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Spring 2006
"Because a memory a day keeps the blues far away."
Table of Contents
- Compliments from Virginia!
- Page Ideas - Hooked on Crochet, Donut Queen, and Family Home
- Year in Review Journaling Questions
- It Pretty Much Stunk ... Believe It! (But I BEAR it all for you!)
- The 2006 Best of British Scrapbooking and Card Making Contest Winners
- My Tour of England
- A CONTEST - I'll Share a Little of the UK with YOU!
- On a Personal Note...Everybody Loved Kevin
- Stuff You Need to Know
And Thank You, Virginia!
Dear Joanna:
Thank you for writing Scrapbook Storytelling. It has unleashed the story teller in me in such a creative way, it is almost indescribable. I have been dabbling in scrapbooking for years, but your book came to me at the right time. Now I cannot stop. I have carted around a big brown chest full of pictures for years. Now box by box they will become my personal history books. Thanks again.
Virginia Lockhart
My books are available through www.my-memories.net or www.scrapbook.com
Page Ideas
Have you considered a year in review album? Now that 2005 is behind us, and you've had a chance to breathe, it's a good time to think about the year gone by. I decided that a Year in Review album was the best way to chronicle a year in the life of my family and me. (I'll be adding more pages as I get them done!) I like the two-page layout format which gives me plenty of room for extensive journaling. Too often we sacrifice our journaling because we run out of space.
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I'm Hooked on Crochet - Learning to be a "hooker" was a goal. I wanted to track my completed projects and show an example. The fun part was mixing and matching the papers. |
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Donut Queen - This was taken on a fun trip I had with my husband. It pays homage to my great love affair with Krispy Kreme donuts. The word DONUT is made of cheap wood letters I bought at the dollar store. I always keep an eye out for cool bargains there. The right hand page has matchboxes with journaling inside. |
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Family Home - Simple can be wonderful. And these pages are a great example of simplicity. The names on the right are in order of the people in the photo. I like using a simple but striking large graphic like the flower. In fact, in my next ezine, I'll show you an album I made about a cruise I took with my son. I did the whole album with a sewing machine and simple graphics. I love how it came out! |
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Year in Review Journaling Questions
- What did you accomplish? How did you do it? What challenges did you overcome? What are you still working on?
- What did you learn? Any new skills? Who was your teacher? What was hard about the skill and what was easy?
- Who did you lose this year? What will you always remember about him or her? Who came to the funeral? What did you learn about your loved one that you didn't know? How are you coping?
- What family members or friends did you add to your life? What are their names? Describe them.
- And big changes in your life? What are they? Why did they happen? How do you see them playing out in the future?
- What are you most proud of? Disappointed about?
- How's your health? What lifestyle changes have you made?
- What special times did you spend with family and friends?
- What did you read, attend, participate in, view or hear? What cultural opportunities had meaning for you?
- How do you see the past year from a social and historical point of view?
Well, It Pretty Much Stunk...I Mean It REALLY Did....
This was a pretty stinko Christmas and holiday season. We had a lot of teenage drama at our house. Our dog was dying. A good friend had to be hospitalized.
So whatcha gonna do? I mean, I thought about making some cheery-fake-isn't-life-grand Christmas page. I just couldn't do it. It felt so phony. So here was my compromise. I call it Believe because I couldn't bring myself to have a Christmas page with a title: THIS STINKS. No, you can't read my journaling. It's weird though, once I got it down-and I wrote it with pencil, I was so upset-I felt better. Like, okay, THAT'S DONE, MOVE ON, GIRL. |
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I did use an image my family enjoys, the polar bear from the Coke cartons. Mine is torn and I think he looks splendid. Here's how I did it.
- I traced the polar bear in pencil.
- I laid a layer of carbon on the back of my traced paper by rubbing the lead all over the paper. You are creating carbon paper!
- I put my bear carbon side down on a "good" sheet of white paper and went over my original tracing with the tip of my pencil. This is a carbon transfer.
- Using a water pen, I made a water "line" around my tracing of the bear. I waited a minute and tore the paper. The water pen gives you a really, really close edge when you tear.
Isn't he cute? He brightened up my day! Grumble, snarl, snarl.
Sounds like too much work? Okay, click on the picture to the right and you can copy my bear for your own use. |
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The 2006 Best of British Scrapbooking and Card Making Winners
Scrapbooking - Best of the Best
Anam Stubbington
Anna Bowkis
Cara Medus
Corenna Taylor
Donna Vallance
Emma Byford
Hebe Ambler
Julie Gaunger
Jackie Swain
Karen Leahy
Lousette Ashton
Patricia Jacoulot
Scrapbooking - Best New Talent
Kim Sonkson
Natalie Grant
Pam Thorburn
Tracie Hudson
Card Making - Best of the Best
Elaine Mucklow
Klara Wilson
Jo Kill
Sue Lowe
Jacquie Swain
Card Making - Best New Talent
Tracie Hudson
Elaine Farr
Stephanie Strachen
My Tour of England
Working in partnership with Future Publishing and ScrapBook Inspirations, The UK's Premiere Scrapbook Magazine, we ran the second Best of British Scrapbooking and Cardmaking Contest. Wow. Did I see gorgeous work or what? Let me tell you that choosing winners is hard work. I found myself particularly attracted to pages where the scrapbooker shared a sentiment or life philosophy or a quotidian moment. Yes, there are lots of posed pictures that get scrapbooked and they are great, but I'm a sucker for real life. Here's an example of one of the great pages submitted by our winners. It's called Best Holiday Ever and it's by Lousette Ashton. I love how many photos she used and all that journaling! |
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On March 20 through the 27th, I toured England and signed books. I had a great time and met one of my scrapbooking heroes, Joy Aitman, author of several scrapbooking books, including the upcoming Making Christmas Scrapbooks. She's really a talented lady.
My visit ended with a booksigning visit to the Stitches Show at Earl's Court. Here I am with Cheryl Johnson, one of the UK's hottest designers. |
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A New CONTEST- deadline April 30, 2006
I'll Share Some of the UK with One Lucky Scrapper!
I wish I could have taken each of you with me as I toured the British Isles. But I couldn't. There's a limit of 50 pounds per piece of luggage! So here's the next best thing: I brought back an assortment of UK goodies to share: a tea towel from historic Tunbridge Wells, a box of English Tea, a small book called The How to be British Collection and a twenty-pence piece which every Londoner knows is how much it costs to use the loo at Waterloo Train Station! (All that tea has to go somewhere.)
One lucky scrapbooker can win this collection, plus an autographed copy of The Best of British Scrapbooking and Cardmaking. Just email me your name and snail-mail address at savetales@aol.com and I'll put all the entries in a hat and pull one. Be sure to put UK CONTEST in the subject line so I don't toss you out with the spam.
On a personal note...
After my dear little dog, Kevin, was diagnosed as having terminal cancer, I thought, "How can I turn his passing into a blessing?" I told my family I wanted to get a new dog. (This was before Kevin died.)
My husband said, "Let me get this straight. We'll have Kevin and Vicky and another DOG? Are you nuts? It has to be a Bichon because I don't want it to shed."
My son said, "A three-legged dog would be pimping."
So now I was looking for a three-legged Bichon that needed a home. I went to Small Paws Animal Rescue and found Rafferty. Here's his picture. He came to live with us on Martin Luther King's Birthday. He'd been left outside in a cage until the fur wrapped around his leg and cut off the circulation. It had to be amputated. |
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Kevin had to be put to sleep on March 11. He still wagged his tail and tried to stay close to me, but after he had a seizure, I knew it was time to be merciful and not selfish.
And thanks to Kevin, Rafferty has a good home.
I was at the vet's office yesterday getting Rafferty a computer chip. He's not a wanderer, but it's a smart move and an important way to protect your pet. The vet tech cuddled him and said, "I'm sorry about Kevin."
"You knew Kevin?" I'd never met this woman.
She smiled. "Everybody knew Kevin."
You know, everybody DID know Kevin. He was just the merriest, loving-est, fun guy. He'd carry his little white flag of a tail so high. All the groomers liked how he smiled. The girls at the front desk liked how he stood on his hind legs and waved his front feet to beg. The doctors liked how cooperative he was.
And I sure do miss him.
Stuff You Need to Know
Like the ideas here? You'll love our books. Click on www.my-memories.net to see the complete line of our books.
Comments? Contact Joanna at savetales@aol.com. We love to hear what you think and what you'd like to read more about. We like questions, too, but give us a while to answer them, okay?
Have a product you'd like for us to try? Send us samples at Scrapbook Storytelling, 7 Ailanthus Court, Chesterfield, MO, 63005. Phone 636-519-1612.
About the author...Journaling goddess Joanna Campbell Slan is the author of Scrapbook Storytelling which has sold 40,000 copies in addition to seven other books on scrapbooking, one textbook on storytelling, and two inspirational books. Contact Joanna at savetales@aol.com
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