Randi's Review	Rebecca's Review	Penny's Review	Lynn Anne's Review	Robin's Review

Review by Randi

Bluegrass Publishing has blessed the scrapbooking world with many poem/quote/sayings/title books. As part of Scrapping With the Kids month, we've worked with two more books from this publisher

1. Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! Volume 1
2. Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! Volume 2

Both books measure about 6" x 9" and have in excess of 350 pages each.

Volume One has stories, quotes, titles, and poems that are primarily about babies and very small children. You'll find it all here from pregnancy through birth, adoption, and lots of holidays and baby-ish happenings! Some of the content is applicable to older children. My five-year-old has been fascinated with gardening this year and so fun to watch! This poem struck home with me:

Every child is born a naturalist.
His eyes are, by nature,
Open to the glories of the stars,
The beauty of the flowers,
And the mystery of life. --R Search

Title: Loving Hearts Bloom
Products used: Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! Volume 1, Bluegrass Publishing
Loving Hearts paper, Be Blessed
Prismatics Cardstock, Prism Papers
Paper Flower, Prism
Leaf, Petaloo
Permanent Bond Glue Runner, Adhesive Tech

In Volume Two you will find mostly content that is past the baby stage. You'll never be without a title or instant content for your layouts again! You'll find sports, bedtime, school, birthdays, pets and little creatures, holidays, special outings, and tons of everday subjects sure to spark ideas for layouts with photos you have just lying around.

I especially liked that I could copy a poem and Tikvah was able to use it on her page quickly and easily. This is so great for our younger scrappers who have a difficult time formulating the words for their journaling!

Title: Layout by Tikvah, 5 years old
Products used: Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! Volume 2, Bluegrass Publishing
Grungy Basketball Paper, Scrappin' Sports 'N More!
Cheer and Varsity Sticker Letters, Scrappin' Sports 'N More!
Black Medium Weave Magic Mesh
Frog Adhesive Runner, Ad Tech


Title: Layout by Tikvah, 5 years old
Products used: Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! Volume 2, Bluegrass Publishing
Patterned Paper, Pocket Full of Posies Stack, DCWV
Iced Yellow Prismatics Cardstock, Prism Papers
Ribbon, Tie One On Ribbon Club
Permanent Bond Glue Runner, Adhesive Tech

And finally, I just could not resist this cute squirrel poem and creating a layout with it documenting the abundance of whacko squirrels we have at our house these days!

Title: Squirrel
Products used: Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! Volume 2, Bluegrass Publishing
Westminster Collection, Tinkering Ink
Exclusives and Metallic Cardstock, Prism Papers
Brown Zig Photo Twin Marker
Permanent Bond Glue Runner, Adhesive Tech

You can type the poems creating it with whatever font and size you desire, or you can simply scan the book and print. I did both in our projects. I plan to take the books to the office supply store soon to have it drilled and fitted with a spiral binding. This will make scannning so much easier with a book that lies completely flat.

There are just so many great ideas in these books. They are my favorite of all the Bluegrass books to date. Check them out for yourself!

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Review by Rebecca

Have you ever found yourself at a loss for words when you were scrapbooking? Maybe you couldn't think of the perfect title or you wanted to find a poem or quote but didn't know where to look. I know that there are online resources such as the ScrapFriends quote wiki, but what if I don't want to go online? The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! is the resource for all those words you need to say!

Linda LaTourelle and Bluegrass Publishing have created The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! Volumes I and II. Each book is a soft cover book with over 300 pages of thoughts, verses and sayings. Volume I is for birth through preschool while Volume II covers topics that are appropriate for K-6th/Grade School.

When I received the books I placed them in my crop tote so I could have them within my reach when I was scrapping. I like that the book is 8.5 x 5.5 inches because it does fit conveniently in totes and bags. Each book has a table of contents that makes it easy to find the subject you are looking to scrap about. The book is easy to read because of the font style and size. I found myself flipping through the pages and even the photos were a handy eye catcher! At the end of each book there is a biography section with information, including website addresses, on the contributing writers. Finally, there are also a couple "Favorite Quotes" pages with blank lines so that I could write some of my own favorite quotes.

To use the Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! I first found photos that I wanted to use. After finding a picture of my kids I knew I wanted the page to be about sisters. I found a poem by looking under "Siblings". I wrote the poem on a sheet of lined notebook paper and added it to my layout for the perfect journaling.

Title: Sister
Products used: Quote (Bluegrass Publishing, The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids!)
Mini Album (Around the Block)
Patterned Paper (Around the Block)
Sticker (Around the Block)
Ink (Tim Holtz Distress Ink)
Mesh (Magic Mesh)
Pen (Zig Writer)
Rub-Ons (Rubons by Craf-T)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

For my second project I decided to start with The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids!, Volume II. I went through the pages finding and found a poem that I liked. I found a photo that would be appropriate and I scrapped it. This process might seem backwards but it would be a great idea for some of the everyday photos that don't match a specific theme or event.

Title: Dare
Products used: Quote (Bluegrass Publishing, The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids!, Volume II)
Mini Album (Around the Block)
Patterned Paper (Around the Block)
Sticker (Around the Block, Leaving Prints)
Brad (Around the Block)
Pen (Zig Writer)
Ink (Tim Holtz Distress Ink)
Mesh (Magic Mesh)
Rub-Ons (Rub-ons by Craf-T)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I do like that The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! includes translations of family words into Spanish, German and French and that it includes Bible verses as well as quotes and poems. Personally, my own style of scrapping does not include using many poems as I prefer that text of my layouts to be made up of journaling. However, I would use the poems if I were creating gift albums or cards. Also, there were some titles and poems that are pretty common and I wouldn't need to see them in a book to think of using them. Examples would be "Daddy's Princess" and the ABC or Happy Birthday songs. I also noticed that there were a couple titles that were duplicated in both of the volumes, but I did not notice any duplication with poems.

Bluegrass Publishing has created a quality resource with their Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids!. The pages are filled with verses, poems, quotes and titles. However, for $19.95 I believe that this book would be best utilized by a scrapper whose style includes using poems in their layouts or a scrapper who is often at a loss of page titles.

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Review by Penny

Bluegrass Publishing has done a remarkable job with its Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids!, Volume 1 (2004) and Volume 2 (2005) books. Each softcover book contains over 380 pages full of poetry, blessings, expressions, titles, rhymes, proverbs and more, including poetry from well-known authors, Linda LaTourelle and Thena Smith and quotes from notable public figures like Phyllis Diller, Thomas Jefferson, Erma Bombeck and Homer Simpson. Volume 1 focuses on the baby through preschool age while Volume 2 deals with topics relating to elementary school aged children. Each book is priced at $19.95.

Title: Imagination
Products used: Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids, Vol. II, p. 224 (Bluegrass Publishing)
Patterned Paper (Around the Block, BasicGrey)
Transparency (Hambly Screen Prints)
Die Cut (Cricut "Jasmine")
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
Other: Ribbon
Quote: "One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination."

Locating your topic of interest is easy with the alphabetical table of contents in the front of each volume. The range of topics covered are broad and plentiful including adoption, bedtime, boogers, daydreams, fighting, freckles, ice cream, jump rope, teddies and teeth. I had been searching for a quote about fishing for one of my scrapbook pages without success so I was impressed to find one inside Volume 2 that worked perfectly.

Title: I'm Glad
Products used: Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids, p. 141 (Bluegrass Publishing)
Patterned Paper (BasicGrey)
Die Cut Alphabet (Cricut "All Mixed Up")
Pen (Uni-Ball Signo)
Stickers (Creative Imaginations)
Poem: I'm glad the sky is painted blue
and the earth is painted green
with such a lot of nice fresh air
all sandwiched in between.

The books include some of our well-known nursery rhymes, verse, scripture and stories. Some of these did not appeal to me, such as the poetry containing more historical language such as “thee" and "dost" and stories that were quite long and specific, limiting their general usefulness. However, the variety of humor and observations contained within these volumes have a great range that will appeal to everyone. The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! series is truly a treasure trove of gems ready to shine!

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Review by Lynn Anne

The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids, Volumes I and II, are not the first products I've used from Bluegrass Publishing. From transparencies used to embellish pages to quote books and other tomes, I've not had much - if anything - bad to say about their publications. Unfortunately, I took an almost immediate dislike to Volume I of this two-book series due to an unfortunate omission - purposeful or accidental, I couldn't say for certain - and found it a little difficult to look past that to enjoy either volume as much as I might have (even though the problem with the first book was corrected for the second volume, published a year later).

In general, these books follow the format of other scrapbooker-assisting books from Bluegrass Publishing, which is to say that it's filled to the brim with quotes, titles and cute little poems marketed for use in scrapbook pages or handmade cards. Contributors (who each have a bio in the back of the book) include perennial favorite Thena Smith, whose fun rhymes are some of my favorites throughout. The writings are useful as page accents or to replace original writing for the journaling-shy, and they range from lighthearted and irreverent to sentimental and sometimes tear-jerking. Each volume has over 360 pages of child-related goodies, with Volume I marked "Birth through Preschool" and Volume II marked "K-6th, Grade School." Pieces may be retyped or rewritten, or possibly even photocopied for use, as they are printed in pleasing, easy-to-read fonts. (These volumes contained more typos and spelling-type errors than I remember in other titles, so double-check before you photocopy just in case.) Though there are age-specific pieces in each, I found them to be interchangeable in many ways, so that I actually found more to use in the K-6 volume even though neither of my children will hit Kindergarten for a couple of years. And if you come across pieces you like from other resources, each book even includes some blank pages at the end where readers can add their own favorite quotes.

One thing to note that's not explicitly mentioned on the book jacket is that there is a definite Christian flavor to the book, beginning with the dedication and continuing with sprinklings of "Jesus" throughout. Christian Faithbookers will find this an affirmation; those of other faiths will have to take the extra step of altering an otherwise-appropriate poem for their own use. A number of the religious poems start off appealing to a broad audience before taking a religious turn, such as a lovely relationship poem in Volume II I thought I might use as I was reading it...until it suddenly ended "Just like Jesus." Those sharing the author's exuberant Christianity will enjoy including these pieces in their books. Others may cut and alter as they like.

The bits I used from the Celebrating Kids! books were easily altered to make them fit with the specific uses I had in mind for my pages. One suggested page title, "A Place in the Sun," became "Our Place in the Sun" on a layout about kayaking with my daughter. And on this Fathers' Day layout, I substituted the word "Father's" for the "Mother's" in an original piece by LaTourelle.

Title: His Father's Treasure
Products used: Prismatics Cardstock by Prism
Title inspiration from Bluegrass Publishing's The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! Vol. II by Linda LaTourelle
Papers by CherryArte (arcade collection)
Cardstock by Prism
Ink by Ranger and StazOn
Markers by Stampin' Up!
Permanent Bond Glue Runner by Ad Tech

But here's my beef with Volume I. When something is named an "Ultimate Guide," isn't least a basic comprehensive-ness implied? So when talking about the birth of a child (and onward), wouldn't it be important to include Mothers...and Fathers? In a glaring omission, there are sections dedicated to Mother, Siblings, Grand-Family, Step-Family, Foster-Family, and even Single-Parent Family...but NO Dad. Poring page-by-page searching for something to use with recent photos, I found a handful of mentions in other sections - one I found in a Christmas ditty, one in a quotation about dad being angry...finally I did find two nice pieces on a page in the "Songs" section. But for Dad to be practically omitted from a volume like this is incomprehensible. As I mentioned earlier, the error was corrected by Volume II - (the book contain a disclaimer than errors will be corrected in future volumes) - but it's unfortunate that editors did not catch and correct this before Volume I was published. Beautiful pieces were included for Dad in Volume II, and I sincerely hope that any future reprints of Volume I will be amended to give Dad his due as well.

Our four-year-old, Ralph, may be unable to read all but a few words so far, but that didn't stop him from using a piece from Celebrating Kids! for one of his layouts. We went to the Zoo to celebrate Dad on Fathers' Day, and one of the attractions was a 'farm' area with pony rides. Both children wanted tickets, but Ralph is much more cautious when trying new things than his sister is...meaning that despite his fascination, he chickened out! He couldn't stop talking about his sister riding the 'horse' though, and when we got back some photos from the outing, THOSE were the photos he really, really wanted to put in his scrapbook! I trimmed the prints for him ("Make these really small!"), and he placed them on the page and embellished them. We then directly photocopied a "giddy up, horsey!" phrase from the pony-ride section of Volume I and adhered it as a page accent.

Title: Kaycie Riding a Horse!
Products used: Cardstock by Prism
Toodles shapes by Tie One On Ribbon
Black Medium Weave Mesh by Magic Mesh
Quote photocopied from The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating Kids! Vol. 1 by Bluegrass Publishing/L. LaTourelle
Permanent Glue Runner by Ad Tech
Cowgirl Dora stickers by Sandylion
Permanent Bond Glue Runner by Ad Tech

Volume II, K-6th, I enjoyed as a pretty thorough resource, with a variety of subjects and attitudes appropriate for the age group listed as well as younger children, in many cases. While there are good resources in Volume I as well, I can't see recommending Volume I in its current condition to anyone whose children have a father. When paying $19.95 for a paperback resource book, one shouldn't immediately have to look elsewhere to include the most important man in baby's life. It would have made for a nice baby shower gift otherwise - there's a lot in there about what to look forward to when raising a baby, and mothers-to-be might have enjoyed poring through it while waiting those last long weeks of pregnancy to meet their new baby. As a source of inspiration, these books are useful both for looking-up items needed for a particular piece, or even as a poetry book to read in the evening while putting baby to sleep...marking your favorite for use in the scrapbook another time.

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Review by Robin

I have been scrapping for quite awhile now. I have always liked idea books to jumpstart my scrapping. So when I found out we were receiving two books from Bluegrass Publishing I was excited to say the least!

We received 2 books. The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating KIDS! and The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating KIDS volume II! Now these are not your regular idea books, these books have titles, poems and expressions in them. They are both by Linda LaTourelle, but there are some poems and sayings from other people. The original KIDS book says it is from birth through preschool and volume II is for K-6th grade. But I found that both voulumes of KIDS have some sayings, titles and poems that can be used for other ages. The table of contents of each book will help in determing where to find what you are looking for. In the original KIDS subjects like Toddler Tantrum to Teddies to Bath Titles are listed. In volume II of KIDS subjects like Insects, Boo Boo's to No Girls Allowed are listed. These really help in finding what you are looking for quickly. Alex and I had a blast just reading through these books. They were very inspirational in helping with ideas for our pages.

Here is a layout that Alex did with a Princess Poem from the The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating KIDS! The poem is from page 36 and is called Princess of Everything. Alex picked it out after picking out some pictures of her sister playing dress up and I typed it up on the computer and printed it.

Title: Princess of Everything
Products used: Book for Inspiration and poem (The Ultimate guide to celebrating KIDS!, Bluegrass Publishing)
Bottlecaps (EK Success)
Magic Mesh (Magic Mesh)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Froggie Glue Runner)

Here is a layout I did with the title and poem coming from The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating KIDS! The poem is from page 171 and the title is from page 22.

Title: You Bet I'm Cute
Products used: Book for Inspiration and poem (The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating KIDS!, Bluegrass Publishing)
Patterned Paper (Scrapworks)
Flowers (Bazzill)
Brads (Making Memories)
Transparency (3M)
Alphabet Stickers (Scenic Route)
Nemo Paper Piecing (from a swap)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Glue Runner)

I also made a scrapbook Canvas for my Sister-in-Law to give to my brother for Father's Day. He loved it and the saying was PERFECT! It was from The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating KIDS! volume II page 131.

Title: Family
Products used: Book for Inspiration and poem (The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating KIDS! Volume II, Bluegrass Publishing)
Canvas (Canvas Concepts)
Paint (Making Memories)
Patterned Paper (Chatterbox)
Brad (Making Memories)
Family Tag (We R Memory Keepers)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Glue Runner)

These were much different idea than I was used to but I LOVED them!!! I never realized that inspiration doesn't need to come from pictures. It can come from words. Alex poured over these books everyday for over a week. She loved reading the poems and funny sayings. She says that they are great for kids as well as adults. So we both give the books 2 thumbs up. Keep on putting out these great books Bluegrass Publishing!! These books have a permanent place in our craft room.

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