Friday, September 28, 2012

Are you Scrapping Yourself?


Hi there! Practical Scrapper Alison here with a question that is near and dear to my heart - Are you Scrapping Yourself?

I am really good at taking piles of pictures of my girls and my husband and making beautiful layouts about them but when it comes to MY story, it is... er ... um ... spotty to say the least. In February while participating in Lain Ehmann's LOAD challenge (that's LayOut A Day for the uninitiated) I found that a lot of her prompts steered me to scrap my own stories. Old ones, recent ones, ones I'd rather not think about, you name it! And what an eye opener that was!

On Sunday I turn 39. Gulp! 39?!?! When the heck did I get that old?

Okay, okay, I realize that 39 is really not old. I'm still in the prime of my life. Life begins at 40. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I know all that but I'm not feeling all that yet! So I decided to do something about it. Being a scrapper, I did not decide to jump out of an aeroplane or climb Mount Everest, I decided to make a scrapbook about it. Actually a SMASH book that's been taunting me unused on my shelf for over a year waiting for inspiration to hit.


I did try to use it - I took it to Disneyland this past May and even put a few things into it. But in the end I wasn't "feeling it" so those pages got ripped out (they may get re-imagined into my Disney Album which is currently in progress). As you can see, I have not done anything to the cover yet. As this is going to be a year long project I am just going to wait and see how it evolves so I will know better what to put here.


Here is Page One! My husband is taking me to see the Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Saturday (the day before my birthday) so I plan to have him take a picture of me which will eventually go here. Then on my 40th birthday I'll be sure to get another picture. Hopefully there will be some positive changes over the course of the year!

The other thing I have started for this book are some lists. 39 Things I like About Myself Right Now. 39 Things I Want to Do Before I Turn 40. 39 Things I've Learned So Far. I'd love for you to come on over to my blog and follow me on this journey to ... not sure. Self discovery? My Happily Right Now? Finally realizing I'm an adult and better get on with it?! :) Have you ever made a book like this? Please leave a link in the comments - I'd love to see it!

Before I go I thought I'd leave you with some of those ME layouts from LOAD212. Enjoy!

Day 20 - Prompt was 'Fashion Plate'. This is me at 15 just after getting my very first "highlights" done. Yup. Pretty sweet, right? Took me over 20 years to get up the guts to get highlights again!!

Day 23 - Prompt was 'Road Trip'. I talked about my different cars over the years. Such a fun story to tell!

Day 4 - Prompt was 'The More Things Change ..." I took some old photos and postcards from my family's time in Tehran as well as a letter my Mum wrote to her sister just after we were evacuated to Cyprus. This was 1979 - when the government was overthrown and all Westerners were forced to leave. The pictures on the bottom of the right hand page show us on the British Embassy lawn with our luggage and then at the airport waiting to get on the last commercial flight out! When the prompt came through, Iran was undergoing another revolution. It seemed appropriate to create this layout at that time.

Day 7 - Prompt was 'I Always Thought ...' which I used as my title. This time I talked about the death of my parents when I was 14. This was one of those tough stories but one that I am so glad I put down on paper!

Day 21 - Prompt was 'My Hometown'. I used pictures of our old house in Bar Hill, Cambridge taken over a span of about 30 years. Layouts with pictures like this - same place, different times - are great for your more introspective journalling.

Day 8 - Prompt was 'I Miss ...' which I once again used as my title jumping off point. I took a photo of myself from when I was at my fittest - playing Ultimate Frisbee 3 or 4 times a week and going to tournaments where this picture was taken - and talked about the stuff I miss about my body now that I've had 3 kids. Talk about a fun layout!! And I was really excited to use this awesome photo that had been sitting in my stash for YEARS!!

Day 17 - Prompt was 'When I Grow Up'. In these pictures I am about 3 or 4 years old and opening a birthday present from my Mum. This nurses uniform was made by her while she was at Teacher's College long before she ever thought she'd have a daughter. My Aunt convinced her to hang on to the outfit "just in case" and I had the pleasure of giving it to my oldest daughter for Christmas when she was 3-1/2.

I hope you've enjoyed this look into my story and I hope I've inspired you to get out from behind the camera and get INTO your scrapbooks! 


**Designer projects are not always linked in our posts, but you can always find their blogs in our sidebar or in the staff tab**


8 comments:

JulieJ said...

Love your LOs. I'm 50 in 2 years so I'd like to try that year's count down idea next year.

Unknown said...

great blog post! not very often do we focus ONLY on ourselves in a scrapbook page. I just posted an entry on a similar topic. "smashing" my first year of marriage. Check it out :)

http://documentmoorememories.blogspot.com/2012/09/quick-document-memories.html

Kim said...

Love your "365 days to 40" idea! I'll be 39 in November, and it's feeling tough! I think about just ignoring it, but I like your idea better--might help me feel better about turning 40! TFS!

Lanette said...

Great Idea!! i think I might just do one too!

Kristie Maynard said...

Funny that scrapping yourself is what we are talking about here today. Some friends and I were just having a discussion about this subjuct and it seems all of us are in the same boat and don't scrap ourselves. My biggest problem is having pictures. I take most of the pictures an don't get into many of them. It is traditions for me to take a picture of me with each of my great nieces and nephews at Christmas, so I do have some layouts of that, but otherwise, I guess I need to try and scrap more of myself.
Some great ideas here. Thanks!

Roxy said...

I just love that you're finally going to do a SMASH book - I hope you love it as much as I do! I'm using the red one as an "all-about-me" album, and yeah, I struggle with getting pictures of myself into my everyday pages, too. I find it almost easier to scrap the really old pics, and laugh about them, then the present ones where I'm a bit more self-conscious. Anyway, your page about your ultimate days and your PK body reminded me of a page I did recently in my SMASH book, so I'll post it at the bottom if anyone's interested (I know you've already seen it, Alison!) Hope you have a great b-day, and I'm already thinking of my 40 before 40 list!

Roxy said...

OK, that didn't work, I'll link it here: http://roxyrolla.blogspot.ca/2012/08/gettin-smashy-with-it.html

Unknown said...

Great LO's Alison - I am so behind with LOAD - life has so got in the way the last couple of weeks!

Love the range of things you have scrapped - fab work!!!!