Telling a story

As I stated in my very post, one of my recent projects is creating a marriage album for my husband using Plant Your Story and Live Your Stories collaborative Grow with Love: Marriage Edition series of prompts. It would have been truly amazing to have participated in that class when it was given (in 2010 I believe). Grabbing a class the next time one comes around is on my to-do list most certainly.

A few things I've realized in doing this:

I journal on layout better with a thoughtful prompt. I need more than a piece of word art, I need a whole paragraph to get my mind working. Those that can take a single word and come up with an interesting story have my admiration because I simply get stuck. I need someone to give me their lengthy perspective in order to do the same. I need another's narrative to quell the noise in my environment and in my own head. I need to be engaged in order to put words on paper. I thank the stars for people like Sara Gleason and her collaborator, Crystal, for setting up these guides for people like me.

I can put a layout together quickly if I don't have to write anything, but after discovering the world of journaling, those layouts seem flat to me. I get the art for art's sake whole-heartedly, but this series has changed the way I approach a layout. I want whomever happens to flip through one of my albums to understand why a particular photo or memory was important to record. When I look at other people's layouts, I'm always happy to see journaling. For instance, when scrapping a photo of a child, I instinctively (as mom especially) know why you'd scrap a photo of your child. Unless there is journaling, I have to wonder why you picked that photo, at that moment to scrap. Was it just parental pride (the same that inspires you to carry a wallet sized photo in you wallet)? Was it because you took a really great photo? Was it because your kid is doing something cute in the picture? What is it that sets the photo(s) in question apart from the thousands of other photos you have?

I realize that this a personal choice/feeling/approach and that not everyone feels the need to tell stories. I'm not at all saying that your doing it wrong if you don't journal. For me, there is a drive to tell the story. It's part of who I am. The other side of my love of stories is that I want to know yours. I see a layout without journaling and try to imagine the story behind it. Granted, there are some really great layouts where the story is so very easy to get just through the art itself. Those are probably the best of the best because telling a story without words is just plain... WOW. It's art in its purest form. As for me, I don't want my kid to wonder... plus he's autistic, so inferring the story through pictures isn't so easy for him.

The last thing I've discovered is that Sara Gleason AKA Zinnias and Swallowtails is probably my favorite digi designer at the moment. All her kits speak to me... The colors, the elements, the word art, her style... it all says "Carrie, you NEED to scrap with this". I'm not normally a one kit scrapper, but when it comes to her works I find myself being a one kit scrapper. For whatever reason, her kits provide me with everything I need for a layout I'm working on.

As I said in my last post, your emotions at the time you are scrapping have a way of showing themselves on the layout you are working on... well, when I scrapped this layout you are about to see, it was a good day. I was listening to OWN's Master Class while scrapping the majority of this page. The show was featuring Morgan Freeman (the-ever-since-I-was-a-child-people-have-enjoyed-the-sound-of-my-voice-guy). I was oddly relaxed and inspired by him. Morgan Freeman is good for scrapping! He's also a compelling story teller:

Credits: Sara Gleason Olive Tree, Fonts Hobbes, Cinnamoncake

"A" is for aroma

I was hoping to get this post up yesterday, but as Mother Nature would have it, my allergies flared up in the midst of unseasonably warm weather. I'm terribly allergic to evergreens which are currently enjoying the weather tremendously and prompting them to propagate with each other. I'm allergic to their tree sperm. Oh well.

The good thing about yesterday is that an all new Digi Files came out!! It's larger than last months collection totaling over a gigabyte of scrappy-goodness. If you aren't a member-- what is wrong with you?!!? Seriously, you need subscribe. I'm actually a bit overwhelmed with the all new kits. Where do you start with that much new stuff? I want to use them all at once... life is hard.

I completed my first Life-A-Bet page yesterday. It's all about the aromas of my life. I may re-work live with the page later because I happened to have a really stressful day yesterday on top of my allergies. That happens when the pharmacy doesn't work for you and your kid doesn't have his ADHD meds (just one issue, believe it or not!) Whenever I have a tough day it seems to show up in my layouts. Buy hey, at least I got it scrapped! As much as scrapping is my creative Calgon, it sucks up whatever emotions I'm feeling. So this layout probably looks a little forced and uncomfortable because that's exactly how I felt. I know its not the best, but if we are all about documenting our life authentically, then this shows I'm not at my best all the time.

Why did I pick aromas for "a"? If were doing a traditional Project Life, I would have included the things that make my life smell good... those things make me happy. That's what this alternatives is about: documenting the little things in my daily life that would otherwise get no credit. In thinking how to explain the why to you, I thought of my nieghbor. When you open my neighbor's front door, you are hit with a wall of cinnamon, dried leaves and mulberry. It's distinctively her- red, feminine, strong yet not over-powering. That about sums up her, her kids and her husband pretty well. Our home's scent is so much different than hers... maybe the polar opposite. My mom-in-law's house smells like cucumber melon, so I can't ever smell that scent without thinking about her. See? Aromas play a large part in our life.

Next up will "B"... and will probably have to do with our budget or what we are buying...  I haven't decided just yet. You'll be the first to know!

What will you be scrapping this weekend? Picking up any goodies? Happy Scrapping!!

P.S. Blogger's formatting is a mess tonight, so if you want to see the credits, they are on my flikr.com page.

Project Life Alternative

Like many scrappers, I started the year out with enthusiasm for Project Life (or P365...whichever you prefer). I was thoughtfully taking a daily photo and regularly transferring them into my well organized Project Life laptop folders. That lasted 3 weeks. Boy was I proud of my stick-to-it-ness. I felt like super-mom!

Life started to get busy again. I started the Valentine's album for my hubby. My kid had his medication adjusted and my hubby started having seizures more frequently. The cat started protesting the stress by peeing on the floor. As you can imagine, I started completely spacing the daily photo taking task I'd assigned myself.  I forgave myself for it... a lot.

After Valentine's Day, I realized or maybe accepted that, while some people have the mad skills for the full on Project Life, I don't. I want to, but I have other things that absolutely come first before scrapping. Because of my full plate I have to choose what stories are important to tell. I have to choose which scrapping projects are most important to me. That choice was fairly easy: The Grow with Love Series for the big and little guy in my life and preserving my dad's baby book. Oh, and probably something for my in-law's 50th wedding anniversary in June. Project Life was the very last thing on my list.

I LOVE the idea of Project Life, which is telling the stories of our everyday. Telling the stories that get lost when we scrap birthdays, holidays and big life events. To know a person, you really need to hear the story about the time they watched all 145 episodes of The Office on Netflix in three days or how every other night their husband makes a Ben and Jerry's run (my favorite flavor is vanilla). The small tid bits, like how I always drive on particular road because of it's huge willow trees and fallen down red barn, make me happy. We all have a public presence that is made up of our private, behind closed door selves. Project Life is about taking that private self and putting it out into the world for posterity... or at least for your family history.

I have been thinking about my scrapping goals lately.  When you are faced with the whole life-death thing, you think silly things: like what you want your step-children and your child to know about their dad. I find these things are very mundane-- like how my husband organizes the DVDs in alphabetical order. It's part of who he is... and the kiddo and I un-arrange them because that's who we are. The main bullet point being that's the importance of project life: The whole is a sum of its parts. I decided I needed to come up with a way to tell those stories while working on my other projects.

So, I've decided to a lighter version of Project Life...   For me, the structure of the project is supposed to keep you focused and motivated. If I left it up when I had time or when the story crossed my mind I would never, ever get it done. I know me, I know my faults and limitations. I need a guide for the journey or else I get lost.  In bed last night (I was obviously awake. I have a bad habit of staying awake long enough to make sure my husband doesn't die in his sleep) the format hit me. Instead of having the photo inspire the scrapping, why not have the words be the prompt? Why not create the words in alphabetical order? There are 26 words in our alphabet... so why not tell 26 stories?

I'll call it Project Life-A-Bet. Each week, I'll scrap a letter of the alphabet. I wrote down the words I will be using and will share them with you. If you want to do something like this I don't think you should necessarily use my words, but surely they can be a guide if you like. "A" will obviously be my first page, for which I've picked the word "Aroma". Smell is one of the most powerful senses. I know what my kid smells like, I know what my hubby smells like, my cats, my mom and dad, my mother-in-laws house, what the seasons smell like, what my hometown smelled like... smell is an integral part of our memories. There are whole industries dedicated to aromas... I will be scrapping the aromas that define my life.

After that will be "B", so on and so forth. Feel free to join me in this project (and share your ideas and layouts). I'd love to know how you make Project Life fit into your busy world! Have you come up with an alternative that works for you?

P.S. Tomorrow is a new Digi Files!! I'm so excited!!
 

Scrap friends?

I don't have any real life friends who like to scrap, but I would really like that. The truth is that my husband is probably tired of listening to The Digi Show with me. He's wonderful for letting me ramble on endlessly about all things digi scrap-- best husband ever-- but I'm sure he'd be happy if I found a friend or even crop group with which to have the bulk of these conversations. Or maybe I will have to teach him how to scrap? Ha!

Frankly, I'm not good with the forums. I try, but I don't come off well. Since it takes me 20,000 hours to write on paragraph and because I get so distract-- oh, shiny!-- ed, forums are a difficult place for me to connect with other scrappers. You know that person who gets a pity reply? That's probably my post. I can't figure out if I'm just boring, snobby, weird or all three. After being in the trenches of Chiari and Autism for so long, I have a hard time forging good decent first impressions online. I'm also such a geek that I'm sure I come off as a big, know-it-all dork.

I decided to look for crops in my area. By my area I mean in a 50 mile radius around my house. Of the three events I found, only one looks like non-business event. If you are trying to sell paper scrapping supplies to a captive audience, having a digital scrapper showing off all the money saving perks of the hobby probably wouldn't be welcomed. I did shoot out an "would it be bad for business if I attended" email to two of the crop organizers. The third is really out of my budget travel and registration wise.

I do love the idea of meeting other scrappers face-to-face out my house. It would be nice to focus on something I enjoy for a few hours once a month. I want to get out of the house for recreation occasionally. I want to scrap without having to cook something in between. But I'm not sure that I will find a good fit anywhere because I scrap on my computer and have no plans on buying anything at an event. I just wanna eat and breathe scrap with other adults.

Maybe I'll just have to make my own group? Do other digi scrappers scrap off line at crops? Do digital scrapping and real life groups just not go together? Is digi scrapping a hobby where all your scrap friends live in your computer? Is it normal to want to meet other digi scrappers in person?

I'm updating this to add one of the replies I've received:

Hi carrie....I don't have an issue at all with digital scrappers
  We just ask that u bring your own extension cord.  We actually do have a digital scrapbook weekend vendor....heritage makers.  Hope to meet you soon.


Yippee! I'm off to google the vendor now!! 

Let's get schooled!

Wanna know how geeky I am? I'm so geeky that I've been thinking about going back to college to study graphic design because I want to scrap better. Sure, I could take some of the scrap classes on the web, but if I'm going to shell out a few hundred dollars to do that, why not get a grant for a scrap education? The prerequisite English courses and the math would actually help my journaling and my critical thinking. (I need all the help I can get!) I'm not aiming for a career, I just want to be a better memory keeper.

I found that our community college offers a degree in the area of design that scrapbookers use. Isn't that crazy? Isn't it wonderful?! So perhaps in the fall I'll be a student again... Part of me thought the idea was funny because  ... well, my family. I recently had a talk with one of my nieces about her after high school plans. (I'm pretty sure she has none, or has other plans beside college but won't own up to them-- everyone has their own path, but if you can't own it you probably are walking the wrong one). She seems to have the fall back answer of "two-year college" and maybe here. There's a chance we will go to the same college! That made me laugh.

I expect my side of the family to make fun of the fact that I'd be studying graphic design because everyone knows you can't do anything with an art degree (gee, I've heard that before and learned later it wasn't true!).
Yet, here I am... ready to re-enroll. The more I think about it the more I want to do it. It speaks to me. Scrapbooking speaks to me. It's where I go to be happy. Plus it'd be really cool to learn what I love and not have to pay for it (I'd qualify for grants out the ying-yang).

In other news, I was surprised by my hubby over the weekend. Seems he matched my modest scrapbook supply budget for the month. I got some fabulous kits at Oscraps.com and Scrap Orchard.

Sara Gleason aka Zinnias and Swallowtails came out with a beautiful kit called Tea Rose, available at The Lily Pad. I adore her work so much and am in the middle of her Grow with Love: Marriage Edition. They have a kids edition I will be doing for my son's birthday in April. I HAD to have her new kit. The only problem? The Lily Pad does not like mistakes. If you make two mistakes while trying to checkout (common for someone with dyslexia), you get banned from making purchases until an administrators unlocks your shopping cart. In this case, I had the remaining balance on my gift card wrong by a few cents. By the time I realized it... LOCKED OUT!!

That would be fine if it didn't take so long to resolve the issue. By the time the administrator fixed it my scrapping time was gone. It really sucked because I had created my layout around that particular kit. Instead of working on my hubby's special album, I decided to scrap my mom's photo:








I plan on having it printed and sent to her as a special surprise. She's had it rough lately, so I know it would lift her spirits.

Until the next time I can geek out with you!!!

My very first prints

First of all, I'm starting this blog with a big "Happy Valentine's Day"!!!

Yay!!!

 

My sweet surprise from my hubby-- CREAM EGGS!!!!

Everyone should be so lucky to be as loved as I am! It's my wish for every single person on Earth, really. Love rocks. So does scrapbooking, by the way. For my Valentine's Day gift for my husband I combined several of my favorite things: My kid, love, writing and digi scrap. I am proud to say that I've printed my first ever digital layouts.

I was very worried about how the layouts would turn out in hard copy. Thankfully The Daily Digi has a ton of information about printing layouts. A few days before I was ready to take that leap of faith into printing, The Digi Show devoted an entire episode to printing. Those gals really gave me the reassurance, confidence and bits of information I was lacking to enter into the unknown territory of paying for printed layouts.

I think printing for the first time is something I'll remember forever for many reasons. It made digital memory keeping more than a hobby-- it made it a living history of me and my family. It is a living history that our whole family can enjoy in the present and in the future. Having a husband with a terrible brain issue, I feel it extra important to keep a running record of our life. These specific prints are about our relationship (from the Grow with Love: Marriage Edition). Now all the kids will know our history not just as parents, but as people. And the idea that the album may inspire our children to be inspired by love, to learn from what we've learned about love and loving inspires me even more. Printing takes this offline and brings it into our world, making a solitary hobby into a family activity.

(Heard in my house recently: You should scrap this [mom or wife]!)

It's interesting to note that whilst I was awaiting my layouts to arrive in the mail, my father sent me a letter from a relative that keeps our family tree. (He's traced the family roots all the way back to 1000 A.D.) The letter was sent because this relative of mine was given an old family bible. If you are unfamiliar, it used to be (and maybe some still do this) that a family bible was where important family events were recorded-- births, deaths, marriages, and special achievements -- probably the original form of scrapbooking, really. Scrapping the Good Book. Anywho, the letter from this relative stated that the bible was in a terrible state of disrepair. He removed the pages with the family history, threw out bible then transcribed all the information from the aging papers. One item included in the bible was my Great-Great-Great Grandfather's citizenship certificate. He was naturalized in 1862, then joined the Union Army New Youk Mounted Riflemen's company in 1863. He was discharge from the army shortly after the end of the Civil War.

Without memory keeping, genealogy would be a giant pain in the rear.  We wouldn't know the stories that transform our ancestors into actual people, family members even. I can stare at my family tree all I want, read the comments, but I wouldn't get the story without the journaling, clippings and records kept in that bible. That letter and it's wealth of information reinforced why I scrapboo;. Sure, I love the art and creativity, but it is so much more than that...

Long story less long, I received my prints on the 13th from Persnickety Prints. With bated breath, I opened the package. I pulled the prints out of their nifty plastic cover:






They were simply stunning. I cried a little. When my husband saw his gift he cried a little... they were proclaimed the most special thing ever, the most touching thing anyone has ever done for him. Now he's excited for the rest of the layouts to printed and to see what I come up with next. Once this album is done, I'm moving onto two new projects: The Grow with Love: Kid's Edition and scrapping my father's baby book (which was the only item I inherited from my Grandmother when she passsed... a probably the best gift ever.)

Enjoy your Valentine's Day!!

P.S. Thanks to Katie from The Daily Digi for featuring my layout on today's post. You can see the post HERE.