Hello Scrapbookers! Welcome Back to Day 19 of The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge.
I've been blogging a lot about Ice Cream for Breakfast Day on 3/21/12 - March 21st is Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. Here's Why. We are hoping to reach 10,000 members of the Facebook Event "Ice Cream for Breakfast (March 21)" created by Bruce C. Rosenberg before he passed from cancer, 3/21/12 marks one year from his diagnosis date, he passed away 9 days before the holiday he created. Please go join now if you haven't already, and if you have THANK YOU!
I'm thinking Haymitch could have taken a page from my friend, Bruce's playbook. Instead of drowning his sorrows in alcohol like Haymitch, when dealt a life challenge, Bruce decided to go forth happy anyway and to spread his joy by creating "Ice Cream for Breakfast Day."
If you'd like to catch up on The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge Blog Posts, here are some links:
Ok, back to The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge for real:
Haymitch Abernathy: "Haymitch is Katniss' and Peeta's mentor. He is drunk at almost any given time, with a glass in one hand and knife in the other. He drinks to forget the memories the 50th Hunger Games, which he was crowned victor of. He promised he would sober up long enough for Katniss and Peeta to play the games and help them. He sends Katniss gifts throughout the games to help her survive, and sometimes Katniss believes that his gifts always seem to have good timing and there might be some kind of connection between them. He won during the second Quarter Quell, where double the tributes were required to participate in this deadly game. Katniss and Peeta's guide in The Hunger Games. Has an addiction to alcohol, and gets drunk to escape the world around him. He was the only living victor in District 12 before Katniss and Peeta. Haymitch is their mentor throughout The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. He is the one that sends the gifts from sponsors as well." (source The Hunger Games wiki)
So what can we take for scrapbooking inspiration from Haymitch? Here are five themes: 1. Coach/mentor; 2. victor/winner; 3. life challenges; 4. games/sports; and 5. gifts.
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?
No I'm not a trekkie, but yes the show does bring back some specific memories for me.
We took a family trip to the Space Coast for the 4th of July weekend. My husband Charlie is a space geek - he watches Ancient Aliens and the NASA channel (which insanely boring btw) all the time. So going to Kennedy Space Center a week before the final launch was a good quick and close getaway for us. We thought maybe that the kids would then be more interested in watching the actual launch on tv and/or from our backyard - where we have actually seen the space shuttle take off in the past - this last time it was too cloudy here in St. Pete and we didn't get to see anything - not even the clouds lighting up. Anyway, there was a Star Trek exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center - and for all the space stuff Charlie loves - he is not a fan of science fiction so he never really watched Captain Kirk like I did.
I watched Star Trek almost every night for a long time during dinner with my Dad, it was just the two of us, me and my Dad, from 1982-1988 - my teen years, and we didn't always get along, but we did always watch Star Trek - reruns of the show came on every week night around dinner time in Bangor, Maine; we watched in the living room and ate dinner on metal tv trays. Sometimes he'd have a Pabst Blue Ribbon and then he'd laugh a bit more. I can remember back then him telling me that someday we'd be able to tell our tvs whatever show we wanted to watch and then we'd be able to instantly watch it, I remember being extremely skeptical about that ever happening. He died in 2003 right before my daughter was born, he never got to see her and he only got to see Mac once when he was a baby. Mac came in and took a look at my page before going to bed and I'm pretty sure he got a little tear when I told him about how me and my Dad used to watch Star Trek together and how I wished he could have known my Dad / his Grandpa.
It seems like technology has gotten even more amazing since he died; I'm sure he would have been impressed with my iphone - which I took a picture of along side the actual Star Trek Commuinicators, (Mac & Ally are bottom right of the photo but you can't really tell its them from the picture). And then I kind of got all sappy and nostalgic for my Dad while we were at the Space Center. And so, I made a the scrapbook page shown at top, here's another view:
Journaling: "Did my Dad go with us to the Space Center? Um. No. But he was there. There was a big Star Trek exhibit + seeing it brought a flood of memories of my Dad back to me. In the 1980s watching Star Trek while we ate dinner on metal tv trays in the living room & all those years that he and I lived together. It made me miss him to see all that stuff. Wonder if maybe he was giving me a wink."
The photo of my Dad and I was probably taken around 1998 or 1999 and we were in a boat and under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It was the first photo I found in my hunt for one of he and I together - I originally planned to find one of that living room and/or one from the 80s, but the one under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge seemed appropriate.
The photo of the rainy day in the collage above is what I saw from my backyard when the last space shuttle went off - just clouds. And the upper right is Mac with his space shuttle Lego creation - he is very proud.
Here's my take on the Counterfeit Kit Club Challenge for June:
Here are some of the details:
The amazing thing about putting your own scrapbooking stash into a kit and photographing it is that it gives your old stuff the illusion of being new stuff and I'm always amazed to discover all the cute stuff I already own. It sort of makes me thing we (as in someone else - not me) should start the counterfeit fashion club so we could repurpose our old clothes and have "new" outfits - if anyone runs with this let me know because I'll be so on board with that. Ok, back to scrapbooking:
The BEST thing about the Counterfeit Kit Club Challenge is that I actually took my kit out of my scrapbooking room and put it on my cute little Ikea Cart and rolled it out into the dining room / family room (our entire first floor is an open floor plan so its like one gigantic room) so I could do scrapbooking while we watched the catastrophe of a show "The Bachelorette" - it is so horrible, but somehow we are still watching. So here's what my set up looked like (and yes that is a princess tent on the left - and no, that's not the only tent we have in the living room - we also have a boy's tent set up - it's almost summer after all) :
Isn't Dandy Boy the cutest?
Ok so the other best part of having a scrapbooking kit, bringing it out to the family room and not letting myself go back to the scrapbooking room for more stuff ? I got 4 pages done in 2 hours! I'll post those tomorow.
Where do you scrapbook? Do you get more done at home or at a crop? I have a scrapbooking room that my 7 year old daughter and the rest of the family have full access to; but lately I've been wanting to come out of the room and back into the family space. Nancy Nally talks about how she did this on The Paperclipping Roundtable Podcast #70 "Non-crappy shared scrap spaces."
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