So, about 1 year and 8 months ago I gave pretty much every single picture I have of my son from birth to 5 years old to a "friend" that I met when volunteering at the red cross because she said that she wanted to do a scrapbook for me. There were bunches and bunches of pictures (I am kind of a picture freak) anyways, I did not ask her to do this she just wanted to. So I have been giving her money periodically to cover costs for the album, supplies, etc. I don't really know a whole lot about scrapbooking so I don't really know how much all the stuff costs that it takes to make one. So anyways, all this time has gone by and off and on over the course of a year (I am not volunteering there anymore) we are emailing back and forth about it and she keeps saying that she is working on it, sorry it is taking so long, but it is going to be so cute (I am still sending her money) so now a year and 8 months later I just finally say I really need the book/pictures back we are having a family gathering and everyone will be bringing photos to put around the room and you have everything I have for my son and she says that the book was in a storage room and she will have to try and get to it and then gives me this big sob story about how everything is going wrong for her right now. So, tonight she comes to my bakery (when I was not here, I told her I would be leaving at 4 and she shows up at 5) and leaves the items with my husband. So, I come to my bakery tonight, so excited to see what was here and I have a loose book (front cover and back) with 15 loose pages that have been "scrapbooked" and then envelopes full of the rest of the pictures. None of the scrapbooked pages indicate his age so I am going to just have to guess the order. I was just so annoyed with this, she kept saying she was almost done and this is what I got? I went thru all the payments that I have given her over this time and come up with $250.00. then I got a message from her saying that she still had some embellishments that she had bought with my money and she will try and get those to me sometime if I wanted to finish the book myself. WHAT, I DON'T SCRAPBOOK, I just don't have that talent, that and the fact if I try to pick up where she left off it would be obvious. I just could not believe it and I am not sure if I should voice my frustration to her. What do you all think? Am I over reacting?

Wow, so sorry, I can tell your very frustrated as I would be also. That's a long time to hold onto someone pictures and not do a heck of a lot. I might be inclined to ask her what she spent the 250 dollars on for sure. Scrap booking supplies can be very exspensive depending on where you purchase them. On the other hand you can get some very cheap too like at the dollar store. I would ask her for some reciepts or something. It doesn't sound like she spent a lot of money. I would also have her return the embelishments, maybe a family member or a friend can help you put his together. What ever you put together it will be fine.

Kat

NO you are not overreacting, YES you should ask for - no, DEMAND receipts for her purchases, and then seek the aide of someone else talented in the craft to help you finish. Politely tell this "friend" that you are disappointed because you counted on her and felt you gave her plenty of time and if she didn't have the time to do it, she shouldn't have offered in the first place. Don't let her off the hook.

I'd be MIGHTILY PEEVED!!!!

I think you should ask for the difference in what she spent on supplies and what you paid her. I can't imagine she bought $250 of scraping material.

If you want to finish it, take a scraping class at Michael's or Joann's. That seems like a good place to start.

Wow.........this makes me sick-to-my-stomach-mad. You definitely need to ask for those receipts..........however..........I'm sure she'll have another sob story to tell about those. This is just so unfortunate and I hope in the end you have a great scrapbook to show off.

i agree. scrapbooking stuff is expensive but what she bought was certainly not 250.00 you should ask her what she spent the money on. clearly she isnt much into scrapbooking either since she didnt finish the book for you.

I'm sorry you had to go through that, and I'm sure she probably had good intentions.

I have done only one scrapbook, so I'm not an expert. I know the stuff "can" be expensive, but an experienced scrapbooker knows where to find the deals. Besides, they usually have stacks upon stacks of stuff, like my sister does, unless it's something they haven't done before, of course.

The one scrapbook I did. I spent less than twenty dollars on. I bought a kit at walmart, that had everything in it, and instructions of where to put everything. My uncle had just passed from cancer, so I took all the pictures of him my mother had and made the book for her. It took me all of um.. 5 hours, tops!! and that is because I had to scan the photos, crop the photos, fix the lighting, take out scratches, etc.

Now, I'm sure if I were doing a good scrapbook, it would probably take several weeks. I was just throwing this together for her. I didn't write in it, but I supplied the acid free pens and left appropriate places for her to write in it herself, since I didn't know my uncle very well.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, yes it takes a lot of skill to do a fabulous scrapbook, and those "may" take quite a while, and end up being very expensive, but you can also make a pretty decent one with very little time and money. So, be sure of what you got. I don't know this person, so I hate to presume the worst of her, I actually would like to believe she made you an extremely exquisite book, but be sure, so you can maybe get your money back.

You have the book, look around at the craft stores and walmart, and you can see what was put into it. She may very well have used some very expensive material.

Good luck, and I truly hope this turns out well for both of you.

Holly

p.s. I really hope you got all your photos back in one piece. I made sure my mother got all hers back exactly as she gave them to me. I photocopied all of them and printed them on photo paper after cleaning up the images.

Im sorry to say this, but I think she just has been using the money for something else. If she gave you just 15 pages that would average about $16.66 per page. If I was in your position I would certainly ask her to explain how she spent the money. I would most certainly ask for receipts and if she try to give me one of those: "...I am going through difficult times", I would tell her: "I am sorry you are having problems but, I don't see how that relates to the money I gave you for the scrapbook which you volunteered to do".
Don't feel sorry for her no matter what she tells you, because she just has been taking your money and using it for something else. She is no friend, if she were your friend she would have talked to you face to face and give you an explanation.
For me is not even the matter of the money but the principle of this situation. She just has been lying to you for a whole year and getting money out of you for her own use. Let me tell you, with friends like that, who needs enemies?

This is a bunch of crap........ she took your money and did nothing. I bet she threw all that together as soon as she realized the jig was up....and spent your $250 on lattes & spa pedicures

I am an avid scrapbookers and back in the day ( 5 years ago, lol ) the supplies were harder to find and more expensive. Now they have the stuff at Wal-Mart for a steal or at the dollar store for, well, a dollar. There is no way the woman spent $250 on supplies or even half that unless she is using french vellum and 24k gold eyelets! It is unacceptable for her to do this and I would be well & truly pi$$ed ~ I would also be confronting her about this & not taking any of her sob stories. Sorry but this story actually made me mad!

yeah, I think I have just been stewing about this whole thing. And it really is not about the money because I planned on giving her like $100 when she was done, just for doing it for me. The pages that she did do look GREAT and I love them, I think that I am just more mad at the fact that she has had this stuff for over a year and she only got thru the first 2 years of pictures. And I would try my hand at the whole scrapbooking thing, but it really just is not my thing. Give me a cake and icing and I can go to town all day every day, but not so much with photos. Oh Well, what is done is done - I think that I will send her an email though and at least let her know how disappointed I am.

Man- that's just awful! Honestly, reading your story, though, I was soooo worried it would end in her having lost or damaged your pictures! At least that's one small thing to be grateful for...I think you should definitely say something about it, but I wouldn't plan on seeing any of that money again any time soon...What an awful thing to do to someone- even if she had good intentions, she should have just told you earlier that she wasn't going to be able to finish it in any kind of timely manner and offered to give you your money and pictures back!

At least you did get your pictures back. That's great. And you can spend a fortune on supplies, I know. I had to get a wide carriage printer, and a laser printer, plus tons of graphics to do the few I have done. It is fun. Now I have a 5qt red Kitchen Aid mixer to add to my 6 qt and 4.5 qt. Aren't addictions fun!

Have you ever had the best of intentions and then things just went south? I sure don't know the ins and outs of this gal's situation, but it sounded like she really wanted to do something nice for you and while doing it her life took a rough turn. Maybe it sounded like a sob story because you were peeved but maybe it was just the truth and she got overwhelmed with life. I do scrapbooking at times and it can be very expensive. If your first impressions of her and her effort were positive, I would say, give her the benifit of the doubt, love the pages she did, thank goodness you got the rest of the pictures back and let it go. This may just well be a time in life where she needs a little graciousness shown to her and you just might be the one provided to give it. This is just my two cents.

PennySue, please don't think I'm flaming you....I would love to wholeheartedly agree with you in all aspects of this story but one: The timeframe involved according to the OP is 1 year AND 8 months. I'm sorry - sure life can take a turn or two and some of them bad. But if you hold on to someone's money this long to do a project you yourself offered to do, and life hands you lemons, don't wait 20 months for the person to ask you about the project in question before trying to twostep an answer about why it isn't completed, and then produce an unfinished work and expect the person to just be gracious and let it go.

tdybear1978 first of all let me tell you that scrapbooking is not like cake decorating. If you can decorate those beautiful cakes, you can definetly scrapbook. I am an avid scrapbooker and like you take tons of pictures and I don't think I can make the beautiful cakes you make, you are so talented.
I'm sorry this lady did this to you, I scrapbook about a book per month. some of my books are 100 pages, I have 2 grown kids and 2 grandkids and the camera in my bag always.
Take the time and sort out your pictures, put them on a page and the embelishments are not that expensive. The most expensive item is the album and of course the supplies, but if this lady was a scrapbooker I'm sure she had the supplies, honestly SHE RIPPED YOU OFF!!
Best luck next time.

well, fortunately - I had already sorted all the pictures out by year from birth to 5 years old and it looks like she still has all of them in the envelopes. I have now gone thru the entire book (which had not even been bound together, everything is just loose) and it looks like she got up to 2 years old. I am just so frustrated, I am afraid if I say something to her it just will not be nice at all. I even found a $1 dollar bill in there that I gave to her last year when I opened my bakery (it was the first dollar I earned) because she wanted to frame it and make something real neat around the frame, well I just found the bill floating loose in the bag. pffft

Tdybear,

Just wanted to put my two cents in on the matter. While I can see how you would be upset at how many pages she finished this is just as time consuming as decoratig a cake. I am a avid very experienced scrapbooker. Just off the top of my head I have over 6,00.00 dollars easy in material this does include a cutting machine. I can easily go & spend over 30 dollars & hardly have bought anything. Paper average is 70 cents to 1.30 a sheet. Flowers 5-10 dollars a package. Adhesive is 5 dollars and does not go far. I have friends that charge anyway from 15 to 25 a page & does not cover materials. Alot of our work is published in scrap book magazines & some even work for the design teams for large stores & maufactures themselves. I actually went & did this last night I was gone for 6 hours and only managed to get 5 pages done. Please don't think I am making excusses for your friend. I am merly trying to inform you what all goes into it. However she should have leftovers from the embellishments I would ask for them. Let us know what happens.

Well, there is about 15 pages done and each page has only 2 pictures on it and not a whole lot of embellishing but there is some (they are very cute) BUT, as I was going thru the pages I was having a little hard time pulling some of them apary. This probably due to the fact that she said she had all of this stuff in a storage unit somewhere and I beliieve what may of happened is that the glue has melted and is trying to adhere the pages together, I had one picture that tore and some of the embellishments have glue seeping out from around them (it has been very hot and humid here). I really have no problem about the money thing, I know it can get very expensive, I think my problem is that a gave her $250.00 it has been 1 year and 8 months and this is what I got back and only got it back because I lied to her and said I HAVE TO HAVE IT FOR A PARTY ON SATURDAY - I NEED MY KIDS PICTURES TO POST WITH THE REST OF OUR FAMILY'S PHOTOS. I know lying is not the way to go but I have been asking for this for over a year now. Sorry to sound so whiny

tdybear,

I hope you did not think I was making excucess for her. I missed the part that she had it that long. That is a long time to have so little done. As far as the glue factor you are completly correct in what happened. She may also have stacked them on top of eachother right after they were completed. I would just explain to her you were a little dissapointed & she what she says. Also I would try to get any left over material she may have used. I can guarantee she has plenty. Hope this helps. I would be intrested to see what she has to say.

I was thinking the same thing aurasmom and kitty were thinking. When I first started reading your post, I thought, "holy cow, she isn't going to get her pictures back at all." I'm really glad you did. As far as the money goes, it doesn't sound like you'll get it back unless you take her to small claims court.

Sorry to be so pesimistic (sp?). I'm just glad you got your pics back. I went through the same thing with my photographer with my daughter's wedding. The pics were about 6 months late and I never recieved the video. I'd be a lot more upset but she got a divorce after a couple of years.

Wow! I have spent a lot of money on scrapbook supplies over the past 10 years. It's not hard to do, but $250 would have made one heck of a scrapbook! Paper is always on sale, and when it's not it's really only $.59 and under per page for printed. You don't need a whole page of printed to make a nice page, in fact I think it's too busy that way. Use it as half a page or for details, but use cheaper cardstock as the background so that your pictures stand out. I'm getting off the point......anyway, I wish you were near me so that I could help you finish your scrapbook! Look around your area for a local scrapbook store or even an Archiver's. They have crop nights where they will help you finish pages, or you can just use their table area and work on things yourself, but they will be there to help as needed. Maybe this can be the start of a new hobby for you.

Thank you michelle for letting me know about going to scrapbook places for help. I really want the book to be finished, this just is not really my thing. I think my problem is that there are just too many things that you can do and so many possibilities and I have such a hard time deciding what route to take and it seems to be so hard for me to be creative and artistic when it comes to scrapbooking. I was kind of thinking about just finding some of those already made pages where you just add the pictures to them (I know I am such a dissapointment haha)

Thank you michelle for letting me know about going to scrapbook places for help. I really want the book to be finished, this just is not really my thing. I think my problem is that there are just too many things that you can do and so many possibilities and I have such a hard time deciding what route to take and it seems to be so hard for me to be creative and artistic when it comes to scrapbooking. I was kind of thinking about just finding some of those already made pages where you just add the pictures to them (I know I am such a dissapointment haha)

another thing you may want to cinsider they have magazines you can use those for insipration as well. good luck

well, I am in oklahoma so where ever any of you avid scrapbookers may be, feel free to come on down

Heh, I'm not avid, but I like doing it once in a while, for a special occasion. Sadly, I'm in Georgia, but too far to drive for me.. hehe



Holly

for those of you who were curious - I sent an email to my "friend" who blessed me with my $250 unfinished scrapbook - basically telling her that I loved the pages she did do but was very disapointed that she did not have more done. I told her that she may get mad at me for saying this but I just could not believe that after the 3 "free" cakes she had me do for her and the $250 I gave her I just could not believe that this was what I got and then I told her to just keep whatever supplies she had left that was bought with my money as payment for what work she did do on the book.

She responded, "I am really sorry that you feel this way, I am not mad at you at all but I can understand why you are upset, by the way there really was not much supplies left that I bought with your money. Again I am sorry that you are not happy."

I could not believe that was all I got and what was with the "not much supplies left" part. So I just said, "Well, I hope that you do understand why I am upset because I think that I have every right to be and I am sorry but there may not be much in the way of supplies left that was bought with my money but there really was not much in the way of the scrapbook you gave me."

I guess I may have seemed too harsh, but I am done with it now. Anyways, just thought I would update those of you who were curious at how this would play out. Thanks everyone