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Highlights:
~Album featured at Children's Miracle Network fundraiser
~Design Teams and Creative Teams:
~Featured business in Worthington Daily Globe newspaper
~Featured Mom Entrepeneur at MomtobeDepot.com
~Feature article in Edgerton Enterprise-Front page news
~Feature article at Hall of Fame Moms
Children's Miracle Network:
The featured album is shown on the table in the left layout. The album was created for a little girl that had open heart surgery when she was only a few months old. Click on images to enlarge
 
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PRESERVING MEMORIES
Remembered Moments is a custom scrapbooking venture for Edgerton woman
By Julie Buntjer Worthington Daily Globe
 
EDGERTON-In today's age of digital cameras and home computers, people can build up quite a stash of images that they never get around to printing much less putting into photo albums or scrapbooks.
Who has the time to transfer all of those photos into keepsakes like scrapbooks and memory boxes?
A rural Edgerton woman does.
Julie Vander Pol left a full time job in engineering a few years ago to become a full time mom. With a knack for creativity, she expanded on a custom scrapbooking venture and discovered a niche that allows her to stay home to be with her kids.
Most of her business is conducted via the Internet, especially since she is relatively new to the area. She and her husband, Mark, moved to rural Edgerton from Michigan about a year ago, after Mark's parents retired from farming and he took over the operation.
Vander Pol created a studio in the basement of their farmhouse, where she designs her own scrapbook pages and has work space to create both traditional and digital scrapbook albums, shadow boxes, birth and wedding announcements, photo calendars and a host of other products.
"My main thing is people send me their photographs and I create a scrapbook, photo or memory album for them, " she said. "I can also make copies for grandparents (aunts, uncles or others)."
On her website, www.remembered-moments.com, Vander Pol has a variety of products and options available for customers.
"I design (scrapbook pages) all around the photographs. It's all unique and whatever people want designed for them," Vander Pol said.
She posts progress of scrapbook orders on her website, giving customers their own personal link to view their pages as they are being made.
There are several different options with the scrapbooks-they can include traditional pages filled with unique embellishments to the digital pages, which are created on the computer and are printed out on paper so the pages lay flat. A variety of page and scrapbook sizes are available, and hardbound albums are also an option.
"There's lots of samples on the website of different things I make," said Vander Pol, adding that she even gets requests to make things that aren't displayed on her site.
Vander Pol gets ideas for her designs from a variety of different sources. Even things like seeing clothing displays gives her ideas on what colors work well together, and she can incorporate them into her projects.
One a project is complete, Vander Pol said it is up to the customer to add their own personal touches, such as writing little stories for the pages or writing captions for the photos. [although journaling can be done for you]
"I really encourage people to use their own handwriting," she said. "I leave a spot for them to do that." [if desired, or it can be done for them]
Scrapbooking has become increasingly popular in recent years, and Vander Pol relies on scrapbook supply stores throughout the are to purchase the products she uses in her craft.
"People see scrapbooks but they don't have the time or the (creativity)," she said. "I just think it's so important for people to preserve their memories."
For more information about Vander Pol's business, visit her website, www.Remembered-Moments.com, email Julie@Remembered-Moments.com, or call (507)220-0682
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LOCAL WOMAN FINDS NICHE WITH CUSTOM SCRAPBOOKING BUSINESS
by Jill Fennema
 
Do you have a box full of photos at home just waiting to be remembered? Or do you have a computer full of images that have never made it to paper?
Digital cameras can really make life easier – no film to buy, no need to go to the photo finisher. The problem lies in the fact that it is just so easy to leave all those images stored on your computer or worse yet, on the camera card.
Have you ever thought about how many of your memories would be lost if your hard drive went bad?
Local home-based business owner, Julie Vander Pol has a special business designed to help people preserve their memories. She has a custom scrapbooking business that she runs out of her home.
Mostly, she creates custom-made, personalized scrapbooks (also known as professional scrapbooks) using photos and memorabilia brought to her by her customers.
Some of the other items she makes are shadowboxes, cards, invitations and birth announcements, and other business and personal portfolios.
Her creativity extends beyond cutting and pasting paper and photos and the bits and pieces that make up the pages of a memory book. She also creates custom digital photo albums, which are designed entirely on the computer and then printed on a quality laser printer.
Julie and her family – which includes her husband Mark, and two children Alexia (3) and Tytus (1), and a new baby due this May – moved to Edgerton in October 2007. They live on the farm that Mark’s parents, Vern and Mina Vander Pol, retired from. When his parents moved to town, Mark moved home to farm.
Prior to this, both Mark and Julie were mechanical engineers, Mark working full-time and Julie worked part-time. She also did scrapbooking on the side at that time.
“I had several people say that they wished someone could scrapbook and create
memory albums for them, since they either didn't have the time, didn't like to scrapbook or have the creativity,” Julie said, “Thus Remembered Moments was born.”
“I thought I could help many of these people out-I had many years of experience and thought this was a great way to help other people while doing what I love.”
One of the albums Julie created was featured at a Children' Miracle Network fundraiser.
She created an album for a little girl who had open heart surgery soon after she was born. The book was about her surgery and recovery.
Julie really enjoys the flexibility of her work and being able to be home with her children. The room where she does all her “paper-crafting” is in the basement of her home. The room is not only her “office,” but also the kids’ playroom.
But having the kids in her “office” and trying to manage her time – between being a wife and a mom and a business owner – is the challenging part.
Julie said she does most of her creating in the daytime, and most of her book work, marketing, and computer work in the evening hours. She is self-proclaimed night owl, so she enjoys that she doesn’t have to get up early to go to work every morning.
As for her projects, she says that she loves nearly every project she has done, and they have all been very different. Every client is different, with different tastes and personalities, so each project has a unique theme and feel to it.
“I also love the 'odd' requests I get-for example I just created custom made napkin holders out of wine corks from a wedding,” Julie said. “I was happy to create them – just goes to show, I do all kinds of special requests. You never know if I can do it until you ask!”
Julie still takes the time to scrapbook for herself. She uses her personal stuff to test her ideas. She added that most of her own books are digital, but she still creates many traditional, paper mini-albums and altered items.
She is also on a couple design teams and creative teams and for those
assignments, she always uses her personal photographs and memorabilia, so that forces her to get own scrapbooking done, too.
The design teams she has worked with are designers and/or manufacturers of paper scrapbooking products, cards, digital scrapbooking kits, etc. By doing design work for them, she can get free or discounted projects in return for her creations.
If you would like to contact Julie regarding a custom scrapbooking project, wedding invitations, or even a website design, you can reach her at 507-220-0682 or at julie@remembered-moments.com. She also has a website: www.Remembered-Moments.com
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All items are from a smoke free and pet free environment 
