Backstories and a Giveaway!

Two (2) people will each win $40 worth of Yin Templates of your choice!

It's my first ever Giveaway! See below for details!!

Backstory

My kids taught me the term Backstory. They fill me in on the backstory behind each X-Men, Marvel hero, Star Trek, Godzilla etc movie (so mom won't be asking us so many questions during the show). But recently I've found Backstories apply to scrapbooking too! I was looking through my past project life albums (yes I do that a lot :) ) and thought 'there's a backstory to that!'. A story behind the story, or a story behind the photo, that I wanted to tell! It was this one:

This was last year's PL, it was a letter dh wrote to me on my birthday, not too mushy, just sweet and funny and joyful, which is fine for future generations to read so it went into the PL pocket. But the backstory? 

Well that blue letter paper, and the old fashioned airmail envelope (those with the red and blue stripes along the edges) that it came in, was exactly the same ones as those he wrote me on when we were dating long ago! I was so surprised and how they brought back memories! Somehow he had found exact replica stationery! We still have those twenty-something year old letters, both his and mine, in a keepsake box. And when I tell this to young people these days they are so surprised. I always explain that back in those days, dh was in the army and I was in the university hostel, and this was before the days of mobile phones and internet - we could only call each other on payphones, which usually had queues of people waiting their turn to call respective boyfriends/girlfriends/and family too of course, so we chose to write. The best thing was to come back to the hostel after classes and find a blue airmail envelop waiting for me in the mail 'box' (a shelve of cubbie holes). Now isn't that a backstory worth telling?

But the PL page is already done, there's no more space in the pockets, so the only way is to squeeze the story behind the pocket. And so I did this:

Made some tabs with words on photoshop and printed them out on thicker white paper

and folded them before cutting around the rounded edges

and then simply stapled them onto the card. 

add backstory journalling (mine spilled over to the back of the card too)

Slot it in. Looks neat right?

But I also realised a problem using these tabs, they will only work on the front of the PL pocket inserts, where the pockets open towards you. So for cards or photos that are at the back of the inserts, there is no opening on that side to insert the journal card such that the tab stands up. Bummer! I may consider cutting a small slit on the back of the insert for this. Hhmmm

Here are the tabs I made in case anyone wants to try. The photoshop file is included with the jpeg in case you want to change the colors or type in other wordings. By the way I used the font 'hammer keys'. 

Download them Here

 Have you thought of any backstories you want to go back and tell?

Project Life Pages

These are the stories I wanted told in PL for May. I decided that after mostly printing digital journal cards for PL that I miss the physical cards and handwritten look and feel, so this month really let it go!

Our friends who now live in NZ came back for a visit and it was so GOOD catching up. Also tecorded the fun the boys are having parodying Let It Go. Lol

This page is all about the stuff J is into. Which is a lot. He does stop motion movies, digitally animated movies, loves jamming on his guitar, designs stuff for 3D printing, which got him a mention in the local newspaper!

This insert page is all about Mothers' a Day which we celebrated with both grandmothers.  

These are the cards I received!

And the last two spreads are all about my parents in law's 60th Anniversary celebrations. This was such a precious occasion, and all the family were present to celebrate with them. Their lives and example of long lasting marriage through sickness and health is a testament of great blessing for the family. 

For the celebration the family gathered a lot of old family photos through the years which we put together in a slideshow. I've been tasked to make photobooks based on these photos one for each family so that's an upcoming project!

May P365 Half-Monthly Month in Review pages

The rest of the month gets captured in these pages. 

Frozen made it to the page, and so did a picture of a brand of hair dye - it was the subject of an engaging conversation between me and two girl friends. We were sharing tips on covering greys. If you find this as exciting as we did you know how old I am. 

Sunrise, walking in the rain, a lot more than two boys in our home on many afternoons after exams, wedding dinner, fire fighting displays, concert at the Esplanade, more everyday moments - we live a simple but rich life!

Hawaii Pages

More pages completed for the album:

We took a 'road trip' around Oahu to check out trails and beaches and these layouts are all from that day! 

Amazingly when we were at the top of the Maka pu'u trail, someone shouted and we saw humpback whales right there in the waters below! They looked tiny from that height but it was still awesome. There was a large adult and another family of probably a mother and two younger whales. The large one breached and the rest of the time they flapped and turned and it was just amazing! 

Shangri-La was the name Doris Duke gave her mansion and it definitely lived up to its name. We had to make a reservation for the tour a month before leaving home and I'm so glad we did!

And these layouts are now templates 396 to 400 in the store. Which brings me to the Giveaway! When I was numbering these latest templates and realised I am actually hitting number 400, I thought I should do something to celebrate, to mark this milestone and to thank everyone for your support over the years. Since I just had a sale, I thought a Giveaway will fit the bill! 

I could not have imagined when I started sharing templates in 2007 it will lead me to 400 templates. It means I have made at least 400 layouts in that time too! Mostly the store and the blog has been so enjoyable for me, it gives me a chance to be a small online business owner, which is so fun, gives me a place on the world wide web that I 'own' and can share my love for memory keeping, and has let me get to know so many like-minded friends from so far away! Certainly I love scrapbooking and likely will still make layouts and pages for years to come, but without all of you who come and read, comment, download, purchase, share and use the templates, I will certainly not have been as motivated or inspired. So here's a really big THANK YOU! I greatly appreciate you!

Two (2) people will each win $40 worth of Yin Templates of your choice!

To enter, please leave a comment on this post. Just share with me how you will use (or have used) Yin templates, any feedback, ideas for the blog or store is welcome too! Leave your comment before 10pm on 26 June, Singapore time. Singapore, or 10 am EST on 26 June.

My blog comments is set such that your comment will appear only after blog owners' approval, and I will be away with reduced internet connection so don't worry if your comments don't appear until a day or so later. I will pick two random winners and announce them on this blog on 27 June. Thank you for participating!