"Storyology"

Good morning! It's a beautiful one around here. Sunshine plus cool breeze is a perfect combination for me! 

During the NSD weekend a few online stores had sales. I was tempted to buy something. But I had to be honest to myself and ask what do I really need. I have enough paper for a year or two, but I could use a tool that would help me with journaling. Then the idea of online class came to me. Instead of adding more supplies to my stash, I bought Ali Edwards class "Storyology", and that was the best purchase on NSD. This class is only $14, but last weekend it was on sale for $10. Anyone can afford that.

I had a chance to watch it on Monday (it has 1hour 55min long video presentation) and do all the prompts required. It was just what I needed. I feel so energized and willing to tell more stories of out lives. It doesn't mean that it made me a pro (there's no class to do that, especially with language barrier), but it definitely helped me in many ways. At least to be brave! Yes, that's a big one for me. 

I remember, last summer I had no desire to take walks or exersize, but then I bought a new pair of snickers (a little more expensive than the ones I used to buy) and it changed everything. They were so light and comfortable that they made me want to go one more block, or keep walking for extra 5 minutes. Taking Ali's class was like buying that new pair of snickers.

The biggest thing I have learned was something I already knew. Journaling was always the last thing I did when I was making a page. No doubt, that design and playing with patterned paper is my favorite part in scrapbooking, but I never liked finished pages that didn't have a story to go with it. Leaving journaling for the last thing I usually was either too tired to look at the page to add a story, or didn't know what to say, or just didn't leave any space on a page for it.

Yesterday I tackled three challenges: 1-Starting a layout with journaling first. 2-Working with older photos. 3-Using a purple color palette. Each one of them on their own is challenging enough, but story makes a difference. Yes, pictures are not perfect, but if there's a story behind them why not using them. Sure, purple color is the hardest one for me to work with (I could do every page in blue right now), but years later it's not going to matter what papers I used on the page, the fact that the story was recorded and pared up with photos is what going to matter.

I scrapped pictures from this day before, but it was one of those sad pages because it didn't have a journaling on it. Now I can put them in the album together. Here is my page:

I used a lot of rhinestones here to match her dress I guess. Also, I wouldn't have really placed all of those circle elements on the main photo, but I did it trying to cover the red backlight on a car, which was really distracting to me.

That's all for today and I'll see you very soon again!