Today’s post is from my good Heritage Maker’s friend – Brenda Cruise from Iowa.  She’s a marketing genius and always the life of the party!  Enjoy Brenda’s list of how to make 2011 the year to capture and preserve your memories making precious keepsakes that your family and friends will treasure forever – thanks, Brenda!

It’s that time of year when we want to face the new year with a fresh start. We think a to-do list of sorts will give us the direction or plan we need to make these things happen over the next 365 days. Usually this comes in the form of New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve read that people often fail because we make too many resolutions and say all we can tackle is three tops. Others suggest choosing one 3-word mantra to live by all year long. Well, I like the idea of a Top 10 List but that just seems so…well, 2010! So this is my 11 for 2011!

1. Send more cards (at least one per month).

We all love to get snail mail, even more so these days with the dominance of e-mail. Wouldn’t it be nice to get/give cards more than once a year during the holiday hubbub? How about birthdays, anniversaries, new babies, graduations, Mother’s/Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc? Or all those times we think we should say congrats, thanks, thinking of you, get well, or whatever?

Sure you can stop by the store and get an off-the-shelf card to sign, stamp & mail. But why not take 15 minutes in your HM Studio to create a totally custom version that’s directly mailed to them? Wow! You can even use a photo of them in it?! Talk about personal and meaningful! My mission for 2011 is to send all my family & friends a custom card for birthdays and anniversaries this year (plus my annual holiday greeting).

2. Take a photo every day (Project 365).

I embarked on a photography challenge called “Project 365″ for 2010, which involved taking a picture every day of the year. I thought it would be no problem as I tend to take a lot of pics anyway but there were several days when I had to search for something (or “force” myself to do it just for the cause!).

But the results are pretty incredible. I have a whole year’s diary in photos! And I’ve been putting them into a storybook template with a quick caption and monthly summary highlight notes. So after New Year’s Eve ends, I’ll have an entire record of our past year. Sure, some photos are as mundane as what’s in my fridge but many are those “everyday” type photos you don’t think to take…but now that I have them, I’m grateful I did!

3. Journal daily (with Oh Life online).

Another project I attempted (confession: never finished) last year was a 52 Fridays Journal from the HM Template Gallery. I loved the idea of looking at my life at the end of each week. All I needed to do was type a few notes (paragraph or two) every Friday for the year and I’d have 52 entries summarizing my life. It seemed less daunting than starting a DAILY journal but I found myself skipping a week and then feeling guilty that I would be writing with a different perspective if I did it a week later looking back.

Recently I discovered Oh Life (http://ohlife.com/b) which makes it super easy to record your life! You set it up to email you at a specific time of day (I picked just before my usual bedtime). Then you just need to reply to that email with a quick summary of the day, or your thoughts or whatever. You can even attach a photo & hit send. Done deal. It archives all your entries on a private, secure site that you can view at any time. Plus, you can even EXPORT the text so I can cut & paste it into my HM storybooks and family albums to save more time!

4. Publish an annual album or Year in the Life storybook.

You may think I do this every year religiously but I have not in the past. I did once in 2005 and am just now doing my next one for 2010! I always felt like I took too many photos to fit in a “year summary” style storybook. I was overwhelmed by the thought of poring over so many photos & memories to capsulize it into the pages of an annual album.

But as I took the newest 12×12 “year in the life” template and began to plunk in my photos, I realized it was super easy & so fast! And I could click to add more pages to fit in more big events like birthdays, holidays and such. I didn’t have to stick to just a 2-page spread for each month! Woohoo! I’m having a blast putting our whole year into a single storybook.

I just started about 10 days ago but you could do that month’s spread (or 2) at the end of each month throughout the year so you didn’t have to face a full year’s worth come New Year’s! So while I won’t be clicking the PUBLISH button until after I put in the New Year’s Eve events, I will be working on it all year long so it’ll be less stressful at the end of the year (or in January).

5. Make at least one “special & specific” storybook per child per year.

Sure I publish plenty of books each year and my kids are in them but I don’t often make them a specific and special storybook. I did it last year and really love how they cherished their “own” special edition. The books were unique to them — their ages and our bond.

The year before that I made a “together” book of pics & pages with each child’s favorites, but the part I cherish the most is a full-page personal letter from me as their Mom that highlighted their lives at this point and how proud I was of them. Telling them you love them is important but showing them in a lasting way is too. This is how I can do that!

6. Publish at least one project every other month for someone else.

My greeting cards (see #1) can’t count. This has to be a storybook, a gorgeous gallery-wrapped canvas print, a fun flip book, a cookbook, a deck of playing cards, or something. That’s just 6 gifts per year and definitely do-able. While a storybook may take a little longer to create, I can crank out a canvas print or poster in less than 30 minutes. Or even just a cute scrapbook page that I can put in a frame and give to someone special so they get to enjoy the memory-lasting power of Heritage Makers.

7. Write my “Before I Was Your Mom” storybook.

Confession: This has been on my list before. I keep putting it off. I make excuses like I have to ask my Mom to find more photos from my childhood so I can scan them. Or I want to take my time reminiscing so I don’t leave anything important out. And I’m just not sure how to address my marriage and divorce in an appropriate way.

As a writer, I think of all the things I want to say and share with my kids. Then I wonder if they’re too young to appreciate it all right now. If I should write it for their ages at this point (8 & 5) and then do a “more adult” version later? Or just include it all and let them learn along the way? See my struggles? But instead of just hemming & hawing about it in my head, I’m going to find a template and start putting in the ideas and photos so it will begin to take shape.

8. Scan all my old print photos.

Then upload them into albums on my HM site so I can safely archive them & use them in my projects. Despite having my own high-speed scanner, I have not yet done ALL my old print photos! I keep finding another box of pre-digital pics or mementos I want to turn into JPGs. If you have shoeboxes and Rubbermaid totes of old photos, you may want to use my scanning services…as low as 19 cents each for 500 or more scans! I can even do double-sided so you can capture the writing on the back!

9. Scan all my old traditional “scissors & stickers” scrapbooks.

I’m halfway done with this one! I use my oversized flatbed scanner to turn my 12×12 sized scrapbook layouts into a JPG. (Yes, I can scan YOUR traditional 3-D scrapbook layouts too!) Then I place scanned image that onto a page in a 12×12 storybook and I can publish it as a thinner 2D version that is safely archived forever after. You can’t even tell!

The kids love looking at the “scrapbook storybook” and unlike the original 4-inch thick version, the half-inch-thick storybook is backed by the Heritage Makers Heirloom Assurance Guarantee…meaning it’s covered for life. If something happens to it (liquid spills, fire, kids markers, mice damage, etc), I can re-order a new version for just half price!

10. Take more “water” photos!

My waterproof Fuji Z33 ($150) can be taken in the bathtub, pool, lake, or on the ski slopes or boat or beach without worry. It does a decent job on photos & video clips, even while totally under water! I’ll be shooting all my snorkeling sightings on my upcoming Heritage Makers reward cruise for sure but I want to remember to use it with the kids in the pool, sprinklers, snowdrifts, etc. I think I’m so used to thinking of those places as off-limits for a camera, that I forget I have a camera that can do it

11. Take the pics then take care of them!

We’ve all heard from (or been) someone who has had it happen to them…the phone dies, the camera card (or CD) is suddenly unreadable, the camera gets lost, the computer crashes. All shocking losses to think of all those photos (& videos) gone for good! Our memories are priceless and need to be protected.

So I will get the photos off my phone & camera memory cards ASAP. I will immediately upload them into albums on my HM publishing account where they are safely and securely archived. You may also choose to use an additional back-up resource but beware that many of the online photo sites do NOT keep your photos in high resolution quality. Or they may charge you to get the high-res version back!

You can download your full high-res photo to any computer that you use to log into your HM Studio account. You can also share photo albums with friends and family. Remember, as much as well all love Facebook, it should NOT be your only photo sharing/saving resource!

That’s it! My 11 Resolutions for 2011! BuildYourHeritage.com’s Personal Publishing is a way to capture and record your life’s memories in an easier way that is more fun than work. Think about your photos from 2010. Where are they? What have you done with them? Why did you take them if you were just going to hold them hostage on your hard drive?

Let me help you turn those JPGs into amazing, incredible keepsakes that your family and friends will cherish forever after. It doesn’t have to be expensive, complicated or confusing. I’ll be your Personal Publishing Consultant in 2011 (& beyond) to teach you tips & tricks, guide you, motivate you, and make the whole process a ton of fun!

I’m very thankful for my 2010’s published projects. And I’m even more excited about my 2011 that will be told in photos and stories. Will you publish more of your memories from 2010? Start fresh and focused in 2011. Decide today. YOU are your family’s Heritage Maker!

“Yesterday’s memories. Today’s technology. Tomorrow’s treasures.”