Welcome to the last day of Jumpstart Week! This week we’ve talked about different ways to jumpstart a scrapbook page. So far we’ve talked about photo, color, design, and technique. Today for the conclusion to our week, we will discuss how STORIES can jumpstart your page. Telling stories about our lives is near and dear to my heart. Most of my storytelling occurs on my blog, but I’ve also told many stories via scrapbook pages. It appears that my Write.Click.Scrapbook. teammates concur with me, because I received the most layout submissions for this post, the STORY jumpstart post. You can click on any of the layouts in this post to see it bigger and read the stories.
When I think about all the story-inspired layouts I’ve done, one of them stands out to me as the most important one I’ve ever done. And it was also the hardest layout I’ve ever done. My mom passed away from cancer in 2007. Just three days before she died, she called me into her room and said she wanted to chat with me. I knew it was mostly likely the last time we would have an in-depth conversation, and it was to be her farewell talk with me. I cried through the entire conversation, but I tried to remember everything we talked about. As soon as the conversation was over, I went to my laptop and typed out every thing I could remember from the conversation.
Then the document sat on my hard drive for six years. I couldn’t bring myself to open it and read it. I still missed my mom and was afraid of the flood of emotions if I opened the document and read it. In fact, I have tears in my eyes as I type this post, because the conversation still affects me to this day. When the February 2013 gallery for Write.Click.Scrapbook. was decided to be “Conversations”, I knew it was time to make this layout and tell the story.
You can click through to the gallery entry to read the journaling. This was definitely a story-driven layout. The entire layout was really about the story. I rarely type on my paper layouts, but this one had to be typed because the story was so long. Telling stories is a major part of scrapbooking.
Another story that I’ve told on a layout is this digital page I made called “Blessing In Disguise”. It’s a story about how I had planned to go to grad school in Psychology and become a Psychologist. But my research was slow and not going well, and my sponsoring professor told me I was too slow. I was very sad at the time, but now I think of it as a huge blessing in disguise. I stayed in college for two more years and received both a BS in Psychology and a BS in Accounting. When I graduated I had a job in hand and I’m still working with the same company 20 years later. My company paid for my MBA while I worked. I love my accounting/finance job and I’m really good at it. I can’t imagine doing anything else. This change in direction was a blessing in disguise.
Think of what stories you want to tell about your life and make a page about it! Even if you don’t have photos, you can use a similar photo or no photos at all. The stories you tell will be cherished for a long time.
I love this layout by Aliza that tells the story of her shy son who wouldn’t leave his parents side, but grew into a teenager who performs in front of people in a musical. The storytelling on this layout is superb.
I love this layout by Celeste about her son practicing the saxaphone. I love the close-up photo, and how she started the story with “10,000 hours. That’s what Malcolm Gladwell said it takes to become an export at something.”
Jennifer H recorded a time capsule of her son at 10 years old. I love how many photos she included, and her journaling about her son in different font sizes.
Jennie created a funny lighthearted layout telling the story of how her son announced he’s allergic to all kinds of things.
Lisa O created this sweet layout titled “Home Sweet Home”. Lisa says, “After my divorce last year I kept the house. It is pretty run down and needs some work but it is my safety and I love it! I first wrote the journaling and then used a photo I had taken a while ago in the bedroom. Sometimes I struggle a bit with longer journaling and how I'd fit it on a page. Here I used the journaling as an element on the page and that is how I solve it most times. To tie with the story I used Wood veneer houses and hearts.”
Laura O had a long story to tell of a crazy day of travel softball. She used a digital layered template which allowed for a lot of journaling and when she wrote it all out she filled the page. Digital scrapbooking is a great way to fit a lot of words/story onto the layout!
Here are a few more layouts that concentrate on telling the stories.
A Perfect Day by Aliza.
This Man by me (Christine)
Love This! by Celeste
Slugger by Jennifer H
Huzzah! by Jennie
I hope you’ve enjoyed a week of jumpstarts to scrapbooking! Next time you get the urge to scrapbook, try using photos, colors, design, techniques, or stories as the jumping-off point to inspire your page!
