losing my marbles. I absolutely love this idea of hidden journaling. There are times you need to write down special details but, not for everyone to read it . I love all your layouts . I feel honored to see your cherished photos & to be able to hear the stories behind them too. Has the CTMH T-square ruler been discontinued ? Everytime I look it says out of stock . Thanks in advance for your reply.

I love your layout and what a sweet way to tell the story of your brother. I like how you have an overflow album, I don’t have a way to store older pages. I did one layout where I used baby pics of my daughter and then pics of me as a baby as an insert between the pages with the same theme. But I haven’t actually scrapped older photos that don’t fit with a current album. I’d like to, though!

❤️

If I were given a photo from my childhood right now, I would choose either to put it in my finished childhood album or the heritage album I am working on. Would never put a 60s photo in a current album.

Wondering how thick the acrylic pieces are? Looks like they have a great price for them compared to some of the other brands on the market.

I have found myself wondering the same thing, what do we do with the old photos that don’t go in a yearly album? I haven’t figured it out yet, so I am eager to see what others are doing?

I was thinking you could have reused that flip flap adhesive strip you cut off as your "reinforcement" adhesive on your pocket in place of the red tape..?? Is the red tape stronger than the flip flap adhesive backing? I know the flip flap adhesives really stick!

what die cutting machine do you use?