Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking

How to Art Journal with Scrapbooking Supplies

I love scrapbooking. I am busy.  I also love art.  I am busy.  There is only so many things I can do.  I have to choose.  Somewhere along the way I decided I didn't have enough time for art.  I've resisted art journals, even though I secretly know I would love it.  I've been afraid it would steal me away from what I'm up to already.  Its a temptation I've been resisting (and not the paint kind of resisting).

Are you a scrapbooker like me who just doesn't want to open the pandora's box of art journaling because you are afraid of the time, space and supplies you'll need to add it to your already full plate?  I am.   But Here Goes:

I think maybe I've stayed away from paint because when the kids were small whenever I pulled out paint it quickly turned into a giant and fun, but giant mess for me to clean up so over the years I think I've been less motivated to get out the paints because of small children's short attention spans and the seriously quick way kids and paint can get everywhere.  My kids are a bit older now and I think my daughter would really love some art classes and for me to pull out the paint on a more regular basis; she's been in the paint on a daily basis for at least a month and she's been really good about cleaning up after herself.  So maybe its time to get back there to art or at least dabble a bit again.

I signed up for an art journaling class next weekend, I signed up my daugther too.  We are both excited.  My mind is already full of ideas about how I can use my scrapbooking supplies in art journals.  Face it scrapbookers, we seriously already have most of the stuff.  I'll dip my toe in and report on my art journaling journey. 

Tell me, do you art journal?  How do you mix it and/or keep it separate from your scrapbooking?  I would love to hear from you.

 

P.S. I'll have a winner on the 200,000 blog hits soon! 

P.S. Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

 

5 Common Reasons for Scrapbooker's Block and 5 Easy Ways to Solve It and Get Scrapping!

 

Scrapbookers, Imagine This:  You just received your print order, several envelopes of your latest and greatest pictures, and you now have a new and exciting stack of awesome photos just waiting to be scrapbooked!  There's the birthday party photos, photos from your last vacation, and some really adorable photos of your 8 year old.   You are all excited to scrapbook them!  You rearrange some things on your to do list and you somehow find 3 hours of uninteruppted scrapbooking time.  You put your photos in your photo organization system.   You get out your adhesives, scalloped edged scissors  and that new pack of embellishments shown at the last CHA.   Ready!  Set!  And Nothing.  Instead of "Go!" you are at at dead end STOP!  You stare at the dreaded blank page and then it hits you:  The Dreaded Scrapbooker's Block.  

Have you ever been hit with scrapbooker's block?  If you are a kid, chances are you haven't and you can stop reading and go play now!  But if you are a scrapbooker who is over the age of 18, then you might know what I'm talking about.  If you haven't experienced scrapbooker's block or perhaps you just need a definition for this frustrating condition, here's how wikipedia defines this common scrapbooker's ailment {please note I took some liberties with the "writer's block" definition and adapted it for our concern "scrapbooker's block"}:  

    "Scrapbooker's Block is a condition, primarily associated with scrapbooking as a hobby in     which the creative goddess loses the ability to produce new layouts.  The condition varies widely     in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in choosing how many photos should go onto     a particular layout or which embellishments to use for a visual triangle on the page to tie it all     together.  At the other extreme, some "blocked" scrapbookers have been unable to work for years     on end, and have been known to continue to buy supplies despite the complete stop of production     of scrapbooking layouts or mini books.  It can manifest as the affected scrapbooker viewing her     work as inferior or unsuitable, when in fact it could be the opposite. Scrapbooker's block is a     common affliction that most memory keepers will experience at one time or another, it is "an     inability to begin or continue scrapbooking for reasons other than lack of basic skill or     commitment".  

Who's been there?  I know I have, more than once.  Can I get an "Amen" scrapbooking sisters?

Scrapbooker's block can be caused by these five common problems:

1. Lack of Inspriation:  Oh sure there are dozens of inspiring projects on Pinterest and over at Two Peas, but nothing really "speaks" to you and your creativity just isn't sparked by anything - not even a glittery fire lit with hot-off-the-CHA-floor-patterned-paper by scrapbooking LOAD Coach Lain Ehmann herself.;

2. Over Awareness of the Audience:  Whether your audience is your own family or your online scrapbooking friends, you cant' seem to make anything because you keep thinking about what so-and-so will think of your completed scrapbook project so you just don't start or complete anything.;

3. External Circumstances like stress or health issues of the scrapbooker.  This will happen to all of us at one time or another.;

4. Sophmore Syndrome: Intimidation from a previous success.  Maybe you had a layout published in a magazine or recognized on an online scrapbooking gallery and now you are afraid to make another layout because you don't think it will be as awesome as the last layout.; or

5.  Perhaps the most dreaded of all "Trying to be Perfect":  You can't seem to do anything at all for fear that it might not be perfect and you'll ruin your photos, your supplies, or your own ego.

 Let's check in with wikipedia again and see what they say about the brain on scrapbooker's block {again I'll take some liberties and re-phrase to make it crafty}:

    "Scrapbooker's Block is more than just a mentality. Under stress, a human brain will "shift     control from the cerebral cortex to the limbic system". The limbic system is associated with the     instinctual processes, such as "fight or flight" response. Because the person is primarily thinking     in instinctual (learned) behaviors, creative processes are hindered. The person is often unaware     of the change, which may lead them to believe they are creatively "blocked"."

So enough of the problem, chances are you are just as familiar as I am with the causes or stresses of scrapbooker's block; what you really want to know is just how do you cure scrapbooker's block?

1. Take a Scrapbooking Class or Listen in on a Scrapbooking Group Discussion.

A few years ago I took Lain Ehmann's LayOut A Day (LOAD) Challenge and the exercise of making a scrapbook layout everyday for a month helped me get to a place where I could scrapbook no matter what; I think the key factor in this system is the short deadline. 

While I have been scrapbooking for well over a decade, I still take an occasional scrapbooking class to keep things fresh.  My favorite place to take online scrapbooking classes is Big Picture Classes.  I'm currently taking Stacy Julian's Twelve Class and Elizabeth Dillow's Twelve Challenges Class.

My favorite "Scrapbooking Discussion Group" otherwise known as a "podcast" is The Paperclipping Roundtable Podcast.   The Paperclipping Roundtable "airs" on itunes every week and is about an hour, topics include scrapbook organization, the process of scrapbooking, and scrapbooking tools and tricks.  Listening in always gets me in the mood to do some scrapbooking.

2. Keep a Scrapbooking Ideas Journal.

Whether you keep your ideas in a plain notebook, a fancy and embellished journal, or on your iphone; writing things down helps.  Even if you never go back to the list, the act of having written down an idea helps to keep it and grow it in your mind.  Depending on your personality, you may love or hate lists; but either way, try writing down ideas for a month and see if your ability to overcome scrapbooker's block improves.  My bet is that it will.

Pinterest is also a great place to keep ideas.  Major warning:  Pinterest is also a major time waster and can result in feelings of insecurity and inferiority since there are amazing ideas and photos there; so use Pinterest with caution.

3. Do some Free-Scrapbooking.

My husband often tells the story about how he was a bad student until he learned the trick of "getting ready" to do homework.  He'd tell himself that he was just "getting ready" to do some homework, he'd get his books and pencils, a snack, and sit at the desk; he didn't pressure himself to actually do anything, but, he says, once he was all set up and sitting there he'd do the homework.  Try that with your scrapbooking, get some photos out; get out some paper; don't pressure yourself to make anything but if you get even an inkling of inspiration, jump on it and go with whatever gave you that spark. 

Another idea is to make a card,  or a page in an ongoing mini book with a standard structure, or just to start doodling or punching or free hand cutting some patterened paper.  Just start moving and your brain will follow.

4. Just Do It.  Make a Page even if it is Not Perfect, especially if it is not perfect!  In fact, make an Imperfect Page! 

Take your worst, blurriest photo and the ugliest piece of paper you can find.  Make a page.  Just do it.  Once that's out of your system, you'll at least have done something.  The fact that its not awesome will give you the confidence to make the next one a bit better because it couldn't be any worse.  Just try it. 

In the alternative, set your kitchen timer for 15 mintues, and don't spend any time thinking, just do this:  1. Open your photo file and pick one without looking (1 minute).   2. Then pick a neutral colored cardstock, don't spend more than (30 seconds) picking.  3. Pick some letters, give yourself a minute.  4. Paste all that together (2 minutes).  5. Write something on the page - draw four or five lines and just start writing.  (5 minutes tops) .  6.  You are 8.5 minutes in and you can call it done if you like, but if you wish, pick a few embellishments and stick them down in a visual triangle (5 minutes tops). 

5. Find a Positive Place to Share Your Scrapbooking Work.

If you've been scrapbooking for any length of time, chances are your family has lost the level of excitement for your scrapbooking layouts that maybe they had in the beginning.  You need scrapbooking friends for this job my friend.

Feedback can be awesome, find a place where you can find some friendly scrapbookers who are at a similar scrapbooking skill level and share your work.  You can set up a flickr group or join in a variety of many, many scrapbooking communities online.  Or pick a few friends to be your viewing buddies. 

***

Want to hear me read this essay?  Check this out:

 

 I hope that this article has been helpful or at least a bit entertaining.  Please leave a comment to share your most common cause of scrapbookers' block and your favorite solution.

If you'd like to learn more about "scrapbooker's block" or even "writer's block", check out these affiliate links:

 

 

 

 

DCWV Layout #7: Spring Break

I've been working my way through one Die Cuts With a View Stack called "The Snapshot Stack" and I've challenged myself to create 24 layouts.  Here is #7 completed:

I didn't journal on this one because it seemed kind of self explanatory.  The embellishments are from the muffin tin I created for the  Stacy Julian  Twelve Class I am taking at Big Picture Classes so I just pulled some orange and yellow random embellishments to create a visual triangle.  So Simple.

To support this blog, please click through to one of the affiliate links for products used in making this page:

The Hunger Games Scrapboooking Challenge Series (Day 26): "I wish I could freeze this moment..."

Welcome Scrapbookers to the 26th day of The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge Series:

Note:  We're almost done!  I've planned 31 posts or a month's worth.  I'll pick this challenge up again near the time of the release of the next movie Catching Fire.

The Hunger Games Quote: "I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever."  Let's interpret this as scrapbooking contemporaneously or the present day, scrapbooking the here and now.  There are several ways to do this, most of them are ideas from Creative Keepsakes and Simple Scrapbooks:

Project Life (Becky Higgins):

 

A Week In the Life (Ali Edwards):

December Daily (Ali Edwards):

30 Days Hath September (Stacy Julian):

That was such a silly day, I'm glad I took the time to record it.  My kids love to hear funny stories about themselves when they were little and pages like this are their favorites.

I've also seen projects by Ali Edwards for a Day in the Life; Stacy Julian has also done "May Everyday"; and I think Becky Higgins has something about Project Lifetime which encompasses someone's entire life - which is not present day scrapbooking but it kind of expands out these time based scrapbooking projects.

If you'd like to support this blog and learn more from Ali Edwards, Becky Higgins and Stacy Julian, please click through to one of the following affiliate links:

 

How To Get Back in the Creative Zone for Scrapbookers

How to return to your creative zone after a vacation or hiatus:

I've been away from my scrapbooking desk for about 2 weeks, this picture was taken on the plane during my scrapbooking on vacation frolic. I'm back home now and I have some time today to get creative but I'm not warmed up.  Instead of spinning my wheels and wasting a lot of time, which I have totally done more than once, I want to get right back in the creativity zone.

Here are 10 links to creativity warm ups - lets see if any get my scrapbooking mojo back  in gear:

1. Drawing Warm Up Exercises by Category.  I think this exercise could be translated into a nice grid scrapbook page highlighting one category of thing. I just might try that.

2. Left Brain-Right Brain Warm Ups  Dance, Draw, Juggle, or Play the Color Game.  Hmmm.  Ok.  I do think sometimes its good to play some peppy music in the scrapbooking room to get things going, nothing too distracting, just something with a fast beat.

3. Find Out What Kind of Creative Type You Are.  I took this test but I think I didn't add them up correctly or something because I was the worst kind of creative and I just don't buy that.  My results were: 1. C, 2. A, 3. D, 4. A, 5. C, 6. C.  So I had had A=2, B=0, C=3, D=1.  Then following the math instructions I did A-B = 2; C-B = 3; D-B = 1 for a total of 6.  Then I wasn't sure what to do with the uppercase /lowercase thing but I think I was an "acd" or else I did it wrong and I'm a "ACD" so either I'm not at all or totally creative.  If anyone "gets" how this test is scored, please clue me in and leave a comment.

4. How To Be Creative.  This is a very visually appealing slide share and the maker of this one has several good one to check out.  Here are the tips in short:  1. Seek Widely.  Seek Deeply.  Steal Ideas. 2. Talk to Strangers.  3. Do Not Be Afraid to Fail.  4. Keep Dreaming.  5.

5. Creative Drawing Exercise with Both Hands.  There's some trippy music and this video is a bit mesmerizing but the exercise looks like an easy warm up, something that looks like it belongs in an art journal.

6. Simple Scrapper's Reclaiming Your Creative Mojo.   I like #5  Play with Your Supplies.  I often use this technique and make what I call "half-baked" pages that I come back to later and add the photos and the journaling to, making the base of the scrapbooking pages often gets me going and later makes scrapbooking much faster.

7. Busy vs. Meaningful Scrapbooking.  Nettio discusses her desire to give up on the scrapbooking obligations like Project 365 and push her creativity.  Good food for thought.  But remember, sometimes it is good just to "get busy" just to get the creativity going, but the busy feeling should be one of play not obligation, I think this is what she means.

8. 7 Ways to Beat Scrapper's Block.  I like #2 Take a Scrapbooking Challenge.  I often use this as a way to get started, I like the challenges over at Two Peas.  I miss the sketch challenges at Sketchy Thursdays.  If you know of good scrapbook challenge sites, please leave a comment with a link!

9. 3 Things Amy Counts On To Get Her Scrapbooking Mojo Back.  Amy says she likes a clean slate workspace.  I like this too, but I typcially clean up my space after every session so when I get back to scrapbooking after a hiatus, I have a clean slate.  Sometimes, I need to mess it up a bit to get my scrapbooking mojo back.

10. Scrapbooking Inspiration on Pinterest.  I've been trolling Pinterest lately for scrapbooking inspiration, for me it has taken the place of scrapbooking magazines and I love that it is as handy as my iphone.  I love to randomly pick a scrapbook page on Pinterest and "scraplift" it.  It gets things moving in my scrapbooking world.

If you'd like to support this blog and get more scrapbooking inspiration, check out these affiliate links:

 

 

 

12 Things

I was only on vacation in Colorado for 6 days but it feels like its going to take that long to re-acclimate to my life.  I'm not really sure why, its that MOM-entum thing I talked about on the blog yesterday.  Here are 12 Things I've been up to since I've been home.

1. I checked in at work and everything seems under control, I did a bunch of paperwork.  This morning I got the news that one of the laws that relates to my practice has changed dramatically so there will definately be changes in the coming year.

2. Allison talked me into going to the school's Chuck E Cheese night, Allison was amazing skeet bowler (is that what it is called?).  It was noisy and hectic but they really wanted to go.  We got a chance to talk to the principal who said he's been personally working with Mac in a small group, Mac never mentioned this, for the essay section of the FCAT which happened a couple weeks ago and the essay assignment was to write an essay about riding a camel.  We don't get the results until the end of the year.

3. I did the stepper twice and burned about 800 calories each time but I'm feeling a bit heavy.  I did bikram yoga this morning and I feel like I'm way out of shape and practice, its been a week or so since I've been to yoga, I need to get back in there several times a week.   Even though I skied all day everyday of my vacation, I really need to focus on exercising.

4. Allison insisted that I go on a field trip to "play in the dirt" which turned out to be a trip to Myakka River State Park and we saw several very large alligators, lots of water birds including white pelicans, and wild turkeys in the woods.  We walked on a very high wooden bridge and climbed a tower to get a canopy view of the forrest.  The guide had one leg, she joked that it was because an alligator bit it off during a school field trip but then explained that she had cancer and they took her leg to save her life.  She had a really cool artificial leg and the top part of it had sea turtles painted onto it and she shared that she has the same doctor as Winter the Dolphin from A Dolphin's Tale.  I got to talk to her husband for a bit and he told me about their trip to a cancer hospital and the day he got off on the wrong floor, pediatrics, and that we should all just think of that anytime we think we're having a bad day.  Wow.  Crystal Clear Perspective There.  I am doing the Relay for Life Cancer Walk coming up in a couple weeks.  We've known several people in a short amount of time who have been diagnosed with cancer.  I've got to get up to speed with my part in the relay including the fund raising part.

5.  After the field trip, Allison and I went to the Ellenton Outlet Mall which is a bunch of outlet stores, we don't get there very often.  I don't particularly love shopping but my girl Ally does.  She was in heaven in the pre-teen store Justice.  I was still sticker shocked at the prices in Justice, even in the outlet mall.  She got some very fashionable outfits.  We also did some shopping for me, I bought a few work dresses and a few weekend outfits at Tommy Hilfiger and Ann Taylor, I think Allison was a bit unimpressed with the boring nature of my choices - she picked out and had me try on some "fashionable" things but none of them seem to work on me.

6. Allison and I also came up with a plan to reorganize her Barbie play area.  I am right now trying to muster up my gumption to attack that project.  I'm not sure I'm up to it, we'll see.

7. On my Scrapbooking Agenda:

* Do the posts for District 2, District 1, The Capitol, and District 13 for my The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge.

* Catch up on the last 2 weeks of Project Life.

* Get some 12x12 layouts done for the BPC Twelve class I am taking.

* Catch up on One Little Word and Move More Eat Well BPC classes.

* Make a photobook of our three ski trips this year, it has been awesome to take three trips in three months.  I'll be grounded for a while which will give me time to get back to my routine.

8. I would also like to do something with all of my Pinterest Boards.  Specifically, I have a "word up" board with sayings I like and I would like to use those in some way.  Also I have a "homemade" board with ways to alter t-shirts and easy sewing projects and I'd like to do a closet overhaul and make some projects with my old clothes.

9.  I need to tend to the garden we planted a few weeks ago, the marigolds were completely eaten by something but the basil and mint are doing well and we have several sprouts.

10. I'd like to get on my kayak this weekend.

11. I did a major grocery shop and cooked curry chicken and we've been eating leftovers for days, it is delicious.

12. I am re-committing to my goal of losing 50 pounds.  I was doing really well and then too many people gave me compliments and I got lazy and somehow I'm back to only about 10 pounds down from my original weight - which means that I've put on 20 pounds since my lowest weight at 30 pounds down.  I'm a little frustrated since it seems like I have worked really hard for the past two years and that losing weight and keeping it off is a 24/7 hard work constant kind of thing and that I really love to eat and not worry about what I'm eating.  I'm totally fine with a very rigourous exercise routine, but I'm a little less excited about getting super strict with my diet again, but I'm even less excited about how my thighs look right now.  So I'm back on my weight loss goal routine and I'm hoping to make some significant progress by my birthday which is coming up on June 6.  I don't think I'll attain my goal by that time but I would like to get there somewhere over the summer and maintain it until Christmas and beyond.

 

Vacation Scrapbooking: Coming Home

We returned from a week long vacation yesterday.  I had an amazing trip and fell in love with Durango, Colorado, it was my first time to the western part of the U.S. and I'm definitely planning to return as soon as possible.  I took 1023 photos and made 20-30 short videos to remember my thoughts and feelings while on the trip.  I brought along a composition book and a homemade smash book and did lots of journaling on the plane and in spare bits of time during the vacation.  Chances are, if you saw me on the slopes, in the ladies room, or at Dante's for lunch, I was recording a video on my iphone or digital camera or taking photos of myself to record the trip.  During the trip and on the way home, I was fully immersed in this brand new world to me, one of breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains, ski slopes that were my wildest dreams come true, fun times with my husband and friends, and an overwhelming desire to move to Colorado, or at least look into buying an investment property out there.  I seriously fell in love.

Now that I'm home, however, scrapbooking the trip is not my top priority.  Top on my agenda list is reconnecting with the kids, doing mountains of laundry, getting the house and my scrapbooking room computer back to the state they were in before I left, catching up with a no doubt mountain of paperwork at the office, reconnecting with the people I work with, getting back to my exercise and weight loss routine, and on and on and on.  There's lots to do after a vacation and typically the scrapbooking of the vacation falls to the bottom of that list.  This is ok since I have my thoughts and photos captured and it will all be waiting for me when I'm ready to scrapbook the trip or at least make a photo book or two.  I'm so happy that I took the time while I was feeling all the wonderful feelings on vacation to record them, I know these thoughts are stored safely in my composition book and on my video shorts so that I can access the full experience of the vacation when I go to scrapbook it, whenever that might be.

(P.S. I am unable to upload photos right now but will add some later.)

Here are 5 links to other scrapbooking sites and blogs on the subject of vacation scrapbooking:

1. Martha Stewart & Map Scrapbooking

2. Debbie Hodge's Get It Scrapped on Vacation and Travel Scrapbooking

3. Debbie Hodge on Ali Edwards' Blog on Story Arcs for Vacation Albums

4. Noell Hyman's Paperclipping Post on How to Make a Vacation Scrapbook

5. Lain Ehmann's Save Your Sanity Ideas for Vacation Scrapbooking

How you do approach vacation scrapbooking?  I would love to hear your ideas or see your projects, please leave a comment or a link.

 

The Hunger Games Scrapbooking District 11 + A 2 Peas Garden Girls Memory Keeping Monday Scrapbooking Challenge

Now Playing: The Hunger Games on the Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking Blog:

I posted The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge for District 11 this morning but used layouts that I already created in the video and blog post.  So I was feeling a bit like I didn't get to play enough.  So, after work, I came home and had to bust out a layout quick about agriculture.  We've been working on our herb garden.  I went to Two Peas in a Bucket for a little layout inspiration and found a Memory Keeping Monday with Jen Gallacher challenge to alter a sticker, check it out: 

 

So I connected dystopia with gardening and scrapbooking with stickers and stamps, totally logical right?  Want more randomness?  Watch me explain my layout and herb garden but please don't tell Charlie that I brought his iPad outside!

 

Here's how I alterned the stickers:

And here is my Spring Hunger Games District 11 Agriculture scrapbooking layout:

Ta-Da!  All these random things mixed up on one page makes me so happy and I had lots of fun making the page and the dorky video. 

And I didn't even get into how "Improv Scrapbooking" helps me to get to the mental place where I can bring all this stuff together while having fun, more on that soon.  Plus you can search this blog for related "scrapbook improv" posts if you are at all interested in the concept of merging scrapbooking with techniques from improvisational comedy to get productive, playful, present moment, positive, perfectly authentic scrapbooking fun.

If you'd like to get in touch with your inner child and get creative juices flowing and if you'd like to simultaneously support this blog, check out the following affiliate links:

Also, be sure to check out the Flickr Group and Facebook Event called "The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge Series."

 

 

Project Life Week 8 + A Clean House in 2 Hours

Wow. I thought that I'd have my Project Life done in about 20 minutes this week but it took much longer than I expected.  Although, I didn't work straight through, there was cleaning kids rooms, laundry, breakfast, vacuuming, and a host of other weekend chores that seemed to keep interupting Project Life, but still I got all that done in two hours.  Clean house and Project Life completed in 2 hours?  Ok, yes, that is a VERY GOOD THING.  I'll take it.

If you wish to support this blog, check out these products that I love:

 

 

9 Clever Ideas for Project Life from Pinterest

Hey Scrapbookers! Here are 9 Clever Ideas for Project Life:

I'm getting ready to do Week 8 of my Project Life and thought I'd share some of the clever ideas I've seen on Pinterest for Project Life:

1. Ormolu jazzes up her journaling cards in advance. So clever (middle square)

2. Persnickety Prints has FREE Project Life Journaling Cards. (top middle)

3. Katrina Simeck adds in extra flap pockets for more photos. (top left)

4. Cherish Every Day uses collage printouts to get more photos in her Project Life. (bottom middle)

5. Rebecca Cooper's Everday Life Photo Checklist. (right middle)

6.  Marcy Penner created a Project Life "station". (left middle)

7. Alison Waken created a 4x6 version of Project Life. (bottom right)

8. Ali Edwards' 13 Everyday Life Journaling Prompts. (top right)

9. Life Love Paper has "Currents" Project Life Printables. (bottom middle)

Ok, I am sufficiently inspired, I'm going to go work on my own Project Life and should have a post up soon. 

Ok, I was going to stop there but I had to share this before I go:

I did call a "family meeting with homework" right here in my scrapbooking room and instructed each of my family members to pick a journaling card and write whatever they want about themselves, what they are doing right now, or their past week.  I told them they could write whatever they wanted and could even draw a picture if they wished.  They were all happy to oblige which was a bit surprising because I sometimes get eye rolls with some forced scrapbooking family involvement; but writing on the Project Life Journaling Cards was a short enough task and I gave them the choice of writing whatever they wanted and I think they all thought that was pretty cool.  Here's what they came up with:

The journaling cards are:

1. Everyday Life by Husband Charlie: "My wife is on a computer in one room.  My son in another and my daughter is on her laptop in yet another room. Meanwhile, I am reading an old fashioned paper newspaper."

2. The authentically distressed tag from my minivan being in the shop for repairs.

3. Here is the Story by my daughter Allison:  She opted to go for my "you can draw something" suggestion and the rose is a nod to the herb, vegetable, and flower garden we've been planting all weekend.

4. Memories by my son Mac: "I am playing digital Pokemon on the Pokemon website and I want to play now Mom."  He added a smiley face so as not to be too snarky and to better his chances of getting back to his game. 

I'll have my full Week 8 of Project Life up soon.  Meantime, if you wish to support this blog and stock up on Project Life supplies, here are some links:

P.S. If you are on the fence about any of the Project Life products, scoop them up while they last, they sell out fast at Amazon; it looks like the Cobalt Edition of the Project Life Core Kit is the only one still available right now. 

This Scrapbooking Blog has been Temporarily Hijacked by Dystopia Novels and Pretty Flowers

 

Holey Moley.  I did not want to like dystopia novels.  I first heard the word "dystopia" from scrapbooker Wendy Smedley, from Simple Scrapbooks, Ella Publishing and Big Picture Scrapbooking, say that she was reading dystopia novels along with her teenaged boys and that the novels were about post apocalytic worlds.  I remember thinking I was glad my kids weren't old enough to like something so seemingly horrible.   I am not a fan of horror movies or stories since they tend to stay with me and I end up dreaming about them and I just prefer funny to creepy.

Then, a few weeks ago, we took the whole family to see the inspirational and happy movie Big Miracle with Drew Barrymore. Apparently there was a re-release of Star Wars which is why we saw all those storm troopers at the movies.  Before the big show we sat through the previews.   The trailer for The Hunger Games crawled up inside my head and didn't leave.  It looked horrible.  I had no interest in seeing it.  I even commented to Charlie how I wished they wouldn't show such awful things before family movies about whales.  But.  I couldn't stop thinking about it!  I even went to You Tube to watch the trailer a few more times just to figure  out what was hooking me in.

That's a page from my Project Life Album, of course I'll have to put the thumbnails of The Hunger Games in for this week!

And then, one day another lawyer at my office had a copy of The Hunger Games or Catching Fire in the lunch room and as soon as I saw it I said "Oh! Its that movie!  That horrible movie!"  Kelly is also a fan of happy and funny tending on the side of dorky - for example, we are both big fans of Sue Heck from The Middle; but Kelly quickly knew exactly what I was talking about and said "I didn't want to like it either! But is so good!"  She convinced me that I needed to read it and brought in The Hunger Games the next day; I think that was this past Tuesday and I read it in one sitting from 4 pm - 10 pm.  She then brought in the next two and I finished Catching Fire in about 6 hours too and I'm half way through the last one now, Mockingjay.  I haven't made a scrapbook page all week because I've been in full dystopia mode all week. 

If you'd like to support this blog (which is normally about scrapbooking) and check out the page turning dystopia novels, click on one of the links below:

Probably to counterbalance all the death and destruction of dystopia and District 12 and The Hunger Games, my daughter and I planted a flower garden and planted a bunch of vegetable seeds yesterday so here are some pictures of our garden:

The dystopia novels aren't all that horrible as I originally thought; they are a bit hopeful and do make you think and somehow I couldn't not read them.  I'll be in the line for the movie when it comes out next month.

Project Life Week 7

Project Life Week 7 2012:

Updating my Project Life Album - and finishing up Week 7 of Project Life 2012:

 

Personally, I have found Project Life to be more of a photo-heavy chronological photo album than a place to do a lot of journaling since I do a lot of jouranling and story telling in my scrapbook pages.  I think of Project Life as a place to visually wrap up the week and as a place to put the odds and ends from life, like lift tickets and movie stubs. 

Mac passed his purple to red belt test today!  Whoo Hoo!

I heard that Amazon has the coveted Becky Higgins Project Life page protectors in right now - to support this blog and to stock up while they last click on one of these links:

 

All Caught Up with Project Life!

Here are my Project Life pages for weeks 1 through 7.5 of this year 2012.

 

I've been sort of keeping up with Project Life but there were gaps in each week.  Tonight I ordered a bunch of prints and picked them up in an hour and filled in the gaps and did a bit of journaling and I'm done.

 

I will mention that I did not include a lot of journaling in this Project Life album since I was playing catch up.  I think it is better to do the journaling everyday, however, if you didn't I think that should not be a deal breaker and I think its ok to have sparse journaling and have it be photo heavy.  Going forward, I will try to do a bit of journaling everyday or at least every couple of days so that I will have more journaling included.  But I'm glad that its done and I am doing forward with this project.

I think it is important to remember that you can start Project Life at any time and even if you've missed a bunch of weeks, you don't have to have it be continuous - it would be totally ok to have a gap.  Really, it would.  I think the important part is to not give up just because you haven't been fully committed to doing it everyday because there are going to be days - even weeks - where you fall off the Project Life wagon - its, Ok, its easy to get back in to the groove of this awesome album. 

Are you doing Project Life?  Are you keeping up?  Do you have any tips for staying caught up?  I'd love to hear all about your Project Life process.

Making Scrapbooking Videos & Systems & Top Ten Ways to Systematize Your Creative Process.

This week's Paperclipping Roundtable Podcast is about SYSTEMS.  I love the concept of systems and creating systems to solve problems that come up again and again.  Lately I've been making scrapbooking videos and I definately need to work on my systems associated with that process and I'm working on that, for example, I need to work on my system of making them shorter!

Here are some great resources for creating systems for your creative process:

1. Creativity Tools - Start Here!

2. How To Plan and Manage Creative Teams.

3. The Dynamics of Creativity

4. How to Systematize Your Creative Writing

5. Systems are Great, But Systems Don't Solve Everything in the Creative Process

6. Why You Should Learn a Productivity System.

7. Zen To Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System

8. Why Creatives need a Productivity System.

9. Creatica: A Model to Systematize Creativity's Stimuli

10. Unlocking Your Creative Genius Potential with Mind Mapping

Want to read more and support this blog?  Check out these books about systems on Amazon:

 

 

Improv Scrapbooking: How to Use the Principles of Improvisational Comedy to Become a Better More Authentic and Prolific Scrapbooker; Plus: SNL Mini Book & Being PRESENT in your Scrapbooking Process and Scrapbooking Videos!

Improv Scrapbooking:

I took an intro to Improvisational Comedy class last summer with Toby Martini and while taking the six week class, I had a spark of creativity that went beyond the class, learning the principles of improvisational comedy didn't necessarily make me funny, but it gave me a new way to think about my creative process and applying these principles to my process of scrapbooking has been a revolution for me.  I am more prolific than ever, in October I made 40 layouts in 7 days and last month I made 60 layouts.  Making a million scrapbook layouts is not the goal. Being more present and authentic in my creative process and product is.  Telling better stories is the goal.  Spending less time on stuff that doesn't matter  is the goal.  Spending more time on what makes my heart and soul sing is the goal.  I'm there and I want to share.

In Improvisational Comedy, one of the first principles you learn is to be present.  To listen to what your scene partner is saying and to respond to that, not to be thinking about what you are going to say next, but to be listening and then just opening your mouth and saying whatever pops into your head.  Improv Business Consultant Marcia McGilley of Limelight Presentations says  "I've also been a stage actor in plays, infomercials and 'improv' comedy shows. Improv is short for 'improvisational.' That's a fancy word which means thinking on your feet. No scripts or lines to memorize, you just say whatever pops into your head in a given situation. Improv was great training for real-life situations in business and consulting. I know how valuable it is as one of your communication skills." 

This principle of being present, listening and saying whatever pops into your head can be applied to the process of scrapbooking.  Think of what that little voice in your head is saying or what is on your mind or heart right now.  What has you worried or excited  or experiencing any heightened emotion right now.  Listen.  It is there.  Scrapbook about that.  Don't pre-plan it.  Don't write it down in a list of things to scrapbook later.  Just scrapbook it right now with what you have available to you right now.  Even if that means it won't be as awesome as you think it would be / could be with better photos, better embellishments, or better more thought out writing.  Chuck all that planning out the window.  Remember the Nike ads?  Just do it. Right Now.  You have 15 minutes to spill your guts on the page.  Don't edit.  Be real.  Say it (write it down) before you think much about it.  Don't worry about grammar.  Don't worry about anything that you think it should be, just go with what it is, what is in you that wants to get out.  Listen.   Listen and then Go! 

Here is an example of what I mean by Listening to What Your Heart is Telling You, Being Present, and Being Improv about how you respond to that in a scrapbooking kind of way:  (Hey - ppssst - blog reader - You can skip over this part or skim it - as I am a bit "improv" in my description - in other words, I am long winded - I'll highlight some important stuff).    Today is Valentine's Day, I intended to make a scrapbook page about Valentine's Day or at least the theme of love.  I started the page yesterday in anticipation of today being Valentine's Day - check yesterday's posts for the videos in which I made that and other projects.  But, this morning  when I woke up, I was thinking about Saturday Night Live and about the Grammy's Music Award Show, about Whitney Houston's death and about how Paul McCartney did the last number at the Grammy's; about how music and certain songs can instantly take us to a time and place and bring back memories; and about how the show Saturday Night Live also does that for me.  When I see or think about an SNL sketch, I am also reminded of the time in my life when I first saw it.  For example, the Coneheads and Gilda Radner bring me back to the 70s when I used to spend Saturday Nights at my Grandma's house watching the Barbara Mandrell Show, Love Boat and Fantasy Island, and then if I was still awake and Grandma would let us, we'd watch some Saturday Night Live, I don't remember it too specifically, but I knew it was cool.  In the 80s I can remember my friends in AP Calculus Class (my most hated class), imitating Dana Carvey as the Church Lady - "Now isn't THAT special?"  In college I used to spend the weekends with friends who were married with very young kids and we loved Kevin Nealon "I'll Pump (clap) You Up" and Mike Meyers in Wayne's World  - I'm pretty sure Dana Carvey was in both of those sketches too (without googling it  I think I'm getting his name right).  When I first met my husband and we were dating, we'd often watch SNL after dates and that one night in August 1997 or 1998(?) when we turned to NBC at approximately 11:43  (so we knew SNL had started and we were on the right channel) and we were horrified that they were trying to do a sketch about Princess Diana being in a car accident and then slowly realizing it wasn't SNL, it was real.  And now, my kids and I love Andy Samberg and his SNL shorts like Lazer Cats and Space Olympics.  The show has been a constant in my life.  It is like an old friend who knew me way back when.  I am reminded of the different people I watched the show with depending on the sketch and when it aired.  There are Deep Thoughts, like the ones Jack Handy used to do (miss those):  1. How powerful it was when Paul Simon sang The Boxer with the FDNY behind him right after 9/11 - I still get a little teary just thinking about how deep the emotion was at that moment; 2. How tender Chris Farley was when he did the awkward interview of Paul McCartney and he asked about whether it was true when McCartney sang "The love you take is equal to the love you make" and how Paul McCartney closed last weekend's Grammy Awards with that line and how the Beatles and Rolling Stones and U2 and Madonna have been musical constants  and all have been on SNL (well at least members of the Beatles have been on the show).  Music and this long running show of Saturday Night Live have been a constant in my life as I was born in the 70s and that show started in 1975 when my parents got divorced and that show has been the backdrop to my Saturday nights for as long as I can remember.  If I never scrapbooked about something as random as seemingly random as Saturday Night Live, my story would be incomplete; but more importantly, if today, when I took time to scrapbook, if I didn't scrapbook about Saturday Night Live because it was on my heart and mind, whatever else I did would have been forced and not as real, it would not make an impression on me; whereas if I scrapbook what I am passionate about right now, chances are in 20 years when I look back at that page, I'll be taken back to today and that page will be a better memory trigger for me of time and place, like when you hear an old song, than if I hadn't been present and listened and then scrapbooked using these improv principles.  Improv will make the memories more authentic and real.  There will be more of me in what I create.  I think this goes beyond scrapbooking; improvisational comedy principles can be applied to any creative process.

 Here are 3.5 videos that you can find on YouTube about the process of applying improvisational comedy principles to scrapbooking and my actual process:

1. Watch as I use improvisational comedy principles in my scrapbooking creative process:

 

I use the principles of improvisational comedy for my video making too - I just press record and talk, there is no preparation and I say what is on my heart and mind, I am in the present moment, not thinking about the next thing I'm going to say - this is improv - it isn't always funny or interesting - but it is real and the more real you are, the better it is in an improv way.

1.5 Here's my improv fix for the 20 minute video that wouldn't upload to YouTube - This is The Middle (which is also a great show by the way)  - I tried to get it to a point where there isn't too much overlap - but it is not perfect - it is improv!  And just ask Seth Godin about how he feels about shipping when it is not completely perfect - I'm pretty sure he'd say ship it. So here's the fix:

 

2. Here is part 2: (Darn it! There is a gap between #1 and #2 so I'm going to upload a 1.5 to bridge the gap).

 

3. SNL Mini Book Cover & Applying the Improv Concept of Using What You Have and Getting It Done Now:

 

If you are interested in learning more about applying the concepts from improvisational comedy to scrapbooking or to any other part of your creative process, please leave a comment and/or email me.  I am working on some projects that will expand on this concept and I need some guinea pigs. 

Meantime, if you wish to support my blog through the Amazon Affiliate Program, you can check out these books and Paul McCartney's new album, Kisses on the Bottom (which sounds like an improv concept of "taking it the wrong way") that dropped today:

Sing it Paul:  "And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make. " 

I think you you can substitute the word love for memory keeping or the creative process; in other words, what you get out of your scrapbooking or memory keeping hobby is what you put in to it - so put good stuff in OK?