SYW300 – The Things That Make a Difference

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.