Podcast – Simple Scrapper https://www.simplescrapper.com Scrapbook Ideas Wed, 17 Sep 2025 20:04:38 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://www.simplescrapper.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/cropped-favicon-1080-v5-150x150.png Podcast – Simple Scrapper https://www.simplescrapper.com 32 32 SYW308 – 12 Clever Ideas for Budget-Friendly Scrapbooking https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/09/syw308/ https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/09/syw308/#respond Wed, 17 Sep 2025 20:04:35 +0000 https://www.simplescrapper.com/?p=227480 In this solo episode I’m sharing twelve ideas to help you save money in your scrapbooking hobby, including some you might never have considered.

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Is your scrapbooking budget feeling tighter than before? As is the case with most hobbies, scrapbooking typically requires ongoing and not-insignificant investment in tools and materials. Yet the reality is that scrapbook supplies, like everything else, are rapidly increasing in price. So you might have been wondering how to be more frugal with your craft purchases and find ways to save. In this episode I’m detailing a selection of money-saving options to consider, but it’s just the start. I’ve love for you to share your own budget-friendly scrapbooking tips in the comments!

Links Mentioned

[00:00:00] Some of these ideas might save you money, some might save you stress, and some might do both. Hey friends, welcome back to another episode. I'm excited to sit down and chat with you. About budget friendly scrapbooking. We all know things are not getting any less expensive and scrapbook supplies were never quite cheap in the first place.

Jennifer Wilson: So I wanna talk about a variety of different perspectives and ways to think about how [00:01:00] to make your hobby a little bit more cost effective, whether that's diving into. Clever and unique ways of using your stash or other parts of your process that might use some tweaking.

I've got 12 different ideas here and these are not rules I want you to take what resonates. Leave the rest. It's all gonna depend on maybe where you often. Invest a lot of your hard to earn cash and where you don't care as much.

It is really going to depend on what type of scrapbooking you like to do, your style, and of course your existing purchasing and using habits. I'm hopeful that this episode gives you some food for thought and new perspective so that you can be more thoughtful with the funds that you have.

[00:02:00] All right, let's dive in to each of these ideas. So number one, and this perhaps is one that is a no-brainer, but it was important to me. To not tell you to just buy less. That's not the point here. You know, you can do that. I wanted to think about what are all the different ways that we can be a little bit more budget conscious in our hobby, and one is being strategic and creative about building kits from your existing stash of supplies.

You can build mega kits that could help you make many pages, or you can build single page kits for one particular story. But even the smallest kit can help you finish a page, with more purpose and intention and a lot more speed, and help you use supplies that you already own. And when you put them together a new configuration, it can give you more [00:03:00] creative momentum and excitement about using those supplies.

All right, number two, and that is to incorporate more hybrid scrapbooking into your hobby. Hybrid involves using your computer and printer, whether it's a printer at home or a way to print only what you need for your scrapbooking, whether that's a journaling block, particular papers, specific elements like stickers or die cut pieces.

You can. Leverage the relative inexpensive costs of an entire digital kit or collection, and only print the pieces that you need for your project. And as a bonus, you have the opportunity to reprint those items as needed over time.

Now as a connected idea also relating to [00:04:00] printing. My idea number three is to. Be more strategic about where and when you are printing your photos. So I would encourage you to use photo services, whether that's local or mail order for bulk purchases and more common sizes, like four by six, five by seven, eight by 10.

Reserve your home printer for those more unique or custom sizes, or projects where you might be making decisions more on the fly. When you do a little bit of both, you can gain the economies of scale of outsourcing your printing while also still maintaining some of your flexibility for printing at home.

And so you can think about. The different types of scrapbooking you do and when it might work best for you to order in [00:05:00] advance and order in bulk versus printing at home.

As a bonus tip, for those of you who are printing at home. Not only is it helpful to watch for sales and coupons and things like that for your printing supplies, but often there is quite a bit of savings in ordering larger quantities, particularly of your photo paper. So rather than going to the local office supply store and purchasing 10 sheets at a time, oftentimes the price per sheet is far lower If you're ordering a hundred sheets at a time.

All right. Idea number four is one that might be difficult, but I think is really, really important, and that's to. Really be decisive about what stories need a whole project. Sometimes one really well designed multi [00:06:00] photo spread, two layouts, even one layout or a couple layouts, can tell the story just as well as an entire album.

When you're creating a project, often that requires purchasing the album, all the page protectors and the supplies to create the whole thing, and that has a much higher cost versus creating one to a small series of layouts. So I want you to really think about what projects you have in the queue and.

Which ones really make sense, both from a story perspective and from your creative satisfaction to be projects and which ones could really be layouts or pocket page spreads, or whatever format works best for you.

All right, tip number five is something that I know a lot of you struggle with, and that is. To please resist [00:07:00] stockpiling. I fully support buying extra adhesive. So you have some for the future buying an extra album because it's on sale and you know that you have one album that's almost full. But I really want to encourage you not to purchase empty albums, particularly project oriented albums that may have a design, maybe a smaller size without a very clear purpose and timeline for that project.

So if you're someone that has a lot of empty albums sitting around, and yes, these are so full of possibilities and potential, but there also is a cost associated with them, and I want to encourage you to think about how you might shift your purchasing behavior to be just a little bit more reactive to your current needs and ideas rather than.[00:08:00]

Buying something because it's available now and you like it, there will always be something else later that you like just as much.

Tip number six encourages you to try on or embrace a more minimalist approach to scrapbooking. Particularly embellishments are often the most expensive part of our layouts. Especially those that may be a little bit more dimensional or preassembled. There can be some pretty pricey items. So when you create pages that focus more on the photos and story, really emphasize the white space and kind of a tight, simple or more graphic design, those often end up using fewer embellishments.

No, it's not to mean to say that you need to change your style completely, but if you are trying to be a little bit more frugal, how can you make the embellishments you do [00:09:00] have stretch a little bit further?

On a similar note, you can stretch the use of your paper supply. Now, most of us, particularly paper scrapbookers probably are never going to run out of pattern paper, but we can probably be more. Thoughtful and budget minded in our use of pattern paper. There's sometimes that abundance fallacy, we think we have so much we don't have to treat it, with much preciousness, but there is so much potential within our pattern paper.

So that's saving and organizing your scraps, using them creatively and with intention for future pages. And even that kind of tried and true trick of cutting the center part of a pattern paper out of. The full sheet that you're using as a background, 'cause all of a sudden you have a really large [00:10:00] area that you could use again for another page or even a companion to that page that you're already making.

Tip number eight is one that leverages a strategy that we teach inside of the Simple Scrapper membership, and that is using a creative hub or a centralized Idea Bank for your story management. When you get all those ideas out of your head and onto paper, including those you've already completed, that can help you reduce redundancy, avoid printing photos that you've already scrapbook and overall, save money by focusing on really matters most to you rather than.

Just, reacting and scrapbooking based on the whims you have of your most current photos and your newest supplies. Now, I'm not saying that that can't bring you a lot of joy, but if you are trying to be more mindful about your overall [00:11:00] volume, and of course the overall associated cost with that, using your creative hub, having the centralized location for all your planned and completed stories can really help you get a hold of that process.

My advice here for number nine comes specifically from some of my own experiences and those that I've seen from our members of choosing classes that require. Specific and new supplies for that particular class. And so my advice is to, when you are looking for a class to support your motivation, practice a new technique to look for classes that.

Encourage the use of supplies that you already own, that may have ideas that you can use again and again, and that just don't require a wholesale purchase of a lot of new and different things in order to complete [00:12:00] that class. With that as a bonus tip, you can always use your own creative mind to come up with adaptations, but I think for most of us, it makes sense to look for that flexibility, the personalization, that adaptability to your own stash. Now there will always be times in which you need something new. As I mentioned in the very beginning, the intent of this conversation is not just to tell you to shop less, but to shop with more intention and more mindfulness. And so when you do identify that there is something that you need.

Whether it's for a class, a project, a layout you wanna create, can you find something similar within your existing stash? Sometimes things that maybe you forgot you had, something maybe you bought in multiple. Um, things that will satisfy your intention, the mood you're going after. Even [00:13:00] thematically, are they close enough to be able to meet this need without having to buy new?

All right. Suggestion number 11. It is kind of a way to back into this budget savings and that is to set natural limits for your supplies by using containers, bins, limiting. Total folder size if we're talking about digital staes, or of course, even using your budget as these signals of this is enough of this particular item.

So the more that you can think about boundaries that are physical or even self-imposed, that can help you. That can offer you an additional lens of saying yes or no. So let's just say you're only going to keep the number of letter stickers that fit in this particular [00:14:00] container. So if you know you want to buy more because you saw some that are really cute, then you need to use up some that you already have or you need to say, oh, okay, maybe not now.

I have plenty. And in the future, I will consider buying that thing if it's still available or looking for something similar. But right now I don't need anything of that particular type. And I know it could be so hard because I. When things come out, we know they're not gonna be around forever, but as I mentioned earlier, there will be something else come along the lines, whether it's a new mainstream release or from a independent manufacturer or from your favorite digital designer that you love just as much, and that excites you even more.

And my final tip here is another way to. Further sustain, this approach and perhaps new [00:15:00] commitment to being more budget conscious in your scrapbooking. And that's to really place an emphasis and a celebratory factor on using things up. Using that last sheet of paper from a paper pack, the last item from a kit, the very last sticker on a sticker sheet.

How can you make this more part of. Your creative process so that you have even more incentive and deep seated motivation to use what you have.

All right. I want to remind you again and reassure you that you don't need to try all 12 of these things. Even one or two can make a big difference, and maybe you've identified one that feels like the easiest place to start, or maybe the one that could offer the biggest, literal bang for the buck for you in terms of being more.

Cost efficient with your [00:16:00] scrapbook, supplies, being more mindful of your purchases and getting a better use of your supplies. Scrapbooking should feel light, joyful, and sustainable, and I hope that you learn something new and receive some new perspective this week.

We've got some more great interviews coming up and a very special series later in October, and I am just so excited to be continuing to chat with you here on the podcast and I can't wait until next time. As always, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.

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SYW307 – Crafting the Empty Nest Era with Caroline Gatenby https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/09/syw307/ https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/09/syw307/#respond Tue, 09 Sep 2025 19:54:04 +0000 https://www.simplescrapper.com/?p=227481 In this episode I'm joined by Caroline Gatenby to chat about the importance of crafting as she designs her empty nester life. Our conversation includes how Caroline keeps her hobby streamlined in format, but detailed with a skill she knows extremely well: sewing.

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In this episode empty nester Caroline Gatenby shares how she has embraced this era and made crafting a central part of her daily life. She shares her thoughtful approach to a streamlined hobby, focusing on formats like pocket pages and notebooks. Our conversation discusses prioritizing creativity, adapting to new life seasons, and finding joy in documenting everyday moments.

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*Affiliate links help to support the work we do, at no additional cost to you.

Caroline Gatenby: [00:00:00] Having some elements of crafting in every day, I think that's what is very important to me. So I often get up and do an hour first thing at the desk just to get something done. And that just makes a great start to the day for me.

Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of the New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 307. In this episode, I'm joined by Caroline Gatenby to chat about the importance of crafting as she designs her empty nester life.

Our conversation includes how Caroline keeps her hobby streamlined in format, but detailed with a skill she knows extremely well sewing.

Hey Caroline, welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Caroline Gatenby: Hello.

Jennifer Wilson: I am [00:01:00] so thrilled to be chatting with you today. Can you start by sharing a little bit about yourself?

Caroline Gatenby: Uh, yes, I'm delighted to be here. Thanks ever so much for inviting me. Uh, I'm Caroline. I'm an empty nester. I have two boys in their thirties, one who got married last year, and one who's to be married next year. I've been married to Ian for 37 years and we have a sausage dog called Sergio who is 10 and he is had three IVDD back surgeries.

So he is an old chap now.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh yeah.

Caroline Gatenby: I live in Yorkshire, um, in a place called Beverly, which is sort of between York and Hull. So that's about me.

Jennifer Wilson: How long have you been a scrapbooker?

Caroline Gatenby: Well, I think, um, when I was off work with stress in 2009, I think I, I, I had six weeks off work with stress. And I think I decided then to look [00:02:00] for something to de decompress with. And that's when I came across it on online. And, uh, I've been doing it ever since.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. Yes, that was definitely like a, I don't know, a really special and unique time. That's really when I really started getting into it as well, so. So we have two kind of more icebreaker questions. Do you have a favorite recent layout or project? What's it about and why is it your favorite?

Caroline Gatenby: Well, my favorite project has to be my Project Life albums. I think, um, I do, I do them monthly with, uh, Ali Edwards Stories by the Month Kit. And I just really use it like an illustrated diary. Um, I complete two nine by 12 albums every year. And, um, I like to have, uh, all our stories in there so that we can look back on the year and see what we've done.

But that's definitely my favorite project and I, I, [00:03:00] I love doing it.

Jennifer Wilson: We will definitely get more into that as we go on. But I'm curious how long you've done the nine by 12 size.

Caroline Gatenby: I think I started nine by 12 when it first came out. Was it probably 2017? I did get start in the 12 by 12 and it was just very unwieldy, I think, for me. And, and it's hard to pick up and look through. Whereas nine by 12 is much easier. Uh, and I love that the family liked to look back on them as well as me.

Um. I experimented briefly with the six by 12, but they, they weren't right for me. And I'm a bit sad now that the nine by twelves are disappearing because we just have no access to scrapbooking supplies here in the UK. It's just such a minor, a minor sport.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, that's, that's really unfortunate. And obviously all the trade issues aren't making anything easier, and nine by 12 was already harder to come [00:04:00] by.

Caroline Gatenby: Yeah, I know. I was really sad when Studio Calico and Ali Edwards stopped doing it. And I, I did buy enough for next year, and I'm just hoping that by next year somebody else might have reinvented it and we could start again.

Jennifer Wilson: I hope so. I hope so. So our other beginning question here, is there something that you're excited to do, use or try? It could be your hobby or in your everyday life.

Caroline Gatenby: Something I got into last year that I'm really, uh, excited about is I took a beginner's forestry course. And it's another aspect to creativity that I've always wanted to try. And, um, my friend school, old school friend and I went and, uh, did a six week course. And I really loved it. It was just a different outlet for my creativity.

And we're hoping to do the flowers for my son's wedding venue next year. So I think, [00:05:00] I think it was just something I've never done and I thought I always wanted to try and I've been really enjoying it.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, that sounds so fun. Now, do you typically do things from your own garden? Are you, do you go to the market and purchase flowers?

Caroline Gatenby: No. It would be purchasing flowers, definitely. Uh, my husband does a garden. I don't do the garden at all. Um, but I do like to have a go when I'm in the supermarket. I select some flowers and I do like to have a go, uh, when I get back home.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I am, I am not the garden person either. I think I can't, I, I could barely keep the humans alive. So the plants are kind of on their own. Uh, they are left to my husband and my daughter, so.

Caroline Gatenby: My, my dad was a, a big gardener, but unfortunately all he was interested in was food. So I didn't get, I, yeah, I didn't get, uh, any gardening tips for flowers from him. But I think it was something, I always fancied beam. When I was younger, I thought I might be a [00:06:00] florist. But my parents wanted me to become a teacher and uh, so I went off and did that instead.

Jennifer Wilson: What age level did you teach?

Caroline Gatenby: Well, to start with, I, I taught, uh, secondary school pupils, which was 11 to 16. And then I had a career break when I had the boys and I retrained to, uh, a different subject and different age range. And I went back teaching, um, five to 11. So I've done two different age ranges.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Which one is harder or which one is easier?

Caroline Gatenby: Uh, it's difficult to say really because there were different topics. Uh, I was, um, a

Jennifer Wilson: Oh

Caroline Gatenby: Home economics teacher first time round with food and textiles, which was a real creative outlet.

Jennifer Wilson: No doubt. Yeah.

Caroline Gatenby: And then when I retrained, I did, uh, special needs. So that was a completely different aspect. So [00:07:00] that was a total, totally different thing, just special needs within, within an, uh, the normal school.

But even so, you, you're approaching things differently and the, the creativity was, was not as present as it was when I was, uh, working with my hands maybe.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think it's a different type of creativity to provide an educational experience. All right, so I scrolled back on your Instagram as far as I could before just like wouldn't reload anymore. And you've been doing this for so long, um, and you have such a combination of cozy crafty things, just a lovely like lifestyle type of account. Um, you seem to take pictures of your garden, even though you're not doing the gardening yourself. But you know, lots of baking and home decor, and of course your little sausage dog. What else should we know about what your life looks like?

Caroline Gatenby: Well, I've always been [00:08:00] creative in different ways. Um, I was quite musical when I was younger and I was in a choir, church choir with my father and played an instrument and things like that. I think that, um, when I was teaching three or four days a week, I, I, um, went back part-time after having the boys. Um, I then got involved in supporting my elderly parents, so I think there's been sort of a period where you're looking after your children, and then that seemed to trans transfer into looking after parents. And it was only last year when I, I finally lost my mum. Um, that I, I've suddenly realized that I've got all this extra time. So previously I think what I was doing on Instagram, just things that were generally happening in my life. Whereas now I've got much more time, I'm spending [00:09:00] time actually enjoying my crafting more and sharing more. Which is something that's relatively new in a way. I'm being more conscious in my sharing. So crafting brings me a lot of joy. And, I find documenting even the bad and the good.

Through losing my mum that I find it very my cathartic. So it all sort of comes out in, in the creativity that I do.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, I think it's all of those things together, uh, become very meaningful and particularly scrapbooking. It's such a, it's a such, such a part of us. And that kind of element of it being different than other types of crafts because it is our lives.

Caroline Gatenby: I think, I think when I was doing a December Daily in 20, I think it was 2016, and I wasn't sure if my dad was going to survive, and I remember thinking, should I be documenting this? And I am so [00:10:00] pleased that I did write what was in my head down when I look back now. Um, and yet some people don't like to put things in their, in their documenting that they find difficult.

I find emptying my head onto paper, is really good for me. So sometimes I cover up that documenting in Project Life, but some, sometimes just to go back and read that you know, at another time is very insightful.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. And I, and I love, we have the options of how and, and when we're gonna share it, if at all. Um, but if we don't, if we don't get those thoughts out, they're gonna somehow manifest some way or the other. So thankfully we have ways of doing that, um, in, in the crafty realm.

Caroline Gatenby: Yeah. Yes, true.

Jennifer Wilson: One of the things that I often hear from folks who are in a similar season of life as you is that they have trouble, uh, structuring their time so they feel like they're using it well. 'Cause like, once you have more of an abundance of it, you know.

Caroline Gatenby: [00:11:00] Yes. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Always feels like there's gonna be enough, but then the day is over or the week is over. So I'm curious how, how that works for you and how do you make sure that your, your crafts and your hobbies and, and the things that you love are a priority.

Caroline Gatenby: I think when I, I retired first before my husband. Um, and I, uh, loved that shift from all this pressures of schoolwork to suddenly having all this time to do all this work. And I threw myself into the baking and the, and the quilting and the sewing and the, and the paper crafting. And I used to say to people I could fill my whole day with that.

But, um, by having some elements of crafting in every day, I think that's what is very important to me. So I often get up and do an hour first thing at the desk just to get something done. And that just makes a great start to the day for me. Whatever else is going on, [00:12:00] if I've done that. Whether I get to that desk during the day or not.

If things take over, at least I've done something and I appreciate that time. Some of my reels are recorded in my dressing gown.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Nice. Yeah, no, sometimes that's what we have to do and we know if that's what's going to give us the best experience of the day and set us up for success and I love that.

Caroline Gatenby: Crafting makes me, me. And so I think that it's important to make time for that. 'Cause if we go away for any period of time, obviously I don't get to do as much. And then I come home and it's one of the first things I want to touch base with the day after we get back is put something down on paper.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, certainly. I always feel like the most creatively inspired when we're traveling and I'm like, wow, why don't I have my stuff here?

Caroline Gatenby: I have tried to take stuff [00:13:00] with me before and, and write things down in the moment because I think some things are better documented in the moment. But I, I tend to just make notes in rough and then do it more when I get back home. But I think that is true. And certainly I have an envelope with ephemera in when I'm away, certainly.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, let's dig into that a little bit more before we talk about kind of the core of your projects. How do you typically document your travels?

Caroline Gatenby: Well, if we have a foreign trip, we usually go abroad once a year. If we have a foreign trip, I, I usually try and make a little album independently, but that can take any format. Uh, I just do whatever I feel like making at the time. Um, I've been sharing some different travel, uh, booklets recently on my Instagram, and we tend to go to Sicily every year.

And you would think that documenting the same thing would be boring, but [00:14:00] actually I try and find a different way to put it on paper or a different format. Because I still like to, I still like to make, make a little book of it. But other trips that we make, uh, we have, um, a touring caravan and, um, other trips we make, like we've recently been to the lake district.

I would just put in a little insert within my Project Life in, in the month that we, we were there. So I, I do them in different ways. And, and all different page protectors in the Project Life to demarcate the, um, the travel insert.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice, nice. So. It's pretty clear that the real heart of your scrapbooking today is Project Life and then also the Week In The Life and December Daily projects. And you've been kind of, this has been the suite of what you do for a long time now. Why do you think that works so well for you?

Caroline Gatenby: I think that, um, I [00:15:00] discovered December Daily, way back in 2009. And I love Christmas and I think that is such a great way to document it. You can do it however you like to do it. And I've tried different formats again in that. I like to switch it up to keep it challenging. But I think that one I really like.

And, um, I find it easy enough to document every day or every couple of days. So I do it in the moment, but that's probably because of the, the, uh, where I am in, in my life at the moment. But, um, that, that I do, and try and get it finished before the end of December. So that it doesn't interfere with planning the next year's Project Life.

So that's a definite is December Daily. I've done it every year and I, I, will keep doing that one. Week In The Life I started doing, and then I missed a [00:16:00] year, and then I decided to do it not so deeply. And then recently I've gone back into doing it more deeply. I prefer the notebook format for that.

Purely really because of storage. But um, I have a minimal amount of area to keep all these projects. So I think that the notebooks are great for that. I tried doing it within Project Life, but it was too big. So I do like to do that, but I know why Ali refers to that as a marathon, not a sprint, because that can take a long time to complete. It, it's one thing to photo and record the stories. And then it's, it's another thing to actually then get it all the book after the event. But yeah, I can usually manage it.

Jennifer Wilson: It, it's so interesting how a project about a week [00:17:00] has such a different experience than a project that's about a month, know? Uh, and there, there might be the same number of photos.

Caroline Gatenby: Well, I think I put that during Week In The Life, I'd taken 800 photos and I thought, wow, not that you were ever gonna use all 800. But it was interesting to look back at what you did record over the week. And then to look at what you select. And I, I, if you look on Instagram, I only print out really small to fit in the notebook. But it, it's a snapshot of time.

And, and when you look back at my first one, which I went in the loft and found and, and recorded recently. I mean, that was very basic, but again, lots of things I looked at and I thought, wow, that, you know, I'd forgotten that. I'd forgotten that.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I [00:18:00] think we always think in the moment that we're gonna remember this 'cause it feels so vivid and so like clear and then time passes and those memories fade. And that's, that's such the joy of going back and looking at, at what you've documented.

Caroline Gatenby: I think in 2020, because we were all going through the pandemic, I made a conscious effort of really making that a, uh, a six by eight album. Because I wanted to be able to go back and look at that year. Um, and I think from the children's point of view in years to come, to go back and revisit, that will be very interesting. Um.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, certainly.

Caroline Gatenby: I kept a daily diary as well that that year. And um, uh, I've parceled that up and um, I think that will be interesting to look back at. My dad did a daily diary for, oh, I think ever since I can remember. And, um, we've, we've got them [00:19:00] all in a box in the loft. So I ought to really go back and revisit those. 'Cause he took the time to write about his garden and what he was planting in the weather and all sorts. So maybe it's in the genes.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. That's so cool.

Caroline Gatenby: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: My grandmother did the same thing, but she did not pass those on. She wanted to make sure those were destroyed and nobody would ever see them.

Caroline Gatenby: Well, I, I did have a snapshot, uh, of, of looking through them one day, and a lot of it was garden related and weather related, but there were other things that were amusing that you'd put in there.

Jennifer Wilson: Certainly, yeah, that's a treasure to have.

Caroline Gatenby: Yes, exactly, exactly. I always joke with my two boys that they won't be interested in all these books I've made when, when I'm no longer here. But, uh, but they just laugh. They just laugh.

Jennifer Wilson: So I'm curious about talking a little bit more about the [00:20:00] formats. Um, you mentioned how size and storage is what has led you to turn more towards notebooks. But what is it about kind of pocket pages that you like so much and have you always done pocket pages or was there a time when you made traditional scrapbook layouts?

Caroline Gatenby: I did start by making 12 by twelves. And um, I was a very early subscriber when, um, April and Scarlet started Studio Calico and I used to get their monthly kits. And I did, used to do 12 by 12. But then I kept filling up all these albums and kept thinking, where am I going to put them? So, um, in 2011 I did, um, a, a layout every week and then a monthly roundup layout.

And I suppose that was what then led me [00:21:00] to Project Life. Because I thought, effectively that's what I'm doing. Um, and by doing it in the Project Life format, I think I switched to the Studio Calico, smaller kits that used to do then the document kits. And I really, I really stuck with that format for, for quite a few years. And then when they switched more to Travelers Notebooks. I just didn't, I thought, this isn't gonna give me enough space. So I think what I like about Project Life is in doing it in the pocket pages gives me more space. Um, and I can do as many pages as I want for each month, depending on what I have to document. There is no rule or there are no rules. And, um, I can incorporate my creativity by making lots of flip ups and flip outs and page dividers and, and so it gives me the best of everything, I [00:22:00] think.

Jennifer Wilson: Well isn't, yeah, that's what we always want in all of our experiences. You know, let's optimize this and make it the best of, of all the choices.

Caroline Gatenby: Yes, I, think so.

Jennifer Wilson: I love how you found that for yourself.

Caroline Gatenby: Thank you.

Jennifer Wilson: So in terms of the notebook format, this has been such an interesting, uh, format, style and approach to scrapbooking as it has evolved over the past, oh gosh. Uh, uh, I don't even know how many, how many years it is now. But really in the past, like five to seven years, it's become just such this thing. What are some pros and cons, uh, to the notebook format of, of all sizes from your perspective?

Caroline Gatenby: For me, I think, um, they're quite compact. I've said that they're easy to store. You've got a fixed number of pages that you're working with, so, um, you can chop them about, take pages out, add pages in. I do stitch bits in and, and take certain [00:23:00] things out. You don't need to have a huge stash, um, to, to fill a notebook. And, um, I, I made a conscious effort a few years ago to really, um, declutter and, and have much less stash than I used to have.

And I, I think that's a bonus of notebooks. You don't have to have a huge stash. Um, uh, I think they're easy to take with you if you wanna take them with you, which some people do. Um, uh, but there are things against them as well. I think if you are going to do something. You, you've got a set number of pages and so you've gotta make whatever your story you're going to tell fit that number of pages.

Um, that's easy with the Week In The Life notebooks because they come with some pages [00:24:00] pre-printed, so you have to make everything fit in. But I have also worked out ways of adding extra bits if I want, if I want them in those. Um, you must be careful with a notebook to minimize the bulk, um, because otherwise they don't shut very well.

And, and so I do, um, I do tend to print on copy paper if I'm inserting anything extra. And if I want to insert something thicker, I would cut a page out to offset that. Uh, and the paper isn't always that thick itself, so when you're stamping, you can find it bleeds through. So I had an issue, I've had an issue with that before. So I tend to now stamp on copy paper and stick it in so it doesn't bleed.

I think it, it's, it's got like everything else, it's got pros and cons, hasn't it? But for me, I, I really enjoy it for, [00:25:00] for travel and for, um, Week In The Life. And I, I did do December Daily once in a notebook. I was inspired a bit by Heidi Swapp to try and then do it. She, she does an awful lot in notebook style things, doesn't she?

But, um, I found that some things, if I was trying to do a Project Life, like the Stop The Blur, it was all just too small for me for that. But I enjoyed doing it for December Daily and, and fitting it in a notebook.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and each time we try, you know, matching a story with a, with a type of project, we learn from that and we decide if we're gonna do it again, or we're gonna evolve and try something else. So.

Caroline Gatenby: Yeah, that's true.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm curious about the decluttering that you mentioned. How were you thinking about what that you really needed to keep versus what you were ready to let go of?

Caroline Gatenby: Uh, that, that's interesting actually. I, I suppose like a lot of scrapbookers I had dabbled in different [00:26:00] things. I'd had a go with, um, some Tim Holtz stuff. I'd done some die cuttings, some card making, and, and I thought I'd just looked at everything and thought, what am I not using now? So that's how I started.

Um, some projects like, um. I'd been using the same stash for December Daily for a few years. So I thought, right. I'm going to put all that in a box and, and, and put that on eBay and just have a fresh start with some new stuff. Just to reinvigorate my mind, I think. Because I don't buy things every year and, um,

I think that you, sometimes you just need that refresh, that refresh. So it was a bit more, I wasn't using all the spray paints, I wasn't using a lot of the texture paste and, and stencils and things like that, that I'd had a [00:27:00] go with. And so I thought, right, let's, let's get rid of that and let's look at what you're actually using.

Uh, and that, that's how I made the start.

Jennifer Wilson: And how did it feel in terms of like your space and your ability to, to do what you wanted to do afterwards?

Caroline Gatenby: I think it worked really well for me. Um, oh, it's a long time ago now. I also streamlined all my stamps and, and I think it was, it was Laura Wonsik who had suggested, and in a class I took over Ali Edwards, that you curate your own stamp sets of things that you, you know, that go together. And just simply sifting out what you weren't using and retaining and organizing what you do use. Is, is just, it made the creativity flow much better somehow. 'Cause you've less to look through. So you, you, you're going to make your [00:28:00] decisions faster. Um, Ali did a great class, um, stash class a couple of years ago and I had, um, I had a look at that and I reorganized all my embellishments into just into two boxes. 'Cause I don't have too many. But again, now it's easy to lift that box out. Look what I've got. Is there something I want? And it's much quicker.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh yeah. I think that that particular conversation around embellishment storage changed things for a lot of people. Because I similarly have them in little trays now, organized by shape mostly, I guess, I use them way more than I did in the past. 'Cause before they were all tucked away, usually like with a kit in a small envelope somewhere.

Caroline Gatenby: Exactly.

Jennifer Wilson: And now it's like, okay, I need a circle. I'm gonna go in my circle bin and look for a circle and oh, here's the one that fits this layout. And then I move on. So they get a lot more love now.

Caroline Gatenby: I, I'd reorganized my office. I'm [00:29:00] very fortunate. We have a small room downstairs, which I use as the office. And I got two, uh, white chests of drawers from Ikea and I thought basically everything's got to fit in those two sets of drawers. Um, that I want use all the time. Then of course, I did get a Raskog cart 'cause it didn't all fit in. Do you know crafter who doesn't?

Jennifer Wilson: Still a pretty compact stash. Yeah. I have two in my office.

Caroline Gatenby: Yeah, exactly, exactly. And then I do have what I call my craft cupboard upstairs for everything backup. Like, you know, the big things like the Silhouettes and the Minc machine and things. They're all upstairs and they come out occasionally. But just by putting everything within reach in this small space, um, I, I felt cleansed, I suppose, in a way that I could move on.

Much, much quicker and, and I'm enjoying things much more. For [00:30:00] me, obviously it's worked. I look at my pages and I think they're not super designed. But they're quite full. But that suits me. I'm being me and my style. And I've got, I think hung up in the past on everybody else wasn't doing it like me and things like that. Whereas now I just do what pleases me and think, well, this how I like to do it and if I want to use these, I'll use them and that's how I'm enjoying it more.

Jennifer Wilson: That's amazing. I love it. I love your perspective and mindset around it. One of the things I know you love to do is to sew on your projects. So can you talk about how your, your previous background as a home economics teacher and, and your personal sewing, how have you applied those skills to your scrapbooking?

Caroline Gatenby: I sew on everything, and I always have, when I look back at my older projects, I've realized that right from the word go, I was [00:31:00] sewing. And I hadn't realized I was. So that's interesting, isn't it? Yes. I suppose it's because I taught textiles and the machine is very familiar to me and it's such a great way to attach different weights of things securely and it's just easy. , So I do encourage people to use it. And I, I try to demystify it a bit really, because I think a lot of people are afraid, uh, of the sewing machine. Um, when I was a teacher, I remember writing a, a booklet for the 11 year olds how to pass the sewing machine driving test. I thought that if these children can do it, anybody can do it. So I've started sharing more about, as I say, demystifying the sewing machine. But I, I like the texture that it adds to, to things as [00:32:00] well. So you, you get in that different, uh, element, even a notebook, um, you know, you can still stitch.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I, I have to say that I don't think I've ever regretted adding, taking the time to do it. And then particularly around December Daily time is when I tend to have the sewing machine out the most. And it always just, as you said, adds that fun texture and just a different element to it. So I enjoy that myself. I can understand the intimidation though. I, I think I've probably broken a needle or two, so.

Caroline Gatenby: I, I have obviously because I bought my super duper machine years ago when I made my wedding dress and when I was first engaged. And I, I have used that, but then, uh, I just bought a cheap one for to use on paper that costs very little. And, and I, I think for sewing on paper, you can just try it with anything. You know, if you get a one at the thrift store or, or whatever, you can just have a go and, and it just [00:33:00] brings something different to, to the project. So I, I would encourage everyone to, to have a go if they can.

Jennifer Wilson: So if you had to recommend someone look for a used machine versus maybe one of the ones that's more of like a, a compact, you know, brand new, inexpensive machine. I, I'm guessing you might choose the, to go to the used one.

Caroline Gatenby: Well, I, I tend, yes, I think so. Because there are some out there that people aren't sewing like they used to. The generation previous, everybody had a sewing machine. And, and, and then people are coming back to it now. I think, uh, you know, with the make do and mend, I think more people are coming to sewing. But certainly in my upbringing, my, my mum made quite a few of our clothes and taught me to use the machine at a very early age, but it was a needs must generation.

I think they made everything. [00:34:00] And we're a bit of a throwaway generation and I think people are turning that round now aren't, they. And so sewing machines are becoming much more, much more popular.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, and I think we're seeing all the downstream impacts of the, of being a unfortunately throwaway generation and lack of longevity of our products.

Caroline Gatenby: My younger son, he went to dance school in London and um, when he was younger, I used to make all his costumes and he sew pretty early on. And when he was in pantomimes and things, when he was working, he could then, you know, turn his hand to help repair mend and, and, and he sews. So he very active, uh, online and he, sews and, and, um, he was saying a lot, a lot of people are taking it back up in that generation.

Jennifer Wilson: That's wonderful to hear.

Caroline Gatenby: Hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: Any other tips that you would share for someone who wants to [00:35:00] start sewing on their scrapbooking?

Caroline Gatenby: Um, I think the, the thing to remember about sewing on paper is not to have the stitch too small, because if the holes are too close together, it'll just rip. So, um, so, um, have, have a stitch that's a length three or something like that. That's probably bigger than you would do on fabric. Um, so that it doesn't tear.

And if you are doing, trying to do an embroidery stitch or a zigzag, if those stitches are closed together on paper again, it'll probably just tear. So that, that's an important thing. Um, another tip would be if you do use it for fabric as well as paper, keep, keep a separate needle for each. Because paper blunts, um, your needle.

And I never stick something [00:36:00] temporarily and then stitch over it because the adhesive gets on the needle and then it sticks. And that means that you often end up with machine not working correctly. So I would say they're, they're some useful tips actually for sewing on paper.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, those are all excellent and probably mistakes that I have all made and had to learn from along the way.

Caroline Gatenby: Well, I tend to use mini bulldog clips or quilting clips to hold things together whilst I sew them. Um, and and you do have, definitely have more control if you're sitting than standing. I've seen a lot of people do sewing standing up on paper. Because it's just so quick and they want it to be done and finished. But I I, I have mine on the top of my Raskog cart and I do still sit down and you've just got that bit more control when you're sitting than you have when you're standing because [00:37:00] you're, you're controlling your foot as well. So effectively you're trying to stand on one leg whilst pressing with the other leg and control with your hands. So it can go horribly wrong.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, no doubt. Now the point you mentioned about, uh, having separate needles for paper and fabric, that goes the same for our scissors, right?

Caroline Gatenby: Oh, definitely, definitely. My children will tell you you risk the wrath if you walk off with the fabric scissors. I'm still, I'm still using the fabric scissors I took to, uh, uni, uh, back in the early eighties. So, yes, I've guarded those with my life. But, uh, yes. That's, that's how to upset, a a sewer is to walk off with their fabric scissors.

Jennifer Wilson: I, I learned that at a very young age as well from my mom and my grandma. So.

Caroline Gatenby: Yes. The children will tell you that.

Jennifer Wilson: So, kind of almost on the opposite end here, in terms [00:38:00] of the creative spectrum, you also love including hybrid elements in your projects. So what are the, the situations when you turn to your computer for the creative solution?

Caroline Gatenby: Um, I've, I've learned, I suppose, relatively recently, um, how to do hybrid. Uh, I, I have an old copy of Photoshop Elements and I've dabbled in it over the years. And I took couple of classes over at Ali Edwards, which were fantastic. Um, but I would go to that if I need more than one of something, or I wanna change the color of something, or I wanna change the size of something.

And certainly since I started destashing, I tend to buy digitals, um, for stamps rather than the physical stamps. In which case I would stamp it, um, and print it. And then put it in my project. I think [00:39:00] more and more as you said, postage and tariffs are intervening. That the hybrid is going to be, certainly for us in the UK to access some, uh, of the things you have available over there. It's gonna be, uh, more easily, through the hybrid than it is through, um, physical product. But I, I do like to change color and size, and I, again, I've just been sharing a few tips on YouTube because I think, again, people are afraid of Photoshop. And, and sometimes it is really easy to do something.

Um, and I'm not saying I'm doing it right, but this is how I make it work. If, if it helps you have a go sort of thing.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I think there's this kind of feeling that some people have that you have to learn how to use the software, all of it, every feature in order to use it for the one thing that you wanna do. [00:40:00] And so, no, you just need to know those, this, these small number of features, how to move things around, how to create some text, how to, how the layers work.

That's really, if you can understand the layers, you probably can do everything else. You don't need to understand the ins and outs of it. And I've been using it for, oh my gosh, since like 1995 now. I think. So, but I still don't know all the things. And I would not consider myself an expert by any means.

Caroline Gatenby: I, I, I'm not an expert and I don't know all the shortcuts, but I just make it, it work for me. And if I want a digital paper for December Daily, but I'm only gonna use one outta that pack, then I wouldn't buy the whole physical pack just to get that one paper. And I mean, that's relatively easy to just print that out.

But that, that's an example of, you know, just where I, I wouldn't always, um, be able to afford to buy every product, but hybrid is certainly a [00:41:00] way of accessing things for me that, that, uh, I might not be able to, to get physically.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and I think both in, in terms of the notebook format and pockets, hybrid works really well because you're, you're not looking for as much dimension because you want it to fit and be compact.

Caroline Gatenby: That's true. And I think that, um, the class I took with Jenny over Ali Edwards, she, she just cut things out and then them with, um, with three dimensional, um, sticky pads and things. So you have the option, don't you?

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, no doubt. So to start wrapping up here, what project are you working on next?

Caroline Gatenby: Well, with the holdup, with the kits, this, uh, at this particular moment. I've just got my, um, July, August and September kit all together this week in the UK. So.

Jennifer Wilson: Gosh.

Caroline Gatenby: So I've, I'd already done my July [00:42:00] kit hybrid. So, Project Life is up to date for July, so my next thing is to start August. Um, and so I'm gonna be, that's my first, um, my first priority is to start documenting August in my Project Life.

Um, I'm also, um, making my son's wedding invitations at the moment for next year. Getting those printed off. I still haven't documented, um, a trip we took to Switzerland in April. So that's on my list. A little travel album for Switzerland. I've got a baby quilt to make for my niece who's expecting, um. On the 3rd of January. And then I'm getting about all this December Daily prep that everybody's talking about.

So I think I've got quite a few things on my upcoming projects list the moment. But there, [00:43:00] there is no timeline really. I, uh, I just enjoy doing it when, when I can.

Jennifer Wilson: It sounds like a full plate of fun. I mean, yeah. Uh, not much to complain about.

Caroline Gatenby: I, I've, I've got plenty to keep me busy. And if the weather's gonna turn here in the UK, which we're obviously heading into autumn. You have a few more days where you can sit in, sit inside, and enjoy, enjoy the crafting. We don't get an awful lot of sunny days, but we've had a really good summer this year, so I suppose there's, um, there's been, uh, more opportunities to be, uh, out and away in the caravan and things. So, uh, I'm looking forward to some autumn scrapbooking.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, maybe that was a, a silver lining to the kit delays is so you had the chance to make more memories so.

Caroline Gatenby: And actually it fell, it fell really well with the Week In The Life. I was able to really major on that and get that done. And so that, [00:44:00] that was great because I had a project I could do so. So that worked really well.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, Caroline, this has been such a great conversation. Can you share where our listeners can find you online?

Caroline Gatenby: Oh, thank you. Well, I share mostly on Instagram. Uh, I'm cannycrafter over on Instagram, I've been on there, as you say from the start. I used to have, um, a blog, uh, years ago called Canny Crafter and I lost it, trying to transfer it over from Blogger to WordPress. So literally I just, uh, share most things on Instagram now so you can find me over there.

And since Christmas, um, I've been trying to share more on my YouTube account. Uh, I have a crafty friend called Sandra, who I met through Instagram, and she encouraged me to start sharing on [00:45:00] YouTube. So I have, I have her to thank. Uh, as well as my son, obviously my youngest son who's taught me how to make reels because I didn't know how to do that. But he's really digitally savvy because he does a lot with his job. So I'm mostly on Instagram, but I do have some things on YouTube.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful, wonderful. We'll include both of those links in the show notes for this episode.

Caroline Gatenby: Oh, thank you.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Thank you again for spending time with me. I really, really appreciate it.

Caroline Gatenby: Oh, thank you. It's been a joy and I, I've loved talking scrapbooking with somebody. That's, that's been great.

Jennifer Wilson: No doubt I can do that till the end of time.

Caroline Gatenby: Thanks very much.

Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.

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https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/09/syw307/feed/ 0 MAJOR Stamp Reorganization!! nonadult
SYW306 – Five Essential Tips for Simple Photo Management https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/08/syw306/ https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/08/syw306/#respond Mon, 25 Aug 2025 23:59:15 +0000 https://www.simplescrapper.com/?p=227479  In this episode, we are just chatting. I'm sharing my five essential tips for simple photo management to mark the end of our Photos Journey inside of our community.

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Get your photo library organized with a “backwards,” future-proofed approach. This episode shares five essential tips for simple photo management, helping you create or check that your system supports creativity and memory keeping. The focus is on understanding which aspects are fundamental and really make an impact on your hobby.

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Jennifer Wilson: [00:00:00] I want you to start from where you are right now. Protect the future, then organize the past.

Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of the New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 306. In this episode, we are just chatting. I'm gonna be sharing my five essential tips for simple photo management to mark the end of our photos journey inside of our community.

Inside of the Simple Scrapper community, we break the entire year into six two month blocks. We do this because a month is way too fast, and a quarter is somehow way too long. So two months has become the sweet spot of [00:01:00] finding focus, getting organized, making a plan.

Each of our journeys are themed and we are just now concluding the end of August 2025 with our photos journey. Throughout the years, it's been all manner of topics related to photos. We have discussion questions, conversation points at our live meetings, articles.

A wealth of touch points on this particular topic. And of course, the one that always rises to the top is photo management, photo workflow. How do we wrestle with the increasing volume of pictures that we need to manage, not to mention all the volume of photos from the past? And so I want to see if we can distill this down into five key points.

Consider these your foundational homework. This is where I would [00:02:00] like you to start. If you are a beginner on this journey, or even if you are totally not a beginner, I would love for you to use this as a check-in. Are you still hitting these key points? And is there something that maybe you need to go back to?

Because in the end, the most important part of photo management from our perspective here is being a scrapbooker. Yes, there are lots of ways to manage photos. A professional photographer, an artist, just an everyday average person who's not a scrapbooker, they are all going to manage their photos in different ways.

And so this conversation all comes back to are we taking the steps that support us in being creative, telling stories, capturing our memories? [00:03:00] Whatever your priority is in this hobby, is your photo management supporting that? So I want you to enter these tips with that context.

Now, before I jump in further, I do want to say that even though this two month period that we're concluding was the photos journey, this is a all year long 24 7 forever topic. So you will always find discussions in the community talking about photo management. And our Photo Crush classroom exists there to support you along the way, to help you develop your system for the first time or refine it for the 10th time.

All right, so let's jump in to number one. And I thought about starting this at the precipice of taking a photo, but that's not where I want you to start. The place I want you to start [00:04:00] is backup. I want your photos to be safe. That they're safe from computer failure, natural disaster, crazy internet hacking. There are so many things that could go wrong.

I want you to feel secure as you move forward because that little bit of anxiety or maybe even a lot of anxiety that's hanging over you about not having your photos together... let's say that is, in large part, likely because of the lack of backup, or maybe you feel like you don't have sufficient backup if you've worked on this in the past.

I want to encourage you to do something now. Something is better than nothing. It doesn't have to be perfect. Don't overthink it. Choose the option that is the easiest to get started with and can give you that peace of mind readily.

And I don't want you to [00:05:00] wait until you are perfectly organized, just like with your scrapbook supplies. I don't want you to wait to scrapbook until you're perfectly organized. I don't want you to wait to back up your photos until your photo library is organized. That doesn't make sense.

Backup systems will continually refresh themselves as you improve your organization. So the most important part is taking that first step. In general, it is worth paying for backup and it typically does not cost a lot, and you may already be paying for something that includes photo backup as a part of that.

And when you are evaluating backup solutions, it's important to understand how you might get your photos back if you need to retrieve them, whether it's an individual photo or all of them, understanding what that process would look like and how you would do it, that might be a deciding [00:06:00] factor for you.

So I've used the service Backblaze for a large number of years. I think it's been like 12 years and it has worked well for me and the few number of times I've needed to recover files I was able to do so. I've never had a complete failure but there have been times when something accidentally got deleted and I did need to recover it from that backup.

So whatever choice you make. I want you to not overthink it and dive in as quickly as you can. That is way more important than anything else for that peace of mind and that lowered anxiety that your memories are safe.

Number two here might be a little controversial, and I've probably said it before here on the podcast, but simple photo management can be achieved [00:07:00] by managing a fewer number of photos. So what that can look like is taking a fewer number of photos, and I understand how strange that can seem for a memory keeper for someone who is often the family member in charge of taking the photos, sometimes even asked by others to take the photos because we are photo takers. But you may have found that the availability of space, the readiness of having a camera in your hand almost at all times, means that you're taking more and more. So it may be that you can streamline your photo management by intentionally taking fewer. And one way that I've been able to do that is to make a mental shift at some point when I'm taking photos to more being in the moment.

And so that looks like turning my camera off, putting my phone down, putting [00:08:00] it away, and really being there in the moment that I'm capturing. And that allows me to have more of a personal interaction with that moment, and also is that conscious reminder that I don't need to have every single second of this event captured.

And so this might take some practice as you figure out what your sweet spot is, but even just having this intention that I am probably taking way more photos than I need to, can I be a little bit more intentional and mindful will go a long way for you.

If you are taking a lot of photos, and even if you're not, to be regularly looking at them and deleting what you know you don't want to save. It could be just those accidental photos. It could be the worst one of a series, the ones that quickly stand out as, I'm [00:09:00] never gonna need this. Let's just go ahead and get rid of that.

The more you can make that a habit, just part of what you do on your phone or your camera, the more future you will appreciate that when you're doing photo management. And with that also comes being extra mindful about screenshot clutter. If you go back through your photo gallery, how many images on there are screenshots that you took yourself, that somebody else sent you?

I have personally created a folder within my photo library called Reference. So for any of those images that I actually do think I might want to reference in the future, I move it there.

So I just have a home for, this is not a memory, but this is just a piece of information that I might need in the future. You know, some random places, wifi password or the brand of cat food that I can never remember the exact variety of you want, of course, put somewhere, but also at the same time, be mindful of all the [00:10:00] screenshots you don't want to save and to make those part of your regular deleting process.

Okay, we've got our photos safe, and we have a new mindset about taking photos. Now inside of our Photo Crush classroom, if you can create a single home for your photos, that is a place that you can operate from from here forward instead of constantly be chasing to get up to the present.

So what that means is creating a system that allows you to have the photos you take tomorrow and the next day and there forward, organized, and that's what I meant in the beginning by saying, protect the future. I want you to think about the future first. So we're backing up and we are getting those photos to a single home.

Then once you have a system in [00:11:00] place, you can start bringing in your past photos into that home. The point isn't to be perfectly organized. This system will always be living. It will always be evolving because there'll always be new photos and we'll always be adding more detail and nuance to the older parts of our library as well, whether that's adding captions or metadata or figuring out actual dates of photos that were dated because of, that's when they were scanned or the camera got reset and it said the photo was 1969, but it was a digital photo. So clearly it's not. The point here is that you have a home.

You have a plan for every new photo and you can start working the rest into that single home. And the bookend to this is also making sure [00:12:00] that you have an easy, repeatable way to get photos to that home. For some, it might look like complete automation. For others, it might look like airdrop from your phone to your computer.

For others, it might look like a cable. There are lots of ways to accomplish that, and it depends on your camera and the device that is going to be your home. That is something that we're constantly talking about and trying to troubleshoot for our members to make sure that they have the solution that works best for them, but anyone can Google how do I get pictures from this device to this device?

And that will give you a range of options to do so. So again, thinking about what is that single home? For my photos, the one that I will make sure is backed up and am I getting those photos to that home, the new [00:13:00] photos, easily?

Okay, so you might be thinking, wow this can be a lot and it can. We have often tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of photos, on our devices. I was just on a crop this weekend and a member had, I believe it was 69,000 photos on her phone and she had suddenly a run out of space. So we were working with her to figure out what is the best solution to free up that space while making sure that she has plenty of backups.

And it turns out she did, she had multiple backups.

And so I want to emphasize that any steps you take count, every little bit that you invest in photo management is going to move you towards a better place, an easier [00:14:00] time using photos for your scrapbooking. And so I want you to embrace every small step and that it will take lots of small steps to get from A to B, B to C, and beyond.

And as we mentioned before, the point is not to be perfectly organized, it's to scrapbook. The point is to keep improving our systems so that scrapbooking can continue to be the priority and the management we need to do to support it, feels simple and easy and is more of a background activity.

And how do we do this? We have to actually show up consistently. That is kind of one of the biggest central hearts of what we do here at Simple Scrapper, is to help you show up consistently by encouraging you about what you should be doing consistently and these [00:15:00] key touch points. So touching your photos on a regular basis, whether that's on your calendar, whether it's a daily habit.

The more that you can stay connected to them, the easier it will be to take those small regular consistent steps forward.

And so finally, kind of a partner to the small steps and this idea of consistency is to make sure that you are looking at your photos regularly. So not just managing them, touching them, looking for what to delete, making sure things are in the right place. Look at your photos. Look at how things have changed.

Look at the people and the places in your images. This will be your everlasting most important source of stories and inspiration for your scrapbooking? Yes, [00:16:00] our products and our conversations and videos and all the things we do in this hobby, whether that's the shopping aspect or the community aspect or the classes we take, all of that feeds into us with new ideas and perspectives and formats and approaches.

But scrapbooking is ultimately personal. It's about your stories and which ones that you want to tell, and you identify those in the end by choosing photos to go with them. For the most part, sometimes we do no photo layouts, right? So I want you to make sure that you are looking through your photos both present and past on the regular, because this will not only support you in staying inspired and excited about your hobby, but it will also give you that additional touch point to allow organization and photo [00:17:00] management to happen organically. Let's say you're looking at July 2015 and you're browsing through and you see, oh, there's a couple of those random screenshots and here's some bad photos, and oh, I see that we took a trip and I like to tag locations, and so maybe I wanna make sure this location is tagged.

Whatever you like to do, the more you are connected with it and the more you revisit your library as part of how you scrapbook, the more that you will find yourself taking these small steps without even thinking about it.

So to step back here, we didn't talk about specifics because that's gonna be so personal to you. How you're taking photos, where you're taking photos, the devices that you have, the places that you want to keep them, both physically and in the cloud. That ecosystem is something that [00:18:00] you already have likely and need to develop and refine over time.

That's where conversations can really make the difference. That's where guidance and support for your scenario really helps you follow through on those specific applications.

In the end, this is a framework for you to check in, for you to start for the first time, for you to think about, how can I make sure that my photo management process is as simple as it needs to be? Or another way to say that is no more complicated than it needs to be to support my scrapbooking. Just like I would never tell you that you need to have all of your scrapbook supplies organized before you can scrapbook, You don't need to have your photos organized or managed before you can scrapbook.

I want you to keep that perspective of [00:19:00] continuing to move forward, making sure that you are protecting the future, and then allowing the past to fill in the gaps. So to conclude, I hope this serves as a reminder that photo management doesn't need to be complicated. This is your system, your strategy. These are key touch points to check in and see how you're doing, but ultimately it's going to be your way.

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SYW305 – Larking About with Franky Shanahan https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/08/syw305/ https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/08/syw305/#respond Thu, 21 Aug 2025 21:44:06 +0000 https://www.simplescrapper.com/?p=227465 In this episode Franky Shanahan returns to the show to share how scrapbooking opened the door to new hobbies and personal growth. She discusses the joys and challenges of being a beginner as well as how she balances family life with documenting memories.

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In this episode we welcome back Franky Shanahan, a professional copywriter who previously joined us to chat about learning how to scrapbook. This time around Franky shares how scrapbooking led her to embrace new hobbies, like gardening, and how these pursuits have shaped her life. Our conversation includes insights on the joys of creative play, the importance of finishing projects, and the ways she stays inspired to document life’s evolving seasons.

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Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of the New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 305. In this episode, Franky Shanahan returns to the show to share how scrapbooking opened the door to new hobbies and personal growth. She discusses the joys and challenges of being a beginner as well as how she balances family life with documenting memories.

Hey Franky, welcome back to Scrapbook Your Way.

Franky Shanahan: Thank you for having me. It's really exciting to be here again.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, I am looking forward to [00:01:00] our conversation and checking in on you. Can you remind our audience a little bit about yourself?

Franky Shanahan: Sure. Um, so my name's Franky. I run a copywriting business called Love Audrey, and I'm sort of known by that name online quite widely. That's my Instagram handle. So, um, yeah, that's, there's a little, sometimes a little bit of confusion about whether my name's Franky or Audrey, but yeah. Um, I'll answer to both.

Um, I live in Bristol, in the southwest of the UK, uh, which is, um, a city about two and a half, three hours from London. Um, and I live with my husband Carl, and we have two children. Um, our eldest Isabel, is 20 and she's currently at drama school in London, just coming to the end of her first year there. Um, and our [00:02:00] youngest Jessie has just finished,

literally last week he's just finished his GCSEs, which here they're, they mark the end of secondary school. Um, so, uh, he's got a very long summer break ahead of him. And, um, then he'll be going to, um, college in the autumn to study professional cooking. So he wants to be a chef. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: How fun.

Franky Shanahan: I'm looking forward to, um, eating all lots of free food in my future, thanks to his, uh, chefing.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, I bet. I bet. I was just curious, will your daughter come home for the summer after this term, or will she stay in London?

Franky Shanahan: Yeah, she, she'll, she'll come home certainly for some of it. She has to move into new accommodation for her second year. So they, they have the use of the house. She's in a shared house at the moment. Um, there's sort of, I think six [00:03:00] of them all together. So it's quite a, quite a, a packed, um, student house and then,

um, they have the lease runs out at the end of August. So, um, we sort of have to do a bit of back and forth and moving her into her new accommodation and things. But she'll definitely come back to Bristol for some of it. And we're going on a family holiday, the, the four of us. So yeah, she'll, she'll be back for some of it.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, how fun. Yeah. It seems like this is kind of a, a transitional point of like, you're not quite an empty nester, but you know, your children are spreading their wings and, and figuring out their lives.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah, we're definitely, we're definitely on the way. And, um, yeah, I sort of been describing myself as a, a partial empty nester.

Jennifer Wilson: Uhhuh.

Franky Shanahan: For the last year. It's definitely been, um, even though it's just one of them that's, that's left it, it really changes the, the whole dynamic of the household. And, um, you know, just at a very basic level, for the first time in my life, I'm outnumbered [00:04:00] by men, uh, in, in my own home.

So I've definitely felt, um, yeah, that, that, that's sort of been a different experience. We've always had a nice equal balance. Um, and I grew up in a house. It was just my mom and, and my sister and me. So it was a very female house household. Um, so yeah, it's been different not having Izzy here.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, fun observations you can include in your scrapbooking. Um, I'm curious if you have anything, uh, favorite, like what's a recent layout or project that you've really loved working on?

Franky Shanahan: It feels strange to mention it, uh, in the summer, but it's, um, not that long since I finished my December Daily 2024. So I always work on mine after December and I kind of, I kind of use the first few months of the year, the, [00:05:00] you know, when it's still winter and pretty miserable here in the UK to work on my December Daily.

And I always aim to be finished by kind of March, April, which is when spring finally arrives. But I took a little bit longer this year and I really only finished it, I think it was like the first weekend of May. So it feels quite recent. Um, but yeah, I loved, I loved December Daily and I love the feeling of completing that album and, um. Lots of hard work and and effort. And then it's kind of all done and you can it away and take a couple of months off and then start getting excited to do it all over again.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, that's very true. We, we do do that to ourselves, but that's part of, part of the joy, and particularly I'll ask you a little bit later about kind of this idea of repeating projects and why we love doing that. But before we get there, another icebreaker question. Is there something new that you're excited to do, use or try either inside of [00:06:00] scrapbooking or in your everyday life?

Franky Shanahan: Well, this year a big focus for me and sort of, I guess you could say, um, a new hobby of mine is gardening. Um. we of finally got round to renovating our outdoor space. Um, it was sort of March, April time. Um, and we've been in the h we've been in this house for sort of 13 years now. And, um. It's got a very, I don't know, it's probably, I don't know how, if it's easy for Americans to imagine, but we live in, it's just a sort of quite a small terraced house and the, it's obviously in a city.

The garden is not a big space. It's a small urban garden. Um, and it previously was just all decking and I didn't really have any space to, to grow anything. Um, and I used to sort of, you know, I had a few pots and things, but it wasn't a particularly inspiring space. And, [00:07:00] um, it was mostly dedicated to the children and having, you know, a bit, a little patch of outdoor space where they could do what kids do outside, you know. Um, but we were finally able to renovate it properly earlier this year. And we put in some raised beds and I've really just gone all in, uh, on learning about gardening. Learning as much as I can and about growing things. And, um, and I've just been loving it. It's just, just brilliant and, um, I think, yeah, it's been more joyful than I even imagined it would be. I knew, I, I knew, you know, I knew it would be good for my mental health to have an outside space and, um, but yeah, it's been even more impactful I think, than I imagined it would be. And I'm really excited to make a scrapbook about that process and about my first, my first year of, [00:08:00] um, of growing and yeah, the process and, um, what that's been like and the, yeah, the transformation.

I've got some really good before and after photos and, and the, the difference is quite dramatic, so yeah, I'm excited to do that.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, there's something special about being a beginner. And I'm wondering like, okay, so if we think back and, and for our audience to give some context here, we chatted back three years ago on episode 162 where you were a new scrapbooker. Now you're a new gardener. I'm curious if there was something new that came before scrapbooking.

Franky Shanahan: No, I think, I think, um, scrapbooking was kind of the gateway to trying new things. And I think I remember saying to you that one of the things that motivated me to return to scrapbooking 'cause I had sort of dabbled in it previously and as a child and things. But one of the things that prompted me to sort of explore it again as an adult was that I [00:09:00] realized that I was the only person in my house who didn't have a hobby.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Franky Shanahan: And I think it, kind of opened the floodgates to wanting to try new things and learn new skills. And have creative outlets or things that were just for me that I did just for fun. Um, and yes, I, I would say scrapbooking was the, the beginning of that. And it also that, you know, I think when we spoke, I'd only been scrapbooking for about six months. Um, so I was really new. And I think it that helped, that process helped me get comfortable or Yeah, feel more comfortable being a beginner. Because it's not, it's not something that happens very often as an adult unless, unless you actively seek out that experience. You know, there's a period of our lives when we're growing up, when we're, you know, children or when we're starting out in a career where we are being, we are forced to be a beginner many times. [00:10:00] Um, and then that kind of just goes away.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, it's like it's a muscle you have to keep using to, um, to keep strong.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah. And I think that, um, scrapbooking helped me. Yeah, work that muscle and it gave me a little bit more, yeah, made me, made me braver to, to try other things, to try other hobbies as well. And I'd say gardening. Yeah. That's sort of the result of that really.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, it's beautiful and I can't wait to kind of see how your garden unfolds. I have yet not gotten that kind of inspiration. I feel very increasingly indoorsy, but I'm happy to let my husband, uh, take on the gardening as he becomes maybe increasingly more outdoorsy and, um, is enjoying tending that part of our life. So I just appreciate it. I guess.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah. Um, my, my mom is not a gardener, but my, um, my stepdad very much is, and, and she, [00:11:00] that's her hobby, is enjoying the fruits of his labor, I think.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Franky Shanahan: Sitting in the beautiful garden that he creates for her. So.

Jennifer Wilson: There. There's something to be said for that too. So when we last chatted, you've been scrapbooking, as you said, for about six months. What does your hobby look like then, and what does it look like now?

Franky Shanahan: Um, that's a good question. I, I was mainly working in I think when we spoke, I was mainly working in, um, travelers notebooks. I was using a lot of, um, Studio Calico supplies, which obviously sadly, um, no longer really exist in the same, quite in the, in the same format. Um, I'd made, I think I'd made a scrapbook about the previous summer, so summer 2021.

I'd scrapbook a lot of stories and memories from, from that summer. And I was partway through working on my first December [00:12:00] Daily. Um, which I had yeah, discovered in the autumn of 2021. I had allowed myself to buy a very small amount of supplies. Um, because I was kind of like, oh, I dunno if I'm gonna like this. And obviously shopping.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Franky Shanahan: Ordering from the UK, you know, it's not the cheap, it's not the cheapest, you know, the, the shipping and things as expensive. So I was really, I was really apprehensive about spending too much money because I didn't know if I was gonna enjoy it or if it, you know, I would do it. Um, and yeah, I was kind of, just getting to grips with that project for the first time and, um, watching a lot of YouTube videos and learning a lot about all the different projects. I think I remember saying to you that I didn't, I hadn't quite fully grasped the, sort of the flow of projects throughout the year. All the sort of different document, different opportunities for [00:13:00] documenting or community documenting. And um, yeah, I was just really in a phase of just learning what the hobby could be. Rather than, yeah, I wasn't sort of fully in it yet. I don't think in, in a way I was still still figuring, figuring out what I wanted to do and, um, what I enjoyed and what sort of fit in with my lifestyle. Was also quite sort of, I would say, kind of quite offline with it. I wasn't really sharing.

Any much of what I was doing anywhere online. Um, I was posting a little bit about it on, on Instagram. But more from the point of view of, um, focusing on the fact that I was trying a new hobby, not really sort of necessarily sharing the things I was making or, um, I, I kept it a bit more sort of private to begin with.

I, I wanted it, I didn't want it to be sort of part of all the other content that I put out as part of my, my sort of work, work persona [00:14:00] online. so yeah, it was, yeah, I was just very much in a learning phase and figuring things out.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm curious if that December Daily project, um, participating with others, you know, acquiring supplies, like really diving into that, shifted the way you were scrapbooking after that.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah, I, I would say so. Um, I think I, it was a, it was a really good way to discover lots of, um, people within the community, uh, especially on, especially on youTube and, um, Instagram as well. And just, I, yeah, lots of different styles, different ways of approaching it, um, and, yeah, it definitely, I, I, it definitely sort of, I, I was pretty hooked after that. And I, I realized as well that I, I, I knew that I'd made it a little bit harder for myself [00:15:00] by not buying more.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Franky Shanahan: I definitely, after, after that project, I felt because I was able to complete it and, and I really enjoyed it, it definitely, it sort of legitimized it for me a little bit. It made me think, okay, no, I, I can invest in this hobby. Um, I am using the supplies. I am enjoying it. There are multiple benefits. So yeah, it was, it definitely was a real. Um, yeah. Helped kind of, yeah, pulled me in. Pulled me in, and then that was it.

Jennifer Wilson: And then kind of, yeah, set you loose from there.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So obviously you've, um, one of the big things is, is the growth of your children and, you know, you, uh, spreading your own wings and figuring out the next, uh, the next passions that you have. But has anything else changed in your life in this past three years that maybe has impacted your time, energy, and motivation for [00:16:00] scrapbooking?

Franky Shanahan: I would say, I mean the world has changed a lot. Uh, it's, it's really easy, I think to forget we, the last time we spoke, it was very early 2022 and I, I, you know, I dunno what it was like where you are, but very, here we were still very much in the pandemic. I mean, it was, we, we, you know. Life still wasn't back to normal at that point here.

And my children's schooling was disrupted for quite a while. Um, beyond that, that point as well. So it wasn't, it wasn't normal, it life at that point for us really. Um, so, and that's changed obviously massively. Um, and I think we, we still weren't really able to travel or anything like at that point really very much.

I mean, we did go away. We were able to, to go away later that year, later in 2022. I [00:17:00] think they, the first trip we took was we went to visit my sister in Australia. The minute they opened the borders to Australia, we booked um, flights. 'Cause she was pregnant with her first baby and we hadn't seen her in three years.

By the time. Um, yeah, by the time the border has reopened in Australia. So yeah, I think it's really easy to forget how different life was at at that point. Um, and yeah, I suppose the biggest change really is that my children have grown up a lot in, in that time. It's a period of rapid growth and change those late teenage years, I think.

And um, you know, I definitely have an adult child now, which is a different, a different experience. Um, and like, yeah, like you said, I'm not quite an empty nester, but I'm on my [00:18:00] way to being one. And hobbies and scrapbooking in particular have become, I think, really important to me. Because of that, because I do have a lot more time to myself. You know, I joke sometimes that I've, you know, I'm becoming a bit obsolete. No, you know, people don't need me like they did, um, you know, 3, 5, 10 years ago. So it is, it is a different season of life. A very different season. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: My daughter is 13, almost 14, and I'm just trying to wrap my brain around, uh, her being an adult within four years.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: And I'm like, how, how does this, this, this little person become? And she's so mature in some ways, and so still a little girl and others. Um, and so it's, just i'm, I'm holding on for the ride, I guess.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah. It, it's, it just sneaks up on you. It's, you know. It, it just happens very fast and sort of all, you [00:19:00] know, not very slowly and then very fast all at once. And you do sort of suddenly realize that, you know, um, they're, they're suddenly very grown up and yeah. It's exciting though as well.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. You feel like you've, I mean, you've done your, your, primary job as a parent is to raise them to become functional, you know, happy adults, right? So,

Franky Shanahan: Yeah. Roots. Roots and wings. That's what I always say. That's the job, isn't it? Give them roots and give them wings to, to fly away.

Jennifer Wilson: I, I love that, that metaphor. That's really beautiful. Um, so I'm curious, what things have you experimented with, tried out for yourself, and what worked well and maybe what did not work as well?

Franky Shanahan: So, um. I still love working in notebooks. But I haven't stuck to this traveler's notebook format. I tend to use a more sort of, uh, I [00:20:00] think it would be A5. I, I think, is it A5?? They call it a medium. I use, and I can never pronounce the German name of this brand, but I mostly use, is it the, I, I don't even know how to start to pronounce it.

Jennifer Wilson: Leuchtturm?

Franky Shanahan: Yes, yes. I knew you'd, I knew you'd be good at, I knew you'd be able to do it.

Jennifer Wilson: I dunno if I'm saying it right, but that's just how I

Franky Shanahan: How you would say it.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm sure we'll have some German listeners correct us.

Franky Shanahan: So it sounds right to me. Yeah. I, I tend to use what they call their medium size notebook for a lot of my scrapbooks. Especially, um, travel scrapbooks. Which is one of my favorite things to, um, work on. Um, I use the sort of the dot grid and usually a soft cover notebook.

Um. And I, I love working in those. And I've also really grown to love, um, six by eight albums. And that is from December Daily. Um, that was the, the first time [00:21:00] I used that. And I really enjoy, uh, working in that size. Um, and I really, I've, I think from maybe the second time I participated in December Daily, I really, I really got into sort of adding more interactive elements into my pages and I love doing that.

I love kind of creating flip outs or, um, just yeah, different, different sort of, yeah, interactive elements on the page. And in terms of things that I've tried that I didn't get on with, I'd probably say, and I feel like this is what is very common for people to say on this podcast, but it's probably mixed media.

Yeah. Um, and, yeah, for, for the, I think for similar reasons that other people have voiced before, but it just doesn't really fit well into, [00:22:00] um, my lifestyle and how I have to scrapbook. So I scrapbook at the same desk that I work at. 'Cause I work from home, so there's a lot of, packing my work stuff away and then pulling my scrapbook stuff out and. Um, I just, yeah, I can't sort of, don't really have the space to leave things drying or, um, make as much mess as mixed media sort of creates, I think.

Um, so I leave that to other people. Um, I love, I love watching other people and obviously. Yeah. I love seeing it when people bring it into their projects, but it just doesn't, doesn't fit for me.

Jennifer Wilson: So early on when I did not really have a workspace and I was transitioning from being digital to a paper scrapbooker, I discovered the beauty of a box. So anything that I was going to [00:23:00] do that was like, back then, it was all about the misting, but I was also doing some stencils and some other things, or even just letting something dry, just having a designated like, messy box. Gave me an ability to like, contain it. It couldn't get on other things. And then I could also put that box somewhere where it'd be out of the reach of, of children and pets. Um, to dry if I need it. Not that I want to like force you into mixed media, but for those who maybe are, uh, feeling like their circumstances make it harder, that is one strategy that worked for me.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah. Yeah, no, that's, that's a good way to approach it. And actually, I, in my latest December Daily, I finally had a go at heat embossing, and that's quite, that's kind of quite. You know, there's a potential for mess or the supplies are a little bit more involved. And, um, and I have actually started [00:24:00] to work downstairs, our dining table a little bit.

And that is partly because with my, yeah, with the children being older, that's more realistic now. Like I could, I can have stuff out and not worry that someone's gonna, you know, spill juice on it or, you know, that kind of thing. So, maybe it's in my future, maybe I'll go back to it, but.

Jennifer Wilson: I just wanted to share that last December I accidentally spilled like almost half a jar of glitter embossing powder on the floor. I don't even know how it happened. I think it was a cat or I sneezed, or it was just a weird circumstance and there's still glitter going everywhere.

Franky Shanahan: Oh Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not completely anti mess. Um, but I do like to feel like I can contain it or clear the decks quickly if I need to just because I have to work in the same space that I create in, I think. And yeah, but who knows?

Jennifer Wilson: So [00:25:00] we know that you are continuing to enjoy December Daily. I'm assuming you're gonna plan on doing it again this year.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah, definitely.

Jennifer Wilson: And are there any other projects that you've enjoyed kind of revisiting?

Franky Shanahan: So I've done, I've joined in for the last few years, uh, with Little Summer Joys. Have you? Yeah. Um, so Summer is my favorite time of year.

Absolutely love it. And, um, I, I really love documenting our summer. Um, not just, not just travel, but just, yeah, the, sort of the things that I look forward to all year.

The things that when I think of them, that's what gets me through winter. Um, because I don't like winter at all. So, um. Yeah, I love, I love documenting them and that's been a really nice project to, to do repeatedly. Um, and it's been a, yeah, that's been a nice way to sort [00:26:00] of, um, capture the children growing up a little bit as well.

And travel scrapbooks is something that I continue to do. Um, I have like a , a notebook. It's kind of a perpetual notebook just for mini breaks and day trips that I add to whenever we go anywhere. Um, and I love doing that. And then for sort of longer, holidays, I will do sort of standalone scrapbook as well.

Jennifer Wilson: And so do you have an idea of how you want to approach your upcoming travel?

Franky Shanahan: I've actually been agonizing over it a little bit because, um, I, I'm feeling quite drawn to doing a six by eight album just because it's a 10 day trip, which is sort of the longest trip.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Franky Shanahan: Done in a, in a few years. Um, and I keep looking at my notebooks. Um. And how [00:27:00] chunky they are and trying to work out if I could fit 10 days in one. So we went to Paris last year during the Olympics, and I think we were there for five days. And it's definitely over half full. And I'm just really, I just trying to work out if it would, if 10 days will fit in a notebook or not, and whether, or whether I should just do a six by eight album, um, and give myself more space.

Jennifer Wilson: That's a tough call. I think you have to, you'd have to plan it out to make sure it fits. Rather than hoping, because then you might end up with not enough space at the end.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, and also just waiting to see what this year's, um, travel collection is like from Ali Edwards. 'Cause I really, I really love, um, her travel collections. So I think.

Jennifer Wilson: Maybe will make the decision for you.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah. Um, but I'm, I'm [00:28:00] excited. Uh, that is, I love travel scrapbooking so much. So, um, whatever format I end up with, I know I'll enjoy, I'll enjoy putting it together.

Jennifer Wilson: No doubt. Yes. I think that's, I think that's a really common thread. Um. Even folks who maybe are more interested in, let's say, like relationship or personality, scrapbooking versus everyday life. I think travel tends to be something that is kind of a universal desire. 'Cause you know, these, these are special adventures that we take. Some of us take more than others and some, um, but when we do get to take them that change of scenery makes it, you know, all the more impactful, I think.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah, and I think for me it's when I feel like I have the most head space for the creativity. Yeah. And, and just, I think especially for photography, like I feel like I take my best photos on holiday, not just because, you know, potentially you're somewhere [00:29:00] beautiful. Or there's, you know, but I just have more head space to be a bit more intentional and really think about how I'm gonna capture things and what I want to remember.

And, you know, there's just, you're more relaxed, hopefully. So I think it's just, it's just a different type of documenting, isn't it? To, um, capturing things every day, not, no, you know, not that one is more important than the other, but, um, I just, I just enjoy that. I, I enjoy the head space and the opportunity to lean into that part of the hobby as well.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I think we can't underscore enough this, the idea that when you do get away, we tend to think differently, act differently, come up with ideas like, uh, and maybe find some sort of new, like motivation or intentions for when we come back. I don't know. There's something like really, really powerful about it, and I think as long as you're paying attention, there's a lot to learn from it? I don't know. [00:30:00] I, at least that's the way my experience always is, so.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah, it's, it's like a big reset, isn't it? Like a big reset button. I think, you know, if you are able to have a relaxing holiday, that's, it's a big sort of creative reset almost sometimes.

Jennifer Wilson: No doubt. So you've been creating content as part of your copywriting business for a long time. Um, but recently you started a Substack called Larking About what are you writing about there?

Franky Shanahan: I mean, mostly scrapbooking. But also sort of creativity and creative play more generally. Um, and, and my hobbies. Um, but yeah, a lot of, a lot of scrapbooking is being written about over there.

Jennifer Wilson: And kind of what, what, nudged you to say, I need a different place to write about this than other places that you already had.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah. So. In 2024, I chose as my word of the [00:31:00] year, at the beginning of the year I chose play. And I made a conscious decision to prioritize creative play for the whole of 2024. Um, and it was such a positive thing that I did, and it was so transformative in so many ways, and I learned so much from doing that. That I just really needed to write about it.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Franky Shanahan: That's my, that's kind of my default. That's how I ended up doing what I do anyway, is how, you know, I, I was, I started a blog at the time that everybody was starting blogs and it was always about writing about the things that were, um, inspiring me or, you know, lighting me up or sparking my creativity.

And I think that, um, I just realized that I had a lot to say about these things. And I did [00:32:00] at one point start a separate Instagram account and sort of had a go at sharing over there about scrapbooking. But I, I mean, I really admire people who can run multiple Instagram accounts. I can't. It's just too much.

Um, and I think my, sort of business slash personal Instagram account takes up a lot of my time and energy and, and, and creativity. And I just couldn't juggle two. But I was, yeah, I, I wasn't writing, writing sort of anything, um, long form about, um, scrapbooking or about my hobbies more generally. Um, so Substack felt like a good place to do that.

Um, I didn't want to put it on my blog and kind of confuse the content over there, which has to be a little bit more business focused. Um, so, so Substack arrived for me at, at a good [00:33:00] time, or I discovered Substack, I should say. It's actually much older than people realize. I think it's been around longer than people realize, I think.

But um, yeah, I discovered it and I can definitely see a bit of a scrapbooking community emerging over there. Um. You know, Ali Edwards is writing there now. Um, and, uh, Kristen, Are You, Kristen? Kristen Tweedale. Is it her surname? I think? Yeah, she's over there as well. Um, writing every day. Um, about her daily pages and shares, her daily pages practice over there every day. Um, and I am, I'm slowly finding people and I definitely think there's a community emerging over there as well.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, it's such an interesting thing. It, it very much reminds me of those early days of, of blogging when it seemed somehow so easy to find people and, and find all these blogs to read, and, and nowadays it doesn't, it doesn't seem that way. So I think Substack kind of [00:34:00] recreates some of that, that natural connection that we had.

Franky Shanahan: Definitely and also there, um, what they call Substack notes. Which is, is, very similar to early Twitter, feels like to me. So I feel like that's another place where people are connecting. Um, and it does, it does definitely sort of hark back to an earlier internet time, um, in a lot of ways. Um, I do think the platform does, has so many ways that you can use it, that it can be a little bit overwhelming and if you're not familiar with it.

It can sort of, people can be confused by it, and I think it's useful to just know that you don't have to do everything. It is ultimately an, an email platform. So you can just have what people write, arrive in your inbox and not engage with it in any other way if you don't [00:35:00] want to.

Um. But you can also sort of go to people's publications and read them like you used to read a blog. Or you can have the app and you can use the notes function, which is a bit like Twitter and you know, so I think it's kind of, you don't have to do it all, but there's a lot of ways you can interact with it if you want to.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. And it's like, you know, we're talking about trying something new and being a beginner at something. Like there's that, that sense of, uh, fresh start over there to a degree. And I, I, yeah, I'm excited to see what happens.

Franky Shanahan: Definitely, yeah, there's, um, it, I've, I've felt like a beginner over there as well for the last, um, six months. And I, it was also, but it was also good to realize that the fundamentals of it. Uh, you probably, you probably already have the skillset. So I was very anxious about [00:36:00] joining the platform and you know how to use it.

And then as soon as I did, I just felt like, oh no, I know how to do this. This is just long form writing. I've been doing this for a decade. I know what I'm doing. It's just a different means of communication. But the, you know, I know how to write a post.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. I'm curious how writing helps you get organized, and I realize that's, that's a big question. But how does, like, how does it help you wrap your brain around all the things swirling in your head, um, your plans, your ideas, and I realize, yeah, that's a, that's kind of an open-ended, big question. But I, I think there's something that's, that's some good truth there.

Franky Shanahan: I love this question. Um, I think writing is how I process things, everything. It always has been, I think. From when I was very young. And I think it helps me figure out how I feel [00:37:00] about things. What my priorities are. It helps me assimilate ideas and think about how I can incorporate things I'm learning into my creative practice or my everyday life.

And I think as well that, you know, if we are talking about writing that reaches other people, you then have the benefit of, you know, potentially having feedback from other people and hearing their perspective and having them either tell you that the way you are thinking is, you know, or they're thinking the same thing or they'll help you look at it another way.

Um, so I think, yeah, it plays a huge part in that, in, in how I organize my thoughts and process them and set goals. I think especially. And explore things. In, particularly in scrapbooking and, and in my sort of creative practice. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, to me it seems like very natural, the path that you've gone on. As you get more involved in the hobby, the more, [00:38:00] uh, thoughts we have. And if writing is your default for how you process these, we have to have a place to put it. Um, and if there happens to be a place that adds the benefit of, of community and interaction and and dialogue, then that's, you know, just, just a cherry on top. So I, I totally get that. Um, as someone else who often feels like I need to write this down to figure it out.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So a couple different posts I want to mention. You recently, uh, had one that talked about your craft planner. Um, and many of our listeners will kind of know this to be similar to what we call a creative hub. And, and you said my hobby feels even more fulfilling now I have a craft planner to keep me on track. Can you talk more about what you include in this planner and the benefits you found of it?

Franky Shanahan: Yeah. So I started using a craft planner back in March last year. Um, I, I knew I wanted to at the beginning of the year, but it took me three months to get my act together. [00:39:00] And set it up and start using it. Um, and I was very much inspired by some conversations that I'd heard on this podcast. And also, um, by, uh, Linda Loves Creating, she's done a few YouTube videos about how she, um, I think she uses a Hobonichi um.

To, to as her, to have her craft planner, that's, she keeps it and uses it in that format. Um, so I was inspired by those and wanted to try it. Um, and I sort of decided to do it in a sort of, I suppose, like a bullet journal style really. I just use a notebook and I stamp out my own headings and my own sort of layouts.

Um, and I've. I'm now sort of obviously into my second year of, of using one. Um, and I've kept the same sort of setup. So I have a page at the beginning with, um, sort of projects and goals that I want to work [00:40:00] on this year. So, um, yeah, list of the projects that I hope to either, participate in you know, with, collectively with the rest of the community. Or, um, for example, one of the projects on my list this year is to complete Week In The Life from last year.

Um, 'cause I joined in with the documenting but didn't put my album together. So that's another project that was on my list for this year. And then I set myself some goals, particular sort of creative goals, crafty goals. Um, things that I wanted to try or, you know, um, take a scrapbook, online scrapbook class or those, those sorts of things.

Um, and then I set a page up every month, um, with my sort of to-do list for that month to move me towards finishing the projects that I want to finish. Um, and then for those bigger projects as well, like December Daily, [00:41:00] um, I have kind of, uh, an overarching list for that project as well. So, you know, 25 stories, tick, tick it off as I finish it kind of thing.

Um. And then I also have sort of space to add notes, um, and useful information, you know, photo dimensions, and um, things I, you know, if I watch, if I do a scrapbook class, I might take notes in the class and sort of have it all in one place. Um, and I also used my craft planner. When I did participate in Week In the Life last year, I just did all my journaling in there. So that I just knew where it was and I had it all in, in one place, um, for me to go back to when I started putting it together.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I mean sometimes half the battle is just knowing where things are and the more that we can centralize those things, it, it can be incredibly helpful when you are then going to, to make a project and, and figure out [00:42:00] what you were thinking in that moment.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So on the topic of finishing projects, you also wrote a post about that, and I'm wondering, can you share a little bit of your perspective? Um, we'll definitely link to it, but I think one thing that I'm particularly curious about is how do you balance this desire to finish a project with the, uh, perhaps mutual desire to enjoy the process along the way?

Franky Shanahan: Oh, that's, yeah, that's a good question. How do you balance it? I guess for me it is important to finish things, for me personally. That's part of the joy of it for me is having a completed scrapbook. But at the same time I've got better at sort of knowing that I need to set something aside for a while. Or that finishing this right now is not realistic. Or that I can set myself a goal to finish something by a certain date. But it's also fine if it takes me longer. Um, you know, so I suppose [00:43:00] it's that it's kind of, I do like to have some boundaries for myself that I think help me stay motivated. So, um, I think the examples that I gave in the piece where that, for example, I, um, I wouldn't buy new December Daily supplies if I hadn't finished,

the previous years, that would be a rule for me. Um, but, but I've never had to enforce that rule because I've always finished them. So I, yeah, either it, you know, maybe that works for me. I've not tested it really because I've always, it's, I've always finished, I've always finished it before the supply, the next lot of supplies have been released.

So, um, that would.

Jennifer Wilson: I think it's buying the next year's supplies that really gets me lights, the fire to finish the previous years.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah, I see that for some, yeah. And I, you know, obviously some people, um, there's kind of like Christmas in [00:44:00] July isn't there?

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Franky Shanahan: People work on things at different times. So I think that's the thing, isn't it, that you've got to figure out what finishing something looks like for you. Um, and that's just a boundary that works for me. And, um, I know that in the summer, for example, I just wanna be focused on, um, on summer projects. I wanna be in that season and thinking about the documenting more than sort of creating or, you know, I just, I wouldn't wanna be working on December Daily in July. That just wouldn't suit me. So I think it's finding the limits that that work for you.

Um, I mean, I did that with Week In the Life this year, so I was so tempted to join in again this year. But I just felt that I couldn't justify buying the new collection if I hadn't put together the previous year's album. So I decided to use the, [00:45:00] like, the momentum that comes from, for community documenting because everybody gets so excited and people are sharing inspiration and people are talking about how they put their albums together.

And um, I decided to just kind of use that energy to motivate me to work on last year's and put last year's together. And I think if I successfully managed to finish that, then next year I'll join in again. And I think it's maybe okay to have a project that you do every two years or, you know, every three. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I think a part of that is that finishing is really important to me. Because I have so many kind of tabs open in my brain in everyday life. And I don't want my hobby, what I do in my downtime, to have that aspect to it. Like, I don't want to have things hanging over me. And I know that's how it would feel to me if I did allow it to sort [00:46:00] of accumulate. Like I just know it wouldn't feel good, so.

Jennifer Wilson: I, I love that analogy, and I'm sure it's going to resonate with a lot of our listeners. For better or worse, I guess.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah. I mean, I think, yeah. Um, I, I like using my craft planner and I like having to-do lists. And you know, some people might, that might not suit, some people it might not feel very creative. That might feel too organized. You know, like creativity should be spontaneous, you know, you just do it when you're inspired.

Um, but the reality is that life's really busy. And if I'm don't prioritize it and I'm not really intentional with the time and the energy that I do have, then I won't be as focused and I won't necessarily get the things done that I want to. I won't have the opportunity to play if I don't approach it in that way.

Um, so I like a bit of order and that kind of, that sort of to-do list and, you know, being organized in that way. [00:47:00] But I don't want it to become something that is, yeah, hanging over me or that I feel like I'm behind. That, I would hate that. I just would hate to have that in my hobby. Because I have that enough in real life.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Well, there's also like both, um, like being, well, being a human, but being a parent and then like existing within the space of the larger world. There's so much, uh, lack of control we can feel. And any ways that we can kind of, even give a full sense of control can be helpful. To, to feel like we are moving forward and things are okay. And to kind of like help you feel settled so that you can keep moving forward. I don't know, that's maybe a weird way to think about it, but.

Franky Shanahan: No, I, I think so, and I think as that can also look like deciding to intentionally set something aside and come back to it. Um, and then doing [00:48:00] that in a way that's, um,

gonna make that easy for you in the future as well, you know? Um, so be, yeah. Being a bit more sort of organized about that. Um, and that's, you know, that's what I did with Week In the Life.

I sort of, the way I boxed everything up and I made sure that I had my, you know, I'd, I had edited all my photos and they were in a, you know, in their own folder. So I knew that when I came back to them, I, it, you know, everything was kind of where it needed to be. Um, and I know it will be a different scrapbook because I'm not making it, you know, as straight after the documenting week. I know that I will tell the stories through a slightly different lens probably. Um, but that's fine. I think that's fine. And I might even include something at the end of the scrapbook to explain that. That it was, that I did put it together the following year. Um, [00:49:00] sort of, I don't know. Yeah, I was thinking I might include some journaling about that at the end. Um, just, yeah, just 'cause I'm not, because I'm not doing it this year. And I think it would be interesting to just even just have like a little note, you know, almost, you know, a note from the future. Um, you know, maybe just about things that have changed this year. Some, you know, but obviously, um, and that I'm documenting it retrospectively.

Jennifer Wilson: I think that type of note, um, particularly the bigger the project, the more that that can be, I don't know, as a creator, help you feel like you've given the right context to a future viewer of the project. Um, yeah, I think that's a really valuable addition.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So stepping back here and, you know, you're still kind of a beginner scrapbooker because you've only been doing it for a few years. Um, you know, I guess, uh, not counting, you know, maybe your childhood experiences, but what has been your top lesson learned in [00:50:00] the past three years?

Franky Shanahan: I think I found this really, I find this question really hard actually. I to just, I suppose like to pick one lesson is quite hard. The, you know, I feel like I've learned so much. But I suppose overall I just think how powerful creativity and creative play and whatever that looks like for you, just how powerful it can be and how much I needed that in my life. Is probably, yeah, that's probably been the biggest takeaway. And I can't really, you know, I, I'm really grateful to past me who is like, oh, I'm gonna find a new hobby. Oh, I'm gonna try this scrapbooking thing. Because it's such a big part of my life now. I aim to scrapbook every day in some way. To sort of be connected to that hobby every day, even if it's just for 15 minutes. And it's just a really important part of how I look after myself, I think. And so, yeah, I think that's just the, the lesson is that it can maybe [00:51:00] seem like, I mean not, I'm sure not to anyone that's listening to this podcast, but maybe to someone who's not so familiar with it, it could maybe seem, you know, like quite a, a frivolous, you know, oh, it's pretty paper and you cut and stick and, you know, um, but it's just so important to me.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I think that that's, that's definitely what keeps a lot of us coming back, uh, year after year. Sometimes the motivations shift a little bit, but just the deep connection we feel to it is why we have, you know, 300 plus episodes of the podcast because everyone wants to just keep talking about scrapbooking.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah, yeah. Um, and I think it's also been a real antidote to perfectionism for me.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

Franky Shanahan: And it's made me braver, creatively and, um, more willing to experiment, I think. And like I said in at the beginning, talk, you [00:52:00] know, in terms of opening the floodgates for trying new things and, and you know, trying new hobbies. Yeah, that's been, that's just been transformative, I think. 'Cause I think I was, I, I struggled with that being a beginner in the beginning.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. I get it.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah, I think especially 'cause I do lean towards perfectionism. I think it's really hard to do something and not be instantly good at it. And that's part of the process. You know, you're not gonna instantly master everything. And I think I've learned to love that actually. Um, you know, I'm not saying, you know, when I mess something up or when something doesn't turn out, it's not, you know, it can be frustrating, but I definitely feel like I recognize that as part of the learning process and part of getting better and improving.

Jennifer Wilson: It certainly is. Yes. Yes. To conclude here. Do you have any other advice for new scrapbookers?

Franky Shanahan: There's so much amazing [00:53:00] content and information and resources available online, and I think just my advice would be to just, use them, seek them out. Um, there's so many amazing creators out there who are, you know, willing to teach. Um, whether that's, you know, in a, in a paid scrapbook, you know, in an online class or just more informally through their YouTube channels and other free content that they put out.

Um. Yeah. I mean, we are just so lucky to live in a time where if there's a technique you want to try, you can Google it and you can find somebody who's made a brilliant YouTube video telling you how to do it. You know, that's, I had that experience recently with teaching myself to heat emboss and just watching YouTube.

It's just ama, we're so lucky that we have, um, access to all that information and people are so generous in what they share. [00:54:00] Um, so yeah, I think, uh, that would be my advice and I've learned so, so much listening to this podcast. So if this is the first episode you've ever listened to, lucky you, 'cause you've got a whole archive to, to go back through. I've, I've learned a lot from the conversations on this podcast.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. It's very kind of you to say.

Franky Shanahan: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, Franky this has been fun. Can you remind our listeners where they can find you online?

Franky Shanahan: Um, so I am loveaudrey83 on Instagram. Um, and I do share a bit of scrapbooking over there and lots of other things. Um, so creative things over there as well as my work. Um, and then obviously you can find me on Substack, uh, Larking About. I think, how does it, I don't, can never remember what the URL is. It's substack dot. com probably or something, but I'm sure it'd be linked in the show notes. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Will be. Yes.

Franky Shanahan: Um, but yeah, I'd love to have some more [00:55:00] crafty friends over there if people want to come and join me over there. That would be lovely.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. And do you have anything like new or coming up later this year, either in your crafty life or your business life that you wanted to mention?

Franky Shanahan: No, just, Yeah, just plodding along.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I can't wait to see what you do with your, your upcoming, uh, vacation album. .

Franky Shanahan: Yeah, that will be that. Yeah, that I'll be sharing that. And then, um, hopefully a completed Week In The Life album as well, at some point. That's, yeah, coming along. I'm staring at it out the corner of my eye.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. Yes. Mine is also lurking about next to me. So. Again, this has been just so fun to reconnect with you and, and catch up on your journey. Thanks for

spending time with me.

Franky Shanahan: Thank you for having me.

Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook your Way.

How to Subscribe

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The post SYW305 – Larking About with Franky Shanahan appeared first on Simple Scrapper.

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SYW304 – Knitting Wellness with Molly Grimm https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/08/syw304/ https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/08/syw304/#comments Mon, 11 Aug 2025 06:00:00 +0000 https://www.simplescrapper.com/?p=227109 In this episode I'm joined by Molly Grimm of Knitting Wellness for a delightful conversation about the benefits of crafting. Our conversation focuses on the steadying aspects of a craft practice, independent of productivity or progress.

The post SYW304 – Knitting Wellness with Molly Grimm appeared first on Simple Scrapper.

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In this episode, Molly Grimm from Knitting Wellness shares her journey of integrating knitting with emotional well-being. She discusses her personal background, the creation of her platform, and her development of resources that combine therapeutic techniques with her craft. Molly also provides valuable advice for beginners and emphasizes the importance of intentionality for relaxation.

Links Mentioned

Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of the New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 304. In this episode, I'm joined by Molly Grimm of Knitting Wellness for a delightful discussion about the benefits of crafting.

Our conversation focuses on the studying aspects of a craft practice, independent of productivity or progress.

Jennifer Wilson: Hey, Molly. Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Molly Grimm: Hi. [00:01:00] Thank you so much for having me.

Jennifer Wilson: I am looking forward to our conversation today and getting to know you better. Can you start by sharing a little bit about yourself?

Molly Grimm: Yeah. Well, I'm Molly. I am based in Auburn, Indiana, where I live with my family. So my husband and our two daughters who are young, they're six and two right now. And life here is a mix of small town community, a little bit of my creative work and just kind of the beautiful chaos of raising a family. I, yeah, I, uh, juggle a few different roles.

Uh, I run Knitting Wellness, which focuses on mental and emotional benefits of knitting. And I also do some marketing work in Auburn too. And yeah, knitting is where I find and and share online. Just some stillness, little creativity and some comfort in the midst of a pretty busy life.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. I can't wait to dive into that. I know we definitely [00:02:00] have many, uh, multi craft people here, folks who are knitters as well. But I think your message is so powerful. It really transcends the individual niches of, of crafting as well.

Molly Grimm: Oh, thank you.

Um, so I'm actually in central Illinois in Champaign, so we're like not that far apart.

Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Some point we'll have to try to connect at some fun place in between.

Molly Grimm: Oh, definitely. That sounds fun.

Jennifer Wilson: Did you grow up in Auburn or is is Indiana like your home?

Molly Grimm: No, I grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, so funny.

Molly Grimm: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: I was born in Paw Paw.

Molly Grimm: Oh, really? Oh, cool. Neat. Oh, that's awesome.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Molly Grimm: Um, I moved to Auburn after I got married, so I've been here almost eight years now.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Nice. So we always like to ask a few icebreaker questions to our guests. Do you have a favorite recent project? Um, you know, tell us all about it and why it's a favorite.

Molly Grimm: Ooh, I definitely do. I, and I just recently posted about it too. Um, my favorite [00:03:00] recent project, it's called The Flower Power Beanie by, um, stone Knits. And it's a color work hat that uses two different colors of like a fingering weight yarn, so that if you're not an knitter it just means like a really fine and soft yarn and it's really perfect for like detailed patterns.

And the design features are, were really fun. There's like these bold like floral motifs that just repeat all the way around the hat. And, and again, if, if you're not familiar with knitting, like color work is kind of like a technique where you knit more than one color in a row and it just creates different kinds of little patterns or pictures.

And in this case, flowers and it kind of looks complex, but it's actually like really meditative once you get into the rhythm of it. And the best part is like seeing the design like emerge as you stitch along. And it just, it feels really satisfying to do color work. It's one of my favorites.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh fun. We'll have to include a link to that in the show notes.

Molly Grimm: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Anything [00:04:00] you mention here, we'll do our best to find a link or if you can, uh, send a few to us afterwards, we'll make sure that our listeners can, can check those out.

Molly Grimm: Oh sure. Yeah, definitely.

Jennifer Wilson: So, is there something that you're excited to do, use or try? And this could be something inside of your crafting life and your knitting life, or just in your everyday life.

Molly Grimm: Ooh, that's a great question. I, right now, as far as like in the crafting life, I am, I'm really excited to be curating more resources for knitters and creatives who like to use their craft as a form of wellness. That's pretty exciting to me. Um, I've been working on a new project recently along with a licensed therapist that combines both, their therapeutic insights, so things like different kind of grounding techniques or mindset shifts with actual knitting practices. Uh, so I like to talk a lot about these things online, but now there's like a deep dive of resources coming soon with this project, and it's, it's been so fun for me to learn more [00:05:00] about.

Um, and I'll just share a few examples if, if that's all right. It's, uh.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Molly Grimm: Yeah, it's like sharing, like choosing, um, like relaxing knitting patterns, um, how to use color therapy when you're knitting. Um, some slow knitting methods to reduce tension. Um, and like a lot of different kinds of guided prompts or, or even like breathing techniques between your rows. And also just a lot of general therapy techniques that are really helpful, even if, even if they don't have, to like be directly related to knitting. Um, and it's definitely, you know, not the same as going to therapy. But it's like a gold mine of resources that are extremely helpful for mindfulness. And, you know, we, that's what we've been working a lot on behind the scenes. And I'm just really excited to create more intentional experiences. Um, and also like kind of form a community that helps people make something but also feel really, I guess connected and, and calm [00:06:00] while doing so.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. That sounds amazing. Um, and I love how you're collaborating with other experts who can, kind of, can deepen your own knowledge and, and help your audience as well.

Molly Grimm: Yeah, it's fun.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm curious if someone is, let's say they're a new knitter and like they haven't quite found the flow where knitting, like it feels relaxing. Because you're just so focused on not messing up. Like what advice would you might you have in that situation?

Molly Grimm: I think, and actually that's a question that comes up quite a bit. It's like they, some people will say, I'm, I'm just new to knitting and I'm just not to that point where I can get to the flow. And that's totally understandable. And I think in, in that part of it, it's more about, if it is challenging to you, how are you giving yourself grace? How are you approaching the actual learning process and understanding that it is a learning process to get to the flow point. Like [00:07:00] anything, if you're gonna be good at something or if you're going to really take a deep dive, it's gonna take time. And I think again, just having that, that grace for yourself in those moments. And, and realizing that that's actually impacting your brain too, how you respond, uh, when things are challenging.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh yeah, great point, great point. We all, we do have control over our response, at least the vast majority of the time, and it does make a difference.

Molly Grimm: Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So I discovered your Instagram account, which you mentioned is at Knitting Wellness earlier this year. And I've been loving your post like just, it just fills me with so much joy to see messaging that that feels very aligned with the types of things that I try to share at Simple Scrapper. And here on the Scrapbook Your Way podcast, I haven't knitted in more than a decade.

Like there's a running joke that I started a scarf for my husband in 2006, and I've never finished it. That was like the last thing I knitted. I, I did work on it a little bit over time, but now it's like, I don't know, it's maybe a foot long, but I'm [00:08:00] not really a knitter, let's just say that. Um, but I, I know that our audience is going to just love what you have to say.

So I wanted to start by just sharing an example from one of your captions that really resonated with me, just to like, give some context of, of, of who we're talking to, um, beyond what you've already said, I guess. So this is just a quote from yours, and we'll include the image in the show notes. You don't need a perfect morning routine or a clear five-year plan or a burst of magical motivation.

You just need something small and steady. Like yarn in your hands, a rhythm your brain can follow a soft place for your nervous system to land. If you've been feeling stuck, this is your reminder. You're allowed to start quietly. Save this for the days when doing one row feels like a win. Tag a friend who needs a soft restart. Just, yeah. This feels me with like so many warm fuzzies.

Molly Grimm: I'm glad.

Jennifer Wilson: Can you talk a little bit more like about [00:09:00] the core messages you're trying to share and who like you really see as your audience?

Molly Grimm: Yeah. Um, I think at the core of everything I share is, is the message of how knitting or, or any craft just naturally seems to calm us down. The repetitiveness or even like just having a quiet focus. It all supports our nervous system in a really beautiful way. Um, you know, unless you drop a stitch or something, then you're, you're back into, okay, how do I fix this mode?

But, but when you're in the flow, I do think that it does support your nervous system in a really beautiful way. And when we pair those types of things with therapeutic insights, it makes the experience even deeper. At least for me It does. And I, and I feel like that resonates with. With my audience as well, and does it always have to be deep? No. But there are benefits to pairing our crafts with these therapeutic insights. And, and also there's a lot of research that [00:10:00] supports it. Just, um, to name a few. It's like the British Journal of Occupational Therapy. Harvard Medical School. Um. Mindfulness and repetitive motion.

There's, um, Craft Psychology by Dr. Anne Kirketerp I hope I'm saying her name right. But there's just a lot of research that does support it and a lot of untapped research, um, that I believe could be done.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that's, that's really cool.

Molly Grimm: Yeah. Yeah. So having that touch of, of guidance, um, helps, I think, helps people just move beyond, like, Hey, this crafts or what I'm doing makes me feel good to, Hey, this is, this is actually helping me. And in some cases I do believe like it, it's actually helping people heal. And that's where knitting can, kind of go beyond just a hobby or, or your craft can go beyond just a hobby and it can be a really great tool for long-term wellbeing.

Um, and I think it's the difference of picking up your craft and just feeling better in the moment [00:11:00] versus actually understanding what your body or mind might be trying to tell you. So like, for example, learning how to recognize when maybe you're dissociating or maybe you're disconnecting doom scrolling. I know it was a popular word. Or just like checking out, um, versus actually resting, you know? So, and I think we've all been there too, especially during busy seasons if you, if you have littles or, or any kind of busy season. And, um, yeah, my, my. Audience is, it's mostly women who are creative. Um, and they're, and they're curious.

They're, they're deeply thoughtful and they maybe occasionally experience like some of life's overwhelm or that feeling of being stretched out way too thin. I don't know if you've ever had that.

Jennifer Wilson: Uh, yeah, just a little.

Molly Grimm: Yep. Yep. And, um, I've just noticed that [00:12:00] like a lot of them, uh, many of them are, are caregivers or they're professionals or just people who are always like, quote on for others. Um, and a lot of what they have in common is just like they're craving for rest or peace or something that just feels like it's theirs. Um, and knitting

for a lot of us just kind of has become that safe space within our community and just a form of, of meditation or maybe a daily habit that grounds us. Um, and a reminder that softness and slowness are deeply needed, especially when we're stressed out thin and especially in, in these types of roles.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. So you mentioned like the phrase, checking out. If we think about the opposite of that is checking in. How can we intentionally choose that when we need it most? Checking into our hobbies or other behaviors that we know will serve our needs more than say the doom scrolling will.

Molly Grimm: Right, [00:13:00] right.

Jennifer Wilson: When this episode comes out, episode 300 will already have been released. In that, um, one of our longtime, uh, members, and she's our team leader, mentioned how she's actually turned to cross stitch as an alternative to scrapbooking because she's going through a harder time in life. And sometimes scrapbooking and memory keeping because this is so, like personal, we're telling the stories of our lives.

Sometimes we do need to step into something that is slightly less personal, slightly more repetitive. To to be able to get those benefits that we most need.

Molly Grimm: Yeah, I totally agree. And that's, it's so neat that, that she did switch over to something different that that just serves her at this time. That's such a great like way to be connected and understand that. And I think that there's a lot of people that, that aren't able to do that or even know that that's an option, which is, it's neat.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I mean, you always have the opportunity to change what you're doing, even if you feel like you've always done it [00:14:00] a certain way. And that goes for like, for crafts or really any part of your life. Just because you've always done something one way doesn't mean that you can't change and go a different direction.

If you identify that that is might, that might make your life feel a little better.

Molly Grimm: Right, right. Yeah. That's neat.

Jennifer Wilson: So let's talk a little bit more about you. How long have you been knitting and what types of projects do you most enjoy? Are you doing mostly, you know, wearables or other types of projects?

Molly Grimm: Ooh. Um, okay. My, so my grandma taught me to knit when I was 14. And it's kind of something that I picked up off and on again. So, um, I, and there's more to that story too, but the, I guess my favorite kinds of projects are, are, anything that's really repetitive but just beautiful in the repetition. So I love things like, like beanies and shawls and simple color work pieces.

Um, and I'm just, I'm drawn to projects where the rhythm of it is a little more [00:15:00] calming. Um, but there's just enough of like the creativity or maybe some texture to keep it interesting. And I also like a good challenge project too. That's, um, I kind of, like to have two projects going at once just to have the option.

So, um, but, but lately I've just been enjoying floral motifs and like maybe some softer neutral colors. And anything, anything color work that feels like seasonal. So like that flower power beanie I mentioned earlier. Um, and I'm still knitting like winter items in the summer, but add some summer colors and, and motifs to them.

And yeah, I love a good slow projects. I don't necessarily need to like finish quickly, but I definitely like, like to knit just to feel better while I'm making it. I don't know if that's the same for scrapbooking. I don't. How does that relate with scrapbooking?

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think it just depends. I think there's some of us that can easily turn to our hobby [00:16:00] when we want to feel relaxed. And others that feel like they need to be relaxed in order to turn to it. Um, and so there is some of that mindset work with, okay, if I can just get started, if I can just do five minutes, you can kind of overcome that barrier, that activation energy that you might need in order to get to kind of the other side where there is more calm and peacefulness.

And so it's really a personality thing, I think to a certain degree.

Molly Grimm: Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. Neat.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm curious, you mentioned, okay, so these are the types of things that you're drawn to now. Has it always been that way? And have you found any types of like techniques within knitting that you've decided, I don't enjoy doing this, so I'm not going to.

Molly Grimm: Yeah, I, I love, like, I like to make sweaters and I like to make things that in include like structural aspects. But, and I started off kind of doing more of those types of [00:17:00] projects where there's a lot of shaping. Um, maybe like for a kid's sweater or for a sweater for myself or like cardigan type things.

But I've slowly just kind of transitioned to just things that don't require as much thinking. Like just something I can pick up and, and kind of go with. And, and it's more for me, again, like about the process of it versus what, what it ends up. Obviously I want it to end up in, in looking nice and, and being able to wear it, but I think for me it's just, I, I just wanna knit. I just wanna go with my needles. And so it's, I feel like that's been a huge transition, just the letting go of that pressure to make sure the final product is perfect, and just allowing myself to just create, and, and a lot of times I'm really surprised by how it does end up and how, how pretty some, some of the things do turn out even when it doesn't necessarily go according to plan.

Jennifer Wilson: So would you consider, like the ones you're drawn to, more [00:18:00] forgiving in terms of, um, not, as you said, not requiring that same structure? It doesn't have to fit perfect like a shawl doesn't have to fit perfectly. It could be slightly undersized or oversized and still be fine.

Molly Grimm: Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah. So like a, like a shawl it doesn't, I mean, they, for knitting, before you begin a project, you're, you're supposed to make a what's called a gauge swatch and that just measures your stitches. And, and I do make gauge swatches. I think they're really important for, for, different projects. But there's somewhere it's just like, okay, I just wanna start, you know, I just wanna make it.

And so haw is, is very forgiving when it comes to, um, not making your gauge watch. So it's just something that, like, if I'm gonna, if I have extra yarn or if I'm just gonna pick up something, I'm usually making something that's, that's knit, knit flat or knit in the round. Um, whether it's quick or a big project.

Um, I just kind of really like to stick with colors and textures that are way more [00:19:00] repetitive in nature. Just that way I can just kind of really focus on the process of it and my, my thinking and my thoughts too, if that's needed at the time.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you multitask when you're knitting or are you like trying to find a place where it's quiet and this is what you're focused on?

Molly Grimm: Yeah, well I have, so I have small children, so it's, it's hard to.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Molly Grimm: Have quiet. So, and maybe that's more of the reason why I'm picking these like simple, flat, flat lay projects. Because there isn't really time to do challenging all the time. Um, but I do think, yeah, I, I definitely do pick more of a quiet space if I have the opportunity. And I'm, I'm not that great at multitasking.

I used to listen to audio books while I did it, and I just found that i t was just too much noise even then with, with all the busyness that I have going on. So I just kind of, I took out the noise and after incorporating some of these like therapeutic [00:20:00] techniques alongside my knitting things really changed. Because knitting went from, Hey, let's finish this project as something fun to do to, let's be a little more intentional and actually like, work on our nervous system right now and calm down. And that was a huge shift from just picking up your needles to picking them up with more intention.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. I'm curious how it evolved for you to exploring more of the mental health benefits and, and was that connected to becoming a mom? The pandemic, you know, all the things that have happened in the past.

Molly Grimm: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: You know, five to 10 years.

Molly Grimm: Yeah. So a couple of things impacted that. And, and one, probably the most major of it is, is my mom actually decided later in life to go back to school and she got her master's in psychology. And she was learning all of these different things about mental health and, and therapy and things like that, and just sharing it with us.

Um, and just as a family. [00:21:00] And it, it really changed, it changed my life. It changed her life. And we're just like, our eyes were open to something that, you know, we had never really experienced before. Different tools and techniques, um, just to help us in, in everyday life. But, um, so that was, that was one piece of it.

And yeah, I, I really, I always liked knitting. But I really fell in love with it when I realized it could be more than just making something. Like it could actually change how I felt. Okay, knitting is not changing how I'm feeling. It's, it's what I'm doing and how I'm responding. But knitting is that tool that helps in that way. So it just became this way for me to really slow down to process and just to find a little steadiness in the middle of a pretty busy life. And I guess there's one more like as far as the mental health side of things, I, in 2023 after COVID and I had my first daughter in 2019 and my second was in 2022.

So I was a year [00:22:00] postpartum with my second daughter. And I just had like an, an extreme amount of stress personally at that time. And I was raising, you know, two littles and my husband worked out of town full time. And my, my mind felt fine, but my body started to kind of shut down on me at this point. Just from the stress and, and lack of sleep with a 1-year-old.

And, and this went on for, for a lot of time, and I just, I was not able to really explain it to anyone. Um, and at just at points I felt so disconnected, so not present. And I, and I didn't always know what was happening in reality. And it, and it was one of those things I just felt like. It felt like rock bottom, to be honest with you. It was such a horrible feeling.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure.

Molly Grimm: Yeah. And I was, you know, at the time I was also kind of like in and out of doctors' offices and hospitals trying to get some sort of reality back. And I felt led to pick [00:23:00] up my knitting needles. And, and just start posting my projects online as a way to help my brain recover.

Um, and, and to be completely honest, it felt really random. I hadn't really picked up my, my needles, seriously since like 2018 or before my, my first daughter. Um, but I felt very strongly to start knitting again. And what I was posting. I mean, if you go back to some of my first posts, like anything, you're learning how to post on Instagram and, it was super cheesy. And, but I just, I, you know, I didn't care. I didn't care that it was cheesy and I didn't even care what my knitting looked like at the time. Like I was so desperate to heal. And, I, I really, I had never said anything about what was happening or how I was trying to recover from this experience as I started posting. Um, but it was really interesting some of the feedback from people online and, and also in my community at the time in Auburn.

And it really, you know, there's, there's some negative, but there was [00:24:00] a lot of positive. And it, and it made me really passionate to keep going. Other people were like, yeah, I, I resonate with this and, and I was healing at the same time. And knitting was just one of those major tools that helped me. And it, and it definitely wasn't the only tool, but I just knew I needed to share some of these aspects of, of creating with others.

And I know that I'm not the only one who feels that. I'm sure. I mean, do you feel that way with scrapbooking too? I, I can imagine.

Jennifer Wilson: Uh, I have a particular project, uh, my, my rock bottom period was like 2021, 2022 as we were like, the, in the long slog of the pandemic and I was developing a lot of health anxiety in terms of just going out in public and being, you know, exposed to people. And I ended up doing a year long project in 2021. And I am notoriously horrible at your long projects, but I like you, I felt so like I have to do [00:25:00] this in order to get to the other side of this journey. And it was so, was so therapeutic to be, um being present in the moment. Making sure I'm capturing things regularly. Uh, journaling really consistently about how I was feeling the ups and downs. Um, and this is, you know, an, an ongoing kind of joke for, uh, those who are longtime listeners, but when I gave the book to my husband to read, he was like doing the final, like, you know, spell check, copy, editing, grammar check for me. And he's like, this is really personal. And I'm like, oh, this is like the public version of things. I write far more personal things on, you know, in my journal, in other projects that I do consider like more deeply personal, whereas this was like the public side. So it's, yeah, so I, I totally get it. And sometimes we do things more for fun and sometimes we do fun things more because we need them.

Molly Grimm: Right, right. Oh.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Molly Grimm: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, I am [00:26:00] curious, one thing that popped into my mind as you were kind of sharing your story was, did you feel a challenge in giving yourself permission to take the time, did you had already like, kind of leapt over that because you knew you needed it?

Molly Grimm: I. It was definitely about, yeah, taking, taking the time to do it. I think being here with two littles and that was, I mean, just mom, I'm just being mom right now. And everything went into the kids or went into taking care of the house and, and other, other aspects of my personal life too. And, and I think that was the piece that was kind of the barrier for me. Was you, you just need to take time for yourself. Like take, and I know everybody talks about, you know, self-care and things like that, and it was beyond just, you know, taking a bath or, or self-care rituals or things like that. It was like, we really need to find an avenue that can help you regulate. And whether [00:27:00] it be through knitting or through going for a walk or prayer or something different. It was we need something now out of desperation to get my body outta fight or flight.

Jennifer Wilson: For certain. And I think trying to identify what that is. Whether it's something that maybe you have sat down for a while or maybe it's something new that you've been thinking about and that you feel like you've maybe have been curious about trying. Like, I think there's so many options to to choose here.

Molly Grimm: Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So I have a couple like questions that are kind of go into more kind of common challenges, experience I think folks have. Um, and you know, I already mentioned this a little bit, but how do you think we can tackle this feeling of being so overwhelmed and we're like, I'm too overwhelmed to create, but that's exactly what I need. How would you advise someone in that, in that state?

Molly Grimm: Yeah. That, that feeling is so real, isn't it? Like when, when you're [00:28:00] overwhelmed and even something you love like, like knitting or scrapbooking or journaling can just feel like one more thing on the checklist. And.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, reading is that for me. I love reading and I've, you know, long time, lifetime, you know, I was, especially in the summers, I was like reading the full series of things. And now it's, sometimes I just, I can't shut my brain off enough to pick up the book. But I have to actively like, let's, let's do this, uh, 'cause I know that I will enjoy it on the other side.

Molly Grimm: Yeah. Yeah. It's always on the other side. It's like, just get there. Just start. And again, I think, I think that key right there is like, let's lower that barrier to entry and gently remind yourself that you don't have to finish anything to make it perfect. You just have to begin. Um, and, and sometimes that, like for me at least as a knitter, that just means you know, maybe casting on a few stitches or, or knitting a row without any expectations. And maybe sometimes it means just like sitting down and like taking [00:29:00] a few breaths before I begin. Which, which I really, I, I'm not, I'm hoping that that doesn't sound woo woo, but when you actually do that and take the time to breathe and just calm down. The truth is, is like creating, just, it doesn't have to be productive to be healing. It can be quiet. It doesn't have to be perfect. And arguably like it could even be invisible to others, but if it shifts something within you, I think that's the key. And, and two, I think having, for me at least, I kind of talked about this a little earlier, but, um, having like a small go-to project or just like something familiar

that you can return to without having to think too hard about it. So like, when life feels heavy, you don't, you don't have to decide what you want to make necessarily. You can just reach out for something as a comfort or like a safety net. And it just kind of creates a little more steadiness when things are overwhelming.

And, and [00:30:00] there's even research specifically with knitting that, that supports that. When things do feel overwhelming, having familiarity in a project is huge, um, for your brain and, and processing. So the, the most important thing is just giving yourself permission to create, badly even whatever that means to you badly. Or maybe it's slowly, or even, even not at all. I would argue too. Like just trusting that even the smallest moment of making can still move or shift something inside of you.

Jennifer Wilson: Would you ever like, just practice some stitches, like, not, like, not be working on a project, but like, oh, I wanna learn how to do this thing. Um, so I'm going to, you know, cast on a row and then, and then practice that, or I'm going, you know, try something new.

Molly Grimm: Yeah, definitely. I think I like to do that with some of the gauge swatching before a project. Or, or even if I'm not gonna make a project or just learn the new stitch. And I think there's definitely ways [00:31:00] that going through a learning process, like we talked about before, is, is beneficial. But if I'm feeling super overwhelmed, I probably wouldn't, wouldn't try to learn something new in the moment. I would definitely.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, good point.

Molly Grimm: Try to gravitate towards something that I, I know, I know a lot of the audience that, that I've talked to are people I've talked to, they'll say, I, I really like to knit dishcloths. Like that's my mindless project just to do, you know? And, and they have a million dishcloths. And I have a million dishcloths.

So it's like something like that, like either a gauge swatch or just something simple if you're feeling overwhelmed. But in, in moments where maybe I need to redirect or focus energy that might be maybe nervous. Or something where it's like high energy that just needs an outlet. Then I think definitely fueling it towards something like a learning, like more learning process based would be ideal, at least for me.

Jennifer Wilson: Is part of the gauge swatch process to kind of, uh, develop your [00:32:00] familiarity with the, with the yarn that you're using.

Molly Grimm: Yeah, that's, that's part of it. So.

Jennifer Wilson: How does it feel in your hand? And, and like, obviously what is the thickness and what, you know, compared to the pattern and, and what are.

Molly Grimm: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Gonna be? But even just like getting familiar with your supplies. Um, can kind Of make it easier and feel more comfortable with the project.

Molly Grimm: Yeah, exactly. That's it. It's, it's definitely getting familiar with, with the yard or, or, uh, even with the needles that you're using too, if it's gonna be the right size needle. Um, if it's.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

Molly Grimm: Um, you're, you're measuring that swatch to see if it's for sizing purposes, if, if the sweater's gonna fit, or how many rows per inch, how many stitches per inch.

And it's really, it's more of like the math part of everything. Um, but sometimes it, it, I mean, it can just be just for fun, like swatch with colors. And I, that's one of my favorite things to do with swatches is just play around with some of the colors. And see what you can make. If you can combine yarns, like if you use the strand of like that really soft, [00:33:00] fine fingering weight, and then a really thin strand of, of of mohair, it's like super, like lace weight.

It's really, really tiny and thin, even thinner than the fingering weight. So when you put 'em together, you can completely alter the colors and, and it's like a joy for, for me and for I think for a lot of other people who are creative and who love colors just to play around with the gauge swatching.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking kind of the, the parallel to that might be like practicing stamping or doing a mixed media background. I think some of those things can feel, uh, intimidating. 'cause we don't wanna mess up our project, but we acquire all the supplies to do fun, colorful things. So sometimes we might just wanna practice and play without, and feel that permission to just do without finishing, without it being a project.

Molly Grimm: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So like on that, on that note, there's this tension point that I think a lot of folks feel that they want to feel [00:34:00] quiet and slowness, yet they have maybe a backlog of unfinished projects. They want, they want to feel that sense of accomplishment. I think this is a very kind of a human tension. We want to feel good, yet we also want to be productive and succeed in general. How, how do we reconcile that?

Molly Grimm: Ooh, yes. I.

Jennifer Wilson: Or is that like solving the, you know, the mysteries of the universe?

Molly Grimm: Right, right. Like such, such a good question. And, and loaded too. And, and can it be reconciled? Yeah. I. I think absolutely. I, and, and like you said, I think that tension is, is actually really human. Um, we, we crave like quiet and slow processes of creating, but, but we're also wired, and especially in our culture, I would argue, like to seek completion and results and just something to show for our time.

And in both of those instincts, they, they can exist at the same time. I would say. Um, and, I [00:35:00] guess the way that, like personally, I would try to reconcile if, if I am not always perfect at it, but like if coming back to that intention piece, so.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Molly Grimm: If, if I'm knitting for peace in the day or if I'm trying to ground myself, then the process is the, is the point.

I don't, I don't need to rush, but there's also times when finishing a project feels incredibly satisfying, especially when life feels scattered. It's, and I think it's, it's a, it's definitely okay to want that too, when life feels scattered. Just to have that finishing line. Um, but yeah, sometimes I'll just have two projects going at once.

I mean, that's that tension, right? One that's slow and meditative and maybe just for me. And then there's one that might be a little more goal oriented or like exciting to finish. And in that way I'm just honoring both of [00:36:00] those needs without forcing it. One to be the other. But I think in the end, maybe the real practice is just learning to ask yourself, Hey, what do I need right now? And letting your craft meet you there and not the other way around.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and I love this idea of like, okay, we don't have to choose just one thing. We can kind of have a couple things on our plate that will meet our needs in the moment. Um, and we get to choose. And that, that can often feel very, oh, uh, encouraging to know that you have a choice and that you can, the, the point is to check in and find that intention and then feel like you can follow it.

Molly Grimm: Yeah, exactly. Yep.

Jennifer Wilson: So I'm curious a little bit more about your history as a content creator. So I used the way back machine to figure out when, um, when your domain was created. So you started your website as Wool & Cottage in 2019. Is that accurate?

Molly Grimm: Yeah. Yeah. 2018. 2019, um,

Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

Molly Grimm: I started Wool & Cottage.

Jennifer Wilson: [00:37:00] And so what was your initial vision?

Molly Grimm: Um, well, I, I actually started Wool & Cottage right after I moved to Auburn. Um, and, and I started by teaching beginner knitting classes at a local coffee shop in town. Um, I was super new to the area and I was just looking for a way to connect with other crafters. Uh, but there really, there really wasn't anything at the time, as far as community with crafting. So I, I just decided to start teaching and, and see what came of it. And, and it started to grow, which was fun. Uh, and then I learned, I was pregnant with my first daughter and I was also teaching, I was teaching kindergarten at the time too, so it was, it was also busy.

And, and I ended up setting that project aside and kind of just decided I'm gonna focus on being a mom right now. I just, that, that's all I have capacity for. And, and I did, I picked it up again when I started posting online in 2023.

Jennifer Wilson: [00:38:00] Okay. And so how did it come to the point where you decided you were going to rebrand to Knitting Wellness?

Molly Grimm: Oh yeah. Um, that was recent. I, I decided to rebrand Wool & Cottage when I realized that at the heart of what I was doing, it, it just, it's not about me and it's not about my projects. And it was, it was about how knitting and creating like, helps us feel better. And helps me feel better. And, and, and at the time I was, I taught two classes at a recovery house for women.

And, and it was so eye-opening to me how something like knitting or just creating and crafting, gave a sense of progress to someone who really felt stuck in a way I could not imagine. I mean, I had my own, um, my own thing that, that happened to me back in 2023. But, but just, you know, when you hear other people's stories and then you see what crafting does in, in, in all [00:39:00] of that, and the more that I talked about it, I, I realized like, there's a lot of people who use their craft and, and knitting too, as a safe, quiet space to process their emotions without pressure. And over time, the conversations I was having online and, and in person and, and the content I was creating and the way people responded, just made it really clear that, hey, this is, this isn't about Wool & Cottage, this is Knitting Wellness now. There's, there's been a shift.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you, did you, when you made, kind of made the shift officially, did you feel that in the response and, and how your content was resonating with people. Like, once you put your own intention into this, is this is really bigger than, than just me. How did that, how did that feel?

Molly Grimm: Yeah, it felt, I, I think it was, it was well, well received. Um, and it was incredibly meaningful actually. The, um, so many people just reached out. To say things like, I, I just didn't know how [00:40:00] knitting could help me like this. And, and your, your posts make me feel seen. And yeah, it, it's a craft, but it's also, I mean, when used intentionally, it gives you emotional permission to just be. And to rest and to slow down and to not be perfect. And I think that is what really resonated with people who are used to always being on all the time.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes, for sure. What do you enjoy about creating content? Because it sounds like, you know, in 2023 you really started as like, this came from your own need, and now you are doing it even more to serve others. Like what are the fun parts for you?

Molly Grimm: Yeah, my favorite part is, is, is this right here, what we're doing, like the connection piece. Um, it's, it's like when I share something, um, that resonates deeply with someone and, and they feel a little more seen or, or maybe, um, at times, like maybe a little less alone. That like, I just [00:41:00] really love taking like these quiet, like emotional truths, and a lot of them, like we often carry silently, I believe. And kind of putting them into words or visuals that just feel, I guess comforting. Um, comforting and honest.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Molly Grimm: It's, it's also, it's also comforting to create something that serves too. It's, um, I, like on my end, it's, it's, whether it's a reminder just to slow down or like a nudge to rest. And, and on a personal level, like content creation just helps me reflect even. And, and just stay rooted in, in, in what matters.

And it's a way for me to process too, in similar to knitting, but in a, in a diff in a different way. It's also like creating, 'cause you're creating content. Um, and, and that's, yeah, I love, I love creating content for that reason.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think that like identifying that you are continuing to receive the benefits [00:42:00] of the content you create, because often we most need to follow our own advice and that takes intention too. Like it's one thing to say it to others, but it's another to really to process it, take it to heart and apply it to our own lives. Because often if we can provide the advice that it does make sense for us too, I guess if that makes sense..

Molly Grimm: Right. Yeah, it does make sense. And that's so true. And, and I think as I'm creating this, it's, I am not a ball of peace all the time. Like, that's not, that's not what I'm trying to say. It's, it's more that I really struggle with this and so therefore I, I create out of my desire. And, and that helps me too, to regulate and to, um, achieve, peace that I believe is inside of all of us.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. And to continue that, um, I don't like the word aspirational, but to continue that personal growth, um, we've, we've had a book club [00:43:00] for as about as long as I can remember here. And we, we take personal development books that are 99% of the time nothing related to scrapbooking. And we try to apply those thoughts to scrapbooking because there is so much, uh, potential that we have, uh, in learning and continuing to grow and improve as scrapbookers crafters, knitters and, and humans.

Molly Grimm: Yeah, so true.

Jennifer Wilson: So you've already mentioned, you know, one of the projects you're working on, but what other plans do you have for Knitting Wellness this year and beyond? Anything you are comfortable sharing.

Molly Grimm: Ooh. Um, for Knitting Wellness, I, yeah, I have that project that I talked about earlier and I, I really just see it continuing to grow as a space that blends craft and support for those who are just looking to feel more, more present or maybe, or maybe grounded. Um. I'm, I'm working on some more intentional resources that I mentioned.

Um, but I think [00:44:00] things, things like therapeutic aligned knitting and, and just community spaces even where people can connect through things like healing and creativity. Um, I would love to collaborate with more like wellness therapists and practitioners and fiber artists to explore how knitting can be integrated into recovery.

Um, and, and kind of like nervous system care and emotional regulation. Like I really, those are, I'm pretty passionate about those things. And, and ultimately it's, it's about helping people remember, like, that they already have what they need. And I'm, I'm really ex like, that's what I want to push further, I guess. Is, is just, you know, start simple with a project and, and I want to help people reconnect with that sense of peace.

Like I said, that already lives inside of them, I believe. Um, and knitting and, and crafting is a great pathway. Not not to escape, but just to come, come back to yourself with a little more [00:45:00] intention and just, and just presence overall.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, I, I can't wait to see what you create. I, I, I'm enjoying following your journey and, and will continue to do so, definitely. I hope we can stay connected.

Molly Grimm: Thank you. I think we definitely need to meet up in Illinois at some point. That sounds fun. I used to, I went to school in Chicago, so I'm, I'm familiar with that. So

Jennifer Wilson: Very cool.

Molly Grimm: We'll have to connect at some point.

Jennifer Wilson: So can you share where our listeners can find you online?

Molly Grimm: Yeah, I, right now I'm, I'm primarily on Instagram just at Knitting Wellness. Um, my website is knittingwellness.com and Facebook is still Wool & Cottage. Uh, we're in the transition piece of that, but, but right now, just Instagram and Knitting Wellness.

Jennifer Wilson: It sounds wonderful. Thanks again for spending time with me.

Molly Grimm: Thank you so much. I really had fun.

Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to scrapbook, knit, or do other crafts your way. [00:46:00]

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SYW303 – Shaping Your Memory Making https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/08/syw303/ https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/08/syw303/#respond Mon, 04 Aug 2025 06:00:09 +0000 https://www.simplescrapper.com/?p=226928 In this episode I'm catching up with Alissa Williams about our memory keeping and memory making of late. Our conversation includes a discussion of adaptation and evolution in our storytelling processes.

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The natural seasons of a year, as well as the broader seasons of our lives, shape the stories we have to tell… and the time we have to tell them. In this episode I’m catching up with Alissa Williams about our current scrapbooking interests and the need for adaptation to each new season. Our discussion includes personal experiences, recent surprises, and decisions we’ve made about the future.

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Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of the New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 303. In this episode, I'm catching up with Alissa Williams about our memory keeping and memory making of late.

Our conversation includes a discussion of adaptation and evolution in our storytelling processes. Okay.

Alissa, welcome back to Scrapbook Your Way.

Alissa Williams: Hi Jennifer. Thanks for having me.

Jennifer Wilson: I [00:01:00] am looking forward to our conversation. As always. We do have an outline. Maybe we'll follow it. We'll see what happens here. Um, yeah, can you share a little bit about yourself so that our audience can familiarize themselves with who you are, where you live, et cetera. If they've not heard you on the show before.

Alissa Williams: Sure. I am a director of a small public library in Central Illinois where I live with my husband and my two teenage daughters. They're officially both teenagers now.

Jennifer Wilson: Wow.

Alissa Williams: Um, and yeah, it Wow is right. Um, and so we're living our best summer life here in the Midwest.

Jennifer Wilson: Will you go to the pool this summer?

Alissa Williams: Probably not.

Jennifer Wilson: Really? past.

Alissa Williams: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: You've really been into it and you liked reading your book next to the pool, and why is it different this year?

Alissa Williams: Well, my, my, my daughter, my older daughter is a lifeguard and does not want me anywhere near the [00:02:00] pool. Um. And my 13-year-old gets all the pool time she needs at camp, so, and does not really like to go anymore. So plus they're both old enough to go unsupervised. Um, so yeah, early on I had declared Sunday afternoons our pool time. And for about five years we would go to the pool from four to seven on Sundays. And then we would order, we'd order pizza from the pool and pick it up on our way home and watch a movie. And that was one of my most beloved summer traditions. And then your children get older.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Alissa Williams: COVID happens and it all kind of fell apart. Um, and ironically we moved. And now we're like two blocks from the pool and it'd be super easy for us to all go to the pool, but we don't. 'Cause we're in a different season of life.

Jennifer Wilson: So have you scrapbook that story about that particular season of life?

Alissa Williams: Oh yeah. I have probably like four pages of different, [00:03:00] pool pictures and talking about that. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I know that you're going to Florida next month, so I hope that you get to go to the pool there.

Alissa Williams: It's probably gonna be too hot to sit by the pool in Florida in June. It's probably gonna be like 80 and 90% humidity and I'm gonna die.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Alissa Williams: But yes, I mean, I hope, I hope to do that as well. I mean, I like to sit by the pool. Um, and actually what kind of replaced our public pool, uh, time was my, my brother-in-law had a pool at his house and we'd take the girls over there and barbecue and or go out to dinner or whatever.

And we did that for a couple years. But last summer, at the end of the summer, he moved to a house without a pool. So we're, so now my kids think we need to put a pool in our yard. And I'm like, no, I don't. I'd like to go to other people pools. Not my, I don't need my own.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you have enough room for a pool?

Alissa Williams: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, well maybe you should.

Alissa Williams: [00:04:00] No.

Jennifer Wilson: All right, so we've talked a little bit about season of life. How does that season of life right now with two teenage daughters, how does that impact what your scrapbooking, when you're scrapbooking, how you're scrapbooking.

Alissa Williams: Well, I mean, the easy answer is I'm not. I mean, I am, but I'm really, I don't. So, um, last late winter in November, my daughter made a club travel, heavy travel national volleyball team. And from January until the end of June, we go to tournaments on the weekends. And we are not home. And we drive her to practice 35 minutes away from our house three times a week.

Um. So it's been, this year has been a ride. Um, and my crafting has certainly taken a hit. Um, [00:05:00] so I've had to be, so when I was doing my planning for 25, I was not super ambitious um, in what? I decided I needed to do. And 'cause I knew I wasn't gonna have a lot of time. Usually January and February I get a lot done, but we had tournaments and then my younger daughter does archery through our school.

And those tournaments are, they're only one day. But, um, we're in central Illinois and most of the archery schools are an hour and a half to two, to two and a half hours away from us. 'Cause they're more in southern Illinois. So we would have an archery tournament and we'd have to drive two hours and then she'd shoot for 45 minutes and then we would drive two hours home.

So even on the weekends where we didn't have volleyball, we would have archery. So I just, um, I I did not get a lot done. Um, well, I [00:06:00] shouldn't say I didn't get a lot done, but I just did not have the time I was used to having. So I'm actually really looking forward to summer. Uh, as you mentioned, we have, so I have two more tournaments to go, two more weekends with tournaments, and then we are going to Florida for a week. Because of volleyball nationals, although we are trying to make that a family vacation.

Um, so once that hits, I will have more time. And I actually have more time now in the evenings because, you know, we're not running places all, you know, school's out. So our evenings are much freer. So I'm, I'm finding myself with some more open time and I did a lot of crafting Memorial Day weekend.

Jennifer Wilson: I need to rebut you here because I feel like what you have shared is not the full picture. Because you are someone who is excellent at taking the little pockets of time you do have and saying, I know I have this time. I [00:07:00] want to scrapbook. I wanna make a layout, and you do it.

Alissa Williams: Well, I should mention that. So there were two weekends, two tournaments that were team travel tournaments where she went with the team and was with the team. Typically on a tournament weekend, like I am her driver and have to get her to places and feed her and water her and all that stuff. But there was, at the end of February, we went to a tournament up in the Wisconsin Dells where she traveled with the team, and then I was more there just to feed her in between and make sure she was good and cheer the team on, which I've enjoyed. I've learned a lot about volleyball in the last six months, um, watching a lot of games. Anyway, I purposefully decided to make that more of a retreat weekend for myself. And I had my fall Let's Create Together, um, scrapbook kit from Scrapbook and Cards today that Megan Andrews does.

And [00:08:00] so I, I purposefully printed pictures before I left. Planned out what I was gonna do, and took that kit. And I made two layouts, um, after volleyball was over. 'Cause I, you know, we're typically this season we've been in morning waves, so you know, we're there from like eight to two and then, you know, we're back.

So, you know, after three o'clock you have the whole evening. And so I did that and I really did enjoy that. And, but I've, like, I'm not ordering, I. I think one of the last times on the podcast I talked about how I was doing Shimelle's Best of Both Worlds Kits. Well, I haven't done any of those since, um, probably last summer was the last one I ordered.

Although I did just order the June one because it's featuring her new collection. And so anytime she uses her new collection, I can get on board with that. Um, but also I found too that, I mean, those [00:09:00] Best Of Both Worlds Kits, you know, those are seven to nine layouts that she does with those, and that's a lot.

And I was very prolific those years I was doing it, which was great 'cause I was catching up on some stories from the past and it really worked. But as you mentioned, like I have less, It's not that I have less stories to tell, but I kind of have less stories to tell. In a sense that, you know, my, my girls don't wanna be in pictures.

Um, my weekends are mainly spent at volleyball. I have a lot of volleyball pictures. Uh, so I have been doing Project Life, um, monthly spreads this year, but not the same way. Last year I did monthly spreads and then I picked two stories a month to use my, uh, story cards. Story kits with, um, and I really like that to kind of spotlight two stories.

But I've even found, like in the first couple months of the year, I really don't have a enough of a, I don't have [00:10:00] a story I wanna elevate to that level. Or if I do, it's something I wanna do a page on. So I don't wanna double duplicate.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure.

Alissa Williams: Which is fine. I do still like doing the monthly spreads. Um, so I've been doing that.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you think you'll continue?

Alissa Williams: Maybe, I mean, I have a lot of pocket cards, so, and I do it nine by 12 now. And I do like the chronology and being able to see our year and kind of see the highlights of it. I, I do, I do like that. Um, it's a nice compliment to my Library of Memories. And I was thinking about this in that, because I'm only doing one spread per month. I could probably fit two years in an album, so that's kind of appealing.

Jennifer Wilson: That's nice.

Alissa Williams: So we'll see.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay. You don't have to have an answer.

Alissa Williams: Yes, I do. I'm a professional answer of questions. I need to always have an answer. So yeah, I mean, it is definitely different. Um, now I will say I did have a retreat weekend, um, [00:11:00] in March. And I, you know, was very intentional about what I wanted to get done. So I thought I was gonna become a card maker, but that's not gonna happen. So that's interesting. I thought that since my scrapbooking was slowing down, I would be able to use my supplies and I would start making all these cards. At this crop I went to, had brought these supplies to make these birthday cards, and maybe I was too ambitious in the project I picked, I don't know, I picked a card to copy. I bought all this stuff for it. It's too detailed. It's too meticulous. I don't like it.

Jennifer Wilson: So I'm curious, you went to the Tailored Expressions event and you seem to enjoy that. What was different about making cards at that event versus making them on your own?

Alissa Williams: Uh, they had prepped a lot of the supplies for you, so you did, you know, like, you, maybe you die cut, you would just die cut these candles and like a lot more of the prep work was done for you. You only made one [00:12:00] versus I was making 10 in a batch for this particular card. So making one, making a one-off, I don't mind.

But when you're doing 10 plus, like I be, I think it's Shimelle's influence. I've become less, um, of a perf, well, I've never really been a perfectionist. But like, it's messy, it's sloppy. It's not a lot like whatever. But with a card that you're giving someone, I feel like I felt more pressure to make it look perfect. And you know, I mean, it is a homemade card, so meh.

But it just, I did not find it as satisfying as I thought I would. And I did not enjoy the repetition of it all. So I, I mean, I have a few projects. Yeah. And now I know, and I can stop buying card making supplies in. Thinking because like that's what Cathy Zielske did. You know her kid, she was prolific, her kids grew up, she started making cards.

I thought, oh, I will just be Cathy Zielske when I grew up. No, no, I'm not gonna be, I'm gonna be Stacy Julian and just keep making pages and simple pages. And it's gonna [00:13:00] be great. But you are also living this volleyball mom life alongside me. So.

Jennifer Wilson: I am. And so for those who saw like our Instagram photo, we've been able to meet up a couple times because even though we live 90 minutes apart, our daughters play at the same volleyball club and they've been practicing the same nights for the past, uh, month and a half or so. And, you know, we both have carpools, so we don't, definitely don't always overlap, but we are spending a lot of time in Bloomington, Illinois. Um, your daughter's a year older though, so your travel schedule has been much more intense. Uh, it's given me a preview though, if, if she should make the team again next year of what, what we can expect. Um, but it is a lot to have, especially to have practices. Uh, and previously after school, multiple two to three nights a week, an hour away.

That's, you know, it's, it's a big time commitment. But at the same time, [00:14:00] I felt like I've had a little more time for myself. Because not here a lot. Um, and even when she is home and not doing volleyball, she's of that age where she plans things with friends and she's got this friend group, with one friend who actually lives out of town, but comes and visits his dad every other weekend.

And they always like plan to get together their whole friend group and they're, they're living their best teenage lives. And I'm trying to like figure out what this season of life is gonna look like for me, for me and Steve together. And I also think that kind of a combination of different personal factors have all come together to give me more focus and I guess creative stamina.

Like I can take the time that I have, even if it's in the evening and sit down and say, Hey, I'm just gonna putter with this for a while, and, and make some good progress. So, [00:15:00] I've done probably more than I normally would've in the first, you know, almost half a year so far. And I feel, feel good about where I'm at. Is that accurate? Based on your recollections? I called you out a little bit, so.

Alissa Williams: Yeah, no, I think that's accurate. Um, I think you are, you know, it is a weird feeling when you've suddenly gone to this like, oh, there, like, I think I messaged you last night. I was like, um, I'm alone in my home. There are no children here for me to feed or entertain. What is this feeling? Um, it lasted for like 15 minutes until my younger daughter came home from the park, but it was still like, what is happening?

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Alissa Williams: Um, and so this time opens up in a way, but also, like you said too, you know, like you, I, I spend a lot of time in the car. I spend a lot of time waiting in the car [00:16:00] and thinking about this hobby. Okay, can I quickly go through and delete photos. Can I favorite some photos? Can I write some journaling in a note? What can I do to stay engaged even when I'm on the road.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you do that? Do you work on your photos when you're in the car?

Alissa Williams: I have, yeah. Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: I don't do that. I do it sometimes, but not very often. Like I'm more likely to do it when I'm in the car with my family than I am to do it when I'm in the car by myself. 'Cause I think when I'm in the car by myself, I'm more likely to listen to a podcast, watch a YouTube video, even watch a Netflix show. Then I am to, I guess, have it be quiet and to do something. I don't know.

Alissa Williams: Sure. Yeah, that makes sense. So I think what I'm trying to do is capture the stories I wanna tell, because the stories about my, especially my older daughter who [00:17:00] doesn't really wanna be in the picture so much. Are more things about like the weird, not the weird, it's not weird, but like teenage slang. And like I have this whole idea for something with speech bubbles or I guess labels. 'Cause I don't have speech bubbles. I don't know. Maybe I need to buy some speech bubble.

Jennifer Wilson: Think I.

Alissa Williams: Embellishments.

Jennifer Wilson: Have a Story Kit that has a lot of those in it that I haven't used.

Alissa Williams: Well pack that for when I see you and you're bringing me my Week In The Life kit.

Jennifer Wilson: Will do.

Alissa Williams: So, trying to capture the things they say more, kind of like, it's almost like when they were toddlers and they said cute things. Now that they're teenagers, they say interesting things too. So capturing that in the moment and having just a note that I can quickly do that in is helpful. So, and just, trying to tell deeper stories or just more personality stories versus event based stories.

Jennifer Wilson: So this, this reminds me of one that I really need to [00:18:00] write down in my creative hub. The other night we went to go see the new Mission Impossible movie, and Emily did something that I did when I was her age. She started writing down like the really good quotes from the movie, during the movie on her phone.

And I don't know, I, I actually remember I used to bring like a little notepad with me to the movie theater because we didn't have phones back then. And I would write down the quotes and I was super into that. And I would find the little, like, wave files online and download 'em to my computer. And she was just like so into it.

And, and Steve was like, Emily, get off your phone. I'm like, she's capturing quotes because she finds this memorable. And I'm like, I can't, I can't stop her. So I just thought that was like hilarious and adorable and reminded me of myself, of course. And yeah, just those stories are, are really fun.

Alissa Williams: Yes. They're, there's. Well, and you know, that whole thing of seeing yourself reflected in your child is [00:19:00] wild. I mean.

Jennifer Wilson: No doubt.

Alissa Williams: It's, it, yeah. There are some stories there that I need to document too. Of how she says things that I'm like, now I have a filter as a grownup, so I don't say these things. But then she says like, exactly what I'm thinking, and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is okay.

Yep.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. So with all these, like our, uh, eighth grade promotion pictures, there were at least three people, if not more, that said, oh, she really looks like Steve. And when I said that to Emily, she's like, I may look like daddy, but I act like you.

Alissa Williams: Aw, you've got it, that needs, that's a page title right there. I would be one of those people who said she looked like Steve.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. But that it is a good page title and to be able to share like all the things that maybe like the traits that she has, similar to Steve and those traits that she has similar to me. I should, I should definitely do that one.

Alissa Williams: Put that in the Creative hub.

Jennifer Wilson: So of the things I know it's been really important to you this year is to be planning specific [00:20:00] things that you want to do. And so I've kind of outlined this as shaping your memory making, but can you talk more about why you made that choice and what you are choosing to do?

Alissa Williams: Well, you know, we gotta have stories to tell, so we gotta take pictures of things. Um, also just, you know, as we talked about earlier, this, this time has opened up. Um, and so we have time to do things. And I have been leaning into that more. Um, I really enjoy going to concerts and seeing live music. And so I've done that more in the past two to three years.

Um, and then of course I scrapbook about them. And then my girls and I really enjoy going to the theater together to see most, mostly musicals. Um, and so. We just actually did a kind of crazy thing on Tuesday night and we drove to St. Louis, which is two and a half hours away, and we watched a show [00:21:00] at 7:30 at night and then we drove two and a half hours home. And it was a hundred percent worth it.

And I'm so glad we did it. And I'm glad that they, again, like we were talking about just a minute ago, sharing the same enjoyment of things and what you see in them. Like I always liked the theater as a teenager and I didn't have as many opportunities to go. So it's enjoyable to be able to give them the opportunity to go, but then also to make those memories together.

Um, because you know, we're not going to the park, we're not going to the children's museum anymore, together. What are we doing together? And this is one way we can connect together. And I wish I had recorded it more in the moment. Um, but during intermission, my daughter was talking about her top 10 musicals. And, that when we were just thinking back of all the different shows that we've seen and what would make her top 10 and what would make, you know, the other ones top 10. And so yeah, it was, I wish I had been capturing that more. 'Cause I could probably go back and recreate it. [00:22:00] But, uh, it was just a fun conversation. And just reflecting on how many shows, both touring Broadway shows, but then also we have gone a lot to regional.

Um, we have a strong community theater in Peoria. It always amazes me that depth of talent in community theater. And so, um, we've gone to a lot of those shows. We had a friend, who was in children's theater for a while and we would go support her by watching her show. So they've seen a number of productions, both, you know, big and small, um, stage wise.

And my younger daughter has enjoyed being in her school musicals the last three years. And so I think she gets something different. She watches it with a different eye, having been on stage and performed before too. So, and that's actually something I should ask her about. That'd be a good conversation topic.

So yeah, so we've been going to shows and I've been thinking about how, how [00:23:00] to document that. Um, and actually, I mean, we've seen three, we've seen three big shows in the last six months. Um, which is really kind of amazing to me. Um, and fun. And I'm glad that we've been able to do that and squeeze it in amidst the volleyball and the everything.

I mean, if I'd known it was gonna rain on Sunday, we would've gone Sunday to a matinee. Um, but my daughter was scheduled to work and so I kind of, with my own work schedule and everything was like, okay, Tuesday night we can go. Typically we have volleyball practice Tuesday night, but they were on break for Memorial Day. So, it all kind of the stars aligned.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I just, I love how you kind of set a plan at the beginning of the year to these are the things that you wanted to say yes to. So you felt like you had permission to do crazy things and go outta your way to drive two and a half hours and back on the same day. I think that's something [00:24:00] probably a lot of us need to do more of. Because that's how we, make new memories.

We rarely have regrets of the things we do. We have regrets about the things we didn't do. Particularly when we're feeling like time is going so fast. So I, yeah, you get lots of applause for that.

Alissa Williams: Well, I mean, those are two, those come from two kind of scrapbooking adjacent things. Uh, the first is, you know, we read in the Simple Scrapbook community, we read Laura Vanderkam's book. Um. About, you know, a big adventure and a little adventure.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Alissa Williams: That was definitely a big adventure on Tuesday night, you know, and just trying to put that magic in her every day.

And then put this idea, I, I made a, on my 25 for 25 list, which comes from Gretchen Rubin, but I tied back to my One Little Word, which is, you know, Ali Edwards. I put, I wanted to go see four, four shows, [00:25:00] and I didn't, I was thinking a mix of local and Broadway touring. Um, and so far it's happened to be three Broadway touring shows, which has been great.

And we've gone with friends. And so that's been fun. I mean, obviously we went by ourselves on Tuesday, but the last two shows we've met up with people. And so that's also been enjoyable, um, as well. And then people know you wanna go, so then they invite you and just leads to more things. But my going to shows was part of my One Little Word, which we did not discuss earlier, um, in that I thought I was gonna do One Little Word this year.

I bought all this stuff. I was going to do a six by eight album, and I was like, Nope, not gonna do that. After couple months, I realized I, one, I didn't really feel like I had, it wasn't what I wanted to do when I had time to craft. I didn't wanna work on that project.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure. You ended up selling the kit

Alissa Williams: I, I did, I did, I sold, [00:26:00] I sold, I sold my kit. And, and released myself from that obligation. So that was a good pivot earlier in the year of just letting go of that. Realizing I, that that wasn't how I wanted to spend my crafty time. I love the project and I love, and it's been beneficial and I'm still trying to connect with my word and I still made a list of things. My list, my 25 and 25.

Jennifer Wilson: That's what I wanted to point out.

Alissa Williams: Yeah, it was all based on things related to my word so.

Jennifer Wilson: Think that's awesome. I think that if you can it really actionable with that type of list, that's one of the best ways to live your word, and it will come out through the stories that you'll tell about the year anyway.

Alissa Williams: Well, and I definitely will do, and I have done this in the past when I haven't done made an album. Is I have done pages about my word. And I definitely think this is a year where that is gonna happen, where I'll do a page, I don't always do a page for my [00:27:00] albums about my word. But I definitely think this is a year word. I can tell that story with some different pictures, and my word is heart, so you know.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Alissa Williams: A couple good die cuts. I'll be good to go.

Jennifer Wilson: So for me it's, I haven't been planning a lot of things. Part of it feels like if we have a spare weekend, we probably have things we need to catch up on. And then Steve's been traveling a lot again for work, so sometimes he's even gone 'cause he has to like leave on a Sunday to be able to be there for a Monday conference. Our one free weekend coming up here in June, he's gonna be gone for another conference and then he comes back and we immediately go to Florida for nationals. So it's, yeah, it's, not, there's not been a lot of additional things, but I think I've really been focused recently on letting go a little bit.

Like, I love taking photos, don't get me wrong. And sometimes I [00:28:00] do bring my big camera. I've brought it, brought it to a number of volleyball games during the school season and during the club season. And sometimes I'm using it to take photos at home. But if we're out or with family, I let Steve take the pictures more often I didn't always do that.

I would always have to take my own copy to scrapbook not necessarily trust. He's a good photographer. He has a good phone. It's, it's, you know, 95% of the time it's fine. It's more than, more than good enough. And it's helped me get in the photo more. It's helped me just be less uptight about the situation. So it's just been, it's been good all around to let go. And I think in general, when we can relax our expectations and how we approach situations, it's usually a good thing.

Alissa Williams: I think that's wonderful for you. Um, and something else that I wanted to talk about about this season particularly that [00:29:00] um, is someone asked me, 'cause they know I scrapbook, they were like, so, you know, what are you doing with all your volleyball pictures? You know, what, how are you, how are you handling that?

Or I, that's not the way they asked it, but just, you know, are you making an album? What are you doing? And the answer is, I don't know. And I have not done anything yet. So, adjacently, Stacy Julian is ending her membership at the end of the year. I'll cue all the tears. Um, but one thing I have learned from Stacy is to wait and to do these compilation pages, um, or do an extended story.

Um, so I feel less pressure to A figure out how I'm gonna document it, but also B document in the moment. Like, you know, I'm not making all the volleyball pages now I have lots of volleyball supplies that I keep buying. But I have [00:30:00] not. Um, and I wish I had almost waited a little longer because I have documented like junior high volleyball and, but um, but this club story, this club story could last more than a season. So like the first year she played local club, I did a page at the end of the season with pictures from games and talked more about the friendships she developed with these girls and, and, and just a little bit about the season and whatnot. I did an overall page. I don't know if I need to do a page at the end of every season.

It's kind of also the same. I haven't really, doc, no, I did one page about, they took an amazing picture, uh, in high school, like one of those like, you know, pep rally pictures. And I had to scrapbook it. And, but I haven't done anything else with like the freshmen, so I'm, I'm just waiting to see where the, these volleyball stories go.

And I don't know if they're gonna [00:31:00] go, you know, they could go in a six by eight album. They could go in a nine by 12 pocket. Like I don't, they could be an extended story, which is something that Stacy teaches about layered, you know, using different size page protectors to tell the story. Um, so I haven't, I haven't figured out how to do that, but I, that's okay with me. I'm just collecting them and trying to jot down the stories that I want to remember about this particular, like this particular season. So that is also where I am in that. I don't know how you're approaching volleyball, documenting.

Jennifer Wilson: Very similar. I have done one layout about the school season and it was really more about, it was more about Emily than the season itself. You know, I'm not that good with the facts on my layouts anyway. So that said, uh, a, one of our parents for the school season is a [00:32:00] professional photographer and so she took some really great photos at the end of the season and I have not scrapbook those yet. Um, so maybe that's the layout about like her three years of middle school volleyball. Just 'cause I don't necessarily think it's that important to choose photos from the whole time. Like maybe I'll do like a little collage and, but really the star photo is gonna be, you know, one of these really great ones from the end of the season. And so I, I guess I'm thinking of it similar to you, but I also don't wanna wait too long. I probably will document this club season by October, at least this year. Because I'm not as great with the documentation in terms of remembering things. And so I know I wanna just go ahead and get that done.

Alissa Williams: Sure.

Jennifer Wilson: And to capture kind of more in the moment [00:33:00] feelings because your reflection like four years from now, my, what I'm gonna think about volleyball is gonna be very different than what I'm thinking about it right now. I, I do think it's important to get some of those stories done and then over time there'll be more stories that span time, that show evolution, that, um, you know, reflect changes. Whether she gets really devoted to working out and becoming the very best, or maybe she decides that she's just gonna, she wants to play a little bit less. We have no idea which way she's gonna go right now we're trying to support all of her decisions. Um, so I think some pages not a huge number. I certainly would not scrapbook every tournament, every match. There's just, it's just not possible and it's, and it's really boring. Um.

Alissa Williams: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: And it's, it's it's, hard to take volleyball [00:34:00] photos of your kid. Uh, the best ones are often when they're serving because that's when they're the most stationary. So, but how many photos of your kid serving do you need? So.

Alissa Williams: A million. I have a million.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. we do take a lot of video and so I have gotten some really great photos from the stills capturing like stills from the videos. That's been helpful.

Alissa Williams: Hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: But yeah, it's de it's definitely like kind of a, a nebulous not clear path to documenting, being in a sport over a long period of time.

Alissa Williams: So two more thoughts about this. One been super inspired by Ali Edwards, who also is living her best volleyball mom life with us on the West coast. Um, and so she did a really interesting thing where she had a, she micd some of her daughter's teammates during warmups this past weekend. And it's [00:35:00] really cool, like you should, and what she captured and how she's choosing to document this.

So I've been super inspired by Ali, obviously always. Also been thinking about this in the context of my albums, which is a new thought approach for me. So I, last summer in the winter, um, went through and really did what I called album care on my Library of Memories and have, uh, put together definite, like, this is volume one for Lucy, this is volume two.

And kind of figured out, especially as we are looking at, you know, she's 15 and so not that I'm gonna stop documenting her when she's 18, but definitely we're in the less stories phase of her life. And so really grouping her albums and then saying, okay, putting a stake of, I [00:36:00] have a junior high album and now I have a high school album. And it's because of the lower volume, I definitely feel like I can fit her high school stories in one album. Maybe two, but probably one. And thinking, I don't want them to just all be volleyball pages. So, you know, thinking more about either, and maybe it's both. Maybe there's an extended story in her Library of Memories and then maybe there's a separate six by eight album that is her all volleyball.

But then it also, when you were talking, reminded me of a page I did. That, I took a picture of her that has like five pictures of her throughout her junior high, like from when she first came home and started, uh, peppering in our front lawn with a ball after an open gym at the end of fifth grade. To her, you know, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade pictures of her playing. And just kind of how she [00:37:00] felt, just telling the story of how she fell in love with volleyball. And how now she's all in on volleyball and just using a combination of pictures to tell that story.

And so I really loved, I love the, that's something that's my biggest takeaway from Stacy Julian is just being able to, to wait and then tell kind of that bigger picture over time. Um, I'm not worried about documenting my feelings because I don't have them. So, um.

Jennifer Wilson: That is not true.

Alissa Williams: I, um, but I definitely am trying to, to, uh, put captions on pictures when I have a story that I wanna remember or something that I wanna make sure that is part of that when I later tell the story.

Jennifer Wilson: You still say this, but I really feel like you've come so far in the past, let's say five years in terms of feeling your feelings, expressing them. Working on them. So I, I know we have all, we all [00:38:00] have lots of different stories we tell ourselves about who we are, but I also think you do have permission to change and maybe like take on a new identity of someone who has, who has feelings and is okay with that.

Alissa Williams: As an Enneagram 8 I don't like to feel vulnerable and thus do not like to share my feelings.

Jennifer Wilson: I understand. All right. Let's talk about priorities. So at Simple Scrapper, we work in creative journeys. We're in the May, June creative journey. At the time of this recording, are your priorities for this time period, if you have them at all? Is it just to survive the end of club season?

Alissa Williams: No, I mean, summer is definitely when I always feel like I have more time to scrapbook and create. And so I've been thinking a lot about what are my priorities and what projects do I need to work on? I said at the beginning that I have purposely didn't pick a lot of things when I put my crafty plans together. So, [00:39:00] I had picked six kind of overarching priorities for the year, as well as I have a couple ongoing things that I do. So, um, I have an Alaska album that I wanna make. And I sort of started thinking about it, uh, more seriously again, this past long weekend. Um, I wanted to do the backup bootcamp class that Ms. Freddy taught. And I did do that in January or February, and that was very, that's been super satisfying and has paid off in terms of trying to tell older stories or finding older photos.

Jennifer Wilson: That's great.

Alissa Williams: Um, yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Would you recommend that for others who maybe are, are kind of figuring out their systems?

Alissa Williams: Yes, I think it is excellent. And actually, uh, they we're trying to do some photo management backup at work and I'm finding her resources helpful there too, so.[00:40:00]

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful.

Alissa Williams: It's amazing. Yes. Um, I. I subscribe to an entire year of the sc, the Scrapbook and Cards Today, quarterly kits. So those come out in March, June, September, December.

Also, I wanna pause here to give Catherine and the Scrapbook and Cards cards today team a huge, huge praise, um, for the way they're handling everything. I am signed up for the Crop and Create, that's happening next week at the end of May, early June, uh, for scrapbooking. And there was a whole issue with the whole tariff stuff, and they have been amazing.

And of course, since I'm signed up for the quarterly kits, there's an issue with shipping and the tariffs for those. And it's kind of a wild, wild west time. But they have been amazing in their communication and in their desire to, to make customers, they are a customer centered business and she has been [00:41:00] amazing in her communication and what she's tried to do for people. So.

Jennifer Wilson: Totally agree. Like really setting the bar for professionalism that many folks, not just in in our industry but beyond could, could learn from.

Alissa Williams: Yeah, I'm just, I am now forever brand loyal to them because they've been handling this with such grace. And it's amazing. So I just finished my March kit, did all the pages, uh, thought I had enough to do a bonus page. I don't, or I do, but I don't have a story for it. So I'm gonna put that in my kit envelopes, and then the June kit will be coming next week. So I'm on track with those. I said I was gonna do card making projects.

Jennifer Wilson: Not so much.

Alissa Williams: Cross that off, not so much. I have three, three small card kit projects that I'm going to do at my next crop weekend that I have. Um, I have a mini book I wanna do with a very [00:42:00] old Scrapbook and Cards six by eight album from Vicki Boutin that I never made.

And so that is a project I'm going to do at a crop weekend. 'Cause I always like to have a mini book project at the crop weekend. And then my last party was to work on my Story Kits, which I haven't done at all. And that may be a later fall thing.

Jennifer Wilson: Well. We were talking About your Alaska album. You asked me like, what should I work on? And I said, because of your options, the Alaska album was the story first option. That it was to me, I would choose that so that it didn't get too far away. Because with the story kits, there'll always be stories that fit those kits. So when you're working with more of a product first approach, which is totally fine, I'm not like trying to weigh them against each other, they're just different. And we might have different reasons for choosing them, choosing one over the other.

Alissa Williams: Yeah, and I do want to get this Alaska project [00:43:00] done. We, it was a year ago right now that we were there. And so I did, took extensive notes and journaling and I've got the basis, but like you said, I don't wanna let it get too far down the road to where my memory is totally terrible about it. Um, you know, of not remembering some of the stuff. I have done, um, a page for each of the girls' albums with a picture of them in Alaska, just to kind of mark that trip for them. And kind and put on the journaling has like their top three moments. Or, you know, Lucy said, well, what do you remember about what did, what do you remember at Alaska?

It was cold and wet. That's all she says. How was your trip to Alaska? Cold and wet. So I should have titled the page Cold and Wet, but. Uh, that was a missed opportunity. But anyway, uh, so I feel like all of these things are still reasonable, um, with what I have time for, [00:44:00] allotted for, uh, I have two weekend crops, um, one the summer and one in the fall.

And, and then I'll have a lot of time this summer. Um, so those are, I mean those are still my priorities. I think my biggest priority now is to make progress on this Alaska album. 'Cause I suspect I'm gonna be doing a little more digital stuff than I typically do, and that's easier to do at home. 'cause I don't have a laptop.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure.

Alissa Williams: And not at a crop. I might do finishing touches at a crop, but also I don't like to journal at a crop anymore. So, yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Maybe you'd feel differently if you were typing though.

Alissa Williams: That would also require said laptop that I do not own.

Jennifer Wilson: You could borrow.

Alissa Williams: Maybe it's time I, buy a laptop. Maybe that's the solution to my problems.

Jennifer Wilson: But I also do have a PC laptop I could let you borrow. So.

Alissa Williams: Oh, well that's kind of you. So yeah, I mean, my priorities haven't changed. I have done my ongoing projects. [00:45:00] I always do a birthday page now for each of the girls. I've just finished Abby's this past weekend with my extra page from my Scrapbook and Cards kit. Um, I just finished my seventh grade chatbook that I've been doing for each of the girls since kindergarten.

Jennifer Wilson: We have to talk about Chatbooks.

Alissa Williams: Yes, we do. This is why I just said that.

Jennifer Wilson: I, they, and I, I'm assuming this is going to affect everyone. Chatbooks has announced that, um, Meta has closed off their API for Instagram to be able to pull in, uh, photos and captions into photo book services. I, I'm kind of shocked, honestly.

Alissa Williams: I am appalled and mad. I, I was very frustrated when I found that I have not, I put less and less on Instagram, actually now that the kids are older. But, uh, it was at least an easy starting point to [00:46:00] pull in the pictures and captions. And so I had to, it took, it took longer but it was still, and I had to go in and caption everything and that was kind of frustrating.

Uh, and so my captions are not great, but they're fine. So Lucy graduated eighth grade last year and I did a Chatbook, and I had already decided that, again, volume of photos is so small that I wasn't gonna do anything. I wasn't gonna do one per year for high school. I might do one at the end of high school, but now I'm even like, if the Chatbook like, I might as well just print four by fours in a small album through Persnickety Box.

And maybe I'll just, maybe I'll do it. Ooh, maybe I'll do it that way. And then I could at least print like her freshman year photos. And then I wonder if I still have, did Becky, were there four by four Project Life [00:47:00] page protectors?

Jennifer Wilson: Uh, there are from, We Are Memory Keepers for the little, those little mini albums.

Alissa Williams: No. But like the 12 by 12 ones.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh.

Alissa Williams: With four by fours in 'em. I'm gonna have to look at my stash of Project Life page.

Jennifer Wilson: There were.

Alissa Williams: Oh, I just had a big idea. I gotta write this down.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you have a 10 by eight album? Because those have some four by fours.

Alissa Williams: Ooh, maybe I need one of those. Maybe I need to do all of her freshman year and a 10 album, and that would use up some of my cards too.

Jennifer Wilson: Why not just do all of high school and a 10 by eight of them?

Alissa Williams: That's what I meant. High school. I didn't say that, but I meant that.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. I think, I think this is something where you could lay out lots of different creative options and figure out, what is, which ones am I, would I actually finish? Which ones actually sound fun? And find out where the overlap and the Venn diagram is to be able to to pick a choice.

Alissa Williams: That's a lot of thinking. I don't do this much thinking about it. I just kind of like.

Jennifer Wilson: You do. I feel like you do.

Alissa Williams: Um, [00:48:00] okay.

Jennifer Wilson: No, just me.

Alissa Williams: Um, maybe you make me think this, overthink this like this.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you need me to create a worksheet for you so you can do this?

Alissa Williams: Obviously, uh, it's always a solution. It's a worksheet. Um,

Jennifer Wilson: We do have a flow diagram of how to choose the format for your project. And it's based on like starting with number of photos.

Alissa Williams: Problem is, I don't know the number of photos.

Jennifer Wilson: True. You don't, but you could pick in advance to say you wanna pick 25 photos per school year.

Alissa Williams: Yeah. Um, I guess the other thing I wanna talk about in terms of creative priorities is that I'm very committed to using my stash. So, for example, when we talked about my Project Life, I am using my Elle's Studio Kits that I bought and never used. And so, um. That has been very satisfying to get some of that supplies used up.

My goal with my Elle's Studio kits is to do [00:49:00] my Project Life spread and one layout with a kit. Um, and there is so much inspiration on their website for pages and on their Instagram feed for 12 by 12 pages of using their product that way. And so I, I really love that. And then, um, so I haven't actually, I bought the January kit, but then I had February, March, April, I have May, and I have June. And then I don't really have the fall stuff. So I'm debating between getting kits or just using what I have. Which I really should just use what I have 'cause that's really my commitment. But I didn't write it down, so I feel like I could buy stuff, which feels like cheating but I don't know.

Jennifer Wilson: Given that it's become, I, I don't think pocket page scrapbooking is going to go away. But we are seeing more cards that you have to cut apart yourself. We are seeing [00:50:00] maybe a decrease in the availability of page protectors and albums. And so I, I would, I guess my choice for you, my vote would be for you to use your stash.

Alissa Williams: Well, and that's fair. Um, so it will also depend on the designs.

Like sometimes I'm feel very called to a particular like, oh, I must have this particular card. I feel less less of that. And it's not really, it's not even fomo, it's just like, ooh, pretty shiny new. Uh, so I'm thinking about getting the July kit as just kind of a reward for you busting through my stash.

Jennifer Wilson: But once you get to August though, like I feel like you could basically make yourself a kit of fall supplies. That includes cards you already have, and then other fall items that would allow you to customize the cards, like papers, embellishment stamps, stickers. No.

Alissa Williams: That's too much work. [00:51:00] I don't have a lot of time see volleyball weekends.

Jennifer Wilson: You'll be in the school season. In the fall, you won't have as much weekend.

Alissa Williams: Oh yes, I will. Because when they play JV, they play more tournaments on the weekends. So.

Jennifer Wilson: I think you have some things you can think through and there's no pressure to make a decision right this moment.

Alissa Williams: Yes, I have been proud though that I have not really bought, um, stuff and that I only really caved. I, I mean, I look every month at Shimelle's. Best of both Worlds kits, but, I only bought the one for June. And partly it's too because I have, I have, I feel like I have a little bit of a backlog of stories where I know her layouts will help me get some of these one and two picture.

Because like what I've learned is the Scrapbook and Cards Today kits, she always does one two [00:52:00] page spread with a lot of pictures and then one single page. And that's great. But like Shimelle always does like one or two photos. Now I have learned a lot from Simple Scrapper member, Melissa Burnett, giving her a shout out for putting multiple pictures on a page and in creative ways and making photo collages because.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, yeah.

Alissa Williams: She has definitely influenced me in a few of my layouts where I'm like, oh, I should put a picture here instead of this here. Or let's make a collage instead of, doing. One photo or two photos.

Jennifer Wilson: Certainly. That's one of the things I love about the community and getting to know folks, is being able to learn from their specific techniques. And it's like, oh, I've never thought about doing it that way. I could try that. And then you pick something up and that's, that's how you do it.

Alissa Williams: Yeah, so we were talking about priorities. I don't even know what the question was anymore. I'm just rambling about my hobby.

Jennifer Wilson: So I have, like, I have [00:53:00] a, a current priority for this journey and then another priority for the summer. I am really focused on Week In The Life. I have made really good progress on last year's album. I've got all the photos, not just selected and edited, but printed, cut out, put in pockets. Um, I'm just to the point of needing to finish embellishing the album and writing my journaling. And so I, I feel really, I don't know, passionate, is that the right word? I feel like this is really important. Because of, I feel like this year and last year are just so different in so many ways that they.

Alissa Williams: Oh.

Jennifer Wilson: Almost feel like they're bookends of comparison. When I do this year's album, I wanna take some similar photos to be able to talk about what has changed. Um, and so I am prepping my album for this year. We'll be, I'm gonna be [00:54:00] documenting from this Sunday, June 1st through Friday, June 6th. I'm doing one day off. Then I guess the official timing, because I wanna include, um, volleyball tournament in that, and I have done that in the past.

That's what I did last year too, is I started a day early so that I could include waking up in a hotel room on Sunday morning as, as part of that story. Um, so I feel, I feel really good about that and it feels fun. I don't know that I'm gonna do it forever. I've always done the Week in The Life of, in some regard, like taken the photos and done something. I don't know that I feel as compelled to maybe do a whole album again in the future. But these two years feel like this good, like bookend of change. Um, and so I'm excited about that.

Alissa Williams: I'm also gonna do Week in the Life. We didn't talk about that.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Alissa Williams: I haven't done an album in several years. And I also am feeling like you in that this, there is enough of a difference between the last time I did [00:55:00] an album and now.

Jennifer Wilson: Well and you're gonna do, do it in the, by the numbers perspective.

Alissa Williams: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Really interesting.

Alissa Williams: Yes. And I also like you wanna capture this volleyball season, so I'm gonna, so we have a tournament, I'm gonna do the typical Monday through Sunday and we'll be gone for a tournament next weekend.

So, yep, I'm doing that too.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes.

Alissa Williams: Okay. What's your summer priority?

Jennifer Wilson: I want you to come boss me around and help me sort my memorabilia.

Alissa Williams: Okay, this is funny since you, we just did the replay of the episode where I came and bossed you around on your layouts.

Jennifer Wilson: I like, my memorabilia system is not that bad. I have boxes labeled from preschool through junior high. Time to make some, make a box for high school. But I also have some bins of stuff that has not been sorted yet. So I need to like, pull it all out, do a good letting go of some [00:56:00] items and get everything in,

its in its home. Probably do some photography of three dimensional artwork that I no longer need to keep. It's just gotten to a point where it's. It's sitting in a box in the floor of my closet and making it hard to actually get in the closet. Like the closet's still in pretty good shape, but the memorabilia is, is become a problem and I really need to tackle this. Uh, and I would really like to do it before we go, before Emily goes to high school in the fall and we're starting a whole new season of gathering items.

Alissa Williams: So we need to pick a date for me to come boss you. Is that what we've decided?

Jennifer Wilson: can do it on Zoom or FaceTime. But yeah, if you could come here, that would be awesome. I would appreciate it.

Alissa Williams: It's way more fun when I come in person.

Jennifer Wilson: So yeah, we will find sometime this summer

Alissa Williams: Okay.

Jennifer Wilson: During, probably during July when they're doing summer league volleyball. I don't know.

Alissa Williams: Yeah. Okay. That's good.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Alissa Williams: I can do that. I do. Will travel to boss people.[00:57:00]

Jennifer Wilson: So.

Alissa Williams: That's funny.

Jennifer Wilson: Final question for our conversation is, is there anything that has surprised you recently about yourself, your hobby, this industry is like, what's, like, what's maybe been on your mind?

Alissa Williams: I don't know. I've been thinking about this. I, I've been sad about the amount of shrinkage in our industry over the last couple years. And I feel now some with this tariff stuff and like Canadian companies not shipping to the United States. Um, that's challenging. Um, I, I guess I'm almost surprised that here I am 22 years later still making pages. You know. This hobby is still really important to me. And even as I feel like I have less stories of my girls to tell, I still wanna make time to tell those important stories. And, [00:58:00] you know, I guess I'm surprised that I'm not the card maker I thought I was gonna be.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Alissa Williams: I mean, I think too, this idea that I was gonna make 10 of these birthday cards, I think I'm more attracted to the idea of making a card.

Like I, because I was gonna be this fabulous card maker, I went off on this tear and signed up for the Scrapbook and Cards Today, card making event, and I have that whole box I haven't even tackled. Um, note it did not really make my priority list. Um.

Jennifer Wilson: Should you sell the box?

Alissa Williams: No.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

Alissa Williams: Because I, I wanna make those cards. And one of the reasons I had gone to Stamp Joy was I, I have a lot of stamps and I really like stamping and I wanted to do more stamping on my layouts.

I thought that this would teach me techniques for that. Um, but, and it has in a way, but I haven't stamped. Well, no, that's, I did do a layout where I did a bunch of stamping. So it all molds together. [00:59:00] Um, I guess, yeah, I'm surprised I'm not the card maker that I thought I was gonna be. That's not the new thing, but that I still have pages I wanna make and there are still stories to tell, um, that are important to me.

So, and I do have more time to spend, you know, like I talked about the Backup Bootcamp to, to do some of those, um, cleanup things. Like I talked about, you know, organizing my albums and I put them in all new, um, they all have spine labels and I'm working on title pages for everything. And just cleaning, doing some of that maintenance stuff that maybe I didn't have as much time for in the past because I was my crop time was so limited. I would just wanted to tell stories. 'Cause I felt like I had so many stories and it's not that I don't feel like I have so many stories. It's just, you know, the amount of stories I'm collecting has slowed.

Jennifer Wilson: Certainly.

Alissa Williams: What about you?

Jennifer Wilson: There's, I mean, there's a number of things. I think there's, there's a list of items that [01:00:00] always surprise me, but shouldn't. Such as, I always find ways back to my creativity, back into really feeling excited about the hobby. When I go to in-person crops, when I look through my albums and look at past layouts, when I really spent time in my photo library, like all the things that you would think of that we tell people to say, this is how you can reconnect with your hobby. Those things work. And every time I feel like, oh, I'm just like, feeling a little disconnected, am always able to find a way back. And I, I guess I've learned to trust that even more, even though it always does, like, give me this moment of like surprise and delight of like, oh yeah, it's still really there.

Like it's, I, I love this, this is important to me. Um, whether I'm doing a lot of it or I'm doing a little of it, it's, it's still just a part of my life.

Alissa Williams: Well, and riffing off that a little bit, I think, um, ever since my big renaissance at the end [01:01:00] of 2018, where in 2019, where I really got back into regular crafting after two years of really feeling like a failure and a fake scrapbooker. I figured out more of my system, my approach. I know that kits are the way that I wanna do it. I know that I'm in my copying era. So, leaning more into that has helped me be successful in continuing to stay engaged.

Jennifer Wilson: Like knowing what works for you, knowing your way.

Alissa Williams: Yes. So I know what works for me. I know having a kit that I can take on the road so I can make a page in a hotel room is really super satisfying. You know, and I can use these rails to continue to get the stories told and that is enjoyable.

Jennifer Wilson: That reminds me that something else that has surprised me recently, I've always thought of myself as a, like one to three photo scrapper in terms of layouts. [01:02:00] While I have done and more two page layouts. Recently, I've, I've done a number of pages, both single and double that had a lot of photos.

And I had this story I told myself of like, I don't make pages with lots of photos. I am, I'm not a Tracy Fox or a Melissa Burnett. I don't, I can't, like, I, that's not where my brain naturally goes. I naturally go to more of a Shimelle style layout with lots of layers and embellishments and a little, um, it ends up cohesive in the end. But it's kind of, you know, a process to get there. But I've really had fun and really felt proud of pages that I've made where I used a lot of photos. 'Cause it felt very satisfying. It was kind of, it was a challenge to put together. I just recently did one that had 31 or 39, I don't remember. I had to print them very small and they were all kind of collaged together. It was not a grid in any way. And [01:03:00] it was fun. So I, I guess I'm surprised by, going out of my comfort zone and and finding joy in that. I guess.

Alissa Williams: I think it's awesome 'cause like that 30, that 31 that, that layout you're referring to was amazing. And you are so, you do a variety of different things I think that are, quote, outside your comfort zone. You try different techniques. You, you know, you are very versatile in the pages you create, which is something I admire about you.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, thank you. Thank you. I particularly when we're doing a Refresh Retreat or a Stash Bash event, and you know, months ago I've worked with my team to come up with a prompt. I really enjoy like working on those prompts at the same time as our members. And I think that forces me to often combine a different bunch of different decisions that have been pre-made for me. Even though I made them myself, it, my past self made those decisions. Doesn't ever feel like that. It feels [01:04:00] like somebody else is giving me the prompt. Um, and that makes it fun to follow along. Because, you know, it, it could have been six months ago that we came up with that and assigned it to the creative team, and they made their layouts back then. But I'm just making it live and following along and, and playing and playing with members as as a member myself.

Alissa Williams: Yeah, I think that's fun. Um, I was just paging through my creative hub to look at what I talked or thought about. And I, you know, I keep this list of stories by the month 'cause I like a good checklist. Um, and that seems to be the way that works best for me. But I, talking about volleyball stories, there are pages that I wanna make about this volleyball experience.

Like I have, I wanna make a page about Lucy's tournament jobs. So they have to ref, you know, a match. And Lucy always has to be the down ref because no one [01:05:00] else on her team wants to down ref. But also she's very, um, unfazed. Um, because when you down ref, you have to be very confident in your calls. And there was one, uh, tournament where a coach like got in her face and was yelling at her for a call she'd made, and.

Jennifer Wilson: That's awesome.

Alissa Williams: Didn't phase her.

Yeah. And then she is always the player who stands next to the coach on the opposing team during warmups and passes the balls to the coach. Like, she doesn't field balls, she stands there. And so it, so I have pictures of that and I wanna tell that story.

Jennifer Wilson: That is so interesting because those are Emily's two jobs too.

Alissa Williams: So funny.

Jennifer Wilson: We need to like swap photos.

Alissa Williams: So much alike.

Jennifer Wilson: And make layouts about that, about our parallel journeys, so that.

Alissa Williams: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Could be fun.

Yeah. Emily loves to be down ref. Like it's, it, it is, part of it's because no one else wants to, but she actually really likes and, and she asks to do that. So.[01:06:00]

Alissa Williams: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. And she's always, I. Always the one with the ball basket. Um, it's, it's so interesting because she has, she is a leader in so many ways, and then also not one in so many others. So she's a little, she's very, introverted in certain ways, but not so much on the volleyball court.

Alissa Williams: Yeah. And then the other story that is about more about me and these weekends is my volleyball mom uniform. Um, as you know, I've purchased, I have a very set, um, set uniform of, although now that it's getting warm, I don't, it's kind of a little harder. But I bought some specific volleyball sweatshirts. And I just, especially in January and February around they go so much just I would wash them and put the back in the suitcase.

Um, so I have a very particular look at a volleyball game and I wanna just document that as well.

Jennifer Wilson: That's fun, especially since, you know, we're [01:07:00] often trading outfit photos and, um, I, I did a page of like a year of outfit photos and that was really fun. I was used, one of the last Story Kits. It was one of the first ones that had lots

Alissa Williams: Oh.

Jennifer Wilson: Mixed media. It had like flowers and a lot of green in it, and it was really fun to take all these little tiny pictures of outfits over the past year.

Alissa Williams: Yes. That was a good layout. They're all good.

Jennifer Wilson: Is there anything we've missed that we really need to talk about?

Alissa Williams: Well we could probably have a whole nother 30 minute conversation on planning and planners and organization, but.

Jennifer Wilson: Let's save that for next time.

Alissa Williams: Yeah, that's good.

Jennifer Wilson: By then, we'll probably be like in July or so, at least in that second half of the year where we're really starting to like question our choices and think about the next year. And that could definitely be a whole nother conversation.

Alissa Williams: Yes, it could and it will be, I'm sure.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, as always, I have enjoyed our conversation. Thanks for spending time with me. Can you share where our listeners can find you online?[01:08:00]

Alissa Williams: Uh, sure. I am on Instagram as alissarecommends. 'Cause part of what I do is recommend books. Um, I don't post as often as I was saying earlier, but I do post book recommendations. I don't actually post a lot about scrapbooking. Um, but it is a private account, you are welcome to request me to follow me.

Jennifer Wilson: Awesome. Well, I can't wait till our next time. And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.

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SYW302 – My Way with Eve McNie https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/07/syw302/ https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/07/syw302/#respond Mon, 28 Jul 2025 06:00:17 +0000 https://www.simplescrapper.com/?p=226932 In this episode I'm interviewing Eve McNie for the My Way series. My Way is all about celebrating the unique ways memory keepers get things done. We’re excited to have Eve as the July featured artist at Simple Scrapper.

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As our featured artist for July 2025, a selection of Eve McNie’s layouts inspired our latest sketch collection for Simple Scrapper members. In this episode, Eve shares insights about her life and creative processes, including her love of the 12×12 format. Our conversation also highlights Eve’s time living in different countries, her crafting style, and her participation in various community scrapbooking projects.

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*Affiliate links help to support the work we do, at no additional cost to you.

Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 302. In this episode, I'm interviewing Eve McNie for the My Way Series. My Way is all about celebrating the unique ways memory keepers get things done.

We're excited to have Eve as the July featured artist at Simples Scrapper.

Eve McNie: Hey, Eve, welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Hi Jennifer. [00:01:00] Thank you so much for having me today.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. I'm looking forward to our conversation and getting to know you a little better. Can you share some things about your life? Who are you? Where do you live? Who's in your family?

Eve McNie: Yeah, of course. Um, so my name is Eve, as you know. I am 37 years old, well, very nearly in a couple of months. Um, I am married to Stewart. Um, we got married in August, 2022. Uh, but we've been together for a little while longer than that. We met in 2015. Um,

Jennifer Wilson: Wow.

Eve McNie: Yeah, so we celebrated 10 years together in January this year.

So that was a big step. I am originally from France, from the southwest of France. I was born in Toulouse Uh, but I have traveled a, a little bit. Um, I spent a year in Australia, uh, it sounds like a lifetime ago. I now, it feels like a lifetime ago. It was 2011. Um, but that [00:02:00] was quite a forming year, I suppose.

It was my first time away from home for such a long time. I don't think I could have gotten any further away. Uh, the other side of, yes, the other side of the planet is probably what I needed, just to make sure that I would give it a good goal. 'cause being any closer to home, if things had gone a bit, you know, tricky with living abroad, I may have just gone home, which was not an option.

Living so far away. Um, I also spent a year in the us I was in Florida for a little bit. I was working at Disney, and then I moved to, yeah, yeah, there are a fair few Disney hardcore fans in the scrapbooking community.

Jennifer Wilson: No.

Eve McNie: Um, I'm not one of them though, weirdly enough. I, I used to work at Disney, but I never was a massive Disney fan.

Um, I don't mind Disney, [00:03:00] of course, I, you know, when I was a kid I watched all the, the cartoons and the movies, but I wouldn't, I've never scrapbook to anything Disney related or not yet anyway. Uh, and I finally moved to Scotland, uh, which is where I live now. Edinburgh, Scotland in 2014. Um, yeah, so that's my life.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, you have like, you have such a beautifully unique accent that I think picks up so many of these different places

Eve McNie: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Some, it's, it's very, it's interesting to listen to people because you can kind of, well, I'm, I'm a very poor, um, detector of accents. I kind of never know where people are from. Um, but yeah, it's, it's interesting to kind of see the variance in, you know, videos on YouTube or podcasts or anything like that.

I really enjoy just listening to the music.[00:04:00]

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. And it's just, I love that we have such a, that the technology today can bring us together all across the world and, and keep us as this, you know, vast community of scrapbookers.

Eve McNie: Yeah, it's so easy to, to make friends, I suppose, scrappy friends, internet friends, whatever. We may never meet, but we get to know a little bit about people's lives and they're so different, um.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Eve McNie: From one country or continent to another. That's, that's really interesting actually.

Jennifer Wilson: So, let's talk a little bit about your scrapbooking. I always like to ask some kind of icebreaker questions to our guests. Do you have a favorite recent layout or project? Can you tell us a little bit about it and why it's a favorite or special to you?

Eve McNie: Yeah, of course. Um, this one is actually quite an easy one for me just now because it feels still so, um, raw in a good way and exciting. Um. I was really [00:05:00] lucky to be featured as a sketch for day one for 30 days of sketches. Um, so that was June 1st. Uh, it was my sketch. Um, I was so excited to contribute to it.

It's such a fun series. I really enjoy scrapping with a sketch as the starting point. I just find it so inspiring. Um, it is also really, it's a bit of a responsibility, I suppose, in a way because I'm realizing seeing so many contributors using that sketch. That I will be in people's albums in a strange, you know, remote way.

Um, which is really, really fun. Um, so yeah, I was, I was really excited about that. And, uh, a bit of a milestone just a few days ago, I finally reached a thousand followers on Instagram which. Is, you know, it's, yay. I know. It's, it's, you know, symbolic. It doesn't actually mean anything. But I was [00:06:00] really excited about it.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, no doubt as you should be. Now, 30 days of sketches. Who, who organizes that? What website is it through or is it through Instagram.

Eve McNie: So yes, there are participants on Instagram. It is I think mostly a Facebook group. Um, but people also, you know, creators who have a YouTube channel also upload, uh, to YouTube. And I think that there is a playlist. So you can, if you're interested in, um, finding out, um, different takes on the same sketch for example, or just following one particular creator all throughout the 30 days, you can do that throughout the playlist.

Uh, and there should also be a hashtag on Instagram, I suppose, if that's the preferred platform.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, super fun. I will definitely link that up in the show notes, so it's not something that, I think if I came across it, I have since forgotten.

Eve McNie: Okay. Yeah. Fair enough. I'm not on YouTube, but I will try and participate a little bit to, um, uh, to the [00:07:00] Instagram hop. I dunno if it's a hop. Uh, but I'm a very slow scrapper, so I will not be scrapping for 30 days in a row. I just, I don't know how to do that.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Well, we're gonna get to some of that in our conversation today about your process and your workflow. Um, but thinking about kind of right now in the present moment, is there something inside of scrapbooking or in your everyday life that you're excited to do, use or try?

Eve McNie: Um, yeah, I've been really chuffed about this podcast, actually. Um, yeah, I've been, uh, I've been thinking about it for a few days and, uh, yeah, it is really exciting. In terms of outside of scrapbooking, because I live in Scotland, we are, I suppose, growing up in France, I took the sun for granted. And now living in Scotland, it's a little bit of a different story.

So I am excited about summer coming back. It's still very cold here. It's, it's a gray day to day. There's not much going on. But I am excited about things coming back to life a little bit. [00:08:00] Um, you know, myself included, coming out of hibernation, if you will.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, it makes a huge difference on your mood.

Eve McNie: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, even when we had some rainy times and, and we're lucky that we, we do get quite lengthy seasons of all four of them.

Eve McNie: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: I was like, I could never live in a place like Portland or, I mean, I imagine even the UK is, you know, it could be pretty dreary a lot of the time.

I'm not sure that my mental health could, could handle that. I'd really have to adjust.

Eve McNie: Where do you live, Jennifer?

Jennifer Wilson: I live in central Illinois, so about, uh, two and a half hours south of Chicago.

Eve McNie: Okay, so it does get quite cold, I suppose.

Jennifer Wilson: We do get quite cold. We don't, we get like maybe two or three good snows every winter, but it's not co consistently snowing at all. Um, and it can get, you know, high nineties, a hundred degrees in the summer.

Eve McNie: Oh.

Jennifer Wilson: A few days, um, but high eighties are pretty, pretty typical for us in, in the, the, the dead of summer, but [00:09:00] right now it's June and we, it's like 68.

We've had a pretty, very pretty cool spring and early summer, so.

Eve McNie: Okay. Yeah. I think what's lacking in, well, not lacking, but the main difference between France and Scotland is that there isn't much of a range, I suppose in Scotland. The winters are not super cold, but the summers aren't very warm either. Um, it snowed. It snowed actually this winter, which was cool to see.

But it's more, more than anything, it's actually the darkness that gets me. You were talking about mental health and it's not so much the cold, it's more that there is absolutely no sunlight. I mean, it's not at Alaska but, oh, I missed that out actually in the previous question, Jennifer. I used to live in, um, Anchorage as well for, for a few months after Disney.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh wow. What, what took you all the way from Florida to Alaska?

Eve McNie: I know it's such a strange thing to do. Um, I suppose the funny answer to that is that my hair could [00:10:00] not stand the humidity of Florida anymore. It just needed a break. Um, but the real answer is I just wanted to see as much as I could. I had a limited time in the US because of, you know, I needed a visa. So I knew I had a, a timestamp on things.

Um, and I just wanted to, being so close relatively to Alaska, I just wanted to give it a go and see what it was like. Um, so yeah, that was the, that was a, a bit of a spur of the moment thing, I suppose, but it ended up being the, probably some of the best four months of, of my life for sure. I loved it.

Jennifer Wilson: Very fun. And as someone with, with, uh, wavy curly hair, I, I can understand the humidity in Florida. If I had to pick, you know, Florida or say Arizona for a retirement location, I would pick the one without the humidity for sure.

Eve McNie: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Definitely.

Jennifer Wilson: So you are our July featured artist at Simple Scrapper, and that's, that's part of why we're having this conversation today for a My Way episode. [00:11:00] Um, what would you say to a non scrapbooker about why you love this hobby?

Eve McNie: Yeah. Um, I would say that what I enjoy the most about the hobby is having something real to flip through. Um, I love taking photos. Um, I have a camera that I don't actually use all that much anymore because, you know, camera on the camera on my phone is probably better than my actual camera now. So I just use my phone and it makes it less, um, lively, I suppose to, to flip through pictures.

I do do it and, you know, I flip through albums on Facebook, for example. But having something printed that I can turn the pages in is such a satisfying aspect of the hobby. What I really enjoy about it is that it makes me remember things that I don't think I would remember otherwise. I've recently [00:12:00] discovered, I don't know if it's my aging brain that I cannot remember much.

It's quite disappointing because I thought I had a good memory up until a few months ago where I realized that I don't. Um, so, you know, having things written down, um, pictures taken is just so, um, diligent, I suppose in a way. Um, I just really want to remember things as accurately as I can. And then I suppose there's also the, you know, let's go back to that crafty word and it's the satisfying aspect of making something. Being proud of, look at this. I made this. It's a little bit like maybe gardening or cooking. You know, you have something physical that you've made. It's awesome. I love it.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, when there's so many different connections to it, you can, sometimes it's, it's one of those that's the driving factor and sometimes it's another one, and so it gives you so many different levels of, of satisfaction on it.

Eve McNie: Hmm, definitely. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: But [00:13:00] I fully understand that idea of, I thought I had a really great memory, and then the older I get, the more I realize that I have forgotten so many things and it just gets worse every year, so.

Eve McNie: Yeah, yeah. I mean, especially, you know, holidays for example, where you're so excited about where you're going, what you ate, where you went. And then a few weeks later, it doesn't take long at all. I just forget. I just realized that I'm getting my dates confused and I don't know what we did which day, and as you said, it doesn't get any better. It gets worse. So.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. So can you talk to us a little bit about how you got started scrapbooking?

Eve McNie: Uh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, I had to look this up actually. Uh, it was in October, 2020. Um, in my head, I just consider myself a, a much more, a newer scrapper than 2020. You know, it's been nearly five years, but it doesn't feel like it has been [00:14:00] five years. Um, and I don't know what that means. I don't know if I'm not giving myself enough credit for, you know, doing it for so long, or, um, if time flies by when you're having fun. Um.

Jennifer Wilson: Maybe.

Eve McNie: Don't.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Eve McNie: Yeah, it could be, it could be that. Um, but the reason I started scrapbooking, um, so October, 2020 unfortunately, was, um, COVID times. It wasn't, um, I don't think we were in a lockdown per se in Scotland at that time, but there were still a lot of restrictions. Um, and as it turns out, we had just moved into our new apartment, so we ended up having a little bit more space.

Uh, we ended up being homeowners now at that point instead of renting a place. So a little bit more space. I wanted to make the place mine, and I had so much time on my hands that I thought, okay, let's just give this a go. Um, one of [00:15:00] the girls I was in Australia with, uh, Marianne, she is a scrapbooker as well. And she posted a few pages on, I think it must have been Facebook actually.

Um, and I thought, oh my gosh, this is so pretty, and I, I want to know more about this. Um, and I just started on a, down a rabbit hole on Facebook, on YouTube, on Instagram. I looked everywhere. I wanted to complete scrapbooking. I wanted to know everything there was to know. Um, and yeah, that's, that's how I started.

Um, we were also engaged to be married, Stewart and I. So I wanted, the first project I had, uh, was actually the story of us, um, in a sense. So I wanted to get a book done, uh, with pictures of the two of us throughout the years, and that was my first project.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, very cool. I would love to, for our listeners to hear in the comments of this episode, if you also got started scrapbooking, uh, in [00:16:00] 2020 or in pandemic times. Um, because obviously we had to, a lot of people picked up different types of hobbies during that time, um, when you had, uh, more restrictions on where you could go and, uh, yeah.

It's so interesting to think, and I would've never guessed that you were a, a newer scrapbooker, so.

Eve McNie: Yeah. Yeah. I could have taken up baking, I suppose. A lot of people did. Um, but it turns out that's one more thing I'm not very good at baking. Things go horribly wrong very quickly.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. No, I just definitely did some, some sourdough baking in there, but I was just, I don't just like, I'm not good with plants. Like I feel like having a sourdough starter is like taking care of plants. You have to be really precise and make sure you give it the right amount.

Eve McNie: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: And I'm, I killed my starter pretty quickly, so.

Eve McNie: Yeah. It is alive, isn't it? It's meant to be alive. There was a trend, I think it was banana bread in, uh, in the UK. There was a [00:17:00] lot of banana bread being baked. Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: Fun, fun. Yeah. I, yeah, all kinds of breads are tasty, for sure.

Eve McNie: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So what sizes or formats do you typically create in?

Eve McNie: Um, so mostly 12 by 12. And when I say mostly, I mean almost exclusively 12 by 12. Um, I'm much more of a single page scrapbooker. I don't really do double pages. I will sometimes do, um, companion pages, I suppose more so than double pages. So maybe a few, um, pattern papers, you know, from one page to another, but not so much a 24 by 12 canvas, if that makes sense.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh sure. Yeah.

Eve McNie: I don't know why actually. Um, it's probably because I don't scrap many photos as part of the same project. Um, I, I do like portrait photography, but more so landscape. And I, because I like [00:18:00] photo photography so much, I just print my photos maybe a little bit bigger. Um, I also absolutely love scrapping 12 inch photos. Um, I find that really, especially for maybe a title page, find that really appealing.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Eve McNie: The way I started was actually that project that I was mentioning before the, the story of us. That was in a spiral bound album. And I found that really restrictive actually. Um, that, you know, I didn't know what I was doing.

I didn't know what I was buying, so I tried something and that's the first format that I found. But I, I figured out that having to scrap in the order that, you know, the album was going to be displayed in, was quite restrictive. I just find it more inspiring to just scrap whatever photo takes my fancy and inspires me at the time.

Um, so that's why I, I moved away from that. Yeah, and it's now a, a screw [00:19:00] post album. I don't know what they're called. Uh, but yeah, I can just slot things in, um, as I go.

Jennifer Wilson: So I'm curious, how are you getting 12 by 12 photos printed.

Eve McNie: Um, I don't have a printer at home. Uh, so I just send them away. Um, there is, um, it's an app. I don't think they have a website. It's an app, um, where you just upload photos. You pick the format that you want them printed in. So the one I use is called Free Prints, and the good thing about it is that I believe it's 45 pictures every month. Uh, that can be printed for free and you just pay for shipping. Uh, which is something like maybe two, three pounds. So, you know, $5 maybe there's something very, very low. Very low. The cost is really cost effective.

Um, and the print quality is actually really good. Um, the 45 free prints are only for four by six formats, if I'm not mistaken. Um, [00:20:00] different four by sixes. You can have a gloss finish, you can have a matte finish, whatever you choose. Uh, but if you want to upgrade to slightly bigger photos, there's a, there's a charge for that, but it's still quite a bit.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure. Sure. Nice. Yeah, we'll definitely link that up in the show notes.

Eve McNie: Amazing.

Jennifer Wilson: So are there any particular projects or activities that you're focused on this year or are you tending to, as you said, follow what's interesting to you in the moment?

Eve McNie: A little bit of both. I would say, again, because I don't have a printer at home, I'm maybe a little bit less spontaneous with the pictures that I scrap because I need to plan ahead a little bit more. Um, I also tend to get overwhelmed. Might be a little bit too strong a word, but I print photos as I need them. I, I don't really, um, I don't want to have 600 photos printed out because I would find that, um, not appealing in the slightest. [00:21:00] Um.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure. It could be really overwhelming.

Eve McNie: Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Well, that's my, that's my brain. Um, anyway, um, the way I work is that I prefer having fewer projects done, but at least they're done and dusted. So I don't want to start a lot of things and not finish anything that stresses me out.

Um, so at the moment, I am focused on trying to finish 2024. Um, it's already well into 2025, so I'm not getting on too well. But I'm not, I'm not putting myself under too much pressure. Um, I will just move on whenever I'm ready. Um, I scrap a lot faster than I used to when I first started. Uh, I would still consider myself to be a, a slow scrapper, definitely. And something I haven't tried quite yet. Um, and it's an itch I can't really scratch. It's, I really want to [00:22:00] try a mini album. Umm, most, yeah. Like I said, most of what I do is 12 by 12, but I have those metal dies. It's um, it's in an awful shape, but it's got a funky edge.

A bit of a fancy edge, and I just think it would look so good as the cover of a mini album because it's a nested die set. It's got different sizes, so I can make the cover be a little bit bigger, obviously, than the pages inside. So I can see it, I can picture in my head, I'm just gonna have to try it.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that sounds really fun.

Eve McNie: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and yeah, like don't think every project we do has to be a, the, the, the deepest, most meaningful masterpiece. Yes, a lot of things that we do can be, but for something like that, it sounds like, um, you know, maybe like a little anniversary book of here's, here's our photos, um, from this past year of, of just us as a couple and, and give it for your anniversary or Valentine's next year. Something like [00:23:00] that.

Eve McNie: Yeah. Oh, definitely. The mini album I was thinking of is, um, autumn is my favorite season.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm. There you go.

Eve McNie: You know, I, I don't think I would necessarily dedicate a 12 by 12 page to muffins or, or, you know, a pumpkin spice latte or something. But in a mini album, it doesn't take much space. It's not a big commitment, and that kind of makes sense. It's more of a, a mood board, I guess, than a, than a proper project.

Jennifer Wilson: I love that. I think that's a great idea.

Eve McNie: I miss Autumn.

Jennifer Wilson: Now, one thing that stood out to me, as you mentioned, you are trying to finish up 2024. So how are you kind of planning and thinking about that and keeping track of what's done and not done?

Eve McNie: Yes. So I have, I believe now all the pictures printed for 2024. And I would say I have about a third of the year done. Um, so what I do is I have [00:24:00] a yearly book. It's usually probably three albums, actually. Uh, and that's the day-to-day, you know, day trips, um, regular life. And if we go, um, on, um, either a trip or if we have maybe a long weekend, anything that has more than maybe three pages in the normal album, I will just have separately.

Um, so at the moment. I still have a trip to France last year to document. I still have a trip to Portugal to document. And I still have two thirds of 2024 to document. So, yeah. Um, I'm getting there slowly.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think anything that you can do to be able to visualize your progress and keep track, uh, helps you see that you are moving forward. Uh, you know, one layout a time, one photo at a time, and you know, we just keep going and add to our, you know, our library of memories as they [00:25:00] say.

Eve McNie: Yeah. Yeah. That's a good way of looking at it. And I am trying to focus on one trip, um, to finish before I start another one. Um, because like I said, I would rather have a completed album than two partial ones. Um, I just find it easier to process that way.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. And there's a, you know, that huge satisfaction of being able to, something off for sure.

Eve McNie: Yeah. Yeah. And flip through it. I mean, I'm not a smoker, but you know, when people would, uh, when smokers would take a five minute break to have a cigarette, I just open an album and just flick through it. It doesn't take me long, and I don't spend hours doing it, but I love being able to, to touch something and just flick through the pages.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. No doubt. So, for someone who maybe has never seen your work, hasn't looked at your Instagram, how would you describe your style in three words?

Eve McNie: Now, this one was hard. I had to think so hard. Um, I just remembered something that, um, one of my [00:26:00] scrappy friends on Instagram, Wendy said, she said, I knew straight away it was you when I saw your page. And at the time I thought, what is she seeing? What does that mean? What's, what is my style? So I tried to have a look through.

The way I did it was I just opened my Instagram feed and I just looked. Um, so I would say something that jumped out is that my style is more muted, I would say, than bright. Um, I actually realized this a few months ago, to be fair. Because I applied for, uh, the design team call for Echo Park and realized that I was definitely not the person for them. Because I was trying to find bright, um, bright layouts, anything that would kind of appeal to them and their style.

So if you have, you know, Doodle Bug and Echo Park at one end of the [00:27:00] saturated scale, I'm all the way at the other end. Um, so yeah, muted is definitely one of them. I would say pattern paper heavy. I love paper. It's probably the supply that I, that made me get into scrapbooking. Um, I just, the, the, I love the feel of paper.

I love the sound it makes when you, you know, when you, yeah, I don't, I don't know. I'm a, it's the tactile, um, feel of it. Um, but I also started on the blank canvas having this, uh, post bound, uh, or spiral bound album. And I, I couldn't change the background of those pages. It was just, it was a kraft album. It wasn't a, oh, I moved on to white later on, actually.

But the very first one was a kraft base. And there are only so many scrapbook pages that I wanted to make on the same background over and over and over again. So I [00:28:00] was a bit starved. Um, at first, I suppose my first exposure to scrapbooking was, um, it didn't allow from a lot of pattern paper to be used, so I went the other way.

Um, once I realized that I could actually, uh, use pattern paper, I couldn't stop. Um, so I'm slowly making my way back to cleaner backgrounds and trying different things. But yeah, paper is, uh, is my great love.

Jennifer Wilson: I appreciate the, the depth that you've gone into on this response.

Eve McNie: I, I have been thinking about this for a long time. Um, okay. And so the third way of describing my style might be, and I don't truly know what that means, but I like this word clean. It doesn't mean bland necessarily or at all, even. But I like, um, geometrics, I like a bit of order. I don't do things [00:29:00] on the wonk. Um, I, um, yeah, I struggle with that. Um, I know that not, or it has been mentioned a few times in the podcast. I suppose mixed media is, uh, is hard, um, for a lot of people, and that includes me. It's not so much that it doesn't turn out the way I want. It's more that it never turns out in a pleasant way. I just, I just don't like the way it comes out when I do it.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Eve McNie: And I don't really use all that many die cuts either. You know, clean in the sense that it's, um, there's no more for the sake of more, um, on many of my pages, I would say.

Jennifer Wilson: So that said, when you're looking at your pages, other things that you are consistently doing in terms of products, tools, and techniques, so obviously pattern paper, um, but in a more perhaps restrained approach.

Eve McNie: [00:30:00] Yeah, yeah, definitely. I would say something that I circle back to almost every time I create a page, um, is tools such as stamps and, um, die sets, metal dies. I love tools. I suppose that's why I don't use die cuts nearly as much. I don't buy embellishment packs because I have so many tools here already. And I can customize embellishments a little bit more because, you know, I can color them differently. I can get them out of pattern paper, as you said. It just matches my theme a little bit more, I think. Um, the theme of my page, um, I absolutely love anything that has to do with cameras, film strips, photo frames, anything like that. I find that type of embellishment so easy to coordinate with almost any subject or theme at all.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, Yes.

Eve McNie: And I suppose.

Jennifer Wilson: I think I don't have any anymore 'cause I used them all.

Eve McNie: Oh really? [00:31:00] See, yeah, I found a really big pack on Amazon and it came with a hundred frames or something, so I'm still working through those. It's a really useful, useful tool to have. Um, and something that's a little bit maybe overlooked, um, as a tool, um, I find is sketches. Um, I mentioned it a little bit earlier.

I love having a sketch as a starting point. It doesn't mean that my layout is a carbon copy of the sketch. It's more of an inspiration piece than anything else. I used to have this weird conception, I suppose, that if you, if you didn't come up with every single idea for your page, it wasn't really your page. And I've moved away from that entirely. I don't think it's true anymore. I just think that having that little bit of a nudge, and we see so many things on Instagram, Facebook, whatever. We always get inspired. And a sketch is just another tool in [00:32:00] our arsenal of inspiring tools.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and I love how they just, they give you the structure. Because it's using a sketch is different than using another layout. Because the layout has all the additional layers on top of it and it's fully embellished and has color. Whereas a sketch is, is showing you the relationship between photos and uh, supplies. Um, and I think it could be really helpful for kind of planning things out in a way that other tools are not, or looking at the blank page obviously.

Eve McNie: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And I suppose, you know, when you see a layout that is particularly beautiful, and it may be from a creator that you love, that you've been following forever, it's a bit more intimidating because it feels like more, um, you know, something has already been made. And of course you can create a [00:33:00] different version of it, and it happened, you know, scrap lifts are wonderful. But it might be a little bit more intimidating to think, to compare what you're going to make to what the inspiration was.

Um, a sketch isn't intimidating to me anymore. We can dress it up the way we want. We can change the formats of the pictures. We can change where the embellishments go. So it's a really freeing experience because it just kinda gets us started and then creativity can just take over.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes, it's, it's much easier to edit something than it is to originate it from scratch sometimes. So one of the cool parts of being a featured artist is that you get to spend three months with us in the Simple Scrapper membership, and we have currently 783 sketches.

Eve McNie: Wow. Amazing.

Jennifer Wilson: So I can't wait for you to check those out and let us know what you think.

Uh, by the time you join in July, it will be, um, let's see, 8, 9, 10, 11, more than that. So 794 we're [00:34:00] almost 800. So, um, yeah, it's a fun thing we've been doing since, uh, 2010, 2011.

Eve McNie: That is such a good tool to have. That's, that's absolutely brilliant. And who, who contributes to those sketches? Is it members or is it your team?

Jennifer Wilson: So, for example, you, the layouts that you shared with us, uh, serve as inspiration for, uh, five of our new collection. Um, three more will be based on some of what our team members create, based on other challenges. And then we have a couple more that are related to kind of a more minimalist hybrid scrapbooking project that we're working on this year. So I would say like the first, I don't know, less than a hundred were based on my layouts. And then we went into this featured artist series where, you know, every batch was based on a different creator. So like a, such a wide variety of styles.

Eve McNie: Wow. Oh, that sounds really interesting. And I'm interested to see what comes out of, I don't know [00:35:00] if it's an analysis, but you know, what your team and your members will see of my style because that's, uh, that's, it might be completely different to what I think my style is.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh yeah. Well, so yeah, after we get done here, I will send you an email and share those examples, um, with you and they'll be available to our community, um, in July.

Eve McNie: Yeah, that sounds fun.

Jennifer Wilson: So going back to what you're loving right now, are there any trends that are standing out to you?

Eve McNie: Um, I don't know if it's a trend, um, but there is a product that sounds like it might be a little bit newer on the market. And these are paperie packs, I think I'm saying that right. Um, they're not so much, um, die cut packs, but they are much thinner embellishments and there are usually a lot more in a pack, maybe 200 or something like that.

Uh, and they are designed more for layering than for anything else. So, you know, you can make clusters out of [00:36:00] them of course, but they are very, very thin. Um, so they can be, uh, sometimes there are stickers in there as well. Um, for maybe more of a background work. I find them really interesting because they are usually very good value.

If you think 200 pieces in a pack, it sounds like it would be expensive, but they're not the ones I've seen anyway. Um, so I find them really interesting. Um, I am somewhat of a newer scrapbooker, so I've, I've not enjoyed rub ons before, but I keep hearing scrapbookers online saying, oh, the rub ons are back, and they're wonderful and they, you know, apply so easily.

Um, I, I didn't know rub ons before, but I do now and I really like them. Um, and I suppose anything that will give, um, a bit of dimension to my pages. A bit of, you know, texture I love chipboard or foam stickers, especially for titles. I find them really, [00:37:00] um, it just attracts your eye to a piece of information that's really important.

I love working on titles. Um, so having something that's a little bit more dimensional. Uh, is awesome, I think.

Jennifer Wilson: It's been so interesting to see, as you mentioned with like the paperie packs and maybe the resurgence of rub ons, how in some areas we're getting thinner and then of course we're having other things that are getting thicker. So just so much variety and dimensions, you know, the popularity of using, uh, foam dots to pop things up. So lots of different options for texture and, and dimension.

Eve McNie: Yeah, that's right. I never thought about it this way, but yeah, some things are getting smaller and some are getting thicker. Yeah, that's interesting. It's a little bit like, um, like phones, I suppose. We just wanted to make everything smaller. Then we realized that, oh no, I would like my phone to be bigger. So I suppose we've come full circle.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. No doubt. And I, I never thought I would be in a place where I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna choose this slightly smaller phone than the bigger one [00:38:00] because they've gotten so big that like I have smaller hands. Like I can't, I can't take a selfie with this phone in my hand 'cause it's so large.

Eve McNie: Yes. I can relate. Absolutely. And if you add a case to it as well, because they're so fragile and the screens are so big, it adds weight. And I'm the same, my hands are small and they're just so heavy. It feels like I have a brick in my handbag. Yeah, I, I agree.

Jennifer Wilson: So you mentioned mixed media briefly about kind of just never quite comes out for you, but are there other things in scrapbooking that you've decided are just not for you, they're not part of your process or, or your, repertoire of, of things to do?

Eve McNie: Um, yeah. Yeah. So I suppose we touched a little bit on having different projects going at the same time. Um. It does not help my creativity. I know that having a bit of variety can be inspiring and that might be the way that some brains work. That's just not me. So, yeah, one thing at a time for me is, is the key, a [00:39:00] bit of an unpopular opinion maybe.

I really do not understand December Daily. I don't know why. Um, I usually have maybe two pages in each year, um, related to Christmas, because what more is there to talk about? I just, I don't know. Um, I just have a lot of Christmas related papers in my stash that I just cannot imagine I will use. Um, it's not that they're not pretty, they are usually really pretty, but I just don't have the demand in my photo library to, to scratch that, um, scrap, sorry, that much Christmas.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think, yeah, no, the, you could even say scratch that itch too for it. I think that, um, um, when it comes to that time of the year, everyone has different experiences, but two things that stand out for me are kind of the anticipation and excitement, like when the holiday [00:40:00] drinks come out and when you start decorating or buying new wrapping paper.

Um, so like all the perhaps more mundane experiences that that lead up you know, more official festivities, um, are part of it. And then also I tend to use that project to reflect back on the year as a whole.

Eve McNie: Hmm. Okay.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, in ways that I don't do elsewhere.

Eve McNie: Okay.

Jennifer Wilson: Um. So it's more like, I will definitely include stories in December Daily about, you know, wrap, trying to wrap up the year. And so to me it's like a bookend for, for the year as well.

Eve McNie: A bit of reflection maybe on the year that has come past. That's interesting. Okay. Yeah, and I suppose to some extent it, I don't have a bad relationship with, um, Christmas or, you know, that time of the year. Um, but I think I feel more strongly about summer and autumn than I feel about Christmas. [00:41:00] So that's where, that's usually when I spend a lot of time doing things in summer, in autumn, and that's the most pictures I have to scrapbook.

Um, that's, that's probably why I'm interested in maybe a mini album around autumn as opposed to Christmas, which is exactly the same principle. To be fair.

Jennifer Wilson: Well and I would at the same time, I will say that my December projects tend to include more black and white photos because sometimes that's the only way they're going to look kind of good.

Eve McNie: All right.

Jennifer Wilson: 'Cause of when it's so dark. I, yes, there's some that you can take very high contrast of Christmas lights, but just general, everyday photos tend to just not be as great if you don't have the light to take the good photo.

Eve McNie: Hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you find that to be a barrier, Jennifer? If, if you don't like the photo you have taken of an event, do you still scrap it? Do you find a way to scrap it or, or is that a block?

Jennifer Wilson: It can be, I usually will find a way. [00:42:00] Whether that's through how I edit the photo, the size of the photo, choosing other related photos to supplement, like maybe the page becomes about this thing happening multiple times. Um, or sometimes I just really embrace that this is a blurry photo of a really, you know, special moment and I don't, I don't worry about it. Um, but yeah, sometimes I do feel kind of self-critical about the quality of my photos and that can influence if I choose to scrap it or not.

Eve McNie: Hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: That that's, that's an honest truth.

Eve McNie: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I suppose sometimes it's, you know, documenting the memory, the photo is important, but maybe the journaling is more important than anything else. Um, and it could be, yeah, either a very small photo or if it's maybe documenting a show. Maybe we can print out something from the internet that relates to the show, [00:43:00] maybe an article or something like that.

I did that for the COVID, um, period. Actually, I didn't have many photos to a scrapbook. Um, but I just printed out stuff from the internet, um, just to have something to document. And then it was more about, you know, my feelings and what I, what I wanted to talk about on the page.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. And I've certainly done no photo pages.

Eve McNie: Hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: I've done pages where I had a photo in a pocket, like for example, um, had a cute photo. This is when my daughter was born, a cute photo of like the day before I went into labor. And then I had like this not very attractive photo of, uh, having just given birth.

And I put it in a pocket because it's like the least flattering photo ever taken of me. Um, 'cause my hair is in like six knots and wondering why this nurse is taking my baby. And.

Eve McNie: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: It's, yeah, it was just, it, it was weird, but I wanted to tell the story. So it was part of that album, but that particular [00:44:00] photo is in a pocket because that's not the important part. The important part was the story of it.

Eve McNie: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's so, that's so smart. And it would've made no sense not to document the moment because the photo was, you know, unflattering. Yeah. That's, that's the perfect way of doing it, actually. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. And it doesn't like, and certainly I have documented other perhaps unflattering photos. It just kind of feels like what is the right choice here in the moment.

Eve McNie: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, this was happened to be a mini album, so it made more sense, I had a lot of other types of pockets and things. Um, so it made sense in, in that particular, uh, instance. So, yeah, I don't know. Like there's a lot of thoughts that go into it.

Eve McNie: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So many things to consider. And, uh, do you use flip flaps? Do you, is that what they're called? Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, the ones that are kind of like mini page protectors, like that you adhere?

Eve McNie: That's right.

Jennifer Wilson: Have, I have used some of those. I don't use a ton. [00:45:00] I'm usually using them in a particular project. Um, I know I did one where it was my husband's growing up story and he had more photos than basically pockets that we planned had planned. So I used a lot of flip flaps that go over the pockets to be able to include multiple layers.

Eve McNie: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: Of photos to make sure we could include all the photos that he wanted to include. Um, if it was my album, and this is what happened in my album, is that I ended up saying, I, I, I'm more ruthless, I guess I'm more willing to say, oh, well that photo just doesn't make it because it doesn't fit the formula of this project.

Eve McNie: Okay. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: But I really wanted to, um, I don't know, follow his own storytelling vision for the particular project. I was just kind of the, the scrapbooker for it, but he was the storyteller.

Eve McNie: Okay. Okay. Interesting.

Jennifer Wilson: Kind of, this is a little bit of a different question, but kind of going back to your everyday life and, and how scrapbooking fits into it, where are you scrapbooking and when are you typically scrapbooking.

Eve McNie: Yeah. Um, so [00:46:00] where would mostly be, um, this room I'm in today, it is the everything room. Uh, it is the spare bedroom officially. Um, but we don't have many guests, so we don't really need a spare bed as such. Um, it's also my office, it's also the laundry room, it's the filing room. It's, it's the everything room.

Um, so it's got a little bit of everything. I have a lot of, um, it's one of those, you know, square, um, filing cabinet things. Um, it's not an IKEA one, but it's a very similar type.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Eve McNie: Fits the 12 by 12 albums perfectly. So that works for me. And although everything is in this room, if I wanna spend a little bit more time with my husband, I will have no issues moving everything to the living room and just, uh, you know, scrapping next to him. Which is absolutely infuriating for anyone [00:47:00] who's not me, because I leave a trail of devastation behind me when I do that.

Uh, I always forget something. Usually the first thing I realized I've forgotten is my pair of scissors, which is surely the first thing you would need, but nope, it does not cross my mind. Um, so yeah, between, between those two rooms, but mostly the spare bedroom. Um, and when, during the day, I, I work, so during the day, I would say I don't spend any time scrapbooking at all.

I do flick through albums, maybe at lunch sometimes. But I don't get any scrapbooking time during the day. So it would be mostly after work. Um, if the brain is not completely fried, um, after a works day. Um, it is mostly at the weekend I would say though. Um, it's just the two of us. It's just my husband and I, we don't have any kids.

We don't have any pets, so I am very lucky to be able to scrap whenever I [00:48:00] fancy really. Um, but I would say in summer we make the most of making memories and in the winter I scrap them. Um, so I'm much more active during the summer. And I spend a lot more time scrapbooking during the winter. Because there's nothing else to do.

Jennifer Wilson: How does that kind of, um, imbalanced. Does, do you think about that? Do you actively try to make sure that you're optimizing time? Does it just, is this, you know, are you a kind of accepting it at peace at it, or does it, does it frustrate you at all?

Eve McNie: I wouldn't say it frustrates me, but I can tell straight away if I'm going to be creative or not. And I, I, I can't force it. Um, I've tried, there was a, a period of a few months where I was on a few design teams and I felt a little bit more pressure to get things done. Even if it wasn't on the timeline, I [00:49:00] would've chosen for myself. You know, deadlines and stuff like that.

Um, but I try not to put myself under too much pressure 'cause I try and remind myself that this is meant to be a hobby. It's not my job. I really wanna keep the joy in the scrapbooking process. If it comes, if inspiration comes, if creativity strikes, I go for it. There's usually nothing really that stands in my way.

You know, I don't have a whole lot of commitments in life. . So, yeah, I just, I just take it in a very relaxed, with a relaxed approach, I would say.

Jennifer Wilson: That's wonderful. I think. Yeah. Um, some of us could, could probably learn from doing more of that sometimes.

Eve McNie: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: Because I know just from my own experience, sometimes we can get a little hung up on, oh, I'm not, I'm not scrapbooking as much as I would like to, or I don't feel like it as much as I wanna feel like it.

Eve McNie: Hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, or, you know, things are so busy, I just don't, don't physically have the time. So.

Eve McNie: Yeah, [00:50:00] sometimes it's the opposite way as well. You know, when you haven't scrapped in a while. I don't know about you, but I miss it. And that's how I know that it's going to be, you know, a good project, uh, for me to, to start. Um, and when I say project, it, it is just a page. Whenever I feel almost the need to do something creative, it's usually a good sign. It doesn't mean that everything works out the way I can picture things in my head. Usually it doesn't. But at least if I feel the urge, I don't try and make it happen. It just kind of happens.

Jennifer Wilson: I love that. I love that for sure. So you mentioned the possible trail of destruction when you're relocating. Um, are there any organization strategies that are working really well for you?

Eve McNie: Um, yeah, I suppose it's somewhat contained, um, to that room. Um, so I mentioned before Jennifer, I only print photos, um, [00:51:00] one batch at a time whenever I need them. Um, it is between sort of 40 and 50 photos at a time that I print. I don't usually have more than maybe three photos on one page. Um, so because I'm a slow scrapper, that does give me a bit of a runway, you know, a few pages to scrapbook.

Um, and I print photos maybe three to four times a year. I would say, give or take. Um, although my albums are in chronological order, I don't actually scrap in chronological order. I just scrap whatever I fancy within that year though. Um, yeah, I, I do need to try and get older pictures scrapped, but that's not the time that I have at the moment.

Um, so yeah. Um, albums are contained and then I try and keep supplies by theme. Not so [00:52:00] much by theme, but more by products. I mean. Uh, so all my dies are together. All the paper packs are together. It's very rare that I buy entire connections. I only have actually three of those, but they're kept together. Um, once albums are finished, I put them on that, you know, shelving and I order them by date.

Um, and then anything that's not already in an album, I keep in those big pizza boxes, you know, the big, uh, cardboard boxes

Jennifer Wilson: Yep.

Eve McNie: Just so they don't get damaged. Um. That's really, that's really it. I have a, an essentials bin as well, uh, for dies, for stamps, uh, and all the tools. Um, and that just makes it easier for me to grab the tools that I know I'm going to need.

Um, so I've got all my, you know, camera stamps and all that jazz together. Um, 'cause I know that I will always need them and I always fancy them.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. It's, it's so good [00:53:00] to like know the things that you perhaps are always getting out. Let's just put them in a place where we don't have to always get them out so that we can use them quickly.

Eve McNie: Yeah, yeah. I know where to find them. I know where they are. Yeah. Apart from scissors, obviously that always go missing, but yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Maybe you need to put your scissors with those stamps then, so, so they always go with you.

Eve McNie: I do wonder it's stamping blocks as well that I just keep missing, uh, and losing. Because they are, you know, a critic and see through, I used to have four and I'm down to two. And I, I, I do not know where they could be. I've looked everywhere.

Jennifer Wilson: I get it. I get it. I lost my favorite stamping block at a crop. I think it fell outta the back of my car and it, you know, it's clear I couldn't find it on the ground and I, I wanted to replace that one 'cause it was like my, it was the perfect size.

So Eve, where would you like your scrapbooking to be in 10 years?

Eve McNie: Yeah. So in 10 years I would love to still [00:54:00] enjoy scrapbooking as much as I do now. And I would love to still enjoy going through the albums as much as I do now. Um, I would say just trying to be a little bit more efficient, um, in my scrapping as well. Maybe not agonizing over, you know, where should I put this, where should I put that?

And it's not so much trying to get more pages scrapbooked but I would like to go back, um, you know, maybe older photos to scrapbook. If I had more time on my hands. Because I was more efficient with the day-to-day newer photos, it would give me the opportunity to look back and maybe try and scrap those older pictures.

Um, yeah, hopefully in 10 years when I go through the albums, I won't find that everything has, you know, unstuck itself and fallen apart. Because I've already had one of those incidents and [00:55:00] like finding one single sequin at the bottom of the page, you'd know that something has gone wrong and it's just a disaster waiting to happen.

So fingers crossed that nothing terrible happens.

Jennifer Wilson: For me, it's often letter stickers that are chipboard letter stickers that fall to the bottom of the page. The foam ones, those seem to stick forever, but those chipboard ones just, they do not.

Eve McNie: Yeah, yeah. I've kind of learned to just add glue to everything. Even the stuff that looks really now I just add, uh, glue. Especially foam pads for some reason. The ones that I use anyway, the glue is not permanent, I don't think. Um.

Jennifer Wilson: Interesting.

Eve McNie: It might be because it's, you know, it's just from the craft store. It's not, it's not a branded, um, it's not a brand in any way.

So we could just be that I'm using the wrong things, the wrong supplies. Um, but yeah, I've already had a few incidents. So I'm [00:56:00] just going through, that's the, the good thing I suppose about going through albums regularly is that you can catch those. You know, one at a time, one letter at a time, or one flower at a time, and it's not just all at the bottom of the, of the page protector.

Jennifer Wilson: For sure, for sure. I use this giant roll of foam tape and I don't know if I got it from Simon Says Stamp or A Cherry On Top, but it was like, it was a house brand of their stuff and I feel like I, if you put it on wrong, you are not getting it off.

Eve McNie: Oh, yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, so it is super, super sticky. Which sometimes I like to, you know, nudge things a little bit and I'm like, well, I'm not gonna be able to nudge that.

Eve McNie: Nope. Yeah, yeah. That's decision made right there. Not moving.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. So, looking back over the past five years, what has being a scrapbooker taught you?

Eve McNie: Yeah, it has been a, it has been a journey actually. But I was, I would go back to the point we made earlier is that taking the photos and writing things down is [00:57:00] so important. Because I scrap a little bit later on, you know, after the fact. Not having a printer means that it will maybe take me a year to scrap a memory. And if I didn't have any notes, I don't think that I would be able to record the, the memory as accurately as possible.

And perspective changes as well with time passing. We don't feel the same way about an event after the fact. So having those two perspectives, I think is really useful. The notes at the time of the event and then distilled feelings, I suppose maybe a year later. Um. So, yeah. Um, scrapbooking has taught me that memory is bad.

Um, write things down and it's okay to change our minds about an event. We may have, memories of something and remembering [00:58:00] feeling a way, but no longer feeling the same about the same thing. And that's okay.

Jennifer Wilson: It definitely is. Yeah, and I think also sometimes we choose to maybe scrap something in the moment and then it has a different significance, and so maybe it becomes part of a future story. Just because you scrapbook it one way doesn't mean that there's not another story to tell.

Eve McNie: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Well.

Eve McNie: Yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm curious though, where are you keeping those notes for as, as memories are happening? How are we keeping track of those so that you can have them for the future?

Eve McNie: Um, I have little journals. They're not, um, they're kind of a little bit better than notepads, but not um, fancy journals or anything like that. I actually mostly use them when we go traveling. Not so much for day-to-day memory keeping. Um, but I read, especially when we go abroad, uh, you know, places, names of places that I know I would not remember if I didn't write them down.

Um, or even the trivial stuff like which tackle feeling [00:59:00] that I have today. You know? Um, anything that, it's just, it's the simple things. But it's stuff that is probably the, the first aspect of a trip to go, um, what did we have to eat, you know, a year down the line. Chances are I wouldn't remember what we had last year.

Jennifer Wilson: Certainly, yeah, no, I'm trying to think back of like some of those trips that I'm trying to scrapbook in retrospect, like maybe there's a meal that really stands out because something was either really delicious or really weird.

Eve McNie: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: But you know, everything in between probably isn't going to jog a memory unless you have a photo of it or you took some notes.

Eve McNie: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Um, what I did, we just came back from Prague, a few, a few, oh, actually it was last Sunday. So what I did on the plane back is I wrote down highlights of every day and what we saw. There was a sculpture trail throughout the town, and I just wrote down the names [01:00:00] of those sculptures.

Um, again, because I knew that, you know, in a few weeks time even, I might not even remember what day we did, you know, when, when did this happen? Um, in what order did we do things. Not that it matters a tremendous amount, but I just, I want to remember, you know, I'm, I'm terrified of forgetting something that's significant.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and that's a strong driver to, to keep going forever. So, Eve, can you share where our listeners can find you online and follow you and anything you might be, um, uh, working on later this year or have newer coming up.

Eve McNie: Yeah, of course. Uh, so I am on Instagram. I am Caledonia Papercraft on Instagram. Um, I am also part of the Stick It Down Design team. Uh, it is a sketch, uh, page on Facebook and Instagram. I contribute sketches to, to the design team, and I also [01:01:00] create with those sketches. So I will be featured in August and December, which is super exciting.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, fun.

Eve McNie: Yeah. And, uh, I mean, it's July now, but in June, if you, if you go back to um, Instagram and YouTube, you will find me for 30 Days of Sketches as well, which is fun.

Jennifer Wilson: It is, it is. Yes. I love our community and the fact that I get to have these great conversations with memory keepers like you. Um, and we'll include all the links of things you mentioned in the show notes.

Eve McNie: Amazing. It was a really fun conversation. Jennifer, thank you so much.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Thank you for spending time with me.

Eve McNie: I've really enjoyed this.

Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.

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SYW301 – My Way with Emiley Steinbruegge https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/07/syw301/ https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/07/syw301/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2025 06:00:50 +0000 https://www.simplescrapper.com/?p=226927 In this episode I'm interviewing Emiley Steinbruegge for the My Way series. My Way is all about celebrating the unique ways memory keepers get things done. We were honored to have Emiley as the June featured artist at Simple Scrapper.

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In this episode I’m chatting with Emiley Steinbruegge, the June featured artist at Simple Scrapper. Our insightful conversation includes Emiley’s personal journey in scrapbooking, from starting with Creative Memories to balancing a busy family life and her creative passions. We discuss Emiley’s favorite projects, such as her daughter’s senior photobook, her love for bright colors and traditional scrapbooking techniques, and how social media has expanded the scrapbooking community. She also opens up about her challenges with photo organization and the importance of scrapbooking for personal joy.

Links Mentioned

Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper. Today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner Simple Scrapper and author of the New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 301. In this episode, I'm interviewing Emiley Steinbruegge for the My Way Series. My Way is all about celebrating the unique ways memory keepers get things done.

We were honored to have Emiley as the June featured artist at Simple Scrapper.

Hey Emiley, welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, likewise. I'm looking forward to our [00:01:00] conversation and getting to know you better. We had some fun tech toils and troubles as we were getting ready, but I think we are all set now and ready for a good conversation.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Let's hope so.

Jennifer Wilson: So could you share just a little bit about yourself so that our audience can familiarize themselves with you, or at least put a voice to maybe who they're following on Instagram.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Sure. So my name is Emiley. Um, I live in the St. Louis area with my husband. We have a blended family with five kiddos. Our oldest is just about 20, and our youngest is nine. And then a bunch in the middle. So it's wild over here.

Jennifer Wilson: I bet.

Emiley Steinbruegge: We, I work full-time out of the outside of my home and my husband owns his own business and I do a lot of like the office work for that as well.

So we got a lot going on over here. Um, obviously I love scrapbooking, love crafting. I've been doing it for over 20 years. Yeah, that's [00:02:00] me.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful, wonderful. You are not far from me. I'm in, uh, the Champaign, Illinois area and I love to visit St. Louis. The, uh, Botanic Garden is one of my favorite places there.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Oh yeah. That's beautiful.

Jennifer Wilson: So, Emiley do you have a favorite recent layout or project and what really makes it stand out to you?

Emiley Steinbruegge: So my oldest daughter is a senior this year, and I've been working on trying to make a book of all of her, uh, senior pictures, like all the professional pictures we had taken, everything in her cap and gown. She's a dancer as well. So like all those professional pictures, um. And it's just been really sweet to look through all of those and get them all captured in one place.

And I'm hoping if I'm able to part with it, maybe I'll make a, a second copy. Um, but just to be able to give that to her so that she can take it with her as well. And, you know, always have that to look back on.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. That sounds [00:03:00] terrific. I am, yeah. My daughter is only 13, but she's going into high school, so I'm already thinking about, okay, four years from now, what do I wanna be working on in terms of my scrapbooks?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Right. Is this gonna be her first year of high school?

Jennifer Wilson: It is, yeah.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Oh, that's exciting times

Jennifer Wilson: It is. She's at volleyball practice right now and that seems to be, will be our life for the foreseeable future.

Emiley Steinbruegge: One of my, um, my middle son plays volleyball as well. And yes, it can definitely take up some time.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, very cool. So is there something in our hobby or in your everyday life that you're excited to do, use or try?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Um, well, I was thinking of one thing. It's not scrapbook related, but my husband and I are getting ready to go on an adult's only vacation with, um, a group of friends. And we very rarely, you know, with having five kids, we very rarely do anything without them at all, and have only traveled without them. I think, maybe once or twice. So I'm [00:04:00] super excited to go with some adults and just have a week of no responsibility, no, no momming for a whole week. It's just gonna be fantastic.

Jennifer Wilson: That sounds amazing. And I only have the one kid, so Uh, yeah. Are you able to share where you're going?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yeah, we're going to Punta Kana, which I've never been there before, but it looks gorgeous.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. I hope you have a wonderful time and are able to like, totally disconnect and, and feel relaxed.

Emiley Steinbruegge: I hope so too. And of course I'm already planning all the pictures I wanna take and you know, all the scrapbooks I wanna create when we're back, so.

Jennifer Wilson: No doubt and like I can even think of several collections that would have maybe the right kind of colors and yeah, it's, it'd be fun.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes, exactly.

Jennifer Wilson: So this is one of our My Way episodes where we get to peek behind the scenes with our featured artists. So uh, starting with kind of a more abstract [00:05:00] question, what would you say to a non scrapbooker about why you love this hobby?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Well, there are so many things I love about it, but I will say my main reason that I love it so much is watching in particular my kids, but also, other family or friends that I've shared scrapbooks with. Watching them look through them and seeing their reactions to them. And, just like hearing them laugh about the pictures or the stories that come up when they're looking through the pictures. It's just so sweet. And my memory is horrendous, Jennifer. It's like terrible. So it is so great for me to look through too and then be reminded of like sweet, funny things that have happened in our family. And you know, just to watch other people enjoy that. It's just really sweet.

Jennifer Wilson: Well I remember a time where I really thought I was gonna remember more things, and now I fully understand that I don't remember anything and I'm glad I did what I did.

Emiley Steinbruegge: [00:06:00] Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Try to leave myself more breadcrumbs now because I need them.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes. Me too. I, yes. I used to always think, oh, I'll remember that. No, no, I will not. Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. Too many, too many balls to juggle to keep those things in our brains.

Emiley Steinbruegge: That's exactly right.

Jennifer Wilson: So you mentioned that you've been scrapbooking for a long time. When did you start and what really precipitated that beginning for you?

Emiley Steinbruegge: So I remember very clearly it was either 2002 or 2003. It was the 4th of July, and we were at my aunt's house. My whole extended family had gotten together to celebrate. And my cousin had just started Creative Memories. I don't know if you remember Creative Memories, but um, it was very big back in the day. And she whipped out all of her, you know, things that she was working on.

And I just immediately was very interested. And so she set me up. I ordered a little mini album and the paper cutter and all the simple things, and just immediately [00:07:00] got started on an album on my dogs. And I have been hooked ever since.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you still have that album about your dogs?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes, ma'am, I do. And it is hilarious to look at it. Just.

Jennifer Wilson: Awe.

Emiley Steinbruegge: You know.

Jennifer Wilson: What a treasure though.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes. It's, it's really sweet.

Jennifer Wilson: I think one thing that's always stood out is that so many of us, we've, we've loved the crafty stuff, but we would go to the store and we're like, oh, like. You want it all, but you don't feel like you have the purpose behind it to justify the things that you wanna buy. And

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Scrapbooking gave us all a purpose.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes, 100%. I was always the kid who loved all like the stationary supplies, loved back to school. But yeah, like you said, I didn't really have a reason to justify buying all that stuff as a an adult. So.

Jennifer Wilson: No doubt.

Emiley Steinbruegge: This is it.

Jennifer Wilson: So tell us about how you typically create. What sizes, formats, and why do you think, uh, that approach works well for you?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Well, I typically am a 12 by 12 [00:08:00] girl. I take a ton of pictures and I like to include a ton of pictures in my memory keeping. Um, so the smaller formats don't really work out for me because, you know, I would have like 4,000 scrapbooks or something. And I've done both traditional and digital in the past. Right now I'm kind of in my traditional phase again. I just love touching all the supplies and playing with all the paper and all the things. But when I do special projects, you know, like the vacations or my daughter's graduation book or whatever, usually I do those digitally. I'm not sure why I lean towards that for special projects, but I just like them that way.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, maybe those projects often have even more photos. Um, so you need more of the, the compact space to be able to fit all the photos that you want to include.

Emiley Steinbruegge: I think you're probably exactly right. Yes. And you do a lot of digital too, right?

Jennifer Wilson: I do, and I [00:09:00] have a similar split in terms of if it's something where there's going to be a lot of photos, it's a longer story, I am gonna want to probably do a digital book for it. 'Cause I've not had as much success doing bigger albums that have lots of stories that are all on one topic. The ones that I've started are not finished.

So.

Emiley Steinbruegge: There's plenty of that.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm great at doing individual layouts and you know, one at a time. So it's about making the project more manageable and there's lots of like levers that we can pull. And one of those is the digital lever in terms of digital layouts or photo books or you know, all the things in between.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yeah. I love the way you look at that. Yes. That's awesome.

Jennifer Wilson: So what are you really focused on this year in terms of projects, or activities, time periods, are you doing mostly news stories, older stories? Um, of course you mentioned your, your daughter's a senior book.

Emiley Steinbruegge: So focusing on is just [00:10:00] a very hard phrase for me in general. I am just kind of all over the place. I kind of do whatever I feel like I wanna do in that moment. So some of the pictures I'm doing are from when I was a kid. So like old heritage photos or then I'm also working on my daughter's current pictures. So I don't know, I, I probably need a focus. I could probably get a whole lot more done, Jennifer, if I made a focus. But I kind of just mood scrap. I feel like just whatever kind of mood I'm in, that's what I choose to work on.

Jennifer Wilson: I think as long as you are moving forward, even if you're moving, you know, one thing forward here and another thing forward there, as long as you continue to find momentum. Um. Not having focus isn't necessarily a bad thing if it's, you know, you're finding delight in that

Emiley Steinbruegge: Right. That's what I try to tell myself too.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. So if you had to describe your [00:11:00] style to someone who, you know, couldn't, couldn't look you up online and see your pages, um, what, what words would you use?

Emiley Steinbruegge: I would say I'm definitely picture heavy. I would say I'm more of like a uncomplicated, kind of classic cleaner style of layout. Um, and I like bright, bright colors in my layouts, is how I would describe me.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you feel like your style has evolved over time, or do you feel like you found your style at a certain point and you've kind of stuck with it?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Hmm. Well, I mean, looking or thinking back about my little Creative Memories album with my puppy dogs.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Definitely say that yes, it has evolved. And, you know, just looking at people online and getting inspiration from everybody that's out there that has all these amazing ideas. It's, it's very easy to, um, kind of [00:12:00] fall into that and, you know, start changing the way that you're scrapbooking too.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, certainly. Yeah, I've, there's been times where I'll like start keeping a list of these techniques that I wanna try and try to like, match them up with an actual project. And it's a lot. And so in the end, I ended up not using the techniques or in general, not using my stamps is, is one of them. And just doing what I would normally do. So.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yeah, same. But we always have those ideas in the background, right?

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes we do sit down and we foc we start with that technique and we, we follow through, but.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: It's a challenge to incorporate them with intention.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Are there things that you feel like you use the most often in your scrapbooking, whether it's particular types of products, line of products, tools, specific techniques?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Paper is my absolute favorite supply. I always wanna use all the paper. Paper's not that exciting, just if you stick it on a page. So, I try to find different fun ways to [00:13:00] use it. I love cut files 'cause you can use tons of different scraps of paper or, all the different paper just to back your cut file. I love to fussy cut paper out to stretch it a little bit further and use those like as embellishments on my page. Also I love Allison Davis. I'm not sure if you're familiar with her, but she has tons of sketches that are very like paper heavy, I would say. And so I love to look at her sketches and copy those as well.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, she's definitely amazing at doing kind of innovative designs with different cuts that you might not have thought of on your own.

Emiley Steinbruegge: She is, yes, spectacular.

Jennifer Wilson: So are there any trends that you're loving right now, or even the opposite trends that you're not gonna do?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Um, I'm probably, if you ask my teenagers the least trendy person out there. So I'm not sure, uh, if this is even really what you would call a trend, but. I love how social [00:14:00] media is really blowing up, particularly Instagram, with just tons of people sharing their creativity. Like I feel like it used to just be like the Shimelles or you know, the Amy Tangerines or just very, very famous people that were sharing projects online, and now it's everybody.

It's me, it's my best friend. It's.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Emiley Steinbruegge: I just love that people are loving, being creative and loving, sharing it with people and like creating this huge community of scrapbookers and crafters online. I just think that's really fun.

Jennifer Wilson: So I'm, how do I respond to this? I have like a slight counterpoint because I totally agree, but I also feel like I need multiple Instagram accounts because they give you what you look at. So if I go and look at something else, all of a sudden my feed is the something else, and it's not scrapbooking.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes, yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Feel like I have to be in these little silos. In order. Like I have my one that's like about, you [00:15:00] know, recipes and fitness, and I have my one that's about home, and then I have simple scrapper, which is about scrapbooking and creativity and crafting and all that. Because otherwise if I click on one random thing, all of a sudden it's all those things.

Emiley Steinbruegge: You're exactly right because I have noticed that my, uh, one scrappy mom, my Instagram for scrapbooking. Yeah. A lot of the stuff I'm seeing lately is cat videos and.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Emiley Steinbruegge: How to pose certain pictures, because I've been looking for how to do that for our vacation. So you're right, they do look at what you're looking at, I guess.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and I've, I've had to like go in and like, I, I, I feel like I can reset it by specifically like searching for something and then clicking on things or just scrolling and then only clicking on the things that I want to see more of to try to like retrain it. But it gets off track so quickly. As soon as somebody sends you like a random meme, then when you open it, it starts sending you those. So.

Emiley Steinbruegge: You're right.

Jennifer Wilson: The technology is controlling us, but that's okay.

Emiley Steinbruegge: It is. That's a podcast for [00:16:00] another day.

Jennifer Wilson: It's, it is, yeah. Um, I mean, I use AI as a support system, certainly in the business for some of our writing projects, and it'd be interesting to see how we, like folks might use that for scrapbooking. I've, I've heard some members recently talk about editing their journaling, like they just start writing and then they have Chat GPT kind of polish it up so it sounds better.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Wow, that's brilliant.

Jennifer Wilson: Particularly if they don't feel like they're a good writer or they don't write well. Um, even just for grammar and spelling, I think it could be be helpful. So.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Oh yeah, that's really smart. I never think about using Chat GPT or anything like that. And my kids are always coming to me, showing me just all of this mind blowing stuff that they're doing with it.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Emiley Steinbruegge: It's crazy.

Jennifer Wilson: It is. It is. Anyway, yeah, as you said, that could be a whole episode on its own.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes, ma'am.

Jennifer Wilson: So the opposite of what you're loving. Is there something that you've decided over the [00:17:00] years, whether it's a supply, a technique, a size, or a format that you've decided is not for you? You did already mention the smaller sizes. Is that what stands out the most?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes. I was gonna say pretty much anything small just isn't for me. I've tried like traveler's notebooks 'cause they're so cute. I've tried little mini albums. I just can't ever make it work for me because I wanna put way too much stuff in there.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Well, and it's, you can kind of release that desire and say, I love it, but not for me. Like, that's kind of the best, happy medium that you can get is appreciating others, creating something and see if you can, uh, take an idea and apply it to your format, your size. Um, but to know yourself well enough to say, I, I shouldn't buy that.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yeah, I shouldn't, doesn't mean I don't, but, yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. As someone who has a drawer full of traveler's notebooks over there that aren't being used. I get it.

Emiley Steinbruegge: [00:18:00] Exactly.

Jennifer Wilson: So with a busy family, where and when are you typically scrapbooking?

Emiley Steinbruegge: So when I first started scrapbooking, I would just go to like crops or weekends or whatever. But um, I quickly learned that I wanted to be able to do it at home too. So I made a scrapbook room in my house, and then as I've moved through the years, I've just kept making sure that I had one. Right now, it is not ideal.

I will say it is our dining room. It's like my craft, uh, office space. So immediately when you walk in my front door, that's what you see. And I mean, it's filled with lots of cute stuff, but I'm not always the tidiest scrapper. So it's not always, you know, very well put together. So hopefully my husband's trying to finish our basement. I'm hoping he can move all my messiness downstairs, so we'll see.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, good. What about when, like, how has that changed over time in terms of, [00:19:00] imagine there was a certain point when you were scrapbooking when the kids were asleep or napping and now that they're off busy doing their things.

Emiley Steinbruegge: So usually every Friday night we have like our, everybody do their own thing night. So every Friday night is usually my scrapbooking time. And then really just any time I can squeeze it in. I used to feel like I had to be able to dedicate enough time to complete a whole page or something. And if I couldn't do that, then I just wouldn't even bother with it. But now I'll just go in there really quick and even if I just mat a couple photos or whatever. Just to keep like a project moving forward. I'll just sneak a couple minutes here or there whenever I can.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. I love that. I love that. So kind of shifting gears to another topic here, are there any organization strategies that have worked well for you?

Emiley Steinbruegge: I laughed so hard when I saw this question. Because No ma'am. I am open to all of the organization ideas. I especially, like with my digital, all the [00:20:00] photos. I am just struggling with figuring out how to organize all of those best. And I keep trying. I try really hard, but I haven't found my perfect niche yet for my supplies.

Jennifer Wilson: What have you. Well, let's, let's continue on photos. What have you tried?

Emiley Steinbruegge: So I've tried putting them all in folders by, um, you know, like year and month and dividing them up that way. I've tried dividing them up by person. I've tried dividing them up by events. I've, I don't know. I just, I can't find something between, you know, like I have a nice, uh, camera and then I have my phone and then my husband takes pictures and my kids send me things. So it's just trying to keep it all straight, to be quite honest.

Jennifer Wilson: Have you ever tried any kind of software? Uh, including I think, is it Windows Live Photo Manager still? Um, because like the general concept is that if you can store your photos one way, you can look at them in [00:21:00] one of the other ways. If you're using layer of software on top of it.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Okay, so what is it called?

Jennifer Wilson: I, I know you have a pc, so whatever. The one that comes with Windows is. Um, I, it used to be called Windows Live Photo Manager or something.

Emiley Steinbruegge: I'm gonna look it up as soon as we're done here because.

Jennifer Wilson: I am gonna, I'll Google it right now. Windows Live Photo Gallery is discontinued,

Emiley Steinbruegge: Oh.

Jennifer Wilson: Renamed Windows Photo Gallery.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Windows Photo Gallery. I'm gonna have to check it out.

Jennifer Wilson: I would just search like Windows photo and see what, what pops up on your computer? Maybe it's called Microsoft Photos now.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Okay.

Jennifer Wilson: Probably.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Now you have a Mac though, right?

Jennifer Wilson: I do. Yeah.

Emiley Steinbruegge: So you don't use that obviously.

Jennifer Wilson: I use Lightroom, and Lightroom is available on both PC and, and Mac. Um, and I love that I can, it slurps up photos from my phone and then they automatically get transferred to my computer.[00:22:00]

Emiley Steinbruegge: And so Lightroom also organizes?

Jennifer Wilson: I move them into folders by month.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Okay.

Jennifer Wilson: But then I can use facial recognition or tags or even just drag and drop albums that aren't moving them, but they are creating groupings of them, that I might wanna use for a particular layout or a project. Or just if it's a tag, I can just see, say all the photos that are of my daughter and my husband together.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Wow. Yeah, I need to definitely look into something 'cause that sounds amazing.

Jennifer Wilson: It does sound like in my quick Googling here that it is called Microsoft Photos now in terms of what is, what they call it on, on a pc.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Okay, cool. Well, I'll let you know how it goes.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah, always happy to help. Um. Yeah. And you know, as part of being a featured artist, you do get a, a free three [00:23:00] month membership. And so there's a class called Photo Crush 2.0 in there that I think would be just perfect for you. 'Cause it talks you through like the thought process of how to get started with the system.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Sign me up immediately. I'll be in there. That sounds wonderful.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. Happy to, to see you get started with that.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, anyway, I guess going back to organization, uh, you were gonna talk about supplies.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Oh yeah, I was just say with supplies, I kind of organized by, um, season almost. So I keep like, you know, all my fall stuff together, all my winter stuff together. I mean, kind of just a basic organization system.

Jennifer Wilson: What of tools and other things? Do you prefer open or closed storage? Like do you wanna see everything or it doesn't exist? Or do you like things put away?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Ideally, I love everything put away in a nice, tidy little home, but I don't usually do that. [00:24:00] I usually tend to leave all my stuff out so I can see it all and remind myself that I have it.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Emiley Steinbruegge: When I put all of my like punches away or stamps away or whatever it is, I tend to forget that they even exist.

Jennifer Wilson: Now you create for some design teams, right?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes, ma'am.

Jennifer Wilson: So how do you kind of organize those projects in terms of like making sure you meet your deadlines and keeping products together and all that?

Emiley Steinbruegge: I keep all of those in a special box on my desk, um, grouped together by the design team. And then I have a paper planner and I just write little notes of when everything's due and, and keep track of it that way.

Jennifer Wilson: Awesome. Awesome.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Now our last two questions are a little bit, you know, big picture here. Where would you like your scrapbooking to be in 10 years?

Emiley Steinbruegge: I would love for all of these ideas that I have floating around in my head to actually have like come to fruition. I [00:25:00] have so many great projects planned. I just don't seem to have the time yet to, to do, but maybe in 10 years, my youngest will be 19. So I'm sure I'll just be sitting around with nothing to do, right?

So I'll have nothing but time to scrapbook and I can get everything finished.

Jennifer Wilson: I mean, yeah, not to make assumptions, but in terms of years from now, you also could have grandchildren. So, um.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yes. Yes. So, yeah, see there's always gonna be more and more added, isn't there? But, but that's okay.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, as as someone of the blended family myself, I've like tried to do the mental math of all of this, and I just stopped. So my stepsons are now, oh gosh, they're 31 and 36. No. 30 and 34, sorry. Yeah. 30 and 34. But still those, that's old. I mean.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yeah. So now [00:26:00] then, do you have grandchildren then?

Jennifer Wilson: No, I do not. But you know, it certainly could.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Right?

Jennifer Wilson: Haven't found the right, the right persons yet. So.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Yeah. Wow, that's exciting.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, so what has being a scrapbooker taught you?

Emiley Steinbruegge: I think, um, probably the biggest blessing that has given me, is just realizing that it's okay for me to do something just because it makes me happy. In life, I, you know, I tend to be very production oriented. And I look at my day, like how many things that I get checked off my list. How much forward progress that I make on a goal.

But with scrapbooking, I mean, yes, I have goals and there are albums that I wanna create and things that I wanna do, and I do wanna move forward with them. But also, if I just wanna sit down and play with a pretty piece of paper or fiddle around with pretty embellishments just because I want to, that's okay too. I don't have to be working towards a specific goal all the time.

Jennifer Wilson: I love that, [00:27:00] particularly when there's so many other parts of our life that are so like goal oriented. Sometimes we do need that permission to

Emiley Steinbruegge: play.

Yes we do. And scrapbooking, I think definitely gives us that.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh yeah, for sure. So Emiley, can you share where our listeners can find you online, anything you might be planning, um, for later this year?

Emiley Steinbruegge: Sure. I am on Instagram as One_Scrappy_Mama and Facebook one Scrappy Mama. Um, and like you mentioned, I'm on a few design teams, so, um, I have projects coming out for them every month. So yeah, I'll just be over here creating.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, and I can't wait to see what you create, um, for your Punta Cana trip. Be fun.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Me too. Me too.

Jennifer Wilson: Emiley, this has just been delightful. Thank you for spending time with me.

Emiley Steinbruegge: Thank you so much for having me. It was really such a joy.

Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way. [00:28:00]

How to Subscribe

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The post SYW301 – My Way with Emiley Steinbruegge appeared first on Simple Scrapper.

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SYW300 – The Things That Make a Difference https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/07/syw300/ https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/07/syw300/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2025 06:00:00 +0000 https://www.simplescrapper.com/?p=226926 In this episode I'm joined by fourteen Simple Scrapper staff and team members to celebrate a podcast milestone. Our two-hour roundtable conversation features recent ideas and insights that have enhanced our scrapbooking.

The post SYW300 – The Things That Make a Difference appeared first on Simple Scrapper.

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As we approached the milestone of 300 episodes, I knew I wanted to make it big. So last month I gathered a group of fourteen Simple Scrapper staff and team members for an incredible conversation. Over two hours you will be treated to brilliant insights, heartfelt stories, and some of the best advice ever shared on the show. Thank you for listening and enjoy this special roundtable chat.

Episode Guests

This episode was recorded on June 12, 2025. The video version was recently shared with Open House participants and is available to Simple Scrapper members.

The dates represent when each guest first became a member or joined our team.

Links Mentioned

*Affiliate links help to support the work we do, at no additional cost to you.

Jennifer Wilson: [00:00:00] Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of the New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 300. In this episode, I'm joined by 14 Simple Scrapper staff and team members to celebrate a podcast milestone.

Our two hour round table conversation features, recent ideas and insights that have enhanced our scrapbooking.

We are here at the first group, round table recording. We have Simple Scrapper staff and creative team members here, and I'm excited to welcome everyone tonight. This is our episode [00:01:00] 300 Celebration. I wanted to do something totally different. That's why we're doing it in video and in audio for you, and I think it's gonna be fun.

Hopefully we can control the situation a little bit, but I know there's gonna be a lot of, a lot of giggling along the way because we already had a bunch just leading up, trying to get started here tonight. Um, so first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna ask each of our guests to just share a tiny bit about themselves, and I will just, I will call around until I feel like we've gotten everybody and then we'll go on. Uh, Amy Z why don't you start?

AmyZ: Hi, I am Amy Z. I am the community manager here, and I check in on the posts people are doing and try to keep conversation moving and help people find what they need. Um, I'm married and have two kids and a dog in Minnesota.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Nice. I know it's like to be at the end of the alphabet, so you know. I wanna

AmyZ: Yes. And I, I started with a [00:02:00] U before I went to the Z, so that's just all I've known.

Jennifer Wilson: All right. Monica A

Monica Alvarez: Hi, I'm Monica. I live in Guatemala with my husband and two kids, one dog. Um, I'm currently like devoted to my kids. That's mainly what I do. And, um, I love scrapbooking and I love being here and being a part of this team.

Jennifer Wilson: Awesome. Wonderful, Melissa.

Melissa Magnuson-Cannady: Hi, I am Melissa Magnusan-Cannady and I am the copy editor of Spark. And I live in New York with my husband and um, travel to Montana quite a bit, as well as Wisconsin 'cause I have family there.

Jennifer Wilson: Very cool. Ettiene.

Ettiene Rickels: Hi guys, I'm, I am from New Jersey and I have, um, two daughters and my husband, we live here in Northern New Jersey. Um, and I'm excited to be here talking to everybody.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Helen.

Helen DeRam: [00:03:00] Hi, I'm Helen DeRam I'm on the creative team and, I live in Northern Illinois with my husband Rudy, and I love scrapbooking. I've been doing it for 20 plus years now, and yeah, I'm just glad to be part of this community.

Jennifer Wilson: Helen's also part of our staff as our podcast editor.

Helen DeRam: Yes, that too. This is gonna be a fun one.

Jennifer Wilson: Denine.

Denine Zielinski: Hi, I am Denine Zielinski I am from Northeastern Pennsylvania and I am currently an empty nester. My son is 25 years old, living on his own, and I am living with five cats now. So I've substituted five cats for one boy.

Jennifer Wilson: the same amount of effort, maybe.

Denine Zielinski: And maybe about the same expense too, sometimes.

Jennifer Wilson: No doubt. Oh yes, for sure. Amy M

Amy Melniczenko: Hi, uh, I'm Amy Melniczenko. Uh, I'm in Richmond, Virginia, well just [00:04:00] outside of Richmond, Virginia. Um, I have three kids. Um, my youngest two who are twins, just, uh, graduated from high school a couple years ago, so I am so close to being an empty nester. My youngest daughter moved out, um, about six months ago and my son is in college, so it won't be long before he moves out as well. Uh, so feel like an empty nester 'cause he wants nothing to do with me anymore. Um, so I spend a lot of time with our two dogs and our cat, um, and, uh, that sort of thing. I also work full-time as project manager and I am the team lead here at Simple Scrapper. And have been with Jennifer so long, I, I can't even remember. Uh, can't imagine not being a member of this community. So.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, wonderful to hear. Thanks Amy. Peggy.

Peggy Collins: Good evening. I'm Peggy Collins. I am, uh, the program assistant here at Simple Scrapper, and I'm married and live with my husband here in the Denver, Colorado metro area.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. Peggy, you do get the award for having technically known me the [00:05:00] longest. So.

Peggy Collins: I know, right?

Jennifer Wilson: Predated Simple Scrapper. I met her

Peggy Collins: Predated Simple.

Jennifer Wilson: Online forum way before that, and we only figured that out a few years ago.

Peggy Collins: Exactly. Very fun.

Jennifer Wilson: Bre?

Breon Randon: Hi, I'm Bre Randon. I am a Simple Scrapper team member. Um, I am also in my real life. I am a, um, legal operations manager. I've been with my partner Jay for 20 years this year. And I have a 10-year-old daughter who just graduated fourth grade today, so yay her. And, um, and a dog who features very heavily, Matilda's kind of like a, an unofficial mascot of most of my pages. I feel like everybody knows her as well as they know me. Um, but yeah, been around here a good long time and, uh, I love all you ladies.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, likewise. Janelle.

Janelle Horsley: Hi, I'm Janelle. I am married. I'm from Arizona and I have three kids who are all on summer break, so, and it's very, very hot here, so.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Janelle Horsley: We're to just survive the summer.

Jennifer Wilson: [00:06:00] You can do it. I believe in you. Sara.

Sara Case: Hi, I am Sara Case. I have been with Simple Scrapper for, a long time. I don't remember quite how long. I think I might be the longest standing creative team member.

Jennifer Wilson: I think so, yeah.

Sara Case: Um, I have two kids, 16-year-old son in grade 10, and my daughter's 17. She's about to graduate high school in a couple of weeks and we have two cats, sorry, one of them just thunked somewhere upstairs, so I don't even wanna know what I'm gonna face when I go back up there. And I work from home. I have a home daycare, so I am on the run with teenagers and toddlers all day long.

Jennifer Wilson: Fun, fun. Jen.

Jennifer Johnson: I am Jen. I live in northern Kentucky with my husband. I have been on the CT for a very long time, also, not as long as Sara apparently, but pretty long. Um, yeah, I have a grown stepson who is off [00:07:00] living his best life in New York City, and so definitely an empty nester. Also have two cats and yeah, I'm a mediocre housewife. That's my job. That's all.

Jennifer Wilson: Monica M.

Monica Moriak: Hi, I am Monica Moriak and I'm relatively new to the creative team, but I love being part of it. I love creating, um, scrapbook pages, and it's kind of fun to see what the challenges are like. I live in, uh, Newark, Delaware, which is the northwest, uh, of Delaware. And I have, uh, two children, both of which are grown adults.

One lives in Wisconsin and one in California. Uh, and I live here with my husband and our two cats, and I work in education equity.

Jennifer Wilson: All right, thanks Monica. And last but not least, Amy, R perhaps the newest edition along with Melissa to, um, what we do around here.

Amy Randell: Yep. I'm Amy, uh, Amy, number three for anybody that's counting. Um, I [00:08:00] am a customer service manager here at Simple Scrapper. Um, new newly customer service manager and enjoying my role. Um, live in Grafton, Massachusetts. Married with two kids and, um, we homeschool. So that's a another challenge for me. I've got one that I just sent off to college and one that's in middle school. So.

Jennifer Wilson: All righty. So fun to get to know you. I'm, uh, looking forward to diving into some of our questions. I do have a couple polls that I'm going to test out on you though, and we'll see what happens. So did it pop up for you? Okay. Are you able to answer both of them at the same time?

Denine Zielinski: Yep.

Jennifer Wilson: All right, so the first question is, what kind of scrapbooking do you primarily do? Paper, digital, hybrid. And that's meaning like you take digital steps for a physical page process, or, I [00:09:00] really do so much of everything I can't possibly pick. And then the second question is, how long have you been a Simple Scrapper member? Whether you started as a member or you started as a creative team member and you've, you're just part of the membership that way.

Either way. Um, all right. It'll be interesting to see how the poll shows up in the recording, if at all. We'll find out. But I will review the results here. We do have everyone participating, so we have five who do exclusively paper. Do you wanna like raise your hand if you were the exclusively paper? All right. Exclusively digital. You can raise your real hand versus your virtual hand if you want. All right. Hybrid. I know Janine's one of those Ettiene, yes. And then I can't pick Amy and Amy. Oh my gosh. Okay. [00:10:00] And you guys are, I feel like I think of you guys both as digital.

Amy Randell: Yeah, I do it all.

Amy Melniczenko: For many years, but lately I do a little bit of it all.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. There's so many beautiful products. It's tempting.

Amy Melniczenko: Exactly.

Jennifer Wilson: All right. Okay. And then how long have you been around here? Zero to three years. Five of you like raise hands again if you want. Four to seven years. There's another three of you. Eight to 11 years and then more than 12 years.

Denine Zielinski: Wow.

Jennifer Wilson: Amy M, Bre, and Sara Yes. So they gave their best guesses based on their mental knowledge and memory.

I'm going to post in the show notes for the episode, uh, my records that I can find of when they first, um, joined the community. And we'll see how close we get. I bet it is pretty close. Um, we've definitely had folks who are newer as well as those who've really been part of what we do for a very, very long time.

Sara Case: It's interesting 'cause it's a pretty even spread right throughout, which is interesting.

Jennifer Wilson: It is really interesting for sure. [00:11:00] Well, and I think part of that is, um, especially with the time. But we're always like, there's always becomes a natural time. We don't do a call every year. It's just when Amy and I are like, oh, I think it's time. We have a lot of retirements or, and it's like, you know, it's time to invite some new folks on board.

So. All righty. Let's jump into our questions. I do have kind of one more icebreaker, non two scrapbookingy to get things going. What is one thing outside of scrapbooking that you are loving right now? Give a little more peek into your personalities. I just finished watching sirens with my daughter. I thought it was, give it like, uh, an A minus. I thought it was very entertaining. Uh, good combination of, of intrigue and drama. Bre.

Breon Randon: I am really stoked. We moved about a year ago and really we've just been doing nothing but like we didn't have enough furniture or anything for this house 'cause it's bigger [00:12:00] and um, it's been raining nonstop. So we got bored and we pulled out all of, um, that has been packed away and everything that has been in tubes and boxes.

And we framed about 40, 45 pieces this weekend. We're starting to gallery the house and I am really, really excited. It's been so inspirational to pull out all the art we've bought over the last 20 years and finally make this house feel like it's ours.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. And Bravo for doing it within a year. That's, um, I know many of us can understand when that doesn't happen, you either do it right away or maybe eventually. Peggy, go ahead.

Peggy Collins: Yeah, it's uh, finally getting to be hiking season here in Colorado. So I got my first hike in yesterday and I'm excited to have a big season this year, getting lots of time out in nature.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. What's your favorite local hike?

Peggy Collins: Oh, uh, there's a state park [00:13:00] called uh, Staunton and they just have lots of really cool hikes and lots of different paths. Lots of loops, so, and then we have one that's very close in Boulder that's like three miles that you can even do in the evening if you wanna do that. So.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, cool.

Peggy Collins: Default to that a lot 'cause it's just 20 minutes away and a quick one. So yeah, we mix it up a lot.

Jennifer Wilson: Very fun.

Breon Randon: I love seeing all your adventures though. you scrapbook 'em. I love, I'm like, I wanna go to there.

Peggy Collins: Very fun.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. We have corn fields and soybean fields. Monica, go ahead.

Monica Moriak: I, um, took on watercoloring this year and I'm really enjoying just kind of playing. It's, there's, it's, you have to let everything go if you're using watercolor. And, um, I think that's been good for me to practice and it's just kind of fun to see what I can do. Um, it's some, something to play around, something different, but still kind of creative.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you feel like you have a sense of control over it yet, [00:14:00] or is it the lack of control that makes you like it?

Monica Moriak: No, I wish I had more control, but I believe I should let go of control. So it's, I can create things that look like something. Uh, I'm still figuring out the whole how much water, how much paint, but I can get flowers, I can get birds, so I'm just sticking with doing the same thing over and over again because that's how you learn, right? You just keep practicing the same thing. I just, uh, see something, I'm like, oh, I think I can do that. Uh, I'm pre getting better at color washing. Uh, it's hard for me to remember that it gets darker. So when I do something and it feels really, really light, it won't be when it dries. Um, and so that, that is kind of hard for me to remember, but I'm having fun with it.

Jennifer Wilson: Very fun. Very cool. Amy R?

Amy Randell: Yeah. Uh, one thing that I'm lo loving right now is that, um, we are wrapping up our school year. So for me as a homeschool mom, that means my summer break is here.

Jennifer Wilson: [00:15:00] Yes.

Amy Randell: And you know, just being able to kind of have some fun with the kids. And I'm glad my daughter's home. It feels good that she's home and just looking forward to having some fun with them over the summer.

Jennifer Wilson: Very cool. Yes. Loving the season of life you're in right now. And literally the physical season too. The natural season. Denine, go ahead.

Denine Zielinski: Ah, I am also on summer break, so, um, I'm on day eight, which I do count. And, um, I am, I'm decluttering right now. Um, just dove in headfirst and I am just getting rid of anything and everything that I have not looked at or touched in years. And I'm being brutal 'cause I am a hoarder if, if you let me. So, um, I just have to say goodbye to some things, but I, I am making progress and it's feeling really, really good.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh good. Yes, I am. I'm feeling that craving to do of that as well.

Denine Zielinski: I'm telling you, it's just been so good to stand back and go. I could see things in that closet, you know, and [00:16:00] it's everything. It's just, I'm just a little bit outta time. But it's, it's really been fun. I, it's crazy that I'm enjoying it so much, but I've been wanting to do it for so many years that this just is, um, it's, it's exciting for me.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, you have to optimize your summers to make sure that if those projects are gonna get done, it's probably when, right.

Denine Zielinski: That's it. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: All right. Amy M.

Amy Melniczenko: So I, um, I have been in a, a, a place of transition. Not only are most of my children moving out and getting on with their own lives, but I'm kind of in the middle of a divorce. And so I have had been having a hard time, um, connecting with scrapbooking in the moment. I think it's very connected to, uh, family and all the transition our family's going through. So I have really been, have been looking for something else, um, that would help me stay creative. And so I discovered cross-stitch, which is funny because it's something my mother did, my grandmother did. I have their [00:17:00] pieces all over my house, but have never been interested. But suddenly in this time, I feel it's very, been very meditative and really helped me, uh, kind of focus on the right things. And kind of get through, um, what I'm, what I'm going through in my life, making it difficult to do what I really love. Um, so it's been a nice, uh, exploration of a new hobby and, and finding out, um, that I can be creative in a lot of different ways. And that there are actually scrapbookers out there who cross stitch and put it on their pages, which I had never thought to do.

Jennifer Wilson: Ooh, that sounds fun.

Amy Melniczenko: Yeah. So there's, you know, you never know. Suddenly you're watching a video and you're like, wait a minute. There's scrapbooking, it's cross stitch stuff that's, I never thought of that before. So.

Jennifer Wilson: I just love how you found something that allows you to stay connected to your creativity and, uh, find a different way of expression when some of those personal feelings just feel too hard. Thanks for sharing, Amy. Helen.

Helen DeRam: Well, I am a [00:18:00] bird nerd and this is definitely the time for birds. And this is the first year that we had Bluebird actually use the bluebird house that we built, my husband built and put out several years ago. And every year they would come and like, play in the house and I'd be like, oh, they're doing it. And then they would just be like, yeah, no, we're gonna pick a different place. So they, you know, had their, their babies and the babies have fledged and they're all flying around the yard. And so that's very exciting to me.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, no doubt. No doubt, Sara.

Sara Case: Um, so two friends that I grew up with, I've known them for about 40 years. Um, we have made a pact recently that we get together the second Wednesday of every month and go out for dinner and we take turns picking where we're going. And it's just been amazing because life gets so crazy.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Sara Case: And we went a couple of years without even talking to each other [00:19:00] because you didn't realize that much time went by.

So it's been really nice to make a point of this is our night and we've told everyone in our families like second Wednesday of every month, don't expect us we're out. And it's been really good for all of us. 'Cause you get to vent and you get to share the good things and the bad things, and it's just time for yourself and it's been awesome.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, that sounds delightful. Something we'd need to be intentional about.

Sara Case: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: When we want those things to happen. Monica.

Monica Alvarez: Yeah. For me it's reading. I have always loved to read, but my kids are now bigger and I have more time. So I have been going back into it recently and I'm loving it. Yeah, loving to dive into a book, to like escape into a book. I'm loving that. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: What genre is your favorite?

Monica Alvarez: Fiction. I'm on fiction novels.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Nice. All right. Was there anybody else that I missed? Everybody share something I did not like, keep a checklist? I could have, but I didn't. [00:20:00] Oh, Melissa, go ahead.

Melissa Magnuson-Cannady: Um, yeah, I don't, I, I actually was having a hard time coming up with something. Um, but probably what's most on my mind is that I'll be going to Sweden, um, this weekend for about a week. And, um, so yeah, the, the, the recent podcast, um, episode with Jennifer and her husband was like, it was awesome hearing it again. I mean, I really like that episode anyways. And so, um, that's really been on my mind as far as, um, you know, getting there. We leave Sunday, we'll be there for about a week, and I'm excited to kind of stand in the area where my great-grandparents are from with my dad. So I'm, um, pretty excited about that.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. I'm, I'm, I'm excited for you.

Melissa Magnuson-Cannady: Thank you.

Jennifer Wilson: All right. Anybody else? We got everyone. All right. Okay. So the next series of questions are kind of thematic because we like to divide things into themes around here. We have six creative journeys throughout the year, and I've roughly organized the questions around those because we [00:21:00] wanna make sure we're, we're hitting all the basics, all the foundations, so that we can, uh, become stronger, more capable, skillful, scrapbookers ourselves, and as well as, as help our members do that. So, of course, photos are, if we didn't have photos, we probably wouldn't have scrapbooking at all. It would just be art. So, um, I'd love to know, has your photography changed over the past decade? And if it has, how so? The subject matter style, uh, maybe your editing or not editing, or even the camera you're using. Ettiene, go ahead.

Ettiene Rickels: So my photography journey really started about 10 years ago, 12 years ago, when my daughter Robin was born. Um, and last time I was on the podcast I was talking about photography. It is a, um, large love of mine. Um, and I still am very much in love with it, but I think over the years as my kids have [00:22:00] aged, my subjects have changed.

And so, um, I think when they were little, it was easy to take millions of pictures of them doing all the cute things, but now they make faces at me every single time. Um, and so I think I went through a period where I kind of fell outta love with it. Um, but now I think I am in this period where I'm more reflective and I take less photos. But I also don't feel I need as many. I think in the past I had to take all the photos and then scrapbook all the photos. And I think now I'm in a place where I just need to take a couple photos and they can represent a huge story instead of every single moment. So I think it's really changed my mindset as the kids have kind of grown and, and gotten out of those years.

Breon Randon: Sounds like you're making art instead of just documenting. But like, that sounds like a different shift instead of just being like, oh, I'm capturing it all. You're making it.

Ettiene Rickels: Yeah, it's more purposeful and more, um, just like I always did it as a [00:23:00] relaxation or a release like creatively. So I think it's like gotten to be more of that, like more introspective and and exciting that way.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you think you're taking more time to plan, figure out the shot because you're not dealing with small moving subjects. Um.

Ettiene Rickels: I would say still not because I am not a planner. Like I think I, I look around and I see things for the future to take shots of. Um, but when I actually pick up my camera, I'm very quick. Um, and then I learn from that for the next time, like what I would do differently. Um, and that's just part of my personality, I think. I don't like anything to take too much time. I know. So like I move on to the next thing. So.

Jennifer Wilson: That's a good, that's a good trait to have. I don't necessarily have that one myself.

Ettiene Rickels: Yeah. I'm also not like, it just has to be 90% good is like really a big person, part of my personality. So, um, so I'm [00:24:00] not, I'm not upset if it's not magic immediately. I'll do it again. And I think with like non-moving subjects or bigger older subjects that aren't, you don't have to capture. You can get another chance to do it.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. All right, thanks. Um, I do wanna share, Tracy Fox had a response. She wasn't able to join us tonight because her roof is being worked on, and it was quite loud. Um, but she wanted to point out that she mostly takes photos in portrait orientation. But not just because she uses her phone, but because she finds them easier to work into layout designs and they're easier to crop into squares.

So I thought that was very, like a very specific process oriented, you know, photo perspective. 'Cause sometimes I'm telling myself, oh, don't take it and portrait just because that's the way your phone sits. But then I do have more trouble using it these days because I've filled the frame and I'm not able to crop it in as many ways as I [00:25:00] am when you're doing the verticals. So, all right, Helen, go ahead.

Helen DeRam: So one big change. I looked 10 years ago, I would have 1500 photos for the whole year, and that was between, and I had just a little point and shoot. 10 years ago. And so the, the last recent, like five years, let's say I'm at like, averaging like 6,000 photos on my phone and also my husband's phone. And then this year I'm only at 1500. So this year, so I feel like I'm kind of coming back down, maybe not to that original lower amount, but you know, somewhere that's not all the photos all the time.

And I, I definitely am feeling that this year. That, and I think part of it may be because I was so involved, um, with the Aligned project that we talk about in the membership last year. And I took a lot of photos for that. And so this year I feel like I'm kind of, I [00:26:00] really just, you know, have eased off of that.

And part of me feels a little bit like, E what am I missing? But at the same time I look through like, oh, what do I have for last month? And I feel like the month is represented well enough in photos. So that's, you know, kind of just the, the ebb and flow that I've, that I've been feeling with my photos lately.

Jennifer Wilson: Certainly, yeah, Monica.

Monica Moriak: Over the last 10 years, I went from using a DSLR and learning how to do that, the manual, and learning how to process RAW which I still don't like. Uh, to my cell phone, specifically buying an iPhone with the upper camera and buying lenses that I can attach. I love macro photography. I love taking different odd angles, getting down low and those type of things, but I take far fewer photos. I, I still love it when I am photo managing and there's a day with no photos left. I feel like that's a [00:27:00] win. Um, um, I'm much more likely to take a couple of photos at an event that kind of capture sort of what I'm feeling about the event, like somebody's doing something or what have you. And then I feel like I'm done. A big event, that's usually family taking a hundred photos. So if I want something, I'm sure I can find it. Um, I like fewer photos on a page, but I will use both directions. I don't use as many square photos as I thought I might, but since I do linear scraping, it's sometimes fun to have the landscape photos. Uh, sometimes easier to take photos that way. Uh, so I do, I think I am probably mixture of the, the two. But I am, I'm good with just, if I edit it, it's usually just auto on my iPhone and I, I'm happy with that. Put 'em down on a page, tell some stories, add some things and move on.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. I would say having a preset for me that I [00:28:00] can use on 95% of my photos has dramatically increased the speed of which I can get through things that I'm preparing for a project. Otherwise, it would just take me too long.

Monica Moriak: Yeah. I just use the auto on my iPhones, Apple. I don't use Lightroom or anything. I'm like, sometimes I'll, I'll play with it a little bit because I wanna bump something up or it's a little off. But I, I was like, no, that's close enough. Look at that. I'll do the same on all of 'em. So they have a similar thing. The lighting was similar. Uh, and anything I really wanna fix, I can do while I'm scraping and so I can adapt if it turns out I need to.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure. Sure. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks Monica. Amy, Z.

AmyZ: I think my response is quite similar to Monica's with having a phone available with the camera all the time. Um, and I'm thinking of it more in the terms of like capturing daily things or things that I would never haul my big camera to before. Now I'm still bringing the big camera with to soccer games or, you know, different things that I wanna see [00:29:00] farther away or action shots.

But, um, and not even to every game anymore. But, um, having my phone with me out on a walk and trying to be in tune with nature and listening to things, listening for things. Um, I took a picture of a bird in a tree really far away the other day just to kind of show my kids like, Hey, this is what I saw.

There was a turtle along the little path the other day and I, I wouldn't have ever had my camera with for most of those things. So I think being out and about with it has really changed. Um, when I think about Week In The Life too, the things that you capture of just doing errands and different things. And, you know, I'm, I'm not afraid to do the selfie and whatever I probably didn't do anywhere.

I like set it down in the grocery aisle this year or anything. But, you know, I'll grab a selfie out in the front of the store just to remember like, this is a store we go to all the time, or this is part of my routine. So that's a huge change when I look back at how it used to be.

Jennifer Wilson: For sure. It's, yeah, that's, [00:30:00] that's why I asked this question because it's just so interesting to think about how things ebb and flow, as we've said, how we, you know, consider what is kind of balancing better versus convenience and being able to take the shot. And then also how we learn new skills and make that part of our process even though it, somebody else might think you're nuts for taking the photo in the grocery store in the aisle. Or, um, I seem to be able to do a lot this year with selfies where I put it to the side and it looks like somebody else took it. Um.

AmyZ: There you go. Sneaky. Thinking about my kids out and about at those places though too, like back when I had to haul the kids and all of their things, I didn't often bring a camera, right? So, I mean, I did to like the zoo or the activities, but not to like those everyday areas kind of things. So, you know, if I went back 10 years, it'd be fun to have more pictures like that. But going forward.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes.

Monica Alvarez: I think the reason is [00:31:00] because the technology really has improved. So we can now like be dependable on that camera. Because 10 years ago the other one was the better option, right?

AmyZ: Right, Well, and even we were talking about recently, like my daughter's dance recital, for example. You know? Yes. It's an action shot, but now it's in this weird lighting and it's farther away and there's heads in front of me. Right. My iPhone did much better. So, you know, I hauled the other one and had it, and like just in case, but then the whole dance is like, you know, a minute long or whatever. Like everything goes so quickly.

Monica Alvarez: Yeah. Because we're not pros. So, so it's like you take the camera and you like take so many pictures every now and then, so yeah. Now it's better with the phone. Yeah. That happened to me too.

Jennifer Wilson: Certainly, especially 'cause it's, it's being smart and trying to optimize, particularly for those weird lighting situations. As you mentioned, Amy, like indoor [00:32:00] concert things are always just terrible lighting for photos. Sara, go ahead.

Sara Case: Same as most people. Uh, my kids have grown up, so they're not with me all the time. They live part-time with their dad, so there's weeks that they're not even, I don't see them. Um, and they're teenagers, they just don't want me taking their pictures. But I've kind of noticed it's coming back around. So I've been taking a lot more selfies and baking pictures because that's, I'm surrounded by it, me and my food.

So that's what I take pictures of. But for example, today my daughter, she's not with me this week, but she showed up with her boyfriend to say he did his promposal. I thought you'd want a picture. So she showed up with him and the poster to say, come take your picture. Which she wouldn't have done even a year ago. So I find that it's coming back around, that they were fed up with me taking pictures, uh, to go back. Amy had, was talking about Week In The Life and all those pictures we used to [00:33:00] take. I remember, uh, doing that one year and my son was still in a booster seat in the car and he was reading his book and I turned to take a picture of him and he didn't even give me a hand. He actually put his foot up in my face. It's like, back off, mom. I was like, I'm done. Um, so we went through that stage where I didn't get any pictures, and it seems to be cycling back around now where they're old enough that they're like, okay, I want a picture of this. So they're coming over to give it to me. But yeah, a lot of it now is, you know, food or the flowers in the backyard, not so many children anymore.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah, it definitely changes.

Sara Case: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: Bre.

Breon Randon: So I feel like I'm actually maybe a little bit, um, going against the tide on this. Um, I grew up in a household that didn't have cameras. I don't have, I have maybe two pictures of me before, um, graduating high school and I just don't have that kind of record. And so, um, you know, I got a couple of disposable cameras between like 2000 [00:34:00] and like, you know, like 2006 or seven and then I got a flip phone and that was the first time I had a camera in my pocket.

And let's just be clear, we all know how terrible they were. But for me, who thought that any of those memories were precious because I had never had access to photographs of myself. Um, I was really enamored with it. And I was like, that's so I've always kind of been an everyday like kind of quick shot kind of person once I have access. And I never really cared about the quality.

Like, I was just kind of like, this is amazing. It's go cool. Um, and so I was totally content and then I did that, you know, up until I wanna say about, you know, 2014, um, a friend that was on the commuter bus gave me his old iPhone four and that was my first smartphone. And I was very content up until.

Probably, you know, about last year or so, um, I started noticing that I really just, I'm, yes, I'm very [00:35:00] thankful that I have my iPhone with me, my iPhone with me, and I am very much on the, I take, I kind of laughed all, and you were like, oh, it's, it's a low, low year with 1500. It was a high year of 6,000. And I'm like, I take on average probably about 25,000 photos a year.

Like, that's just now that's not good necessarily. But it's just, right now I'm gonna season of life where my kids doing a million things and, and that will die down and it's fine. And when I'm, you know, in 10 years, I will not be taking 20,000 photos a year. Um, but I discovered I was really dissatisfied with the last upgrade of my phone.

I'm on an iPhone 14 and I'm really struggling with how overprocessed they are. Because they, my daughter has white hair almost, and every picture I take of her is green. Like she looks green in some way. The way that iPhones process her skin tone and her hair was forcing me to edit literally every photo I took of my child.

And it was kind of [00:36:00] like. Well, and I don't find iPhone editing very intuitive unless you're just hitting auto. Like if you're hitting auto, it's, it's great. But if you're trying to go through, and I'm a massive Apple geek and I love it, but like, I don't find like the actually going through and changing the colors very like, easy.

I'm in Lightroom all the time. So for me that's like much more natural. And I just kind of thought to myself, I'm like, if I have to go through this every day, like literally every day I'm editing photos to make sure she doesn't look like a low grade, you know, kid with the flu, why don't I get a nicer camera?

Like I, I am an adult and I am the boss of me and I can get a nice camera and I'm not ashamed to whip out my camera all the time. I have zero dignity. I'm doing it with a phone anyway, you know what I mean? I'm like, so I went and I got myself a new toy she's pink and she's beautiful and I love her.

Um, but also it was kind of nice to be a beginner. I have been digital scrapbooking since 2005, and so I will, [00:37:00] you know, not try to like, you know, not to have like too much pride here, but I feel very confident in my Photoshop skills. Like I kind of know what I'm doing and it was just nice to try something new.

And so I am finding it is really interesting to use something bigger and actually compose my shots instead of just walking and being like, you know, like as my kid runs by. And like, there's just this different mindset. Now what I'm a little bit struggling with is that, yeah, you don't wanna take a hundred shots on your camera every time you're doing something like you do with a phone, because you can easily delete them while you're in your grocery line.

I can't do that with my workflow, with a point with a, um, mirrorless. It's not as easy to be like, get rid of some of those extra things and stuff. So I'm struggling a little bit with workflow, but I'm finding I really enjoy scrapbooking those photos so much more because they look like my family instead of me going like, yeah, she looks sick.

Like, [00:38:00] you know, like she'll look right. And um, and I'm just really like, I didn't realize how much more I cared about photos and how that has changed over the last 20 years. Where before I was like getting a two inch grainy point and shoot or a flip phone and I was fine with it. And now I'm like, oh girl.

So yeah, that has changed. I am shifting more towards the slower side versus the convenience side.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and it's interesting to think about how, how you feel about the photo impacts wanting to scrapbook it.

Breon Randon: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: And it doesn't mean we don't sometimes wanna choose the most story filled, blurry photo ever, but we often would prefer to choose one that looks a little bit better. And when you're in a situation where the, the phone is making your daughter green, we, we can't, we can't have that at all. So.

Breon Randon: And I've taken plenty, I scrapbook tons of photos that are blurry, and I still scrapbook those old 2008, you [00:39:00] know, flip phone photos and I'm fine with it. But let me tell you, I'm a heck of a lot more likely to go reach for something where I'm like, Ooh, look at that depth of field. Ooh. Like, I'm gonna grab it.

Sara Case: Well, You don't wanna scrapbook Shrek on every page either, right?

Breon Randon: No, not so great. Not so easy. And, and like, really, you kind of just like, again, if I have to edit to make it look right, I might as well be editing something that is higher quality for me. So it's, you know, and, and learn a new toy at the same time.

AmyZ: I like the Shrek comment, but I was gonna Elphaba for the Wicked deal too. So, you know.

Breon Randon: It depends on the day.

Jennifer Wilson: Definitely personality that accompanies the kid that day. I'm sure. Janelle.

Janelle Horsley: Okay. So I think I am more like Bre. Uh, than the iPhone people that are moving toward iPhone. 'Cause I definitely used my, uh, DSLR still a lot. And that is a part of photography that's changed the most for me, probably in the last 10 years. Um, 'cause I think I've, I've used a [00:40:00] DSLR since 2006. In 2016, um, I took a class from Amy and Jordan Demos, like they're professional photographers and they're more wedding photographers, portrait photographers.

But I was like, there's something about them and their photography that I was like, I wanna learn about it. So I started, I took their class and that really changed how I, how all my photography has come out, not just my portraits. Like now I can take our family portraits, like our, our, you know, Christmas card photos, and I can do that with confidence. And I can, you know, if I'm in a weird light situation, everything they've taught me has kind of helped figure out, helped me figure out what I need to do to change, like in a, in a concert. Like my kid does, he, he did 16 concerts this year. Um, so we were in a lot of weird theater buildings and I was able, with my DSLR, I could shoot, you know, what I wanted and what I wanted it to come out looking like. Um, and that's definitely, I have [00:41:00] friends who ask me to take their kids, you know, senior portraits. And, um, my cousin's, my cousin's photographer ran out of battery on her wedding day and my cousin was like, do you have your camera with you? And I said, yes, I do. I brought it and I took her wedding, her wedding pictures for her, like her portraits for her. So it's been like, it's changed my photography, but it's also like given me a gift to be able to give to other people. So that's been amazing. And I don't think I would've done that if it weren't for, uh, scrapbooking.

'Cause I like, uh, yeah, how can I make my pages look better? Oh, the photos. And so it's been pretty cool.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and also investing in the time and, and money to learn from professionals to be able to upgrade your skills. Uh, we can learn a lot of things ourselves and there's, yes, there's lots of tutorials, but it's often much faster to, to allow someone else to teach you.

Janelle Horsley: Yeah. It was pretty cool.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Jen.

Jennifer Johnson: I think this question made me think a lot and [00:42:00] actually kind of made me a little bit sad because I feel like I am not as creative with my pictures as I was 10 years ago. We had, um, you know, we had our crappy iPhones and I'll be, pictures till the day I die probably. But, you know, we used our big camera more.

My husband had, has a drone that we used a lot to get pictures. We had an underwater camera that we used to take, you know, to the beach or in the swimming pool or whatever. Um, and we don't use any of that anymore. And I'm like, why don't we use that anymore? Um, so I, I kind of, I think I'm a little inspired to like, get out some of the old equipment and see if we can like, do something fun. Because, you know, we've moved from South Florida to, you know, Kentucky. So I'm like way less palm tree pictures and

more snow pictures. So my, and, and you know, grown child. So, you [00:43:00] know, I'm still taking pictures of pets. I'm still taking selfies with my husband. I'm still, you know, doing a lot of that kind of stuff. But a, a lot has actually changed that I, you know, would like to change back. And, you know, maybe I need to do something like Janelle and take a class or do something to just kind of find that spark again. I think also I'm not, I'm not really following anybody like online that I really admire their pictures anymore. I'm not really on Instagram anymore. So maybe that has something to do with it too. Maybe if I look at more pictures, I'll get more inspired. I don't know. But I think, um, one of the main things that has changed for me besides that is family is aging.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Johnson: And, you know, I lost my mom and thankfully she was the selfie queen. Like I have so many pictures of her, you know, that she took on her phone and, and stuff like that with her friends and just her life and everything and her pets. But, um, I [00:44:00] have a couple of members of my family who are very much not like that and they don't want pictures and they don't want any part of that. And I've had to have, um, stern talks with them and saying, you know, you know, um, if something happens to you tomorrow or in a month or whatever and I haven't seen you, I'm gonna be really sad 'cause I don't have any pictures of us together or whatever. And I will, I will lay on all the guilt. I don't, I will use everything, you know, to get more pictures and, and, and most people in my family are fine.

We'll take pictures, you know, whatever. But, you know, have a couple of people who, I won't mention who they are. They're my dad and they're my brother-in-law. And I've talked to both of them and said, you know, ire, it's really important to [00:45:00] me to have pictures. Uh, decent pictures, dad put on a shirt, you know, let's, you know, look like we're, you know, presentable people and let's take some pictures. And so that, that is something that has changed. I'm a lot more assertive in, in getting those kind of pictures.

Monica Moriak: I'm the queen of a goodbye selfie, and my family knows that. Because my children live far away. Um, my, my parents are gone. My in-laws are further away. And I have, you know, I have become the, I know that when I leave, that could be the last time I see them, and I'm gonna take a picture. And my family actually, they put up with it, but I think they actually like it as well. Because they've seen that, they felt that loss. And so it's leaving on a good note and it's just quick. Wherever we are, turn around, everybody get in, take a picture. They're not meant to be good. They're meant to be there. So, yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: I love that they're not meant to be good. They're meant to be there. Thank you, Monica. [00:46:00] Melissa.

Melissa Magnuson-Cannady: So I think over the last 10 years, I think I've been using my cell phone for the entire time, but my iPhone for maybe the last four years or so. But what I, what I have noticed is that I tend to take, first of all, a lot more photos in general. But I tend to take a lot more if I'm really having a great time. And I don't know, I don't know, I haven't really looked into the psychology of it or anything, but like if I'm having a really good time, oh my gosh, the number of photos like really goes up. And sometimes it doesn't always happen. It kinda depends on the situation, but um, it, I dunno. So that's like if I am taking a lot of photos, I'm like, oh, I must be having a really good time.

And so I'm glad I have those photos to kind of like remind me of those good times and I can, you know, scrap them later. Um, but it also ends up being like additional work. So I try to do like a daily delete, especially if I'm taking a lot of photos so that, you know, when I've got like three that are basically the same photo, I can easily take, you know, delete [00:47:00] two or maybe even all three. Depending on, you know, trying to look at the whole maybe event or the whole day kind of as like a, I dunno, as, as one kinda event.

And try to see like which photos will help me to like best tell that story or remember that I do. I certainly don't need all of them. It's definitely a work in progress though, because I can struggle with, you know, deleting certain photos. Um, but that's something I kind of noticed about myself over the last couple years is that I really like if I'm having a good time and I'm able to take the photo, like I am taking a lot of photos.

Jennifer Wilson: I find this so fascinating because I would say I'm the opposite. If I'm having a good time, I don't always remember to take the photos. And if I'm particularly not having a good time, I'm more likely to take photos as a distraction, as an excuse to walk around. Um, a way to like not have to socialize because, oh, I'm taking pictures. Um, [00:48:00] so yeah. It's so interesting to think about that and maybe I need to try shifting my perspective and see how that feels too. Thanks for sharing Melissa. Amy Z.

AmyZ: I just wanted to add in. Jen reminded me about, you know, other cameras too, and I do have an underwater or a waterproof camera that we've loved at the beach and at the pool and whatever. Um, but I also will go back to the, the phone being with me. I have so many beach ocean pictures from our last vacations that I would've never had because I was always too afraid to bring the big camera.

'Cause where are you gonna leave it? And it's gonna get sandy and, and I've had sand in the lens and had, you know, dealt with that. So I think that accessibility thing again has opened up. So I have way too many, um, we'll go back to the, the bird nerd discussion. I have way too many pictures of like, sandpipers on the beach and different things 'cause it's right with me and it's right there.

Um, but one kind of other [00:49:00] observation I've made when Monica talked about the selfies is, yes, we have a lot of family selfies and a lot of, you know, group photos together that way. But I no longer give my, my camera to someone to take a picture of us. So, like, I always joke like, it doesn't matter what I'm wearing ever.

'cause you only see like, neck up when it's, you know, selfie group shot or whatever. But I think it's because it is your whole phone. And so yes, you can lock it, but if you hand that to someone and they take off, like now they didn't just steal your phone and your photos or your, your camera and your photos, they would have your whole phone.

So I think that has changed the dynamic a little bit of, you know, asking someone else to get photos or when someone asks you, you know, you must look.

Breon Randon: I definitely ask people that are like a family, like I never ask like a couple, like I'm always like, okay, can I take your picture with your family? And then you take.

AmyZ: Do a trade.

Breon Randon: Like you gotta trade it up. You gotta make them make 'em feel guilty, like make know 'em, you know, like.[00:50:00]

AmyZ: I do love that handoff. Yeah. But when I look back, I just notice that I don't put the effort in as often as we used to. And that bothers me sometimes because when you go to scrapbook, some things you're like, oh, it's a selfie and a selfie and a selfie. Yeah. It's all the, all the same. Exactly.

Jennifer Wilson: I wish the strangers though would like know how to compose it just right though, the way we would do it if we were taking their photo. I always feel like I'm taking a really great photo for you guys.

Breon Randon: I got really lucky with one guy once and I was like, who are you? Like, he was like, and he got down and he was like, doing this, and I'm like, did I just like hit the jackpot? Like, thanks man, you.

Sara Case: That happened to me one time with a man and I said. Is your wife a scrapbooker? He's like, yes, how did you know?

Jennifer Wilson: I love it. I love it. Denine.

Denine Zielinski: I, I was just gonna say that about, uh, letting other people take pictures. Everybody sees, um, us taking selfies, [00:51:00] you know, group selfies of what, you know, whatever. And they, they're kind and they offer, and I say no, and they look at me like I'm crazy. Um, and I, I say to them, I know, no, I don't want to be, you know, I'm not trying, trying to denigrate you, but like, I'm gonna do this better than you are.

And I know that sounds horrible. I don't wanna be like a snot or anything, but a lot of people, I mean, I will say that that's the one thing I can say that I've learned through the years is how to compose a photo. I'm not the best photographer in the world, but there's something to be said for composition.

And I think that, um, I think that people who scrapbook and people who know people who scrapbook, know that. Even if they don't wanna know that they learn that, you know, the husbands and the boyfriends and the friends, they all learn just by being with you, that there's a certain way it gets done. So, um, yeah, I think we, we, we, we get better at knowing what the shot should look like as time goes on.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm. And maybe even I've, I feel like I've learned [00:52:00] how to be, how to communicate with others in a friendly, approachable way of, no, I don't think we should take the photo in front of the window with an, you're gonna be backlit. Uh, even though that's where the Christmas tree is. If we shift this way, I think it'll be, it'll turn out a little bit better. Diplomatic. That's the word.

Denine Zielinski: Mm-hmm.

Breon Randon: Do you wanna see you in this photo? Do you then shut? Doesn't work?

Jennifer Wilson: All right, let's go on to our next question. I should have known, we are not gonna get through all of these questions that I have, but that's okay. It means we have an opportunity to, to share them more later, to have another conversation. Uh, but I have a really interesting one that I, I can't wait to dive into.

And this is about projects and really how you think about what you're scrapbooking. So do you consider yourself a layout scrapbooker, a project scrapbooker, or both? And I [00:53:00] think we've had a lot of conversations in the community about this recently of folks who feel kind of drawn more one way versus the other, maybe have transitioned. Like I just, I really need to let go of one of these because it's not working with, for me for a particular reason. So, Monica, go ahead.

Monica Moriak: I saw that, and I really would love to be able to finish projects, but the reality is that's not gonna happen. I scrapbook what I feel like it at the moment. Um, it may be case of a challenge or something, that creative team, but usually in my life right now, I took some photos and I'm excited to put them on the page and tell that story. And so it just, that's what's next. There's probably some leftover that I'm like, well, I kind of wanna finish this trip and put these less things in, even if it was just a weekend. Uh, so I might throw together a quick collage page and just call it done. But, uh, I'm at a point now that I just, it's like, oh, this is really cool. Um, either I love this [00:54:00] template or I love this. I saw somebody's design. I'm like, oh, I wanna copy that. I wanna, I wanna try that. And, uh, I'm just gonna go in. I mean, I have for, Persnickety has a sale right now. I have hundreds of pages that I could print, um, for my albums. So I'm just gonna print them off and, uh, do what I can with them. I'm just gonna enjoy them.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I appreciate how kind of you knew the answer to this question right away. It's something that you'd really thought about. Amy R, go ahead.

Amy Randell: Yeah. When I first read this question, I thought to myself, maybe this is a trick question because we need layouts for projects, right? But, um, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I am very much project focused. Um, like Monica, I don't remember the last time I've actually finished a project, but everything I make is for a project.

I just happened to have a lot of them in process at the same time. Um, in the past I have taken some different classes that produced [00:55:00] great pages, but I didn't really have anywhere to put them because they weren't for a project. So, you know, they just kind of sit in an, in an album right now, but they're not really designated for any particular project yet. Um, I suppose eventually they'll fit somewhere, but, um, I've gotten to the point where if I don't really know where it's gonna live, once it's done, I don't scrapbook it.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm. So we have two totally opposite end answers right away, so I can't wait to see how this evolves. Amy M, go ahead.

Amy Melniczenko: So I'm, I'm both. So I, I'm the opposite of both of them. So I am very project oriented with some things, but I am very picky about what I, what projects I do. So, for example, I was a Project Lifer for a long time, but the last two years I gave it up for like 10 years. Came back to it for a couple years, and now I'm off of it again. Um, because I didn't find, I wasn't finding [00:56:00] it fulfilling, but I've been doing Week in the Life for, I don't know, it feels like decades. I, I, I just feel like that's what one I do every year. It looks different. So sometimes I do a whole album. Sometimes I just do a spread in my annual album. Um, the last, since 2020, they've all been in their own album because that project has really kind of helped me see how our life has changed year by year. Um, but I've always got a set number of projects. I usually always have a, a, a One Little Word. I usually always have a Week In The Life. Um, and I usually have another project like a, you know, that Pieces project that Ali does. You know, different things that I have in the mix. And then I typically have a vacation album that I'm working on, or a holiday, like a Christmas or a Halloween one.

So I've kind of got those. I also have story albums. So I'm doing individual scrapbook pages all the time that I'm throwing into my story albums. I have 12 by 12 story [00:57:00] albums. I have six by eight story albums. They look and feel differently. And depending on what I'm doing in a moment, um, and what I'm feeling in the moment, it's, I have found that for me it is critical that I have flexibility. And the way that I plan and do and do my process things. I need a lot of options at any given moment. Because if I come to the table and I don't wanna do a project, I want like four others to pick from or 12 tasks to pick from. And that just works for me. So I start every month with a big list of a bunch of stuff I'd love to do, no pressure that I get all of it done. But then when I sit down and I know I have 45 minutes, I can pick something that easily I can do there. Versus if I had a whole weekend, oh, okay, I'll get this done based on how I'm feeling. So that for me has worked really well. But I totally understand people who are like, projects are not for me or no, I like projects.

Um, but I'm a little bit of both. I kind of have [00:58:00] figured that that works the best for me. And I think if you think about how you like to scrapbook, that can help you figure out what might be best for you. Or if you might be a person like me who likes a little bit of all of it.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, definitely. Yeah. I really think that, um, what you said about having like a bunch of things that you're excited about to choose from. If we all did more of that, I think we might be able to make better decisions, make decisions easier, because sometimes we don't wanna do the thing on our list. And we liked planning it, but we don't wanna actually do it now. So if we're always immersing ourselves in lots of delightful options. Hopefully one will resonate at any given moment, so.

Amy Melniczenko: I do find that my, um, actual pages completed increased considerably once I started looking at it that way. Previously, I would get stuck behind something and be like, oh, I've gotta finish this album. And [00:59:00] then just sit around and stare at it for two months and not get anything done. And this new way of thinking has kind of opened up, oh, well, okay. I can, I can kind of dip in and out according to where I'm at.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Nice. Thanks Amy. Bre.

Breon Randon: If you would've asked me two years ago, I would've said layout scrapbooker. Um, you know, I've been doing this for, you know, 20 something odd years, and I was a paper scrapbooker. Um, in my like teens and early college years and I have quite a breadth of paper albums and so it always just was like, yeah, you just make layouts.

And again, I didn't feel like those projects really existed back then. Most of them, like Ali's really inspired the majority of them that we know. Not all of them, but most of them. And like they really weren't around for your casual non-internet connected person back then. And so like, you just made layouts.

I just felt like most people made the, made the books. They scrapbook the birthdays and they made the books. And I have continued on that way through my transition [01:00:00] to digital, except that my volume increased steadily every year. And I reached a point, um, probably we started talking about this community like about, oh, a year and a half ago.

It felt like it kind of started coming up where we were talking about the layouts versus projects, or at least some of us were. And I was at a really like, not great point in my scrapbooking. Like I was really unhappy. And I was making about, you know, 300 pages a year at that point. I was very prolific and I was really sad because as a digital scrapbooker, I print my books in, in like photo books.

Like that's how I do it. I do not, and I think we're gonna talk about this later. I do not want the volume that comes with binders. I don't have the capacity to do that, especially at the volume I scrapbook at. So I was really kind of reaching this like, okay, I can't make things in binders, I can't print anything.

I'm scrapbooking all the time. I feel like I'm racing up against like a deadline of things. I wanna scrapbook all the time. Yes, I know we're not gonna ever be done, but like there's a certain amount of like, nobody sees [01:01:00] these things. I work on 'em constantly. And I was just really unhappy. Like almost to the point where I was like, don't know if I really wanna do this anymore, even though it's like my life, you know?

And so I kind of started listening to a lot of the people in the community and taking little bits and pieces and realizing that like even your family yearbook for the year is a project. Like if you're a digital scrapbooker and you print books, it is a project. There has to be a beginning and an end.

Now what, whether you decide how the beginning and the end comes about, you have to make those choices. Because they have to get off your hard drive if you want to hold them. And that maybe you don't want to hold them. And that's okay. I'm saying for myself, you know, I just, I felt like it was all for nothing.

And so, um, I took, um, I was listening to what people were saying in the community, um, and I took the, um, this year's, what was it, the Shimelle class, This Year's Story from Shimelle last year. And we, I don't [01:02:00] necessarily scrapbook always like how she does it, but I really liked how she was kind of reviewing at the end of the month and saying, this is a list of stories I wanna tell this month.

So, yes, it's a family album and it's just what I was normally throwing my stuff to. But like, I have to have something that tells me I have finished this enough that I can print it. Because it's just too much. And so, and also there's other things I wanna do, right? Like I wanna be able to do a December Daily sometimes.

And really what, or a Week In The Life and what I was coming out with was like, wow, every single Week In The Life, I've done two days of it. I've done 10 days of December Daily for 15 years I have done because I can never finish anything. Because I'm always approaching it from a layout scrap of her like viewpoint, you know, if that makes sense.

It's like I'm following my bliss, but my bliss is leading me to a lot of work and nothing to show for it. And, and so I've really kind of, even though naturally that's not how I would work if given my [01:03:00] druthers. I have to put parameters on myself and say, this is what you want in this book if you're ever gonna look at it. And I have cut down. I have made probably about a third of the pages, I normally, I think that maybe I'll come out at a hundred pages this year instead of close to 300. Like, and I'm fine with that. Like I feel so much less stress about my scrapbooking and I'm actually gonna have some things to show at the end of the year.

Like I'll have my Aligned books and I should have my Week In The Life done. And probably last year's Project Life will get finished. And a couple other things because I have these lists of things that I wanna finish. And so, I've definitely made a shift. It's, it has like, I feel like with what I do, I have to have a shift.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm. What a, what a big transformation. I'm so glad you're in a better place now. Uh, you're, you're feeling like you're on your way. Um, and I do think that that the conversation that Shimelle started with that class that keeps coming up in, I've had a number of podcast interviews already for our next series, [01:04:00] and this idea of really thinking about what is enough for a given month a year.

Breon Randon: What's enough? When can you be done?

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, is is changing the perspective and conversation and helping people get to that point so we can feel a sense of completion, even though there will always be more stories to tell.

Monica Moriak: That's kinda why I switched to what I'm doing. I print the pages, I can have as many as I want and I'll print them. Um. And I can pull a bunch of digital pages and create an album out of them. There's some things I'm like, oh, I've done all this. This tells a story. I wanna print that. Uh, but I don't feel like I've gotten rid of that feeling. Like in order to print my kids' school year, I need to finish everything they did in that school year. Right. At some point I'll be done with any interest in that. I'll put the other I have, and I figured those will be the highlights. 'cause that's the thing that stood out the most.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Jennifer Johnson: So Bre [01:05:00] and I have talked about this quite a bit, and we actually have taken the same class and probably gotten two completely different things out of it because I'm still following my bliss. I'm still, you know, am and making pages willy-nilly.

Definitely not a project scrapper but I think that Shimelle's class has given me more of a framework I to say what is enough, like you were saying. And it, and you know, for me it could be, you know, 20 pictures about the snow and that's, I don't scrap anything else for the rest of the month and that's fine. But I, um, my, my kind of goal in life is to make 10 pages in a month of whatever I want to make.

You know, whether that's a Project Life page, whether that's 10 pages about the snow, whether that's, you know, big brain dump of whatever I'm feeling at the time, you know, whatever that looks [01:06:00] like. If, if I've made 10 pages, that's kind of enough for me. And doing the Shimelle class kind of gave me kind of a little more of a framework to go willy-nilly, do whatever I want to, but also within a little bit of parameters.

And definitely Simple Scrapper has changed my mindset as far as projects and finishing. It's a toxic personality trait of mine that I never finish anything. Like I have finishing anxiety, I think really. And so I would try to do the Finishing Project and fail like three times. And then I realized like, oh, I can make my 10 layouts of the month be a project.

They can be whatever I want them to be. So I started saying, well, I'll, I'll either work on a month or I'll work on a quarter or something of a year. I make whatever I want and it's fine. So that's kind of my way of catching up without being super rigid [01:07:00] about what I'm actually scrapping, because I'm still making whatever I want, whatever I feel like making. But it feels like enough, it's that enough question type of thing.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I think some folks need to find their own way to gamify it so that it feels, it feels exciting. It feels like a fun challenge versus a non-fun challenge.

Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, thinking about finishing things in projects in that way. It is not fun for me and I know it that I might being the minority of the Simple Scrapper community in that way. But I don't, I don't like to finish things. 'Cause then I think I can't go back and say something else about my wedding or, or whatever it is.

So I, I'm definitely in the non finishing camp, but I, I like projectifying things in my own way, I guess.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Well, that makes me think of the conversation I had with Denine on the podcast not long ago where we were talking about how you didn't want to finish your December [01:08:00] Daily just to get it finished. You really wanted to like put the same amount of love and creative energy into every, every day, every spread as you had did in the very beginning. And I thought that was really, really interesting and kind of how we feel motivated and how we think about finishing.

Denine Zielinski: I was still working on my December Daily, and I know this is probably for some people actually getting it done quickly, but I usually finish by the end of January and I was still working on it. I actually decided to finish. And, um, I just did it at my own pace because it was what made me happy. And as I'm listening to everybody talk, all I keep thinking is it seems like a common thread you're doing what makes you happy. I mean, if if you're not doing what makes you happy, then why are you doing it? And if projects make you happy, do it. Simple things. I work on a summer project where it's just a photo and a journal card and it makes me happy. So I think listening to everyone talk about it, you do, you just do whatever. Work at whatever speed you want and just do what you [01:09:00] want. And if it doesn't bring you joy, there's no point. So I think all of us are just doing what's right for us.

Jennifer Wilson: Well and having this conversation helps people identify, oh, I'm more like this person, or I'm more like this other person, that there are options out there too. Amy Z, please go ahead.

AmyZ: I have to say first that I think this is one of my favorite discussions in the community because of this, right? And because it ties in with finishing or your personality. Or what types of layouts you like to make. And I'm personally, I, I've always thought of myself as a project scrapbooker and like Bre said, some of that comes from like Ali and you know, I like doing December Daily or Week In The Life.

But I also remember back to when I did chronological layouts and I got overwhelmed because I was like, I will never be done. I can never say this is done. 'Cause it just keeps going. Right? You just add the next album and, and yes, you can break that down into years or different things, but at that point is when I found Project Life. That was supposed to help, you know, take the weight off of that so I could [01:10:00] go do different layouts and right.

So it's definitely been a struggle as I've done things. But I've figured out that I a, needed a place to put the story. So someone else mentioned that. I don't wanna do a layout if I don't know where I'm gonna put it. So I kind of, on the vein of Stacy Julian's Library of Memories, like maybe I just have one little, you know, album that holds some of the extra stories or things.

Um, and I think that helped. And it gave me more freedom and I could chase a couple of things that I wanted to do and, you know, be happy in the moment. But it also made like a, a change or identified an issue in my workflow and my process. Everything else is planned out as a project. And all of a sudden I have these one-off layouts that I'm like, I'll just order some pictures for that.

It'll be great. Or I have some papers for that. It'll be great. And then I don't know where to put them. I don't know how to store 'em. I don't know when I get to 'em, you know? Right. So figuring out the workflow of how you [01:11:00] work has been really important to me. And, um, you know, some of that for me now is documenting that I ordered photos to make that said layout. Or having a kind of a pages in progress kind of section, you know, for organizing on my desk. And, and things to, to really define how you wanna do this right. Now it doesn't mean that I'm caught up on all the projects and that I do all the layouts. But now when I think of those stories that are like the year over year stories that I wouldn't know where to put that before, or when I could do that. Now I can start to gather those items. And I have a place, you know, I can keep the items until I make it, and then I have a place in, you know, an album to put it.

So I'm, I'm definitely still working into becoming more of a layout person than just a project person. But I think it's, it's a bigger, bigger discussion than when, you know, you first see the question like, oh, I do this or I do that, or what it would take to, to change it, I guess, too.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, you mean like as you described, you may not even realize [01:12:00] that you're changing until something's not working. Like you realize, oh, this is. Like there's a barrier here. Layouts are not getting put away. I'm not, I'm not feeling ready to make the thing that now I have supplies for. 'Cause I didn't order photos for it. 'Cause I'd ordered photos for my project, but that's not the project. Um, yeah, so it's, uh, you kind of learn, but having these conversations helps you observe and figure out where you are and what kind of, what identity you need to hold for yourself, because that's okay if it's the same or different, but we need to understand who we are to be able to do more to support that.

AmyZ: Yes. It's almost like the four tendencies, but we can have our own little categories of, you know, layouts versus projects or re versus, you know, continuer or, you know, different sides to it.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, interesting. That could be a whole, like, yeah, that could be a whole thing. Helen, go ahead.

Helen DeRam: Um, well, I am like Amy M in that I like doing both. I like both projects and [01:13:00] layouts. And I kind of have found that the layouts that I do are mostly the ones that I end up doing for Spark Magazine. And they're a mixture of perhaps a story or just like, oh, this is, you know, I look through my photos and I, this is what we did last month and that's what I wanna scrap.

And so that's kind of what my layouts are. And even though I might have a pile of, right now. What I, what I do with them is I just kind of put them in, you know, an album, however many fit in an album, um, kind of in the way that I, in the order that I scrap them. Um, some of them might be in a specific, um, story type album. And then my projects tend to be like, um, Week In The Life or a vacation album. And those, I'm finding lately are smaller sizes, either six by eight or, um, even a Traveler's notebook or, or some other size. But I, I love having the variety. Um, just like Amy was saying, you know, when you [01:14:00] sit down it's like, what do I wanna do? I'm not just doing one thing all the time. So I definitely like both.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think it is that variety, the novelty, the, the curiosity about trying something else that might. Send you another direction. I, I recently did a super chunky Paige Evans style mini book, and it was fun, but I don't really wanna do it again.

Helen DeRam: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: It was cool to put all the edging on things and really, like, this thing is massive. It does not shut at all. And it's very cute. But in the end, it's not my favorite project in the whole world. My favorite project is probably a photo book. Um, 'cause it's a little bit more shareable. Um, but it was fun to make and I know.

Breon Randon: Nobody is allowed to touch the Paige Evans book. There's much pom poms. We cannot, we cannot pass this around. The itch has been scratched.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, that's, that's for sure. And, and that happens, that happened with, um, the Heidi Swapp books. You know, [01:15:00] it's, we, I, I experimented, I liked doing things little, I did it for a full quarter and then I'm like, why am I printing these photos at one, like, you know, one inch by one inch. And I really wanna scrap this beautiful photo on a bigger layout.

And so I ended up retelling a lot of those stories in the end, even though it was fun to experiment with that in the, in the, in the meantime. And that's not to like diminish it if that's something that you enjoy. Um, but we all have those experiments, particularly as the industry is trying to innovate and convince us that we want to experiment with those things.

Helen DeRam: Right, right. I love the, all the interactive pieces. And I just, one more thing I wanna say about projects. You know, when I'm working on, um, like a travel album, um, as I'm working on it, I'm always, I'm getting more ideas and, oh, I wanna do this and that. And, you know, I, I just keep going on and on. There's not really, you know, the project's not done. Um, but just recently, actually, um, just yesterday or the day [01:16:00] before, so my, um, uh, relatives from Hungary visited last year and my cousin was going to visit this year and like a couple months ago. She's like, oh, it'd be really great if you made a scrapbook of their trip. And so we did a shared album with all their photos.

There was like 600 photos. I paired them down to like 200 photos, but I started the album five days before she was leaving. Because, because. Um, but I finished it. Like I, it's finished because it had to be finished, you know, it had I not had that deadline, I would still be working on it and tinkering with it and coming up with 10 different ideas.

But I was very happy with myself that I got it to a point where it felt like an album. And yeah, there were some things I didn't get in there that I wanted to, but, um, man, having that deadline really makes it happen.

Jennifer Wilson: It makes a difference. Sure.

Sara Case: You saved 600 pictures in a shared album and you had to do this. I just got a [01:17:00] ball of

Breon Randon: I stroked.

Sara Case: In my chest thinking about it like.

Helen DeRam: So yeah like that was that part, taking the 600 photos and like picking the 200. I did that in two days, two, like lunch hours actually. And then instead of like keeping my momentum going, I like sat on it for two weeks, like trying to figure out.

Breon Randon: A well deserved break. That's what you did. Like I'm putting an aneurysm just even thinking about trying to do that. So like God bless you, like.

Helen DeRam: Well, and the other thing too was I did minimal journaling. Because I gave them space and tags and, and put, uh, areas to do their own journaling, you know. Um, 'cause it was their trip. But for family stuff, you know, I certainly added things so. And so I was like, you know, I can do this. And I, and I did it. But yeah, I need to create deadlines on myself, I guess.

Denine Zielinski: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. And I mean, it helps that it's a real deadline too. Like, not like [01:18:00] we're, I'm, I mean, I'll speak for myself. I am personally really good at blowing past my self-imposed deadlines of, um, but sometimes stating them out loud, sharing with the community, having to be on Zoom, talking about the thing or doing the thing does help. And those of you on the creative team, I'm, I, I know some of you like Sara, who's been on for the longest. Like this is part of what keeps you going. I know. Um, because you have the deadline in there.

Sara Case: Well, I blow past that deadline more than once.

Breon Randon: I, Sara girl. I literally was just gonna say like I'm really good at saying there's a deadline and then I'm two days past it. Like every time. It doesn't matter what deadline it is and for whom two days past.

Sara Case: I think I submitted three layouts today, which is what, two or three days past the deadline like?

Breon Randon: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Amy Melniczenko: Build in extra time for those of us who do that. So.

Jennifer Johnson: I think we all need give Amy M a collective apology for all of our, uh, assignments that we turn in late.

Breon Randon: Sorry Amy. For all the things I forget to upload, right?

Sara Case: You are the best, Amy.

Jennifer Wilson: [01:19:00] Amy's never tattled on anyone. So I didn't know that, I assume that everyone's turning things in on time.

Jennifer Johnson: Oh, Jennifer, we are so on deadline.

Sara Case: On time. Yep.

Amy Melniczenko: And it is interesting, you know, knowing each of you, there are, there are some of you who are almost always late and some of you who are never late. And if I'm late posting your assignment, you're like texting me, calling me, tracking it down across the country, like, and I get it. Because we're all different. You know, some of us I'm, you know, I'm gonna have it to you on the exact date it's due. So it's always kind of fun for me. But I do build some time in the schedule for those of you who are always late. So I appreciate the heads up.

Monica Moriak: You probably didn't wanna share that information because now they're like.

Denine Zielinski: Now they'll be later.

Monica Moriak: Yeah.

Breon Randon: No.

Jennifer Johnson: We need to unhear that.

Jennifer Wilson: All right. Sara, are you a layout scrapper or a project scrapper?

Sara Case: Definitely layout. So I used to do projects, so I used to do Week In The life. I used to do December Daily and I was [01:20:00] always stressed out. Just I found it so stressful and I'd always have two or three days left in December Daily, or I'd get to the last couple of days a Week In The Life and I would be bored and I would be stressed and I would hate it.

I would just hate doing it. And it occurred to me a few years ago, like this is something I got into because I loved doing it and I loved

the community and I loved the emotional release sometimes. Why am I doing this if I'm hating it? And it had gotten to that point. So, I mean, some people might say, I do projects.

So what I do is I, I think I'm a layout scrapper and I do layouts. But I try to do them within the year I'm in. And then I poke them in a scrapbook with by the month. So by the time the year's over, I generally have a year long album done. But, you know, one month might have two layouts and another month might have six layouts.

I don't know. I don't care. But I turned 50 this year and my mindset on [01:21:00] everything changed. It was like, I am not doing anything that I do not enjoy. Like, life is too short. I have done enough things I don't enjoy in my life. This is not gonna be one of them. This is one of the things that has brought me joy. So I'm not going to let it be horrible for me. So I definitely do layouts. I do sometimes veer into projects. For example, my daughter's show choir, uh, performed at Disney at Christmas time. So I'm doing mini albums for that. But I'm doing it in a way that works for me. So I do a, I organize a four to five day retreat twice a year for scrapbookers. I did half of it at our last retreat. I haven't looked at it since, have not looked at it since April. Our next retreat is in November. I'll go do the other half of it. But in between, like I can't pick at projects I find. Because if I'm gonna do a project, I need to be right into it. Um, so I, I decided this will be my retreat thing when I can just take a few [01:22:00] days, do it all. Other than that, it's definitely layouts. But I already know from this Disney album, this is not my thing. Big projects are not my thing. Her show choir has been in invited to perform in Austria with the Vienna Boys Choir next summer. And I already know there will not be a mini album. There will be a couple of layouts in an album and that's it. So definitely layouts for sure, people who can do projects. I'm so impressed by that, but it is not me.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Like no. Giving yourself permission to evolve when something is no longer serving you is huge because we can feel that need for consistency on the shelf over there and everything to look the same because we've always done it that way. But eventually it will stop happening, uh, if you try to force it.

Sara Case: I have a friend who has four children. She does chronological scrapbooks for each child. Every year she puts post-it notes in on the pages where she's [01:23:00] missing things. Big project, and I'm fascinated by it. It's just not the way my brain works. Um, but I'm fascinated that for some people that's how it works for them, big projects. But yeah, I get bored. My attention span is not that good.

Jennifer Wilson: Thanks for sharing, Sara. Janelle, go ahead.

Janelle Horsley: I do both. Um, I definitely make a lot more digital scrapbook pages than I do projects. And that's just because the pages make my heart sing and I love putting 'em all together. I love planning them out. I love finding all the colors, all the stuff. Figuring out, it's like a puzzle to me. Um, but I did realize that my projects, I think I have to make them paper. Um, 'cause I do Project Life every, like a yearly Project Life. I do a 12 by 12 spread for each month, and then like a little baseball card insert for each month. And that's where my One Little Word lives too. So that's in there. And then each of the kids has a school album, so it's a 12 by 12, [01:24:00] uh, Project Life spread for each year of school. And that's kind of like in progress throughout the school year all year. Um, and then I do vacation albums the same way. I use the 12 by 12 pocket pages. So I think for me, I have to do both. Even though I don't really love the project album stuff. Like I, it's kind of an obligation, but I like the finishing. I like the little, the littleness of it. I like that I can put it on my desk and let it sit there and I can look at it and play with watercolors or add, you know, the stuff like the physical stuff that I can't, that I don't really play with in digital. Um, so I think it's, I think it's, for me, I have to do both. But I, even though I do really, really like just making layouts, like I have four, I think I counted there's, it's in my Lightroom I have 4,500 layouts almost, or over 4,500 layouts. Um, so it's, it's all of it.

Jennifer Wilson: Have they all they all been printed?

Janelle Horsley: No, um, I'm only printed [01:25:00] probably, I've probably only printed 30. Like, and I don't like, I, I don't like how they printed out. I think that's, well actually I take that back. I've, I printed more than that 'cause each of the kids gets a little eight by eight book, um, every two years for their birthday. I just pick 20 random layouts and just stuff 'em in there. So those have been printed. But as a photo book, I like it better than printing it as a like a print, like a photo like 12 by 12. It's just too, I don't know, it's just too big. It looks weird. Like I know that, I know that the things on there aren't real, so it just looks funny. And so that's where the, the Project Life and the projects come in. I can put it in physical form and just have it there.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. One, like we are balancing that need for completion with the need to be creative and play with things and, and make thing, create things from nothing too. So this scrapbooking is so unique in that matter that we have all these [01:26:00] different kind of competing priorities and we have to choose which ones to listen to.

Janelle Horsley: Yeah. It's hard. It's hard to narrow it down, but that's good, I guess.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. All right. So in the interest of time, here's what we're gonna do for the last round. Um, I would like to, because this is something you do all the time for Spark, is you share a tip. So if you have a piece of advice for our listeners, um, either something that you've done this year that's made all the difference, um, an organizational solution that's worked really well for you, or something that, like you figured out like this, if I did this or not did this, I let go of this. It helped me find more joy or ease in the process. So if you, you know, had some thoughts that you wanted to share on any of those, um, I would love to go around and share a final piece of advice. Otherwise, this episode will be five hours long. So, but it definitely shows we have to do this again. We will. And, um, I can't wait to do this will be [01:27:00] streamed as a premier, um, for, for members in our open house participants on, well, you're rewatching it on June 30th. And hopefully we're all chatting in the chat box next to it and having others like, comment in and, and share their perspectives on all the things that we've talked about. So that's just gonna make it even, you know, the next level of fun. Okay. Monica, go ahead, your piece of advice.

Monica Moriak: So I sometime last fall I started showering the night before and it made the whole morning seem less rushed.

And about two or three months ago, as part part of my morning, instead of being like on my phone or reading, I started leaving my phone upstairs and taking my iPad. 'cause that's where I primarily scrap downstairs, sit in my comfy chair with my hot beverage in the morning. And I take about 30 minutes to work on a scrapbook page or design something. And it's like I, I feel more creative, I [01:28:00] feel more connected and it just starts my day better. And I know people talk all the time about don't use your phone first thing in the morning, but something about switching. I'm still on a device, but my notifications don't come through on there. And I am, um, it's just some creative time I've had just so much fun. And the fact that getting dressed and ready for the day takes much less time. Um, it's just, I don't know. I was amazed at just try some things. I did a tiny experiment to see how it would go, and I'm still doing it. So we'll read that book later.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Thanks, Monica. Peggy, go ahead.

Peggy Collins: I wanted to throw out that I've been doing, uh, more with our sketch library because I'm facilitating the collaboration. Um, and I needed to make layouts, and I often use the sketch library, but I often, um, modify them extensively, like sometimes to the point that you can't tell that I use the sketch. Um, oftentimes that, that that much modification.

And [01:29:00] so, but I couldn't do that this time. And so it was, it's one of those places where you're narrowing your, you're, you're putting some guardrails on. And I clipped through some layouts pretty quickly. So just a reminder that whatever guardrails work for you, whether that's a sketch and you stick to the sketch, whether it's a pile of supplies and you limit yourself to that pile of supplies. Whatever those guardrails are can just be so powerful. And so it's good to stop every once in a while and think how can I make it smaller. Less decision fatigue, because I think that can often really derail us very quickly. So that's my little piece of advice.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and I think that's a, a through line through a lot of what was mentioned here tonight too, of following what works for you and really understanding what that is so that you can do more of it. And, uh, not overcomplicating things. When it's like, if, if it's, if it's something that's complicated and you love every single [01:30:00] moment of that complication, then do it.

Peggy Collins: Go for it.

Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: But yeah, but then know when that, that time is up. I once made this like very, very tiny wreath out of way, way too many strips of paper and it ended up being way too thick and I had to like, cut it down, uh, in order for it to actually go in the December Daily album. But I was so delighted to do this, and then I realized I couldn't sew through it like I'd planned. But, you know, it was fun in the process and I learned from that, so.

Peggy Collins: And sometimes that's fun. And sometimes it's driving into quicksand that you're gonna be three weeks later staring at this pile on your desk wishing that you could get going again. And it's sometimes hard to know that until you're halfway in the quicksand. But the, the ability to kind of A sink into that moment when you have the opportunity and you found that thing, and you have that moment for for heaven's sake, just live in it and love it. [01:31:00] And if you're, got the front two tires in the quicksand. Try, try reverse. Right? Like get yourself back out there so that you can, uh, not derail yourself for any extended period.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Nice. Thanks, Peggy. Amy R.

Amy Randell: Yeah, I guess, um, my tip would be, um, one thing that's really working for me is to have lists. So not only lists of what I wanna work on, but when I'm going to work on it. I've created a list that I call my weekly scrap flow, and I determined what days, what times I'm gonna work on certain projects. I mentioned earlier that I don't have any projects done, but there are a lot of projects in process. So how best can I put some time aside to work on all those different projects and actually see some movement in those projects? And so what works for me is to find time in my week and say, that's when I'm gonna work on these projects.

And specify exactly which projects are gonna get worked [01:32:00] on. Um, and included in that is project management time. Because, without that time to work on, um, project management or photo management, any, any administrative tasks need time too. So incorporating that almost as a separate project really works well.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. And when you, I think when you plan for that time, you feel more prepared, willing, and able to jump into actually the doing part and, uh, comply with the time that you've set aside for yourself because you actually are ready to do it.

Amy Randell: Yeah, for sure. And you know, you know, if you have that timeframe, you also know what you're going to work on because you have that list of things that you said you were going to work on.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. Thanks Amy.

Amy Randell: Yep.

Jennifer Wilson: Sara.

Sara Case: Mine goes back to, um, Shimelle again, who we've talked about a couple times already this evening. Uh, I used to be famous for, I have to find the perfect piece of [01:33:00] paper. It has to be the exact right color on the exact right shade and match. And she's always saying, when you find one that works, take it and move on. Stop wasting your time.

And I've started doing that. Oh, this paper will work. That embellishment will work. I stop looking. And it has saved me a huge amount of time. I get more done. I actually find it more enjoyable 'cause I'm not spending so much time just picking, I'm spending more time creating. So I find that that has really changed how much I get done and how much I enjoy it.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice. nice. Yeah, I like that. Thanks Sara. Amy Z.

AmyZ: Mine is a shout out to the creative hub. Um, we talk about making decisions and trying to do things, you know, in a way that helps you save on the decisions. And sometimes I would forget my decisions that I made and then I'm back to the beginning going, what was this? Or what's going on here? So I started to put so many things in my creative hub.

So starting with the Journey Journal of having a plan and kinda like Amy R talked about, [01:34:00] when are you gonna work on what, what crops work that week? Or different things calendar wise. But a big change I made this year was documenting what photos I ordered for those one-off layouts I wanna make. I wanna make the layout, but have I even selected anything or organized any product. So organizing my orders or what I have coming in and where they are, making little notes of where I put things. Just the organization side of it has made creating so much easier and nicer.

And tying in with what Peggy said with sketches. I, I can re-look up a sketch number so many times. That's where I'm in the quicksand, right? Like, where did that go? I thought I had a post-it of it, or you know, whatever. Now it's in my creative hub and now I look it up and I say, oh, that's the layout I wanted to do with sketch number. You know, X, Y, Z. So that's my hot tip. Creative hubs.

Jennifer Wilson: Especially with the photos, because I'll be in a situation like we mentioned before with I or I, I [01:35:00] edit all the photos and I printed them, and there's this stack of 20, 30, 50, a hundred photos for a project. But I didn't write down, like this was for this section and this was for this section. And I'm like, well, I have to figure this out all again. Uh, I had it in my brain when I selected them and chose the sizes, but I didn't leave myself notes. So it's really important to do that. 'Cause your future self will be grateful.

Breon Randon: Yeah, and then like then like you're not gonna get back to that project 'cause you're like, oh, that's a whole new thing I have to do. Like.

AmyZ: Yeah. Yeah. It derails for sure. If you don't know what's next.

Jennifer Wilson: Denine.

Denine Zielinski: Chat GPT is just my best friend anymore. Um, I have just jumped in. Um, I started using it for school. And then one day I just went on and went, I wanna tell a story about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it would give me just all these ideas of what, what direction to go with it. And [01:36:00] if you really wanted to micromanage yourself, you could even ask it too, because I'll confess, uh, that when kids ask me to write recommendation letters, it's actually Chat GPT writing the recommendation letter.

Um, but when I was doing that for the kids, I was like, I wonder if I could like tell, gimme an example of journaling about a winter day. Do you know what I mean? And it's honestly, um, helps me work to work with more, um, descriptive words. Uh, the word choice. It, it's just the other day I used it to, I, I fed a photo into it and I said, can you please, um, extend the background of this photo to the right?

And it took a little bit longer, but it literally extended the background for me. I didn't have to do a single thing. I just told it to do it, and it just took what was on the right side of the photo and it just made it bigger. And I sat there going, yeah, um, I like this. So, uh, it was down the other day. Um, I don't know what day that was.

It might have been on [01:37:00] Tuesday. It was actually down. I would think it was like a, you know, nationwide outage on it. And I was, I was kind of sad. Um, and I, some people might look at it and say, well, that's not authentic, that's not genuine. But I've never used it in terms of like, exact word for word. But it gives you ideas.

It, it's, it's an amazing thing. If you have a photo of, you know, someone eating ice cream and you're like, well, I don't really know what to say. You can just. Ask Chat GpT. So I tell everybody, play around with it. You don't have to dive in, you don't have to use it all the time. But if you're ever stuck, you could ask it, you know, uh, tell me what kind of scrapbook pages I could do about blank.

And it will just generate tons of things. It will offer to make you, would you like me to make a printable? And, and you could say, sure. I'd like a printable. I mean, it's, uh, I, I start, like I said, I started with it at school. Because I could literally take a page of my textbook and show it to Chat GPT and say, can you generate 20 questions about the, the [01:38:00] information on this page?

And it will do it. Um, so being a teacher in that sense has never been easier. And just applying it to scrapbooking, it has been fun. So if anyone has a chance, go out there and give it a shot. 'Cause it's, it's fun and it's helpful.

Breon Randon: Just to kind of jump in on something very small, I use an app called Goblin Tools, which is actually like an ADHD like, um, kind of like planning tool that goes along. It kind of brings in chat GPT, and it did, it's been around for a while. But yeah, I did that once where I typed in like, um, gave me a framework for a Disney scrapbook album and it, and that was all the information I gave it and it gave me like 25 steps, like checklist of all the different things that I could do to build this scrapbook.

And I was just like, oh, I thought that this was gonna big old be a big old zero. Like I, I did not have a lot of faith that you were gonna come out back with anything.

Denine Zielinski: And it was a time saver for you. Yeah. I mean, look, look at the time you saved sitting and having to think about every, every topic or every [01:39:00] section or whatever. Um, you know, again, we have our own creativity, but why not rely on that technology that exists to take away some of the minutiae that maybe takes more time than it needs to take? It's, it's just, it's, you can use it to whatever extent you want, and if it's just something as simple as that, it could help you save hours of planning time.

Monica Moriak: It's a tool. It's like our Geminis instead of fussy cutting. It's a tool.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, Yes, Some people enjoy the fussy cutting, and they wanna do that even though, because it's therapeutic. And so journaling might be that for somebody, and some folks want to have some creative input in order to get there and to make it perhaps even richer. Um, I can think of using it for, uh, if you went on a trip and you didn't take a lot of notes to say like, Hey, I went to Boston and I wanna make a scrapbook about it. Can you like, uh, ask me some questions so that I can try to remember the things that we did and the things, the [01:40:00] stories that I might wanna tell. Um, to like, you know, be a, it's almost like a person, I mean, like somebody you're bouncing ideas off of when you may not have someone who's willing or able to do that, or there may not be a person, maybe it was a solo trip type of thing, so.

Denine Zielinski: It's, it's like your personal assistant, right? It's like an assistant.

Amy Melniczenko: I'll sometimes use it to help me with titles 'cause I am not good at it. Like, I see some of your pages and I, your titles blow me out the water, but I'm like the worst. I'm like the zoo, like I have the worst, you know, but I can put it into ChatGPT and get some ideas. And then I, and I'm not having to sit there for 14 minutes trying to come up with one little, you know, so find ways that it, you can use it to your advantage, but edit, like, edit it. Don't trust it completely.

Denine Zielinski: Don't ever trust it. You have to always edit it. 'Cause yeah, it's still not a human, it it, it [01:41:00] still needs help. I mean, for now

Jennifer Wilson: This is where I re remind everyone that a couple years ago I had it like, help me organize our list of book club options. And it ended up hallucinating and made up a really awesome book that I would totally wanna read for book club. It just did not exist.

Breon Randon: So close.

Jennifer Wilson: It made to like the final top 10. And then I went to like go find the link and I'm like, wait, I can't find this anywhere.

And I did like a deep search and I'm like, it doesn't it, this literally does not exist.

Amy Melniczenko: I, I think that's very common. 'Cause the Chicago Tribune recently produced a book list of summer fiction titles, and they were almost all entirely made up. So, like, there, yeah. That somebody was like, wait, that's not her new book this year. It just, like, it said, oh, Taylor Jenkins Reid is writing a new book, but gave it a completely different title. And so yeah, you do. And he, the guy was like, oops, I didn't check. Well.

Denine Zielinski: Fact [01:42:00] check.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, and even when I was having, I had it like write one sentence descriptions of each of the podcast episodes so that you guys could tell me which ones I should replay. Well, I had to really ask more, like give more detailed directions. Because it started making up episodes. 'Cause apparently I've interviewed Amy Tangerine and, uh, the Cricut lady, like all these people that I've never interviewed, and I'm like, wait, these aren't real. Kelly Purkey. Like, they just, they they googled scrapbooker and just picked the people that came up.

Sara Case: I am going to toss in, uh, something you were talking about titles. When I get stuck for titles, song lyrics, every time.

Amy Melniczenko: Well, you're really good at titles.

Really every time you submit a page I'm like how'd she do that?

Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Well, and that could be a, a prompt, like, can you, like, I'm making a [01:43:00] layout about a girl with a balloon. Give me like five different like song titles or song lyrics that might go with that, that are popular.

Helen DeRam: Might make up the songs. But.

Jennifer Wilson: It might.

Helen DeRam: In that, um, just real quick, in that Chicago, I think it was the Sun Times, um, article with the reads for the summer. One of the fake books was actually like, the description of it was like AI taking over.

Amy Melniczenko: It's funny.

Helen DeRam: So I was like, Hmm,

Denine Zielinski: Well, if it's gonna take over, it really needs to do my housework. I mean, you know. It might as well be something that could be helpful. Take O, take O, take it over. I'm good with it. Go ahead.

Helen DeRam: Yeah, yeah, I'd much rather have it do that. But on the topic of, you know, things that can help us, um, actually in the community, Melissa Burnett had posted a whole great, uh, post on the different ways that she does [01:44:00] multiple photo spreads. And she mentioned an app called Turbo Collage. And I tried it out when I was doing this recent album, and I love it. Um, is, you know, if you like putting a lot of photos on a page and especially different sizes, um, you can just say what your page size sizes and, um, they have different ways you could do layouts. Like if you're doing it digitally, you could pile the photos on top of each other. You could do a grid, um, and then you just add your photos and you can crop them. Um, what I liked about it is I could, could do it digitally and just do a pile of photos, which was fun. But I could make it a grid and just kind of print multiple photos at the same time on one sheet of paper and then I could still cut them out. And, um, you know, they're size the way I need them to. So, um, give that a try. If you like doing multiple photos on a page.

Jennifer Wilson: That's really cool. I'm assuming like it makes them not all the same size.

Helen DeRam: You can do either. You can have them all be the same size or change the [01:45:00] size. You can just click, click a photo and change its size, and then it changes the size of the others. Um, it's, it's really, it's, it's really great. And it's very intuitive

Breon Randon: The best 20 bucks I've spent in a heck a long time. That's all I have to say. It was like 20 bucks is not a subscription and I'm like, I spend, and yes, I can do this in Photoshop, but like this is, you know, all those times when we're like, oh, can we print something at just this size or whatever, like now you don't have to worry about, it's just like done.

Helen DeRam: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Fun. Okay. I'll have to try that. Ettiene, Please go ahead.

Ettiene Rickels: So mine is, I have started, um, really wanting to put more journaling on my pages, but I really hate sitting in front of the computer after, like a long day at work. So I do all my journaling now on my phone. And I do it before I even create the pages. So I just have a running list of ideas for pages and then I try to tell myself during commercials I will journal. To even gamify it more. But I will then just type up like a little journaling spot. So then when I come to scrapbook, I'm not having to [01:46:00] make a decision on what to journal about and it just makes it come together so much faster. Um, so if you look in my phone, in my notes app, there's like a million little journaling spots. Um, and then I just emailed them to myself eventually.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Sara Case: I jump in there for a second? So, Cathy Caines who's another design team member, she uses Instagram and Facebook in that way. So she's on the go all the time. Her, one of her daughters is competitive, competitive dancer, so she's never home. And she just on the go will write an Instagram story with a picture or a Facebook story with a picture, and then when she goes to scrapbook, she literally just copies and pastes. So same idea, but she says that she never forgets anything and it's, it's done.

Ettiene Rickels: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: That's helpful, particularly if you're already writing the words anyway. Like sometimes we think, oh, I'm like, I'm not good at journaling. Well, you're sharing on social media or you're texting the photos to your family members. You are writing those words sometimes when you don't even realize it. Melissa.

Melissa Magnuson-Cannady: [01:47:00] Yeah, so my tip has to do with, um, actually the kind of a creative hub, but it's about leaving breadcrumbs. So right when I first joined, I was in a crop and I was talking about whatever project I was working on, and Peggy was like, oh yeah, did you leave yourself breadcrumbs? And I was like, oh my gosh, that would've been amazing. So I try really, really hard to, you know, if it's something where I know I'm gonna come back to it within a, you know, a day or something, I don't. But otherwise I really try hard to leave myself breadcrumbs and, um, you know, putting in the creative hub is an option, you know, that obviously really, really works.

And, and so that really just tied in with what Amy Z and, and you said Jennifer. But um. That's really been a game changer for me.

Jennifer Wilson: Sticky note. Anything like scrap a piece of paper, whatever you need to do, even just like a bookmark. This is where you are. Uh, anything can be helpful when your brain forgets all the things. Thanks, Melissa. Great one. Bre.

Breon Randon: So I'll keep on real quick. Mine [01:48:00] essentially is just kind of like leaning on the community to just really to learn and try new things. Um, this year I've done all, like, we've done so much work back and forth on creative hubs. I know we keep bringing them up, but it's been a really big feature in the community this year.

I've, you know, tried a bunch of different suggestions that people have had and kind of tweaked a bunch of things and hodgepodge stuff. Um, and like being okay with like, just being like, it's okay that if I go and run and chase this rabbit over here and I chase this rabbit over here. Like, and knowing that you are taking what other people's knowledge and like really making something for yourself, like you will get to that point.

And also in the same spirit of like being willing to try new things. Um, Helen, a long time ago had showed me her Heidi Swapp book and I was just like, I'm a digital scrapbooker. I can't do that, but like. I found a place and a home for that work in trying to work on Aligned in that way in the community.

And so if you wanna try new things, try to find like a home for that, like a limited compact, you know, something with a beginning and an [01:49:00] end. And so you can have that boundary and kind of try something new without being like, I have to commit fully to changing my whole workflow. Like finding that little home where you can do something that's outside of the ordinary.

And I've really enjoyed it and I, and I'm really happy knowing that it has an end. That I won't be like doing this forever, but I also really am enjoying what I'm doing in the time I'm doing it. So just being open to those kind of ideas, you know, filing them away and like being, being willing to spot a new home for ideas that aren't necessarily in your traditional workflow.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, that, that will definitely bring you more joy, more excitement, and continue your creative inspiration. Monica.

Monica Alvarez: Mine is also about the community. Like I love being here because Simple Scrapper is like a constant, you know, it's always there. And life gets crazy and I can like go away for a couple of weeks, a month. And I come back and it is there and [01:50:00] we probably have like event sometime soon. And that really gets myself motivated and into coming back to what I love.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. I was like trying to tally up the number of crops and number of crop hours every week, and it's still in the 30 to 40 hour range per week of open crop time. Some that are on the opposite side of the world when I'm sleeping. Um, yeah, it's just, it's amazing. There's always something going on, for sure. All right. Anybody else wanna share?

Amy Melniczenko: To tag on what Monica said, 'cause I think it's really important. Um, the Simple Scrapper community is a special place, and if you're a member, you know that. But exactly what Monica said is true. If you have to be away because life gets crazy and you're away for a couple of weeks, the minute I come back, people are just there. You can, always find someone who will support you, give you ideas of something you're struggling with. If you're going through [01:51:00] something, there's inevitably someone in our community who is also going through it, who will be happy to chat with you. Go to the community events, get on Zoom, talk to people.

Uh, I know it can be scary to do some of that stuff, but this community is not scary, I promise. Just jump in. You'll, you won't regret it and you'll be glad that you did. I know that my life has been changed, immeasurably because of this community. And I would bet a lot of these folks who are on with me would agree. Um, there are people who meet in person from all around the world and the country because of this community. So I just think it's a special place.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh no, we lost Amy. Well, thank Amy so much.

Sara Case: On to what Amy said, it's 100% true. I've had people who have come to Newfoundland and they will send me messages saying, I'm coming to Newfoundland. Can we meet? I mean, that's incredible. You don't get that everywhere. So it's, yeah, [01:52:00] the community here is amazing.

Jennifer Wilson: For sure.

Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, that'll just second or third or fourth that. I have gone through so much life stuff in the course of the last few years and everybody has been so wonderful. And, you know, special shout out to my eight o'clock Zoom ladies. It's like, uh, our therapy session, I think we all get more blabbing done than actually talking, or, than actually scrapping rather. But it's, you know, it's the best community. So low drama, it's just the best. And I can do 10 million infomercials about Simple Scrapper. So, you know. And, and really the, the don't be scared to jump into a crop. I'll, I'll second that as well. Because I, I feel like everyone is so welcoming and anytime anyone is new, we kind of glom on like, hi, how are you? You know, [01:53:00] whatcha working on? And, and maybe it's a little extra, but you know, we're just trying to be friendly.

Jennifer Wilson: It comes from a genuine place, for sure.

Jennifer Johnson: It does, it does for sure.

Jennifer Wilson: Thanks Jen. Thanks everyone for spending this time. I appreciate you guys staying past our planned time. Any final words before I close out here? I don't wanna leave anybody hanging. All right. And to all those watching live with us and chatting, and to all those watching in the future, I hope you always remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way. Take care, and thanks again everyone.

How to Subscribe

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SYW299 – Getting Back to Scrapbooking https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/04/syw299/ https://www.simplescrapper.com/2025/04/syw299/#respond Sat, 19 Apr 2025 01:58:33 +0000 https://www.simplescrapper.com/?p=226877 In this episode Jennifer shares her advice for returning to scrapbooking after a break as well as an update on new Scrapbook Your Way episodes.

The post SYW299 – Getting Back to Scrapbooking appeared first on Simple Scrapper.

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In this episode, I’m going solo to answer a listener question about how to reignite your scrapbooking passion after a hiatus. I share my experience with a recent layout, offer steps to ease back into the hobby, and talk about the importance of mindset and consistency. I’m also announcing a brief pause in podcast episodes for some behind-the-scenes updates and the upcoming celebration of our 300th episode.

Links Mentioned

[00:00:00] How do you get back into scrapbooking if you've taken a break of a month, a year, or longer? That's what we're gonna be talking about in this episode, plus a little bit of behind the scenes conversation. Let's do it. All right, Jennifer here with another solo episode. You all seem to really like the last one.

So I'm sitting here. I am well caffeinated, and we are gonna dive in. I'm gonna follow our regular format, but it's just me chatting with all of you. I love this podcast. And at the end, I'm gonna be sharing a little bit more about the future of Scrapbook Your Way. But for now, let's start with our normal routine.[00:01:00]

So one of my favorite recent layouts is one called Be Wild that I made at our recent Stash Bash event. I will share a photo of this in the show notes for the episode, of course. And this was so fun, and I always find. Participating in my own challenges to be very fun because it pushes me outside of the box.

I don't always have a plan or idea when I am writing the challenges or working with my team to develop our programming. I participate fresh with our members, and this one, of course, since it was Stash bash, I was pulling stash from. Very, very long ago, I ended up using a lot of products from Old Studio Calico Kits back when they were doing the full 12 by 12 scrapbook kits, including a, [00:02:00] uh, let's see, a scenic.

Paper that I never thought I would really find a use for, and I used that for my background. I also found this little selection of supplies in an envelope that I think I gathered. I. Maybe 20 16, 20 17 at another Stash Bash event. Uh, they were all very well coordinated. They were all things I loved. And I know we have a challenge that's related to creating in your comfort zone and gathering a little collection of supplies that you're gonna be excited to create with.

And I just happened to stumble upon this when I was trying to find items from my stash for this project. I also love how this type of challenge, this type of just let's make a layout, let's have fun with it. This helps me tell stories that span time, the products [00:03:00] inspire kind of the direction that I want to go, connections that I'm making in my mind.

And this layout ended up being about how we travel as a family and that we travel well together. We're all perhaps a little more high strung and uptight at home, but we seem to have a good go of the flow relaxed approach to traveling together. And so it was fantastic to be able to pull images from various adventures over the past years.

All right, I just got a text that my grocery order is ready. So once I conclude this conversation with you all, that will be the next step on this Sunday morning. So in our next kind of, you know, standard intro question here, what am I excited to do, use or try? [00:04:00] When I wrote these notes, maybe like a week ago now, I was feeling really excited about this and I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm gonna say that.

I'm gonna commit to diving into this. And then I'm excited about it because I'm both excited and apprehensive. So I really, really want to dive into this gallery wall in our living room. I have maybe 12 framed images on this wall. I never quite liked how it turned out. There was a little bit of imbalance, which of, of course, I could have corrected by adding more to it.

But then the glass broke on one of the frames, and there's still, I think, an image. A frame that doesn't have an image in it. It's like just whatever it came with. And so I've just had this vision of something that spans most of the wall that's a little bit more eclectic. 'cause right now everything [00:05:00] is in a black frame.

And so I started collecting frames of different colors, textures. I want it to be a combination of black, white, wood and gold. So just very. Eclectic, as I said, but hodgepodge looks like it's been curated over time, even though I'm going to be designing it all at once. I. Briefly looked for some tools and I discovered that print one of, you know, the, um, more popular services for printing photo books and wall art and, and, and really high quality prints.

They have this thing called the print wall editor, and I liked this compared to some other tools because it allows you to save your progress right in your account and so you can. Use your own photo or use one of their photos and then design your wall. [00:06:00] So the first step that I need to take is I need to inventory all the frames that I have, start trying to, um, arrange those.

In this wall editor, start figuring out what photos I already have, which ones I wanna print, and then kind of see what other frames I need to collect. I want to do a little bit of thrifting for these. I'm always kind of been eyeing, uh, the clearance racks at various stores. Uh, I think for me, one of the challenges always is.

This is wall art. And so the frames that are often on clearance are desk frames, tabletop frames, and if you ever tried to hang one of those, it may have a hook thing on the back, but it's never gonna be level with the wall. So I'm, I'm quite particular with having. Frames meant for the wall, or if it is a desk frame, that [00:07:00] it has a very clear way to remove that stand.

'cause I have destroyed some frames in the past trying to remove that on my own and they're quite secure. Anyway, that was a tangent. I really need to dive into this project. We are so close to kind of feeling like we're finished with our living room. We've already committed that we're not. Painting our living room anytime soon because.

The living room goes into the dining room, which goes into the kitchen. It's all connected. It just becomes this, this big thing. And so it was painted when we moved in, which was now 10, 11 years ago. But it is white. It's fine. We need to focus on painting the rest of the house, but I want to kind of just have the.

Cap on on the living room so we could say it's done enough for now. We finally hung some curtains last year and so getting this gallery wall done, um, is something that I'm excited to do. So more [00:08:00] updates to come as we make progress. But I'm excited to try out this printed wall editor. To be the place where I can manage this whole process.

'cause I've gotta be able to see, see it visually and laying it all out on the floor. Yes, that will be part of the process, but I can't just leave it there as I figure this all out, there's, there's too many cats and kids and, and all kinds of stuff. So having a digital solution, um, is, is going to be a helper on this.

All right, let's dive into the main topic. So I received this question from Amanda and she calls herself a lapsed scrapbooker. And I, I get this question a lot folks who have really enjoyed and dedicated themselves to this hobby in the past. And something happens, you know, a shift in our seasons of life and [00:09:00] we have to step away.

Or we choose to step away. Maybe we're a little burnt out, but we have this craving, we have this desire to get back to it. And so I have a list of steps here of how I think I would approach this if I was coming back to scrapbooking myself and. To be honest, I, I don't know if I've really fully answered this question in this manner before, so I would love your feedback to know, is this something that feels like that would work for you if you are maybe in a similar boat as Amanda.

Or maybe you've already come back to scrapbooking, and I would love to hear what helped you do that. I've heard from so many of our members that they were on the verge of quitting, including Peggy, who you've heard on the podcast, who's part of our team now. And the strategies that we [00:10:00] use at Simple Scrapper helped them reengage with their hobby and find their own way forward.

All right, so let's dive into these steps. First off, you have to remember what you love about scrapbooking, and this means ignoring any guilt feelings about being behind. Inventorying the full qua quantity of photos that you haven't done anything with. We can't start there. We can't start with overwhelm and frustration and feelings that drag us down.

We have to start with the. The mindset that every layout, every project that we can add to our full library of memories is, is a gift to this treasure chest that we are leaving for our future selves and future [00:11:00] generations. So we have to start with. That, that centeredness and that often requires you to go look at things you've made in the past.

Look through your photo library, look through journaling, look through anything that can help you viscerally reconnect with your hobby, whether it's been a little bit or a very long time.

And then with that is. As we continue to ignore and put things aside, our next step is not to then go back to where we left off or the next thing that we should do. I wanna encourage you to choose a recent story, one that. Uh, it really is pulling to you. It could be the one that made you think about scrapbooking.

Again, something that's going on in your life or something that happened that reminded you [00:12:00] of your childhood, of a past experience, of a dream fulfilled of, of a challenge. Overcome something that's really exciting you, and start there. Print the photos, select the photos, do what you need to do to say, this is where I'm going to start.

It doesn't matter if I'm in the middle, I'm at the end. I'm starting with this story because it connects me back to my hobby and reminds me of why I love it. So from there, we don't want you to face a blank page. Design can sometimes be intimidating. And I wanna encourage you, or at least give you permission to find a sketch, to use a digital template or even just a page that you admire to scrap lift.

Look for something that works with about the number [00:13:00] of photos that you want to use, and allow yourself to follow it. This isn't the time to be your most creative. It's a time to remember that muscle memory of what it's like to scrapbook and what it's like to create with meaning behind it. Next, it's time to gather some supplies, and this is where I offer another piece of wisdom that you probably don't need anything new yet.

Because what you love about scrapbooking today and forward may have changed from the past, but the only way you will know that is if you start working with the supplies from the past that you already have. So I want you to dig through your stash, whether that's physical or [00:14:00] digital, and find some things that will work.

It could be something that maybe you were saving for that special time in the future. This is that special time. This is your recommitment to your hobby. It could be just, just some things that happen to, to go with the color scheme you have in your mind or the theme of your story. Just pick a selection of papers and embellishments.

Grab the tools that you think you need. Typically we're starting with some type of adhesive and some type of cutting implement. It could be a tremor, it could be scissors. Gather the basics and then set a timer when we are. Facing something new, facing something maybe that has baggage with it. We sometimes need that timer to get us over the hump to get us started, to get us into the flow.

So set that [00:15:00] timer for 20 minutes and allow yourself to begin N now if in 20 minutes. You haven't found yourself in the flow in it, ready to keep going, then you have permission to set it aside. For now you got started. Maybe you need just a little bit different environment, a different day, a different scenario to continue.

But I bet for most of you that that 20 minutes will be more than enough to really find yourself back in it. But we have to. Actually connect with the process in order to get to that place. Doing it is what makes it happen, not we can't just wait for the motivation or the creative spark. We have to bring ourselves to the table first,

so then you will make your layout. Whether that takes you 30 minutes or far [00:16:00] longer. It doesn't matter when you are done. I want you to share your layout with others. It could be others in your family, in your community. It could be with your Instagram friends, your Facebook friends. It could be in a community like Simple Scrapper, share your work where others can acknowledge that you did something.

You, you put in the effort and you documented a memory. The, the momentum that's created from sharing is so incredibly powerful and. Often gives us that, that drive to keep going.

Okay, so you made a layout. No. What? At this point, you have a choice. You can either just make another one. If you feel like I just need to create a little bit, then I want you to allow yourself to do that, particularly if you had another story in mind, [00:17:00] another awesome photo that you took recently. Just get some things under your belt, but if that one layout was enough to really fire you back up, I want to invite you to use our Focus Finder tool, and I will have that linked for you in the show notes for the episode.

This is where you can start thinking about what you want to do and how you might prioritize that. Give you all the steps, how to think about it so that you can make a decision of what you want to focus on next, because. You're gonna get really excited. You're gonna notice that there's fun products out there.

You're gonna realize you have some things in your stash. You have so many photos. This is where we have to then continue to give ourselves boundaries of what we're actually focused on. Because if we're not focused on one thing, we're focused on nothing. [00:18:00] And this tool is one of our favorites to, to help you figure out really what should, should rise to the top.

And really the final step here is being consistent. I have mentioned many times on the show that I am not the most prolific scrapbooker. I have times of the year, particularly at in-person crops where I'm creating 20, 30 layouts. I'm creating as part of our events, and I do lots of little things in between, but I'm not.

Making 1, 2, 3 layouts every single week, and that's okay. The important part is that I'm staying connected. I have made a habit of being a memory keeper, of being a scrapbooker, so that I can retain that joy and reduce the chances that I'm going to have [00:19:00] a lapse in the future, that I'm gonna step away for so long that I feel disconnected.

You don't have to be. Scrapbooking to be a scrapbooker. And that's what I want to really emphasize today, that declaring yourself a scrapbooker again and embracing that identity is gonna be huge for giving you that consistency going forward. And the more that you can surround yourself with encouraging and supportive community, the more you'll be able to sustain that.

All right. That is my advice for Amanda and anyone else who feels like they need a return, an official return to scrapbooking. All right. To conclude here, gotta go to the next page of my notes. I wanna talk a little bit about what is coming up. So this is [00:20:00] episode 2 99. It feels, it feels big, but it's not really big because episode 300 is gonna be the big one.

That's a crazy milestone in the life of a podcaster. I, I can't believe I've been doing this for so long and I can't wait to bring you so much more in the future. But right now we are gonna take a little pause. We are onboarding some new staff. I'm working on some bigger projects that I just haven't been able to get to because of the weekly rhythm of the podcast.

So over the next couple months, you're gonna see. Replays of past episodes. These aren't just any episodes. These have been hand selected as being some of the best conversations. Um, these have been recommended by our members and we are excited to offer them to you with a little [00:21:00] bit of new introduction to share why it might be worth a listen again or even a listen for the first time.

And then we will come back together for episode 300 and beyond. As I said, I love these conversations and I am not planning on stopping anytime soon, so never fear, but we do need to take this little bit of break to, to reset some things and do some tinkering. Behind the scenes, so make sure that you're getting our regular emails.

Um, we just had finishing day, so if you heard anything about finishing day, you're probably getting our emails, but signing up for that focus finder is the easiest way to make sure that you're on our email list. I've not been on Instagram quite as much, and part of that is just because of these behind the scenes projects I've been working on.

Some of it is just more personal, not feeling as much of a desire to share, [00:22:00] but I wanna make sure that I do stay connected with all of you via email, particularly during this little, we'll call it a podcast to vacation. I don't even wanna call it a hiatus, because those often seem longer. This isn't really that long.

We'll be back in July with new episodes and I'm so excited to share with you something fun that's gonna be happening end of June, beginning of July, to mark that 300th episode to bring us all together to reengage with our hobby and feel excited about scrapbooking in the second half of 2025. All right.

That's all I have for you today. If you have any questions for me or any other advice for someone who wants to get back into scrapbooking, I'd love if you left a comment on the show notes for this episode. You [00:23:00] can find those at simplescrapper.com/syw299, and until next time, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.

How to Subscribe

The best way to listen to Scrapbook Your Way is with a podcast player on your mobile device or with iTunes on your computer. You can subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or by searching for “Scrapbook Your Way” in your favorite podcast app.

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