Author Archives: Mary Beth C. (NDM#6)

Mary Beth Caliciuri

Mary Beth is a Canadian Disney mom to two Neurotic Disney Kids and a wife to her husband who still doesn't "get it" when she talks about Disney. Until a couple years ago, she assumed she was the only person in the world who thought about Walt Disney World every day and night. She was pleasantly surprised when she found the on-line community of Neurotic Disney People. Mary Beth's other passion outside of Disney is scrapbooking, and she doesn't feel life is complete unless she has a Disney trip album to work on. She's been scrapbooking for over 12 years and belongs to various scrapbooking forums as well. Mary Beth's secret wish is to be Tinkerbell as she flys out of Cinderella's Castle during Wishes, and her favorite food item at WDW is the rib selection at the Hoop-Dee-Doo.
Contributed by Mary Beth Caliciuri
Contributed by: Marybeth Caliciuri (NDM#6) Marybeth is the DDL Scrapbooking Blogger.

Saving Money While Scrapbooking

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Thursday, October 4, 2012
Katie at the Pirate League

Using brochures or pamphlets can assist with journaling and can add titles or lettering to your layouts.

Even the brochures from any park or event can be repurposed into a layout.As much as I love Scrapbooking, I also love planning my trips to Walt Disney World. But with a busy family and other vital expenses (heat, hydro, mortgage, Ugh!) taking most of my paycheck each week, I need to find ways to save money to feed both of my addictions! Many people avoid scrapbooking their precious Disney photos because they think it will be too expensive, but there are many ways you can archive your memories for future generations AND still have $$$ left over to save for our Happy Place!

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“Re-doing” Old Scrapbook Layouts

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Wednesday, December 28, 2011

I was recently asked by a fellow scrapbooking friend if she should go back and “fix“ or “re-do“ some of her original scrapbooking layouts? I told her that was a decision only she could make, but that I believed that my earlier attempts at scrapbooking were part of my own creative journey and that the changes I have made to my style on paper showed as much where I am from as the photos on the page.

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Posted in Crafts, Hobbies, Home Photos, Leisure, Park Photos, Photography, Scrapbooks, Uncategorized
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“Re-Doing” Your Disney Scrapbook Pages

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Monday, December 12, 2011

I was recently asked by a fellow scrap booking friend if she should go back and “fix“ or “re-do“ some of her original scrap booking layouts? I told her that was a decision only she could make, but that I believed that my earlier attempts at scrap booking were part of my own creative journey and that the changes I have made to my style on paper showed as much where I am from as the photos on the page.

When I first began putting my memories to paper, my DH and I had just celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary. As a surprise, I booked us at the same hotel in Kissimmee that we stayed at for our honeymoon and even spoke to his boss about having the 5 days off for our trip. Our son was staying with his grandparents while we were away, so this was our chance for a 2nd honeymoon.

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Favorite Scrapbooking Cutting Tools

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Monday, September 5, 2011

Disney "Mickey" ScissorsCreative Memory Personal TrimmerWhen I scrapbook, as in other parts of my life, I have my favourite tools. I have scissors, trimmers and edgers that have been a part of my scrap booking existence since the beginning. From my first night learning how to archive my favourite pictures until today, 13 years later, they have been my constant helpers to share my story with others. Like Fairy Godmother’s magical wand, these tools help me transform my ordinary photos into magical memories.

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Favorite Photo Spots

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Thursday, June 30, 2011

As I take my photos I seem to plan out my layout in my head at that time. My kids are getting used to hearing “stand over there, this will make a GREAT scrap booking page. I have my paper and embellishments already planned as I pose them in their places. I also have my favorite photo places; both at home and in Walt Disney World.

My kids know that on the first day of school I always take their photo at the top of our staircase and outside under our big maple tree. In the same manner, I seem to always take photos of my kids in the same places at Walt Disney World. Yes, I need to get the (almost) mandatory photos from in front of Cinderella’s Castle, and with the Partner’s Statue, but my family has our own photo op places that are not necessarily marked with a “Kodak Photo Spot” sign.

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SCRAPBOOK SOUVENIRS

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Friday, June 17, 2011

Park Openning 2009Not all of my scrapbook pages are started when I sit down at my scrapbooking spot in my house (currently my dining room table). No, many of my pages begin while I am taking my pictures. Many times my family and I will be somewhere and I will think “this would make a great layout for my album”! Last week I was at my local scrap booking store and noticed some adorable paper tags by “My Little Yellow Bicycle” that were shaped like ticket stubs. Some were printed and some had blank spaces for journaling. They would be a great addition to a lot of my pages, but I didn’t buy them because as my family knows, I save everything from our trips to add to my layouts.

My Disney Scrapbook albums are filled with receipts, ticket stubs, Keys to the World, napkins and park maps. In spite of the hundreds of photos I take and scrapbook for my layouts, I still buy postcards to add to my pages. Especially useful to me are postcards of the nighttime parades and fireworks as I still have not been able to take photos of them that are “scrapbook worthy.” My kids know I’m a collector of things to go in my scrapbooks and will gather mementos for me while we are traveling too. At the end of each day at the parks they will happily hand me any papers or stickers they have saved for me to put in my bag to take home and use in our albums. I will never forget one trip years ago when my son (then 9) and I were at the Magic Kingdom for park opening. We were near the front and one of the cast members handed him a handful of Mickey confetti to throw into the air after the countdown. He solemnly handed me some of the confetti for me to use in my scrapbook. I explained to him that I wanted him to throw it all into the air, but he was determined that I should save some of it. We debated back and forth for a minute until a kind lady beside us had finally had enough and said, “you know you can BUY the Mickey confetti in the park, don’t you?” We laughed and thanked her, and my son took back his confetti and had a magical moment throwing his sparkly Mickey confetti into the air. Of course, I took pictures and scrapbooked that moment when we got home.

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TWO PAGE LAYOUTS

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Friday, April 29, 2011

Most of my scrapbook layouts are 2 page. I have so many photos and memories I want to share that I usually need 2 pages (sometimes more) to tell my story. The most effective 2 page layouts have a unified look with the design flowing from one page to the next. You want the viewer to instantly know the 2 pages go together.

One way to unify the pages is to have a border that runs horizontally across both pages. You can use ribbon, a strip of paper, or even a pen or marker line to do this. You can place the border along the top, bottom, or both top and bottom of the page to achieve this look. To add a Disney feel to your border, cut it with “Mickey” scissors. I bought mine at Walt Disney World during a vacation, but I see that you can purchase online through Disney.

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PORTALS TO WALT DISNEY WORLD

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Friday, April 15, 2011

As a Neurotic Disney Canadian Mom, I constantly strive to find Disneyesque experiences for me and my family. Whenever we go to a city with a Disney store I always insist we visit. Before entering, I close my eyes and let the Disney music from inside the store fill my mind. When I open my eyes and enter the store I let myself imagine I am in the Emporium. Yes, it may be smaller, but in my mind I am walking the aisles of my favorite Walt Disney World store. To me, the Disney store is my own private portal to WDW.

This last weekend I was amazed to find another portal. My NDD10 was competing in a large Dance Competition in Blue Mountain Resort, near Collingwood Ontario. I had not visited the area since my own childhood and was anxious to see the area. The competition and our hotel were situated in the “Village” which is the touristy area at the bottom of the main ski runs. The temperature for the weekend was in the mid 20s Celsius. (which is in the 70s Fahrenheit) but the ski hill was still open due to the fabulous base of snow.

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GLUING DOWN YOUR MEMORIES

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Friday, March 18, 2011

You can add memories in all shapes and sizes to your layout with the proper adhesive.

At a recent crop at my local scrap booking store I began to notice all of the different types of adhesives available. I was working on pages for my last WDW trip album, and was busy trying to affix my keycards, receipts, and napkins to my pages and realized “there must me a better way to do this.” I went on a search around the store and was thrilled to see all of the choices available to me.

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PLANNING A DISNEY DRIVEN CANADIAN VACATION

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Friday, February 25, 2011

Planning a trip to Walt Disney World can be an overwhelming experience for even the most seasoned travelers, but planning a trip from another country–in my case Canada–can add even more stress to the organization process. In my case, there is even more stress as my DH is known to be a nervous traveler.

My DH is a fan of Disney, but, in spite of all of my attempts to change him, he just doesn’t “get” my obsession with Disney and my constant need to be planning our next trip. I search out airfare prices and discounts on WDW packages, and he firmly states that we need to work on some things around the house and that we can’t afford another trip. I save our pennies along with him, and he firmly states that we need to fix our vehicles and that we can’t afford another trip. You see the pattern. When we finally have the money set aside for a possible trip, and I have found the best possible deal for our family to indulge in a little Disney magic, I can finally get my DH to agree to a family trip to my “Happy Place.” This works out to a Walt Disney World vacation every 2 years.

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SCRAPBOOKING RESOLUTIONS

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Friday, February 11, 2011

A recent Scrapbooking article that I read talked about making Scrapbooking Resolutions for the New Year. It listed a variety of ideas that a Scrapbooker could adopt as their own resolutions for 2011. It made me ponder…Do I need to make some changes in my own scrapbooking? Have I found myself in a creative “rut”? I looked over my recent pages, and then looked at some completed albums from a few years ago to see how my style has changed. I then made this list of things for me to try to do this year in my Scrapbooking. These are my 2011 Scrapbooking Resolutions:

1. To use new combinations of colours in my pages:  Traditionally, my Disney pages have the likely red, yellow and black combinations, and my Christmas pages are red, green, and gold. I see that I need to think outside of the box and try new colours together. I also need to try colours that I normally veer away from. I see now that I don’t use much brown in my pages. My next layout will have some brown paper in it!

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JOURNALING IN SCRAPBOOKS

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Friday, February 4, 2011

When I first began scrapbooking (although in hindsight, I now realize that I have always “scrap booked” my old sticky albums) it was so my family’s memories could be told to future generations.  I didn’t want my future grandkids and great-grandkids to wonder over a bunch of un-labled photos in a box or album.  As a young Mom I wanted to tell “my story” and to share the special moments my Hubby and I had with my children to future generations.

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DISNEY SCRAPBOOKING – SORTING PICTURES

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Friday, August 20, 2010

My local scrapbooking store writes an article for the local advertising supplement in our town newspaper.  One of the latest articles talks about how to simplify scrapbooking by sorting your pictures.  I scrapbook chronologically and I complete two albums per year, with the exception of my Disney trip albums.  (they deserve their own special albums of course!)  Back when I took my photos with my 35mm camera, I had many more photos to search through in order to find ones to scrapbook.  I would take my film down to the local store and would automatically order doubles of them all.  It was always a surprise to see which pictures actually turned out, and which ones had someone’s eyes closed.  Now that I use a digital camera I still develop many (my hubby thinks TOO many) photos, but I crop and mentally plan my layouts as I pick my pictures to scrapbook.

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NEUROTIC DISNEY SCRAPBOOKING – TRYING NEW THINGS

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Thursday, June 24, 2010

I go through phases with my scrapbooking.  I can scrapbook for months, my dining room table never being cleaned off, and then I will put it away and will simply peruse my crafting magazines and websites for ideas.  That may go on for another few months and then I will bring out the paper, pictures, stickers, and adhesives.  My scrap booking also goes through phases.  I will do a layout with pictures laid out in grids with lots of square angles and like it.  The next thing I know I have done my next three layouts to look similar.  I sometimes need to re-adjust my thinking to try something new.  (I do the same when planning my advance dining reservations at WDW.  I seem to fall back on comfortable dining habits instead of trying a new restaurant!)

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NEUROTIC DISNEY SCRAPBOOKING

By Mary Beth C. (NDM#6) | Published: Friday, June 18, 2010

As I have befriended many on-line NDI (Neurotic Disney Individuals) I have realized another bond that connects many of us.  Many (if not most) of us also scrapbook.  We scrapbook our trip pictures, our family pictures, and we love to memoralize our daily lives with our pictures, stickers, diecuts, and albums.

My love for all things Disney began with my first trip to the Magic when I was 8.  My love of all things scrapbooking began 12 years ago when I was looking for a way to display my pictures from my 5th Wedding Anniversary trip to WDW.  Coincidentally, a friend invited me to a Creative Memories party right after our return from our magical Second Honeymoon.  I debated going to the party, and tried to think of excuses not to go.  I finally gave in and took my required 6-8 pictures to my friends house.  Once there, I listened to the presentation about scrapbooking and I was mesmerized!  I knew that I needed my pictures to do more than just sit in an album–I needed them to tell my story.  My DS was 2 at the time, and I wanted these pictures to relate my feelings about my memories for him to read and admire long into the future.

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