Nancy O’Dell’s New Scrapbooking Book is Full of Love #Spon

Nancy O’Dell wrote a scrapbooking guide titled, Full of Love, Mom-to-Mom advice for enriching families with simple photo albums and scrapbooking. It is a must read for anyone who has a story to tell. The book is a result of a partnership with Nancy O’Dell and Creative Memories.

Nancy O’Dell’s Unique Perspective

In the 14+ years I have been scrapbooking, I have read hundreds of books about scrapbooking. I figured there wasn’t going to be a lot in this book that I didn’t already know. I was so far off!

Nancy O’Dell has a very unique perspective on scrapbooking. She comes from a family of scrapbookers going back four generations. She writes about her mother’s scrapbooks making her feel loved. Her mother left her 53 scrapbooks when she passed away. I can’t imagine a better gift to give your children.

Telling Stories

As a journalist, Nancy is the perfect person to talk about telling stories. She describes being a reporter as “telling other people’s stories.” As scrapbookers, we tell a lot of stories about ourselves and others. She equates journaling to interviewing yourself. She has a lot of advice about interviewing and storytelling. I know my scrapbooks will tell better stories because of her advice.

My favorite chapter was her interview with Dr. Kenneth Condrell, a nationally knows child psychologist, family counselor and author. Dr. Condrell explains why the scrapbook albums we create for our kids can improve their self-esteem, build confidence and strengthen family bonds. He calls it,”a parent’s secret weapon.”

Full of Love also includes chapters on the following topics:

• Taking Better Pictures. Nancy interviews her friend, Ulrica Wihiborg who is the assistant editor at People magazine and a professional lifestyle photographer.
• Tools and Techniques. She offers tips on the basic tools and not-so-basic tools she uses for scrapbooking. All the products are Creative Memories products. I put her “Go naked” tip saved me time and put the focus back on my stories.
• Album Page Layouts. Lots of sample layouts with products used and explanations. Nancy includes a lot of her own personal pages she has created. Everything from her wedding, family moments to the red carpet and interviews with celebrities.
• Our Albums. Nancy talks about her mother’s scrapbooks, her own scrapbooks and why she scrapbooks. She is a working mom of 3 and shares her tips for finding time to scrapbook. She carries supplies with her so if she finds herself with a few free moments, she can do some scrapbooking.
• Foreword By Garth Brooks. Beautiful words written by her good friend.

Her Simple Formula

Nancy O’Dell has a very simple formula for scrapbooking. I have created a page around the quote because it’s something I want to remember when I’m scrapbooking. It’s my new scrapbooking motto.

Better Stories + Better Photos = Better Albums

This book is so much more than a scrapbooking how-to book. It re-ignited my love for scrapbooking and gave me a new perspective on how I create my pages. She shows you how to do so much more than create layouts. She shows you how to create stories.

Full of Love is a must-read for scrapbookers and anyone who wonders why we scrapbook or would like to scrapbook. Full of Love retails for $19.95 and is only available through Memories.

Full of Love Giveaway

Creative Memories provided me with one copy of Full of Love to giveaway to one of my readers.

To Enter, leave me a comment below with why scrapbooking is important to you AND tweet this post using the pink retweet button below. Only one entry per person.

Giveaway will end at 5:00 pm ET on December 30, 2010. I will randomly pick one winner and you will be notified via e-mail. You will have 24 hours to respond or I will choose another winner.

Full of Love Changed How I Scrapbook

I had the pleasure of meeting Nancy O’Dell earlier this year. She and I both participated in the EA SPORTS Active challenge. I attended her March of Dimes charity auction. It was very obvious that evening that she loves what she does and she is a genuinely beautiful person both inside and out. Her family and friends are very important to her. This also comes through in her book because she is very true to herself. Her love for her family comes out in her scrapbook pages.

As I was looking at the pages she created, I realized that I wasn’t looking at the stickers or the color of paper, but instead I was reading her journaling and looking at the pictures. Her stories definitely came through in her pages. It has changed my perspective on how I will scrapbook going forward. I often spent a lot of time worrying about getting the right embellishment. Not anymore. My focus will be on the stories and the pictures.

Nancy O’Dell’s Hummingbird Scrapbooking Line

In a partnership with Creative Memories, Nancy has created a full scrapbooking line, Hummingbird Series. It is available for both paper and digital scrapbooking through Creative Memories.

Disclosure: Creative Memories sent me one copy of the Nancy O’Dell’s Full of Love book to review and one to giveaway. All opinions are 100% my own.

Related articles

• Nancy O’Dell Debuts New Scrapbooking Guide (celebritybabies.people.com)