hop2 ....I also love your journal and enjoyed looking at several of your pretty layouts.
don ....I was giggling over many of your funny captions---especially "if you have a wife, you HAVE to buy the photo"
My old albums vary A LOT. When I FIRST started (in 1998 !!!), I only knew about Michael's, so that's where I got alllllll the stickers, busy patterned papers, annd of course---decorative scissors and punches. I literally LOL at my first albums because it really is FUNNY how I "sticker sneezed" and cut SO many
photos with different scissors. I hate to say I actually "RUINED" many photos by cutting them, BUT....thankful I had duplicates. OMG, and putting photos directly onto busy, patterned paper where the photo just disappeared!
Then around 2001, I started getting all the mags, started reading 2 peas scrapping board, started going to the MANY scrapbook stores at home AND when we traveled. I had SO MUCH fun visiting stores in other states ( Seattle, Utah, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Vermont) --- I actually made a layout about
visiting all of those LSS---maybe I'll share it here sometime.
Once I started reading about Creating Keepsakes HALL OF FAME, plus---remember Memory Makers Magazines MASTER contests, I wanted to be published. I also scraplifted a LOT of styles from the magazines and from the 2 peas gallery. I have several layouts that are exact copies of Becky Higgins and Heidi Swapp. It makes me LAUGH now!!!! I did get published, and it was fun, but I don't like how much
I changed my style (AND my journaling!) with the goal to be getting in a mag. Ugh, when I read some of my FAKE journaling now, I CRINGE!
After a couple years of being a scrap "celeb" wanna be, I finally just went back to casual, FUN, and not caring what my layouts looked like. I just LOVED scrapbooking (still do!) I have SO MANY albums, and I also made A LOT as gifts, and I'm thankful for every single one.
I would LIKE to be like many of you and just not worry./ even think about what MIGHT happen to them after I'm gone, but I have. I'm going to try and do exactly what many of you have said---just enjoy them NOW, and don't even think about what will happen. I am very thankful that everyone on both sides of my family have said they treasure the albums and the memories!
But I do realize that after I'm gone, probbbably no one will want to lug
around my albums of our doggies...hee hee! And it's okay! I DO hope at least one person in my fam will keep the Heritage album I made---it is FULL of very interesting fam history, going back to the 1700s!
My sister did a LOT of research to find photos of the paintings of our great, great, great, great Grandparents, plus many other paintings. She also discovered a 200+ page journal of our great (x5) grandfather where he tells allllll about his immigration to America, etc. I can't imagine Anyone NOT being interested in that! I also have A LOT of my Dad's life story in this album, which also includes his stories of other ancestors.
My sister ALSO got me the ORIGINAL paternal grandmother's nursing degree from Baylor University. My Dad also gave me the cutest newspaper article from when he was around 7 years old, acting in a play. I sprayed those thAngs with sooo much Archival Mist back in 2002---I wonder how long they'll last?
(P.S. the fact that this newspaper article was still intact is amazing, considering it was from when he was 7, and he gave it to me when he was 72).
My only regret is I never interviewed my Mom or Grandparents to hear more about their side of the fam. I didn't really care about fam history before they all died....bummer!
So, it starts in the 1700s, and the last layout I did in that album was our wedding in 1996. There's a huge photo of all of us, with everyones' names documented. Someday, I may add more layouts, but the time span it already covers is pretty good!
I love pages with lots of embellishments and layering. I have done a few. I also like to see completed albums and I am an extremely slow scrapper and I am not creative in the least. I struggle with the right mix of pattern paper, layering and photo placement. 
(P.S. the fact that this newspaper article was still intact is amazing, considering it was from when he was 7, and he gave it to me when he was 72). 
