I would like to offer a very sincere THANK YOU to all of you who participated this week!  I really and truly loved reading all of the stories that you shared in your mini albums! 

There is no way in this world that I could have chosen a winner, so I did it the easy way... I wrote everyone's name down on a piece of paper and threw them into Breuklyn's Dorothy the Dinosaur hat.  Then I woke up my poor husband and made him draw names.  So, if you are upset because you aren't the winner, please PM me and I will give you his work number and extension. 

Our grand prize winner is:  Babylou with her album about the things that she loves!  Congratulations!!!  Your prize is a prize pack worth $200.00 from Scrapbook.com!! 

And just because you all amazed me I made Brad pick 5 extra winners who will win a RAK from me.

1.  Amigosa - Her album documents her wedding day.

2.  Brigid16 - A fun album that tells the story of the favorite things of her 4-year-old

3.  Riorabbit - Things that she has in common with her dog.  :)

4.  Scrappygal8 -  She has some great ideas for journaling the events of one day.

5.  thecircleguru - This album tells the stories of one week in her life.

If your name is mentioned, please PM me with your name and address.  Again, thank you so much for participating!!!!

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Well, hello there!  After taking a whole day to rest my weary fingers from all of that typing, I am back and ready to challenge you again!  You were here for the National Scrapbooking Day All Day Challenge, right?  I suppose I can forgive you if you missed out, and now I will give you a chance to redeem yourself (and win a $200.00 prize pack from Scrapbook.com!!!)!  Hopefully, you have read my column/blog before and you understand me a little.  I am all about preserving the stories in our lives.  Sometimes something may seem really silly or not as important as, for example, a birthday or major holiday, but all of those small events add up and pretty soon you have a whole lifetime of moments.  I want to remember those moments.  I want to remember that Breuklyn referred to crocodiles as "beekobops," that she had an imaginary friend named Oinky (who met a tragic end when Brad sat on him) and that to get Paizlee to fall asleep all you have to do is sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. 

One way for me to remember these moments is to scrap them, which I did in this mini-album entitled, "What's Your Story?"

There are more pages, but you get the idea.  I simply documented the things that were going on in our lives during the month of April.  April was Breuklyn's birthday, her first soccer game and Brad's first time playing golf.  I love the story of Brad playing golf.  You should see the man, it is hysterical.  The first time he picked up a club and swung it, well... I was not very polite.  Did you ever watch Seinfeld?  Imagine Kramer swinging a golf club.  I am happy to report that he is much less Kramer-like in his swing now. 

There were also some not as entertaining things that happened in April.  Our air conditioning unit and the plumbing died.  I am not so good with dealing with technical stuff when it comes to explaining it over the phone.  "Um.  I don't know what is wrong with the air conditioning.  It is, um, not conditioning the air?"  Also, my parents lost their house when the tornadoes came through Suffolk, VA on April 28th.  Those stories are in there too.

You can do this.  You can document your stories.  Your mini album can be about one month, like mine, one whole year,  or even just a day.  One day from the perspective of everyone in your family.  Just tell the stories.  It can be an album about the stories from your childhood, the story of how a pet came into your life, or an album of family recipes.  These are your stories and you probably already know the story that you want to tell.

The Rules:

1.  One new mini-album, must be uploaded to your gallery after 12:00PM (CST) May 5th, 2008.  However, if you created a layout for the All Day Challenge and you want to use that as part of your mini album you can.  That is the only exception. 

2.  Your mini-album must contain at least 4 pages (not including a cover or back).  If it is easier to understand, consider them layouts.  Do you see my mini-album up there?  There is a page for Brad, Me, Breuklyn and Maddux, that would be 4 pages.

3.  Each page must contain journaling.  Must. Must. Must.  The journaling can be hidden, but there must be journaling.  This is a challenge, right?

4.  It can be any size or on any material, be creative.  Mine is a 12 x 12.5 chipboard album from Rusty Pickle, but there are tons of ways you could do this.  You could bind together some cardstock and make an album, there are no special "must have" items for this project.

5.  The deadline is Monday, May 12th at 12:01 AM (CST)

6.  Your pages need to be linked here to receive credit.  Just copy and paste the web address.

7.  One more rule, if you are KarenR, then you can't win since you are already the winner of the All Day Challenge!  You can see Karen's layout HERE

The Prize:

ONE winner will receive a $200.00 prize pack from Scrapbook.com!  Woohoo!!! 

Have a question/comment?  Just leave it here and I will answer ASAP.

Ok, what are you waiting for??  Go!  Be creative.  Come on now, I want to hear those stories!!