Oh girl, I've been in the same boat for over a year now! In fact, I caught up on a years' worth of stuff during the summer, and stopped just shy of doing my son's 4th bday party. Well, his 5th bday party is in two weeks! So now another year behind! I've found the only way I can really do stuff on my own is to go with a clean-cut look. I use the straight line cutter for all cuts (which is a shame with all those fancy scissors and stuff I have). I double mat the pics in two different colors to make them look a little more special. I use a lot of ribbon (I run in through the Xyron sticker maker and it leaves the perfect amount of adhesive and I can get them where I want relatively easily). And of course lots of stickers. I try to buy stickers that can be layered or grouped so it looks like I did something neat (a combination solid backed and color edged mixed with velum and no edge stickers really can do some neat things). I can't really use the "tools" anymore or any of the punches. I even got the ProvoCraft Silent Setter thinking it would be easier to do the holes, gromets, and brads and things, but it's too much twisting and pushing, which is nearly as bad as the hammering. I do miss punching and stitching the paper as well (I think there is a machine that does that now? Not sure). The only way I've been journaling is to type it up and print it out (my handwriting is pretty crappy too). For headings, I use letter stickers. Those used to seem like a real waste since you always end up with tons that you don't use. So I started buying all kinds of letter styles and sizes in black and white only. Then when you mix and match the different types, it looks really good. It also helps that I have my own photo printer so I can print the photo to the size I want and not have to deal with trying to use a light box and template to trim them down. Several people have tried to talk me into digital scrapbooking, but no thanks... there's nothing like the real deal! And I sure do miss doing it all the time!