Yesterday & Today

I'm taking another Big Picture Scrapbooking class...shocking, I know. This one is taught by Ali Edwards who is another one of my scrapbooking inspirations. The last couple of classes that I've taken have been very journaling-centric. I don't actually have any journaling phobia, but these recent classes have given me lots of ideas for topics to write about.

This weekend I did an exercise where I hauled out my old albums to figure out what things I like and what things I would do differently. I hadn't looked through my books in quite a while (we're talking years). So it was a lot of fun to flip back through them. One pleasant surprise was that for the most part I was okay with the layouts. In fact, there were actually lots of things that I liked. One of my favorite techniques is when I scan some object and then cut it out. (Why can I not think of what that's called when you cut something out like that? It's driving me nuts!) I love titles with puns but it was apparent that sometimes I try a little too hard to get a punny title. I definitely do not like overly contrived titles. I love big chunky letters and I love letters that overlay the photos (back in the day I used vellum to do that). I love enlargements. I love pages where I actually put some effort to journal. The most consistent thing that jumped out at me was that I like to keep my designs simple. I'm not a fan of the CM style of embellishments, from back in the day. Nothing made me cringe more than pages where I'd tried to use stickers. Sometimes I can make stickers work but for the most part, that's just not my thing.

Today I worked on three pages. I'm hoping to do the next lesson tonight, and maybe even get to the layout that goes with it. In the meantime, Ali Edward's provided a link to this site which has this great list of questions. Hopefully they will get *your* journaling mojo flowing.

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life

Some poking around on the web, looking at various sites, has lead me to inspiration. Apparently Cathy Zielske (I know, I know, I'm always talking about Cathy Zielske) taught a class at CKU and then at Big Picture Scrapbooking based on the book Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. If anyone out there actually pays attention to this blog, you may recall that I posted a review of that book a while back. The book was inspiring in and of itself but this class sounds freakin' awesome.

From what I gather, attendees wrote two to three things about themselves, or things they liked, for each letter of the alphabet. Then they wrote narratives for each item and tried to find an image to go along with it. Finally they made a page for each letter of the alphabet. (Someone named Jackie put a link to one of her pages on a forum at DST.)

I found an article in the Salt Lake City Examiner which leads me to believe that Cathy may teach another similar class in the future, which I hope is true. That would be great! But in the meantime, I totally intend to do this exercise!

I scanned above the fold of the newspapers on the days that my kids were born.

home pregnancy tests

The necklace Dwight gave me after our wedding.

The back of the doggie bag (where it says "doggie bag").

A "doggie bag" from The Inn at Little Washington (from our honeymoon).

Our ski passes.

The favors from my bridal shower.

Random Page Ideas

I'm including this not becaus I necessarily like the layout but I think it's a great idea - which I totally stole from somewhere else (Christy Robinson, I believe.). Basically you just take all the pictures that you get over the holidays and then you make a page(s) out of them.

i did my own family tree because i had a lot of information to squeeze in!

This isn't necessarily such a great layout but I think it's a fun idea. I didn't keep it up with my second or third pregnancies. I just have a few random photos here and there (which is a little ironic since it's probably the girls who might be the most interested someday when they have their own pregnant bellies to compare mine to).

I kept the replies to the evite for our wedding picnic. I'm glad I did because it's kind of cool to flip through and read what people said. (they're spread out across a couple of pages.)

Another idea for you to improve upon.

I took pictures of all of Oskar's gifts and put pictures of them in with the gift registry. An added bonus is that it's very helpful when you're writing thank you notes.

I took a screen shot of the IM chat where Dwight and I decided upon Oskar's name. So if you happen to have a signficant chat - here's an idea.