Dear Abby

I found this in DEAR ABBY last week:

DEAR ABBY:

I have a suggestion for people who are stuck for gift ideas.

Several years ago, I asked my mom for a very special Christmas gift.

I asked her to write down her life story -- things she had done as a child, the experience of hitchhiking from New Mexico to Tennessee during the Great Depression, and all the other experiences of her life. She did, and I printed it for her.

That year she gave each child, grandchild and great-grandchild a copy. It was the best Christmas present ever and one that's still cherished by us all.

Both my parents are gone now, but we have Mom's wonderful stories to remember.

Without her book, those memories would be lost forever. I encourage everyone to record their family history and memories for your loved ones to read.

You'll never regret it, and it will be enjoyed for generations to come.

-- ANDREW IN JOHNSON CITY, TENN.

DEAR ANDREW: That's a terrific suggestion. And if the parent or grandparent isn't comfortable with writing, the same goal can be accomplished by setting up a video camera and interviewing the family member by asking questions about his or her youth.

Barb's Comments: I'd do both and with the video that you tape make a DVD out of it and glue a CD Mailer Envelope onto the back inside cover of the hard bound book. Then you'll have the best of both. Their voices...and then their photos and written out heritage in bound book form.

BETTER YET make this a bonding experience for the youth who know how to get around and navigate on a pc. Contact me for the QUE sheets (questions to ask) and have the grandchildren interview them. They will learn so much and then have them create the heritage album (my help is always available local or online). You will have just bridged three generations.

Making Strong Connections

ps the photo at the top has my husband waiting on the bench, but behind him is the train that his own Dad worked on over 65 years ago...we were waiting for our daughter to arrive by train for Thanksgiving. Capture those precious moments.

Barb Ashcroft,

Binding Families together with storybooks

http://www.recallwhen.com/

wechangelives@shaw.ca

Capturing Holiday Shots & How to Share Them

Rathrevor Beach, Parksville, BC Miles of beach waiting for the fog to lift.

We're now at the time of year when you gather the family, the dog and all the gear and head out for day trips or long weekend visits......and of course you take your camera.


Well hopefully, the images you take don't just sit there on the memory card, the pc or simply shrunk down to a tiny thumbnail on facebook. I want to show you a simple fantastic way to share your photos.

Step One:
Go to http://www.RecallWhen.com
Create a free account which takes less than 5 minutes

Step Two:
Login & go to My Photos Tab
Create a photo album (you can have an unlimited of albums, so use this technique to help SORT your photos, ie: 2010 April Family Trip)

My Personal Tip: If you name the year first then all of your photo albums will sort alpabetically and be easier to find. You can create folders as well but let's start with the album.

In case you'd like a visual view of this there is a marvelous short tuturial right here. It is one of nine on the home page of the website

Step Three: (illustrated on tutorial)
Click on and highlight the album that you want the photos to go into and and click on Add More Photos on the right side of the page. It will take you to areas on your pc where you've stored your photos. Choose which ones you want to upload and click enter.

Here's the MAGICAL PART !
Once you have your photos uploaded you can SHARE the entire album with family and friends right from the website.

Best part of this is, unlike facebook, this site does not shrink your image. Selected images can be downloaded to any pc at the orginal resolution......that is HUGE if you are wanting to create anything with them later. And if you're not the creative one in the family and you share the album with a relative that is, you can get them to create the family holiday book, calendar, cards right on the same website.

Super Organizer Time Saver:
Make it part of your regime that EACH time you take out your camera that the first thing you do when you get home is download the new shots to your pc and upload right away to your new account here....then YOU ARE SECURE, even if something happened to your camera, your memory card, your pc -your photos are preserved and could be retrieved at any time.

Now go out and enjoy the sunshine!
Happy Snapping.
Barb Ashcroft
Digital Storymaker
1-800-919-1998

Special Creations - One Step Further & Tons of Fun

Many of my newest friends are talented in the area of genealogy. It is such fun to play detective and discover new family members & new stories.

The proof picture shown above is an outline of the Title page of our Ashcroft Family coffee table book (red lines are just for aligning & will be cut off). I was able to google a map of England and save that as a jpeg image and then place a transparent tinted circle over the area the family came from. I was also able to highlight the names on the family list that pertained to our LIMB of the Ashcroft Family Tree.

Whether you have just started or are well on your way, I encourage you to create a coffee table book to share the discoveries. Imagine a compilation of all the family photo albums (& more) put together in one place. The photos can all be tagged with names and with stories.

Once you have done that I want to encourage you to go one step further. Summer is approaching and we are planning our first long weekend at the lake.

It is the time when families come together and PLAY.

How about taking those photos and stories and history tidbits and create 3 more things that end up being a Family History Game.

1) Our website has a template gallery to show you how you can turn a poster into a Family Game Board.

2) Our personalized decks of playing cards becomes the Family Fun Facts - variety in the Template Gallery. The sky is the limit on creating it your way.

3) Our Family Fold becomes the Rules for the Family Game.

Right now I am creating a Family Game Board based on my 86 year old Dad's life. It begins with a photo of him as a tiny child, and progresses along his 'happy trails' right up to today.

Email me for a preview and I'll show you how I'm doing that.

The deck of cards are alternating photos of the family shots that correspond to photos on the game board. Our HM team has created endless ideas for your own Family Board Games - so have fun this summer, create some fun and get those kids involved in a fun way to celebrate family and our heritage.

Best yet, the work has already been started with the creation of templates. All you have to do is personalize it with your own photos and words.

Your basic account on our website is free. So go ahead and get started today.

Barb Ashcroft

Personal Publishing Coach

1-800-919-1998

www.RecallWhen.com

Bringing Your Stories to Life!

5 Top Versions publishing a coffee table book

Going for a survey today

Here are 5 top versions of an 8.5x11.5 bound coffee table book.

Vote by leaving your comment and tell me which one is your favorite and you'll be entered in a draw for a 5x5 bound storybook for you to create.

1) The Classic;
clean lines, professional, great for business or portfolios

2) More than a photo book, this one is a Traditional Sign In Wedding Book

3) Another version of a Scrapbooky Sign In Wedding Book, this one with more digital components

4) Family Heritage Book (this is my hubby's family history book I completed last February, we never even knew his grandfather's first name before we did this)

5) Whimsical Family History Book for you to personalize

Of course this is simply a small selection, but I wanted to show the diversity of creating your own unique projects.

For more ideas, go to www.recallwhen.com and check out the Template Gallery

Barb Ashcroft
Personal Publishing Consultant
604-271-5434

Featured in another blog

Such fun seeing how other professionals perceive your work and passion.

Check out this link from Clarity Jane Organizer

or http://www.clarityjane.com/blog

New this month of February: Heritage Home

We have a wonderful package of 5 projects available for the great price of $99.95 usd.

It is a great way to showcase your heritage not only in books, but in decks of playing cards, and wall art. Some Creative folks are even using modge podge to place our new single scrapbook pages onto ceramic tiles for display. There is no end to being creative!

Contact me directly for a flier of our specials............

Tell your Calgary friends and family: February 27th Friday evening Heritage Makers Showcase. First ever Canadian Regional Conference. NW Calgary.

You can be my guest to the showcase Friday eve for free, but I do need to register you.

I will be sharing at the subsequent training on Saturday Feb 28th.

Call me at 604-271-5434 or 1-800-919-1998

Barb Ashcroft, Personal Publishing Consultant

Baseball Fever

Ok my apologies first off. At the risk of sounding like a real ditz I have not posted for AGES as we moved and I misplaced all my log in, blog name etc. Detective Barb found it now! Yeah!

I am newly recommitted to posting at the very least, twice a week to keep you all in the loop.

We're having such amazing fun...I don't want you to miss out on ANYTHING!

BASEBALL FEVER! We can now design personalized playing cards.This photo is a template I created for TRADING CARDS for my grandson's baseball team. All the players can be added with their own names and favourite things they like about baseball. HOW MUCH FUN IS THIS!!!

I also did a set of "Seniors Memory Cards" for my oldest brother who turns 65 next month.

My two brothers and their wives accompanied Ron & I on a trip to Palm Springs last month.

We all got married 40 years ago within 8 months of each other and decided to celebrate this milestone together. So I had lots of fun photo images to place on the cards to make this personalized version of Old Maid. I can hardly wait to see his expression when he gets the package. They come in a neat plastic container. How's that for a creative way to ward off dementia?

If you want to create your own simply contact me at wechangelives@shaw.ca or phone 604-271-5434 (my new phone number since our move) and I'll get you set up with your own free account.

You can check out our website for all kinds of new products at www.RecallWhen.com

Till next time,

ta ta,

Barb Ashcroft

Your Storybook Coach

Don't let your babies grow up to be JPEGS!

Make something extra special with all those photos.

Here's a brand new place with help & more tools!

A new year is around the corner and I'm finding lots of great new tools. These will also make your Storybooking Experience that much more enjoyable. We've created this BLOG for you to have a 'one more access spot' to get the info you're looking for.

First off though I want to share the MAGIC of giving these Heritage Maker projects as Christmas gifts.

I sent out a Christmas letter about the Anticipation:

Christmas Morning 2006…..months of waiting to see the response…..

Here’s the anticipation:

I can hardly wait for my 84 year old Dad to be here Christmas morning as he opens not one, BUT TWO incredible bound gift books. Both were lifetime goals for me and a big reason for me to join Heritage Makers.

The Frost book is his personal family history going back to his grandparents, his British roots and the wonder of a pioneering family. It showcases a story of him being one of Gordie Howe's pee wee coaches and how he and his friends collected 25 cents to buy Gordie some skates. If I didn't tell these stories who would?

The 2nd book is called, "Through my Mother's Eyes!" My Mom, who Dad was a caregiver for 7 years never lived long enough for me to take her to Nova Scotia to see where her Mom & 6 previous generations had lived...so in Sept/Oct I took the trip in her stead. It was so beyond what I could have expected!! So I HAD TO CREATE a 12x12 Digital Storybook to tell and show the story. Beautiful transparent pictures of my Mom in her 20’s showcase her eyes on the cover.

I had the GIFT OF LIVING MY HERITAGE and could hardly wait for my Dad to receive a copy!

Barb Ashcroft

Storybooking Your Special Times

***

This is real, this is palpable, eyes welling, my Dad sees for the first time the book dedicated to my Mom who has passed on….he had to get his handkerchief before he even opened the cover.