New Thing #261--By Request

An e-mail from a friend arrived in my Inbox last week. It was sent to me, along with about a dozen other people. It said:

A SPECIAL REQUEST FOR MY BIRTHDAY

My 60th birthday will be here soon, and I have a special request. I want a scrapbook with a page from each of you. The scrapbook page should contain something from you - not necessarily a birthday message or an ode to me - rather a graphic or written presentation of some special time that you and I have spent together - a fond memory, a time we shared with our kids, some great conversation we had........

I'll be sending a scrapbook page to each of you with a return envelope...I am waiting enthusiastically for the scrapbook page that you'll make for me.

I didn't have to wait for the mail; I saw my friend later in the week and she gave me a envelope large enough to almost cover the passenger seat of my car. In the envelope was one large (and very blank!) scrapbook page. I'm not particularly good at this kind of thing, so I spent a couple of days pondering just what to include in my project; today I made a scrapbook page for a friend's birthday.

I've done personal and professional activities with this friend, some of them with children and some without. I was able to break the activities into four main categories, so I divided my page into four sections. Each section's background pertained to the category. For example, we've done a lot of walking together, so that section's background contained walking shoes. When I wasn't able to find what I was looking for at the store, I created some of the backgrounds by using clip art (copying and pasting it multiple times to get the effect I was going for).

I couldn't find any pictures of my friend and me together, so I relied on mementos, computer graphics, and a few 3D objects to create some texture. Tony even got into the act, giving me some great suggestions when I came up short (amazingly, I could NOT find clip art of two women walking for exercise!) and printing out a couple of things for me.

I had all the pieces spread out on the island in the kitchen, and one of the cats decided that it would be a great idea to sit on top of my work; I told him that wouldn't be a good idea, and decided to keep everything in the bag when I wasn't working directly on it. Eventually the page was done, and I was able to slide it in the envelope one last time.

I can't wait to deliver my scrapbook page!