The English Geek

about Project Life (but only sort-of-kind-of)

During January and February of this year, I made 41 scrapbook layouts.

Partly I did so many because of different assignments I had. I did my Teen Week at Write. Click. Scrapbook. I also wrote this eZine article for Ella Publishing about two-page layouts. I did my usual Write Saturdays, too.

Another reason for that high page count was that I wanted to get Christmas 2011 scrapped, and I did.

But despite all that scrapbooking I got done, I felt a little bit out of touch with the scrapbooking world in general, and this is because of a thing called Project Life. This is a process developed by Becky Higgins wherein you create a sort-of scrapbook layout for each week of the year. I say "sort-of" because instead of putting everything down on a layout, your photos and memorabilia and journaling pieces slide into divided page protectors. This week, in fact,is dedicated to Project Life at WCS.

It's a great idea, really. It lets you get all of the elements of scrapbooking (photos, journaling, embellishments, ephemera) into their simplest forms so that you can get a lot of memories documented in not a lot of time.

But for some reason—a reason I can't yet clearly articulate, hence this post—I haven't jumped on the bandwagon. Of course, some part of it is my own quirk of not wanting to do something when everyone else is doing it. And it does seem like everyone else is doing Project Life. Go to nearly any scrapbooking blog and you'll find posts on it, and every new scrapbooking line has products for Project Life. It's everywhere, which means I am nowhere.

It's more than wanting to swim upstream, however. A large part of my resistence goes to the idea of the weekly layout. 41 layouts in two months notwithstanding, I don't have a set time for scrapbooking. I sort of squeeze it in when I can. What if I bought all the sheet protectors and the stuffand then I didn't make time to actually make the weekly layouts? And then there's also this fear: would I even have enough stuff to make a two-page spread for every. single. week? Would the fairly-regular blah-ness of my life be made completely visible by a Project-Life style album?

The funny thing about my resistance is that I really do need to figure out a way to make my scrapbooking affection less a part of my life. Which is an odd thing for a person who really, really loves scrapbooking to say. But it stops me from doing other things—namely writing—because it is an easy and pleasant way to be creative. "Scrapbook" has been the answer to the "what will I do with this free time?" question for the past 15 years. It's my way to de-stress and feel creative and feel like I'm doing something that matters. I don't encounter Resistance when I sit down to make a scrapbook page; it's just fun and it makes me happy. Writing also makes me happy, but it is much harder and I fight the Resistance with everything I have and then I toss it because it's not very good and then I start daydreaming about new green alphabet stickers.

I want to find my writing niche.

But scrapbooking feels important too. I like knowing that stuff is recorded. Stories matched up with photos. Experiences put down somewhere they're harder to lose. It makes me happy to look through scrapbooks with my kids, reliving moments. It could consume every single second I could pour into it and I would still never, ever be anywhere close to having told all the stories I want to tell. 

And that is one thing the Project Life approach promises: less time scrapbooking with more stuff actually scrapbooked. So why am I resisting it?

I still don't know. What I do know is this: during March and April of this year, I made a grand total of ten layouts. I did write more. Mostly, though, I just sat around and thought about things. About finding balance and being productive and living joyfully. About not squandering my time, and about what has value and meaning for me. About how I want my life to be and yes, about where scrapbooking fits in that. Maybe all of this pondering also seems like a waste of time, but I don't think so. My gut tells me I am in the middle of a necessary project, even if it doesn't look like much is happening. The change is happening inside me first. And I can't really commit to anything until it works its way to the surface.

Just curious: if you  are a scrapbooker, how do you feel about Project Life?

and if you are not  a scrapbooker, tell me how you manage your photos and stories?

Two of the World's Saddest Words:

"Store Closing."

(OK, of course there are plenty of words that are sadder than those. But when the store you're talking about is one of your favorites, it's still pretty sad.)

Lately it seems like all of my familiar ways of shopping are being forced to change because of the economy. Take scrapbooking. Since my favorite crafty store, Roberts, closed down, I'm sort of despondent. I don't like shopping online for scrapping supplies since I can't really know what an item's real feel is by seeing it online. (Plus: shipping.) Plus it just feels wrong, somehow, to pay full price. I've done it a couple of times at Archiver's and then I feel guilty and get a stomach ache. So most of the new stuff that's out right now? Totally not ending up in my stash or on my layouts. Mostly that is OK because really, I have a lot of stuff.

But I still miss shopping at Roberts. I feel awkward about my shopping options. Awkward and unnatural, somehow. My normal MO has been interrupted.

And call me a snob (you won't be the first), but when I read that one of my other favorite (non-scrapping-supply) stores was leaving my local mall? Cue awkward, unnatural shopping feelings. Yes: I have been called a snob because Nordstrom was one of my favorite places to shop. Mostly this accusation doesn't bother me because A---I know I'm really not a snob and B---I didn't shop in the super-expensive sections. Just the Brass Plum and Point of View, and always during sales.

It's my mother's fault, really. She took me there for back-to-school shopping for as long as I can remember. Every July, we'd go to the Nordstrom at Crossroads Plaza in downtown Salt Lake because that was the only Nordstrom in Utah. We'd pick out our school clothes during the anniversary sale, and then put them all on lay-away, and then we'd go to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. A few months later, we'd come back up and get everything out of lay-away and start wearing it the next day. It was one of my favorite childhood and teenage experiences. And! Who can forget how it felt to see a few of those iconic Nordstrom boxes, the silver kind with a wide band slipped around its width, under the Christmas tree? Wondering if you were the lucky recipient of the Nordstrom box (even though it didn't always hold something from Nordstrom) was some of the best Christmas anticipation ever!

When, in 2002-ish, Nordstrom came to my local mall, I was so happy. I could just, you know, stop by. Just stop by Nordstrom! Squee! And really: I don't love Nordstrom because I'm snobby. I love it for the things it makes me remember and because I can always find something there that works for me. Haley fell in love with the store, too. So we'd go together whenever we could. Sometimes I could even shop in the same department as her. There was my infamous Nordstrom Meltdown . I bought Christmas gifts and birthday gifts and random I-need-a-new-shirt shirts there. I got friendly with some of the staff and Haley made the Fashion Board. We bought her homecoming dress there (for a smokin' deal, I might add!) and I shopped there this Christmas without melting down once. And then they dropped the bomb: because our county is not full of "high end retail shoppers," Nordstrom left.

Sadness.

And again, I'm full of that awkward feeling. Right now, for example, I need some new spring shirts. I don't know what I wore last year, but this spring I just don't have anything. But can I find any tops I like? No. Everything's flouncy and flowery and has great big sleeves which I feel uncomfortable in. And I just wish I could shop at my Nordstrom. And yes: I could drive to Salt Lake. It's not that big of a deal. But I sort of feel...abandoned, I suppose, by my favorite store. All that criticism I took for being a Nordstrom snob but the store itself doesn't think I'm high-end-retail enough to stick around.

So now I'm just discouraged. Discouraged and hot because I'm still wearing my winter clothes. To cheer myself up, today on my lunch break I decided to run into my only remaining local scrapbook store, Pebbles in my Pocket. I've shopped there since Chris told me about it back in 1995. And I discovered that Pebbles had moved. The store is still in the same building (a small white old house), but now they are just in the basement. The selection is much smaller. It's a little bit depressing to shop in the basement. And it smacks of The End. Is Pebbles going to close down, too?

I don't know. I just know I'm all sorts of bewildered over my recent shopping options. And I'm hoping nothing else goes away. Like...what if my Target closed? Or my local Costco? Or the place I get my photos printed? What about Runner's Corner where I buy my running shoes or the Cotton Shop where I get flannel for baby quilts? It almost seems like all that will be left is a landscape of Walmarts, and at that point? At that point you can just check me into the mental institution because a world of Walmarts is not one I'll ever want to live in.

Yep, I'm sticking to it: "Store Closing" is a sad, sad statement. Even if it's followed by the word "clearance." (Nordstrom, big snobby snobs that they are, didn't even have a store-closing sale.) I'd rather have the store than the going-out-of-business sale, wouldn't you?

Gratitude Gallery

April's Write. Click. Scrapbook. theme was gratitude. I made this layout for the gallery:

It's about Kaleb's friendship with our across-the-street neighbor. I love this family so much! (Does that sound weird to say about your neighbor?) They all do different things that make our lives easier, and they get our sense of humor!

And, dare I confess: I love the way this layout turned out. I usually start working on a layout with some sort of idea in my head, but most of the time the vision and the reality don't coincide. That's because I usually underestimate the space the different elements will take up, or I write more than I thought so I have to switch things around. (Usually, of course, it's that I wrote more than I expected!) This one, however, came out nearly exactly the way I had imagined it. I love it when that happens!

If you're of the scrappy persuasion, click HERE to see the rest of the gallery, and then check back on Saturday for my write. post.

Trek Photo Album: a little teaser

 finally got some of my photos from trek scrapbooked! Rather than just making a layout, I made a mini (8x8) album. Here's a teaser:

Go HERE to see more details!

I made this album for Jake. One day soon I'm going to make one for Haley and one for myself as well.

One thing that this album reminded me: big projects come together so much faster when the journaling is already written! I just had to tweak a little bit, and proofread, and then the journaling was done.

One thing that this album taught me: how to print small, double-sided booklets full of journaling without using Publisher. (As I don't have Publisher on my computer at home!) It's a little tricky and involves some cutting and pasting and some strange arranging of pages, but it can be done!

Another thing this album reminded me: I really, really loved going on trek, despite the cold.

And: despite my insecurities over being the historian, I did get some good photos.

Oh! And it also taught me: 6x8 prints are an awesome size!

Anyway. If you also went on trek, or know someone who did, you might hop over and see the rest of the album!

WCS Mini Gallery

(Thank you for your kind comments about yesterday's post. I'm still processing. I imagine I will continue processing for awhile.)

This month's WCS gallery is up and it's full of mini albums. For my contribution, I finally got around to making an album with my hiking boot photos.

Ever since the fall of 2008, I've kept the tradition of the Hiking Boot Photo.

On the top of every peak, I make all the people who are with us pause for a photo of all our hiking boots.

Sometimes I forget and then I have to improvise. Like, this counts as a hiking-boot photo, right?

As does this one, which only accidentally got my boot in it:

I am happy to say that I now have all of my hiking-boot photos from the past 3 1/2 years in this little 5x7 album. It's nearly full, though, so I need to get another one for our next years of hiking adventures. I kept the mini totally simple: the 5x7 photo on the left with the location of the hike added before I had the pictures printed, and a journaling card on the right with the details:

If you're of the scrappy persuasion, you should go and see the other minis HERE!

{What I Love} no7: WordPerfect

There are very few things I learned in high school that I actually use in my adult life. (Is this a blanket statement that applies to everyone? Or is it just me and my adolescent oddities?) For certain none of my extracurriculars are helping me now—they didn't even help me then very much. I learned to love Margaret Atwood in high school and I still use that skill regularly. I learned the art of the mixed tape from, oddly enough, the three days in tenth grade I spent in seminary. I learned that history is interesting when correctly taught. Oh! I learned to drive, to type, and to make cheese fondue. And I learned WordPerfect.

And honestly, aside from the driving and the typing, WordPerfect is the high school skill I use the most. Let's be perfectly up front about it: I really, really hate Word. I hate it on principle—because I want to resist the homogenization of the world. But I also I hate it because it doesn't think the way I need it to think. I'm functional with Word because I need to be. I based an entire class on it. I use it because the world says I must. But it feels like speaking Spanish feels: the same world but translated differently. Plus it frustrates me to no end with how it tries to control too much.

But WordPerfect? That is my natural word processing habitat. I've never stopped using it since I learned how in tenth grade. I've been with it since it was the blue screen with a blinking cursor. I remember when mouse control was added and no one thought that a computer mouse would ever actually catch on. (Won't it always be faster, the argument went, to just use the function keys?) I remember the furor caused when Windows versions of software started being released.

I remember when every keyboard in the world had a WordPerfect template above the function keys.

You know what I also remember?

All the keystrokes. (Because they were right: it is faster to keep your hands right on the keyboard instead of reaching for a mouse.) And not just the obvious ones. I can get to Typesetting, Merge, Macros, Tables, Spell Check, and almost any feature you can think of, all without taking my fingers off the keyboard.

Of course, this knowledge doesn't help me much in the real world. I still have to use Word for anything that is leaving my computer for the wide world. (Usually, though, I still write it in WordPerfect and then convert it to a Word doc.) It still makes me happy, using WordPerfect. I'll use it as long as they keep making updates. Because, say I wanted to make something like the subway art on this layout

in Word. It would be a painful process of multiple text boxes and frustration over text spacing. Using WP (one text box and the handy "Advance" feature), I made it in 30 minutes. I might have sat back and declared myself a word processing genius when I was done.

So even though it makes me seem a little bit odd and a whole lot dated (when I was teaching, one of my students noticed me using WordPerfect and told me it just made me "vintage" which I suppose should make me feel hip & elegant & cool in a shabby sort of way, even though it really only makes me feel old), I'm sticking by my favorite word processor. Function keys and all. I think my tenth grade teacher would be proud. Maybe prouder if I could actually remember her name? Ah, oh well. At least I remember the keystrokes she taught me.

Do you have a little-known computer software you love and adore beyond reason?

the closing of Robert's

This week is CHA. I told Kendell that it’s like Comdex for scrapbookers but then, I’m not certain they still have Comdex. Anyway. CHA is a convention for crafters, and it’s when all of the scrapbooking supply companies show off all of their new stuff. For the past two or three weeks, you could go to the blogs of said scrapbooking supply companies and see sneak peeks of the new stuff, and enter to win the new stuff, and imagine yourself using the new stuff on layouts. I was even optimistic enough to enter a few of the giveaways, which I only do in order to help someone else win. (I am not a lucky person. Seriously. I never actually win anything. My theory is that I am gathering up all my luck together for the one day when I really, really need it, or to win something that’s really, really amazing, not just some paper and alphabet stickers and maybe a stamp set or a spool of pretty ribbon.)

And I’m really sort of sad that CHA is here.

Not because I am not going. I’ve never gone to a CHA because A—what would I do there, as I am B—not on any design teams, nor in any way important. People who go to CHA are the people who work for the scrapbooking supply companies, or the people who work for the companies that sell scrapbooking supplies, or the people who are Famous Scrapbookers and thus are important enough to just show up. Since I am none of those things, I’ve never gone. Besides, hello, it’s me. I’ve accustomed myself to always being on the outer fringe of things. That’s me: not even cool enough to go to CHA.

But really, I’m sad that CHA is here because it means that all sorts of new scrapbooking supplies will be released. And, despite my current goal of using the stuff I already have, I am not immune to the power that is a New Sheet of Alphabet Stickers. The lure is irresistible. (I can resist almost everything else. Everything except the alphabet stickers. You had me at A. Especially if the "A" in question is not glittered. Not even alphabets can convince me to put up with glitter which, despite all assurances, never actually stays put.) But all of those new scrapbooking supplies? Will not be showing up at my favorite place to buy scrapbooking supplies. Because that store, which was called Robert’s, is closed.

And despite the lure of "store-closing sale," those two words—"store closing"—are just about the saddest ones I know. I’ve shopped at Robert’s since 1995, when my sister-in-law (one of the many, many people in my life who used to be a scrapbooker) introduced me to the power of the 40% off coupon. Since then, I’ve bought nearly all of my scrapbooking supplies on sale. And pitied the poor souls who couldn’t do so. Every week, something was on sale at Robert’s, and they always had at least a 40% off coupon. Sometimes even a fifty. And they were pretty good about getting new stuff in, too. Not all the new stuff. But enough to keep me happy, and I could fill in the rest of my desires with stops at Archiver’s and Pebbles in my Pocket, stores which almost never have sales. (Although, last November I just happened upon an Actual Sale at Archiver’s, which even the salesclerks pointed out was notable.)

A few years ago, Hobby Lobby came to Utah. And that spelled doom for Robert’s. They didn’t only sell scrapbooking supplies—they sold all sorts of crafty stuff. But when Hobby Lobby showed up, Robert’s just sort of...wilted. Their selection got smaller, especially in decorative stuff. Instead of fighting hard against the Big Guys, Robert’s diminished. I’m certain there was some sort of business-y MBA-inspired reasoning behind this. But obviously: wrong choice. I think that they should have pushed harder, been more aggressive, had cooler and better stuff, and counted on the loyalty of their customers. (I’ve still only been in Hobby Lobby two times in my life.) Of course, who am I to offer business suggestions? I’m not, remember, even cool enough to go to CHA! But there’s my opinion.

So now I have joined the ranks of people I used to pity: the ones who have to pay full price for their scrapbooking supplies. This puts me in all sorts of panic, especially when it comes to adhesive. I can’t imagine coughing up $10 for a roll of double-stick tape, especially since for the last 16 years or so, I’ve stocked up on it during those 50%-off sales. I might even have to start doing something I really don’t enjoy: shop for my scrapbook supplies online. I know: thousands of people do this every day. But I don’t like it. I can’t get a textural sense of products online. I don’t trust the colors. And without seeing the products in real life, without touching them, I can’t for certain envision how I will use them. Which means that when I buy scrapbooking stuff online, I either buy too many of items I will probably never use or buy too few of the items I should have bought more of.

And I also know: wa, wa, wa. This is what Haley would call a "rich person’s problem." Put inside the perspective of poverty and war and starvation, my little "I have to pay full price for scrapbooking supplies" whine really is fairly silly to stress over. But still. The closing of Robert’s will change the way I scrap. Maybe that change will be a good thing—it will push me to stick with my use-my-stuff goals. It will reduce my tendency to think "but I don’t have the exact shade of green ink I need, so I’m just going to run to Robert’s to find some" as well as the tendency to pick up just a few other things while I’m there. Even with having to pay shipping, maybe I’ll actually spend less because I’ll make fewer impulse purchases.

Maybe.

But I’m still fairly bummed about all that new stuff that’s coming out, and knowing it will be harder for me to acquire (and use, as really: I do really, really and truly, really use my scrapping stuff). And knowing that when I really do find it in an actual, real, live scrapbooking store (Archiver’s and Pebbles now being my only options) (because I sort of don’t want to shop at Hobby Lobby mostly out of misspent loyalty and then the only other option is Michael’s, which I actually checked out the other day and which still had some of the same supplies they had the last time I checked it out, back in 2002) I will have to pay full price for it? Well. That rubs against every single one of my shopping habits. Will my I-don’t-pay-full-price-for (almost)-anything frugality be overcome by my I-must-have-that-alphabet-set compulsions? Only time will tell.

16 New Ones

Last week I made sixteen scrapbook layouts. Sixteen. In one week. This was all in service of my blogging week at Write. Click. Scrapbook, where I wrote about scrapping for your teens. (Which means that in that pile of sixteen layouts? None were for Kaleb. Which makes me feel guilty and think I need to catch him up.) (If you want to read and/or see what I did, you can click here and then navigate forward through the days.)

I imagine that for some scrapbookers, 16 layouts in five days is no big deal at all. But I am a slow scrapbooker. SLOW. Partly this is because I spend a lot of time on my journaling. Even if I already have a draft written, I still get a little bit obsessive over the editing. And the formatting. I get frustrated with my current font selection so I go in search of something different and then I get sucked into drooling over all the beautiful ones at myfont.com and wishing I had a "font-buying" category in my budget but really knowing that I don't need to spend $15 or $40 or $79.99 on a font. But still wishing I could.

(See how easily the font thing distracts me from my point?)

Partly the slowness comes from agonizing a bit over my design skills. I sometimes feel like the design part of scrapbooking is like a language I never learned to speak or read, so when I try to "speak" it on my layouts, I say weird things. And the people who can read it must, I imagine, shake their heads over my obvious mistakes.

Partly it comes from simply spending time with my photos, looking at them and remembering. I had a conversation with a friend the other day (a non-scrapbooking friend as nearly all of my skin friends are) about how, now that all her photos are digital, she feels like she has less of a relationship with them. Sure—they're there on her computer. But she doesn't look at them hardly ever. Not looking at photos is unimaginable to me. I do it all the time. Since this relationship with photos is nearly always in my thoughts, I also take a lot of photos. I can't imagine being any other way.

On Friday night, when I had wrapped up my blogging week, my stack of 16 layouts was still on my scrapping desk. (I had managed to finally clean up the enormous mess I'd made, but hadn't put the layouts away yet.) Haley saw them, and she sat down and read them all. She made a few corrections (dates I'd messed up). She pointed out a few little embellishment ideas that she liked. But then she said something I'm still thinking about. "These layouts seem like they have less stuff on them than usual. But I really like that."

I keep thinking about her comment because it fits in so well with what my intense week of scrapbooking taught me. I tend to look at other people's layouts and their successes in the scrapbooking world, then turn around and find my own fairly paltry and pathetic. I'm neither trendy nor trendsetting. My layouts are just...me. I wish, quite often, that I could find more success—that my classes drew more students and that my blog was super-popular. It's a little bit disheartening to know that committing myself to be who I am on my layouts hasn't helped to set me apart from anyone.

But I look at that pile of 16 layouts and I know: I was true to myself in every one of them. I did what I do, which is write a lot and obssess over writerly perfection even though I know it's useless to do so and then adjust the width of my journaling space 29 times before printing just to make sure I don't have any bad rag. I used lots of alphabet stickers and lots of patterned paper strips. I used type as my only embellishment. I used quotes that I love and a stamp that is older than Kaleb. I didn't do anything extraordinary with my supplies.

But I put my perfectly-aligned journaling into the same spot as my photographs. I said things I wouldn't have ever said outloud. I recorded details that would otherwise be lost, feelings that are hard to express, and little stories that are priceless to me. I remembered (again) how much I love my kids and how grateful I am to be their mom. I remembered (yet again) that scrapbooking makes me happy.

And I learned a little bit about my own style. All that scrapbooking in a small amount of time? Taught me to be better about not judging my design abilities. To just find a way to make it work and then move forward. That my simple, words-based approach is my thing, and if it doesn't bring me wide-scale scrapbooking popularity? It is OK. Who needs popularity when you compare it to your own sweet kid saying "Mom, I love these layouts!"?

So I am going to try harder. Try harder to keep that self-flagellating voice silent. To not compare myself to other people and wish I had their flair or their way of seeing things or their creativity. To love what I do for no other reason than I did it and now it is done and the story is down, not, now, to be lost.

on Textuality

This Thursday, October 6, I have a new class starting at Big Picture. It's called Textuality. Here are the top ten questions I get asked about this class, which I'm sharing just in case you happened to ask me one of these questions and I spaced emailing you back. Note: I NEVER space emailing someone back on purpose. Usually I just think I've replied, I'm certain I have, and then I realize with horror two weeks later that, no, I only thought I replied.

Anyway.

Top Ten Textuality questions:

1. Why should I take this class?    Because it will help you look at your scrapbooking supplies in a new light. It will help you get more of your supplies onto your layouts (where they belong, in my opinion!). It will give you new answers to the perennial "how should I embellish this layout?" question. And because it will be a fun four weeks!

2. What kind of word is "textuality" anyway?    It really is a real word. Literary theorists use it to describe the qualities a piece of text has that make it a piece of text. I chose it as the title for my class because all the learning in the class revolves around ways making text in any scrappy form (journaling, words, titles, letters, alphabet supplies) visually interesting. In fact, it was that word itself that sparked the class.

3. Is there any writing involved?     Only whatever journaling you bring to the class. Unlike my Write Now! class, Textuality does NOT discuss writing techniques, except for one that's really more a part of the designing of layouts than the writing of journaling. There aren't any daily writing prompts either. So, less writing than in Write Now!, much less, in fact.

4. How much work is involved?     Each week you'll receive two entirely optional challenges via email. These relate directly to the information in that week's handout. The first is called "dig into your drawers" and challenges you to use some of your alphabet supplies. The second is called "use what you've learned" and challenges you to use a new skill on a layout.

5. Is this a "project" class?     Not really. You won't have, say, a finished mini album by the end of the class. If you do all of the challenges, you'll have eight completed layouts at the end. Rather than a project, the class teaches processes and concepts for using text in unique ways. At the end of the class, you'll have a myriad of new ways to approach your layouts.

6. Is this class only for people who've been scrapping for a long time?     Not at all! I think any scrapper could take it, beginner or oldie. If you ARE a beginner, you'll be happy to know that there are lots of step-by-step instructions. If you're an oldie (like me!), you'll rediscover—and use—some of your old, beloved supplies.

7. The description mentions using just your word processor...I don't need Photoshop or something fancy?     No. Word is all you'll need. While there are tons of cool things you can do with text in Photoshop, I wanted to keep this class as non-technical as possible. The majority of the lessons about word processing involve typesetting details—making your journaling look good, in other words. The majority if the techniques involve using your supplies instead of your keyboard.

8. Is this a class for digi scrappers?      All of the supplies I use are traditional ones. The lessons do focus on using traditional supplies. This is not because I think traditional scrapping is better than digital scrapping—I don't! For me, however, one of scrapping's appeals is its kinesthetic happiness. I, personally, enjoy the texture, the mess, the pressure of scissors through paper more than I enjoy using my computer, so that is why my class focuses less on the digital aspect. That said, though, nearly every single technique would translate to digital supplies and approaches. You'd just use, say, digital chipboard instead of temporal chipboard.

9. What sort of supplies will I need?     My scrapping philosophy in a nutshell is this: new stuff isn't better than old stuff. (If you want to read a few detailed explanations, try here or here.) One of the main goals of the class is to encourage you to use your stuff—to not let it pile up in ignored and neglected corners while you're off buying the next new thing. So, the supplies you'll need are the supplies you already have: alphabet anything. Specifically, there are sections on alphabet stickers, chipboard, rub ons, stamps, and papers; journaling cards and stickers; word embellishments; supplies that aren't word- or letter-based used in a textual way.

10. Did you know there's a movie called Textuality?      Why, yes, I did! I haven't seen it, but I can say that about 99% of recent movies. I'm not sure why I hardly go to the movies anymore, especially now that I have two built-in babysitters. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that at least one person on the set of that movie has heard of my class. They totally stole my idea! ;)

So! If you're interested, make sure to sign up soon. It starts on Thursday! And, if you have any more questions, shoot me an email or leave a comment and I'll answer you. I totally won't space it!

Write Now!

Next Thursday, on August 4, my Big Picture Classes workshop, Write Now!, starts up again. This class is perhaps my favorite class I teach at Big Picture, and here's why:

I think all scrapbook layouts deserve some journaling. That isn't an altogether popular point of view; for plenty of scrapbookers, the journaling part is sheer, frustrating drudgery. Or something that just never gets done but then makes the guilt flare up. That's one reason I wrote the class: to help scrappers feel confident about their journaling and to enjoy the process.

But I also think that if you're going to write some journaling—or any sort of writing, really; you could easily apply the techniques in Write Now! to your blog or your private journal or that personal memoir you've always wanted to write—you might as well write it well. The cool thing is that it doesn't have to take a long time to write it well. That's why the class's subtitle is "A Speedy Journaling Workshop." It teaches you how to write well and how to do it quickly.

Also, it's my favorite class because I deep-down, to-the-tips-of-my (blistered and toenail-less) toes believe that everyone can write well. Yeah, sure: not all of us can write good novels, or poems, or short stories. Not everyone has it in themselves to be the next great and famous Writer. But we can all write about our lives and our kids' and friends' and pets' lives with authenticity and significance. It takes a combination of things: knowledge (the techniques that writers use to make their texts come alive), confidence (which comes with practice and with never getting out of the habit of practice), and desire. Write Now! will help you with the first two. The desire part has to come from you.

Here's what I mean by that. This morning, I did notwant to do my scheduled 7 mile run. My back hurt and my right foot has been having this weird, inexplicable pain. (I even had an x-ray to make sure it wasn't a stress fracture. Which it isn't.) But when Kaleb asked me why I wasn't in my running clothes, I knew I had to put them on and put in my miles anyway. After I'd finished, when I was walking up my driveway, one of my neighbors stopped to chat with me. She told me she admired me for running, and that she wasn't sure how I did it, because running is hard for her to do. Her comments added to my post-run exhilaration, but I also had to chuckle a bit, thinking about how hard it was for me just to put my shoes on and get out the door.

Writing good journaling is exactly like that. It seems like it's too hard to do and that only a few people can do it. But if you do it every day, it becomes easier. With running you learn stuff like pacing and building endurance and avoiding injuries and maintaining glycogen levels and stretching just the right amount; those things help the seemingly-hard process of running become easier. With writing, you learn stuff like sentence structure and word choice and organization, silencing your internal editor and being brave on paper and filtering out the fluff to get to the real; those things help the seemingly-magical process of writing strong journaling become easier.

Doesn't matter, honestly, if you love journaling or hate it, this class will help you. If you have the desire, everything else will start making perfect sense! And, as a happy little perk, there's a give away on Thursday, July 28 at write. click. scrapbook. for a free seat in the class. Click over and leave a comment to enter!