Welcome to a new mini-series. I’m going through and checking for “holes” in stories, bigger things I skipped and want to make sure to scrapbook, etc. and as I do I’m making note of what I am learning from past years/older scrapbooks and will be sharing…
1. I love little detailed clusters. I can never have enough of those.
2: I have fully embraced the strip or “Pocket Page inspired” style 2-page layout for bigger/lots of small into 1 page stories. I can cram a whole lot of detail into a single layout.
3: I’m getting better at titles not just being slapped on without thought/as a last minute thing. At making titles a part of the planning process.
4. I love “right now —- is into—-” layouts. LOVE. So great to see that snapshot of pop culture and details from right now.
5. I will never get enough of Maggie Holmes + Crate Paper. So much love for her lines, they are perfect for so much in my crafty life.
6. As great as ‘feelings’ pages can be…. I want the specific details of the right now. I want pages about first time at sleep-away camp. That time we ate at — restaurant and it was amazing. I want the good, bad, funny, and awful of that exact moment in time in the books. These are the pages we most enjoy and look at again more than all others.
2014 has a LOT missing from the second half. I took October – December last year totally off from scrapbooking (taking a few months when feeling burned out is very normal for me from a type of craft. Got to mix it up!) so I have a lot of space still to tell stories, and a lot of stories to tell. My favorite thing about the 2014 book so far? It has to be that every page in there is special. There is no “oh yeah I made that because I needed….” or “ah yeah, hate that one” at all. 100% special stories and pages I love. I like that I’m now creating not as many layouts in recent years vs say 4-5 years ago, and that the quality level is visibly better for it.
I believe I’ll do this in order and keep stepping back in time, with 2013 being my next review… So much to be learned from looking back at my past books – I hope you enjoy this journey with me.
Oh, wow, such pretty layouts. I love reading your thoughts about stuff like this, I admire you. And I agree with you. Since I can sometimes miss days or even weeks crafting every layout has to be meaningful to me, and they are. I’ll continue to enjoy reading this series, too. (PS…saw your tattoo on instagram, I don’t belong and I didn’t want to bother you with an email, but I have to say…you rock! It’s awesome and beautiful.). Michelle t
You do love your clusters, May! I’ve been inspired by you to use more of them, myself.
Oh,May I do so agree with you that the “right now” pages are the ones you will want to go back to. When I initially started scrapping, I made monthly “here is what is happening layouts”, before the project life concept was introduced. I then fell under the “big picture” spell and made only “meaningful layouts”. When my family pulls out my scrapbooks, the ones they look at most and comment about are the ones of “this is what we did” because it is what they relate to. Perhaps someday when I’m not here, they will enjoy the more introspective ones to get a reminder of my voice and outlook, but for now the slices of everyday life “the good, bad, funny, and awful” recorded in real time is what is connecting us and isn’t that one of the motivations behind this great hobby?
I love the “right now” pages as well. ANd I love your clusters too – need to work on mine to make them look more “natural” or something!