This guest post from design team member Aimee Maddern invites you to explore how simplicity can help tell more of your story.
I officially started scrapbooking in 2000 and opened a store in 2006. One of the questions I frequently got from store customers was: where do I begin?
Everyone always wanted to buy the album first or get a bunch of embellishments. I always replied with this: Start by keeping it simple.
Keep it inexpensive. What if you don’t like this hobby? You don’t want hundreds of dollars invested on a hobby you don’t enjoy.
I always asked them to grab one photo and see what it tells you.
- Is it an old or recent photo?
- What part of the photo do you want to highlight?
I don’t have kids so the photos I mostly scrap are of my dogs, landscape, my boyfriend and I, and old photos of my self. When I scrap the photos of myself I have 2 choices how I tell the story.
- If I actually remember that moment in time I can tell that story.
- Tell a story of how the photo makes me feel now.
Telling the Stories, Simply
When I go through my old scrapbook pages I see my style has evolved. Some of us are journalers and some of us are not.
I am not a journaler, but that doesn’t mean I don’t tell stories.
I have never embraced my handwriting, so I used to find quotes or poems to add to my page that reflected what I felt about the photo. It made me feel like I was preserving that moment in time, just in my own way.
As my style has evolved, I have stopped using the quotes and poems. Now I add as much information to the page as I can. I tell a story through titles, dates and embellishments.
I have embraced that I don’t journal. Maybe someday when I have children and/or a husband journaling will find its way to my pages.
I just keep it simple.
On Creativity and Storytelling
When I add embellishments they need to help tell the story. I know sometimes we use embellishments because they speak to us or because we just have to have them.
When I look at my old layouts I see that I found a pattered paper that lets the photo tell its own story. Sometimes a paper that has nothing to do with your photo is perfect.
Example: You have a photo taken at Disneyland. There is no need for “Disney” paper. There are times where the paper overshadows your story and the photo gets lost.
Are you telling a story about how much you love Minnie Mouse or about how adorable your daughter was when she met Minnie?
Simple details will be there when our memories fail. Simple accents, on a simple paper, let your photos tell their own stories.
I like to keep it simple for these reasons. Why do you keep it simple?
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