Katie the Scrapbook Lady

I am unwritten

 

My son loves to play new music for me and he has a very wide variety of music that he enjoys. I’m also quite eclectic with my music so I’m happy that he is the same way. My daughter is constantly discovering new songs as well – especially now that she is attending a public school. Between the two of them, I listen to a lot of different songs and I end up liking the majority of them. I was surprised by the lyrics when my son played Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield for me about a month ago. I had heard the tune before but never really paid attention to it. All of a sudden, the words were very clear and they had so much meaning for me.

 

I am unwritten. Can't read my mind, I'm undefined.

I'm just beginning. The pen's in my hand, ending unplanned.

Staring at the blank page before you. Open up the dirty window.

Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find.

Reaching for something in the distance. So close you can almost taste it.

Release your inhibitions. Feel the rain on your skin.

No one else can feel it for you. Only you can let it in.

No one else, no one else can speak the words on your lips.

Drench yourself in words unspoken. Live your life with arms wide open.

Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten.

 

Maybe it’s the writer in me, but I just fell in love with the thought of how much of my life is still unwritten. How many blank pages are still ahead of me (at least I sure hope so!) The idea that each day is a new beginning, a new chapter. Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten.

 

The next verse is also very inspiring:

I break tradition. Sometimes my tries are outside the lines.

We've been conditioned. To not make mistakes, but I can't live that way, no.

Staring at the blank page before you. Open up the dirty window.

Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find.

Reaching for something in the distance. So close you can almost taste it.

Release your inhibitions. Feel the rain on your skin.

No one else can feel it for you. Only you can let it in.

No one else, no one else can speak the words on your lips.

Drench yourself in words unspoken. Live your life with arms wide open.

Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten.

 

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the value of mistakes and the learning that comes from them. I still hate to make mistakes, but I really like the idea of it just being a try that is outside the lines. It’s not the end of the world to color a little outside the lines – in fact, many creative people swear by it!

So I decided to play and do some digital art journaling. I used this bundle of supplies by Captivated Visions and I blended, erased, layered, and moved things around until I had the backdrop that I wanted for these words. I felt like a typewriter font was appropriate so I used The Heavy Hitter by Heather Joyce.

 

Today is where your book begins – what are you going to write in it?

 

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The stories you want to tell + a winner

 

Last year, I shared a list of stories I want to tell in a post on The Daily Digi. I still look back at that list often and I’ve recently started working on some layouts related to those memories. When I posted about the Storytelling ebook by Stacy Julian, I asked my readers to share some stories they want to tell. I sure enjoyed reading through all the comments and I found myself nodding my head in agreement with so many of the memories. I actually found a lot of inspiration from all of you! I’m not including all the comments here, but I thought it would be fun to list a few that might help you spark your own thoughts. I bet you will think of some things you want to document when you read through these remarks!

 

 

I've been listening to both The Digi Show and The Paperclipping Roundtable, but I'm not yet a storytelling scrapbooker. I only capture visual moments and stick them down with a little bit of text about who is in the photo and when it was taken. I'm sure my scrapbooks would be so much more interesting if I did put down the stories too, but I guess I'm not ready for that. (At least that is what I tell myself.) Storytelling Strategies sounds like it might be the "pep talk" that I need to get myself to consider stories instead of just pictures! Thanks for the review and recommendation!

 

Love books like this and with Stacy Julian's approach, it'll be a must-have! :) Thanks for the giveaway! Story I want to tell: More stories about my own childhood that parallel those of my girls. I'd love to scrapbook more then/now pages too.

 

My husband's father passed away last month and even though the emotions are still raw, I have a deep pull to tell the story of the special
person he was in my kids life. In looking a photos and pages I scrapped in the past, I have found they just don't tell the story. I really could use this ebook!

 

I enjoy reading this blog and have done so religiously for several years now. You always have great ideas and recommendations. Most of my pages are very heavy with pictures and maybe a story about something here and there. Stacy's book may be just the spark of inspiration I need to tell better stories. I am a mother of two and I work full-time outside the home, so there is always a story to tell. I need help focusing my attention on what would be the best story and how I should tell it.

 

I would love to record more stories about my grand parents and great grand parents, who have all passed away within the last few years. There is so much history, and family traditions, that will be lost if someone doesn't record them. I would forever regret it if at least some of these stories don't get recorded/written down.

 

I have been a Stacy Julian fan for years, and this is a great giveaway. My mom recently passed away, and I realized how many stories died with her because they weren't written down. I'm in the process of recording everything I can remember hearing from her. I don't want that family history to be lost or forgotten.

 

I love Stacy and so many of her classes, books, etc. This is one I do not have but would love to. Thanks for the chance! A story that I would like to tell is about my sons' passion for film making and how it is evolving.

 

I want to tell the story of my love for Reese's peanut butter cups. Strange, I know...but I LOVE them, especially the holiday ones (hearts, eggs, etc.). The other day I was sorting stuff from my childhood and found a little plastic wallet with the Reese's logo on it. I had completely forgotten that I had that and it cracked me up to think that even as a little girl I knew Reese's pb cups were special!!

Thanks for the opportunity to win. I took Stacey's Twelve class last year and loved it. This ebook seems to be an excellent highlight of that class. Today I had a chance to walk by an old house that I bought after I graduated from university and lived in more than 15 years ago (pre-husband and children). I'd like to tell a story about some of the things I remember from my life back then. Your post is just the encouragement that I need to actually do it. Good thing I took a photo with my phone.

 

This book looks like a great resource to give me prompts in scrapbooking my life. I want to tell some stories about my childhood family, fun stories of children growing up, favorite music-classical,hymns, etc. Thanks for the opportunity to find out about this book and a chance to win.

 

I always love to read about new ways to capture storytelling, and Stacy is a wonderful teacher. Let's see...what stories do I want to tell right now... I'd say the stories about living on a remote island for several years while I was growing up. I've jotted down notes here and there, but would love to tell the stories more richly and have very few pictures to go with them!

 

I am a huge fan of Stacy! That book looks so great. Even with my only scrapbooking these days being Project Life I sure could use the help focusing on stories and not necessarily photos. I have so many stories I need to get down in albums, I want to document my mom battling and beating breast cancer for sure!

 

I love Stacey and how real and honest she is. She encourages us to be that way in our scrapbooking.
I've been wanting to scrap the stories of some of the real and honest(and funny) things that my husband and kids say :O)

 

Thanks for the chance to win Katie. I'm starting to put more stories in my pages than ever before. I can hardly remember much of my childhood I need to get them down before I forget.

 

Thanks for the chance to win this! Love Stacy's books. A story I would like to tell... I want to tell stories from my childhood, and from my husband's. I especially want to include memorabilia that I have in boxes...

 

Hi Katie! Thanks for the chance to win :) I have so many stories to tell - two trips to Disney World are at the top of the list.
The first trip was my first and I struggle to tell the story with the same emotions I was feeling. Make sense?

 

I've been frustrated lately with my scrapbooking - my journaling has really been suffering. I'd love some tips to change my ok layouts into actual stories!

 

Seems to me that we all have quite a bit in common when it comes to memory keeping. We want our stories told, but it’s not always easy to do that. I’m always happy to find resources like Stacy’s ebook that help me come up with new and fresh ideas for documenting the lives around me. I’m excited to announce a winner who will get the ebook for free. I used a random number selector to pick this comment as the winner:

34. Peggy M said...wow! sounds like an awesome book. I love the category concept. I've already broken my scrapbooks down into categories & this would take it one step further.

 

Even if you didn’t win, don’t forget about this great discount

Special Offer for my readers

I’m so happy that my friends at Big Picture Classes have a coupon code for me to share with my blog readers! You can save 25% on one or all three of Stacy Julian’s other eBooks at Big Picture Classes with promo code below

scrapwithstacy (code expires 4/30/13)

Photo Freedom132 pages for $15.99

UR2 Cre8ive 68 playful ways to unleash your creativity 24 pages for $5.99

20 Simple Secrets of Happy Scrapbookers 26 pages for $5.99

See the complete eBook catalog here

 

Thanks for the inspiration everyone!

 

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P.S. the label on my photo is from Amy Wolff mega label pack.

Creative Exercise with a Photo Mosaic

Creativity might be something that some people are just born with, but for me, it is a skill that I’m constantly developing. I need to work out my creative muscles or they atrophy and wither away. 

This came to me as I was browsing Flickr the other day and adding photos to my favorites category there. Flickr has been a huge source of inspiration for me for several years now and I’m sort of a Flickr fanatic. If I find out you don’t know about the wonders of Flickr, be prepared to hear me ramble on about it for at least 30 minutes. I will also refer you to a few links of “required reading” – at least I believe these should be required!

• 20 reasons why you should use Flickr
• A Flickr tutorial for digital scrapbookers and photographers (a post by me at The Daily Digi)

I’ll also tell you all about how I use Big Huge Labs mosaic maker to create mosaics from Flickr photos. I told you that you can’t get me started on the topic! You are going to want to know that as I go on with the post though, trust me on this.

So there I was on Flickr, all set to work on a new mosaic, and an idea hit me. It was inspired by a few simple thoughts I had when looking at some photos. Suddenly, I was searching through the uploads and looking for relevant content. This time I decided to use other people’s photos so I limited my search to pictures with a creative content license. This is my creation:

 

Any idea what the inspiration was here? If it’s any help, here are the photo credits:

1. Rose Gold Bunny バラ ゴールドバニー, 2. 231:365 - worst day, 3. copper kettle, 4. Very Cabley Mittens, 5.packaging, 6. Shetland Pony_2760, 7. Christkindlmarket 2008 - Apple Strudel, 8. Doorbell misplaced, 9.Homemade Schnitzel, 10. Noodles, 11. LESSER CANADA GOOSE, 12. Dark side of the moon., 13. White Dresses, 14. Blue Satin Sashes, 15. Snowflake, 16. Nose, 17. eyelashes, 18. Silver balls, 19. World of White - winter snow, 20. Spring Blossoms, 21. www.flickr.com/photos/jimwallace57/5773814645/in/faves-sc..., 22. a bee at work, 23. My Favorite Things, 24. SEW Hip! Hexagonal, 25. Bad Wolf

 

Some of you might have figured it out immediately. Others might still be scratching their heads. There is a theme here and I’ll reveal it in a minute. First, I want to talk about the creative muscles used for this exercise. I had to be familiar with the material. I couldn’t pull this idea out of thin air, it’s based on something I’ve experienced (as in I’ve read it, heard it, seen it, etc.) Most creative results really come from something you’ve been exposed to in some way. I’m not sure if the saying that “there are no original thoughts” is really true, but I do know that we seem to build on something we’ve experienced in some way.

Do you have it figured out yet? Here’s the link for those of you who want to peek at the answer. Now that you know, it’s probably extremely obvious. If the answer is something you aren’t familiar with though, I’m sure it was difficult.

Consider this a simple warm up exercise to get your creativity going. If you want to, you might enjoy taking another idea and looking for photos to represent it. You will thank yourself afterwards for spending a little time and energy on your own creative development!

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