Happy 100 posts to me!! (and PL Week 30! and Find Your Voice 4!)

Guess what?? This is my 100th blog post!! Can you believe it?
I can't. I never dreamed that I would post 100 posts in this short time. I'm absolutely loving it and I'm very thankful to all my readers.

There's a lot going on in this post, a little something for everyone - It's mostly Project Life Week 30 but also how part of PL Week 30 ties into one of the creative prompts for Find Your Voice Lesson 4.

Here's the full spread of Week 30. A big part of our week included picking up our new camper and then going camping for the weekend. I also got a mani, Joe showed me his welding skillz, and I started trying to keep up with the 30 Day Selfies challenges over at A Beautiful Mess.

Left Side: cute fry wrapper from Pal's, one of the selfies I took this week, journaling card about Joe's parents celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary, my mani, and Joe's welding.

Seriously, how cute is this wrapper? I love it!

I decided to change things up a bit this week and use a different Currently card. It was fun to answer some different questions :)

Right Side: me and Joe at El Sazon, a journaling card about dinner with our friendly campground neighbors, adjusting to the new RV, and our struggles to get everything set up.

I had cut some Amy Tangerine paper and I thought it was perfect for this picture.

This is where Find Your Voiee Lesson 4 comes in. One of the creative prompts for this week was to write a story more than one way - it could be to a different audience, from someone else's point of view, etc. I chose to tell a factual overview of what happened to you, my blog readers:

For some reason, we thought it was going to be super easy to switch from one camper to another... well we thought wrong. First, the grill wasn't put together at the dealership, so we had to come up with alternate plan for a meal. Then we missed the turn and bypassed the 2 good grocery stories. The 3rd grocery store really didn't have the type of things we were wanting, but we made do. As we were walking out of Food Lion, the sky opened up and a torrential downpour started We ran for the camper and ended up wringing wet and changing clothes while waiting out the storm for 20-30 minutes. We drove to a couple of campgrounds but nothing was jumping out at us. We ended up driving into Pigeon Forge. We were a few miles off the Parkway, so it was nice and quiet.

For the second version of journaling, I added "not so" above the Smooth  Sailing card and used a bifold card next to it for some private journaling with some more personal things in it.

Car tags:

I love this frame and this 12x12 scrapbook paper I cut into PL sizes.

We ened up getting it all together. We'll be able to set up camp faster and more efficiently next time! :)

I love reading each and every comment! Be sure to keep up with me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!

Find Your Voice - Week 3 SMASHbook page

This week I sort of combined Option 1 (crafting based) and Option 3 (picture based) prompts. I also used these pages for Challenge 18 - The Great Outdoors - in the Smash Your Stash facebook group.

These pages are in the Red smash book that I'm using for challenges. I chose 3 photos from Lake Tahoe and explained why they made me happy. I used Thickers, Pebbles Lakeside collection. Studio Calico cork stickers, October Afternoon alphas, enamel dots, and Crate Paper photo slides. I love mixing and matching embellishments from different lines.

I must say, I love how this turned out!

This is one of the longest titles I've ever had on a smashbook page, and I love how all the words are different colors and fonts.

I'm a bit literal when it comes to using embellishments, and haven't had a use for the trendy anchors that have become so popular - but since these pictures were taken from a boat tour, I thought the anchors made sense! :)

I adhered 2 layers of washi tape (to make the pattern show up better) and added cork arrows to reiterate the chevron pattern.

Hope you like this page and it inspires you to do a project about the great outdoors!

I love reading each and every comment! Be sure to keep up with me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!

Find Your Voice - Lesson Three Realizations

So Lesson Three got me thinking more about storytelling. Why do I want to record stories? Which stories do I want to tell? How will I tell the stories?

When I first started this workshop, I didn't think I was really telling any stories. My goal was to write more detailed, richer descriptions for my Project Life. Generally, I don't want to read long stories about a single photo, so I want to keep things short and sweet. But I'm taking the word 'storytelling' too literally - I keep thinking that I have to write long stories in order to tell stories.

I'm realizing that 'storytelling' can take many forms - a painting, a mini album, a single photo, or a short description. I guess we all have our own styles and ways of expressing ourselves. Maybe just seeing the pictures or reading a short blurb about something that happened really is storytelling. No long essay necessary. I don't have to tell stories in the exact same manner that someone else does.

I'm realizing that I want to record memories so that I can relive those moments and allow others to imagine what the moments were like. But mostly because I don't want to forget them. I don't want to forget the funny behind-the-scenes, there's-no-picture stories that happened. I don't want to forget the smiles on our faces when something great happened. I don't want to forget that new restaurant we tried. I don't want to forget that time we had a mouse in our camper. I don't want to forget how Joe forgot his tux 3 times on our wedding day. There's a very long list of things I don't want to forget!

I know which stories I want to tell, but I need to figure out some steps to make the stories happen - maybe I need to add an extra journaling card to my Project Life each week to remember how I was feeling. I could use the pocket pages in my #findyourvoice Sn@p binder and write some short stories to practice. One of the exercises in this lesson was to make a mind map. I chose to make one about the stories I want to tell, but maybe I should make another mind map about how to actually make this storytelling happen!

Maybe I've been telling stories for longer than I've giving myself credit for. I think I just need to keep it up and keep trying new things and new techniques! I'm going to keep telling stories until I tell them exactly how I want to tell them - my own way!

Tomorrow I'll show the Creative Prompt I chose to use for week 3.

I love reading each and every comment! Be sure to keep up with me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!

Find Your Voice - Lesson 2

I'm very behind in posting (and completing!) the Find Your Voice workshop lessons. But I'm going to keep on keepin' on until I finish. It's not a race, right?? :)

Lesson Two is titled "Who Are You?" and had a couple of fun exercises in it. My favorite was to pick out 15 words to describe your personal identity. I've been admiring the pictures some other participants have been posting, and am so glad to have made my own! This picture will be going in my black All ABout Me smashbook very soon.

I used the Rhonna Designs iPhone app and added a mask to lighten my picture. Then I picked one of my favorite fonts to add the words. Quick and simple. I love how it turned out!

Which words would you use to describe yourself?? 

I love reading each and every comment! Be sure to keep up with me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!

Week 1 - Find Your Voice Introduction

I want to share my Week 1 of Kristin's Find Your Voice storytelling workshop. It's a free, 8-week workshop that just started last Monday. I'm helping sponsor the workshop and I think it's going to be fantastic! If you're just now hearing about the workshop, t's not too late to join the fun.

Week 1 is an introduction to the workshop and has some worksheets and prompts included. The worksheets get you thinking about why you're doing this workshop and what you want to get out of it. 

First, I completed the crafting prompt and created this album using a Sn@p binder, Crate Paper's 'The Pier' scrapbook paper, a slide frame, gold Thickers, colored shipping tags, and brightly colored Sn@p inserts. I usually just want to collect pretty paper and save them for 'later' but I decided to be bold and use this pretty stuff!

I love how the cover turned out!

I wrote 'week' on each tag and added gold Thicker numbers.

I just stapled the tags onto each of the Sn@p inserts. There were 8 pages in the pack - coincidence? I think not! ;) These inserts are reversible, and have fun patterns (chevron, strips, polka dots) in 8 colors.

I added a one-word title to the front of Week 1's Sn@p insert.

I printed out the lesson with 2 pages on each sheet of regular printer paper. I trimmed off about 1/4 inch from the top of the pages so the pages would be a bit smaller than the Sn@p inserts.

Prompt Two: Expand on 2-3 questions on the worksheet. I picked more than 2 or 3 :)

1. What is storytelling to you? What stories do you want to tell? Storytelling is a way to capture memories - a way to reminisce - a way to connect to other people. 

4. What are your favorite stories? (think movies, music, history, etc). What do these stories have in common? My faves are the Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Matilda, Harry Potter, Circle of Friends, The Joy Luck Club. All of these stories are full of detail, imagination, vivid imagery, and are long stories.
5. What styles do you find aesthetically pleasing? Modern, vintage, brightly-colored, doodles, geotags, sequins, shiny, flowing, pretty
6. Which storytellers do you admire? How can you pull from their style to enhance your own? (I was mostly thinking of scrapbooking and the type of pages I aspire to make). Amy Tangerine, Becky Higgins, A Beautiful Mess, Michelle Wooderson, Pam Garrison - to me, I can pull ideas about remembering every day stories.
7. What is your ideal story? What are you looking to get out of the FYV summer storytelling workshop? My ideal story makes you feel like you are there, reliving the moment, has rich detail and is visually descriptive. I want to capture my memories on paper. I want others to be able to imagine how the moment felt.

Have you completed Week 1 yet?

I love reading each and every comment! Be sure to keep up with me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!

Find Your Voice storytelling workshop

This summer I am super excited to be participating in and helping sponsor the Find Your Voice class at rukristin.com.  It's a free eight week class that is all about embracing, finding and practicing with your storytelling voice.  I’m excited to further develop my storytelling and 'life documentation' and see everything else the community is going to be doing.  I will be sharing on here and possibly on Instagram, (with the hashtag #findyourvoice) and in the comments at rukristin.com.  Join the Facebook group and share the excitement with all your friends! You can sign up here to have the weekly delivered to your email inbox!

There are no required supplies for the class, but I'm putting together a little kit using a Sn@p binder and pages. I've been wanting to use the Turquoise binder for something, and this is the perfect excuse! :)

Have more questions? Get your answers here!

Are you going to join me and participate??

I love reading each and every comment! Be sure to keep up with me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!