Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Tales of a Craft Class Junkie: Style is Leverage and the Reflective Story Style with Get It Scrapped

Even though I have been scrapbooking for over a decade, categorizing my personal scrapbook style isn't easy for me. I  have found my groove and my process flows with ease( most of the time). I can work with just about any product I am handed, molding them and adapting them to my style with ease. However if you  ask me to name my style? Nope. Not Sure. I know who I am as a memory keeper but the name for that identity sits on the tip of my tongue, sort of unspoken like that whatsamacallit you know but just can't seem to say when people ask you. It's really not a problem for me,unless I am applying for a design team and they want me to define who I am.

Rather than categorize my style, I tend to sit back and observe. What do I do? How do I do it? Why do I do that? Do I need to make any changes? If so, what and why? This isn't about making a comparison of myself to others. This is about leveraging my style. Even if I don't name it, it's still mine and I want to use it effectively. I want to understand the way I use specific supplies. Understanding what I do and how I use products helps me work efficiently but it also points me towards opportunities to expand the way I work.

While I do always journal on a page, I tend to fall into a basic pattern. I have a tendency of capturing the event in it's most rudimentary and factual form. I don't know why this is, other than to speculate that, once the page is finished, I am just so ready to move on to a new design. Now there is nothing wrong with event scrapping and being factual. It's just that I want to do more with the way I tell my stories. I have gotten the chance to examine my story style with a layout I created recently for Get It Scrapped  as well as during the Style is Leverage Event.

All is Well by Christy Strickler |Supplies Patterned Paper Pebbles, Basic Grey,We R Memory Keepers; Crate Paper; Letters: American Crafts; Punch: EK Success; Labels: Evalicious; Enamel Dots: My Mind’s Eye; Die Cuts: Basic Grey: Journal Card: Basic Grey: Other: ribbons; Appears in an article for Get It Scrapped; Based on a sketch from the Simple Scrapper Premium membership





I know I can get a bit lazy when is comes to journaling. Having a prompt helps me out quite a bit.When I created this layout, I started with the idea that I wanted to tell a reflective story and then found the photos to work with that story style. Let's look at this page, for example. These are photos of my husband and myself in the NICU with our son.Though it may not be obvious from these pictures,he was born premature. We were close to going home, but still had a long unknown path ahead of us.I would probably have written a brief explanation of the photos. Perhaps I might have mentioned how worried we were at the time. What did I do instead? I chose to write from my present perspective, telling my former self that I wish I would have known then that everything would be ok. My son grew up just fine with few health issues. It's something that I also wish to tell other parents of premature babies.

This is my second year participating in Style is Leverage. I came back to it, once again, to reevaluate where I am now. I like who I am as a memory keeper, but understanding more about how I tell my stories will give me what I need to move forward in the telling of richer tales. Story telling is definitely an area I want to work on. I personally feel that, no matter what lever or style of memory keeper we are, we can always benefit from taking stock in ourselves. Now for me, it's just a matter of making story telling experiments a habit and not falling too far back into old routines.

Have you ever taken a look at your personal story style? How do you feel about it? Does it convey enough of what you want to tell in your journaling?

Supply Options
This posts contains affiliate links when possible. Please shop your stash first, but should you find you need something, consider supporting MSE.

Some supplies are from the January 2015 Cocoa Daisy Kits. I am not an affiliate but I am a subscriber.


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Additional Resources


an article from the Get It Scrapped Blog












The Story Styles Lookbook which is part of the Get It Scrapped Membership
Click here to visit Get It Scrapped.












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