The Weekly Pep Talk is a video podcast series designed to help you find more time for scrapbooking and use it well. Learn more in our free guide.
In this week’s pep talk, I’m encouraging you to let go of your protective shield and start sharing more of your real story when you scrapbook. Subscribers may need to visit the website to view the video.
Your Weekly Pep Talk
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It’s your turn to talk! Have you ever glossed over reality on a scrapbook page? Leave a comment sharing your thoughts: Do you think its important to tell the real story?
If I scrap a negative page, I’ll put something cursory on the front, but tell the ‘real story’ on the BACK of the page. This way, it’s still there for those who wish to know the real deal (physical abuse, alcoholism etc), but isn’t out there for the world to see. Is there really a need for grandbaby to know that grandma was beaten to a pulp when she was growiing up? certainly not until she’s older and is searching for family history (hopefully long after I’m gone). this way it’s there for her – just later in life.
I have also ‘hidden’ the real story on a journaling block tucked behind a photo – the occasion that springs to mind is the Christmas after my husband was diagnosed with cancer – I scrapped the ‘happier’ moments, and tucked away the difficult aspects of it behind a photo. I have also done pages where I laid it out for everyone to see, even though the subject matter was ‘difficult’ – for instance, I made a layout on the challenges I faced tried to breastfeed, how my ‘failure’ to do so tore me apart and made our first few weeks with a new baby feel like a nightmare. It felt good to lay it out there, but I do notice that others seem awkward when they turn to this page and realize what it’s about.
The good and the bad are part of our life’s journey and this is a great reminder! I was a wannabe scrapbooker (collecting but not using supplies for YEARS…okay DECADES…sigh) until this year, and then I started a Project Life album. So far it’s been going okay, and my grandkids just love reading the stories and flipping the pages to see themselves. DH has also embraced this new ‘hobby’ of mine and will remind me that {whatever} should go in my book. The Boston marathon tradegy is something I will be putting into this album of mine – I’ve got some photos, some blog posts, and have been journaling a little bit each day into my DropBox account so I can write down the random thoughts from home or work. I will have some hidden less-than-cheery journaling (flaps, vellum envelopes, and pullout tags) but I also will have some that will be in plain view. We’ve had family dinner discussions about the horror and excerpts of those will also be included – as well as the happier news of the shows of support for Boston.
Thank you for the reminder about how important this is! When I think of all of the things I’m sure that my grandparents and great-grandparents experienced during their lifetimes that was never documented, it is a good reminder to do this on my own pages. I’d love to have gotten more info on how they felt during the Great Depression, for example. I know that they were hard hit by it but no details and no information on how they felt about it. Another example is that my great grandparents lost their oldest son when he was just 3 years old. I cannot imagine what that must have been like for them but I’ll never really know as nothing was every documented and the story is lost now. Thanks again for the very important reminder!