Scrap Big

First Day Friday for September 3rd.

May Flaum's workshop, Use Your Stash opened yesterday.

May has over 400 scrapbookers registered who are ready to diminish their stockpiles and engage in some productive play!
The galleries are already hoppin' ...

In May's first handout, she challenged students to pull out a neutral sheet of cardstock and then lay down some photos they want to scrapbook -- from there, you fill in the extra space with pattern paper and add a title and a few embellishments.

Rebecca in Connecticut has already taken this challenge and posted her work -- WOW!

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We love your enthusiasm and want to reward you for posting in the galleries on the first day of class.  We will randomly scan the classroom layouts galleries the day after a new class opens (Friday morning) and select a winner.  The winner receives a $10 BPS gift certificate and their masterpiece is featured on the BPS blog on First Day Friday!

Congratulations Rebecca -- your gift certificate will be on it's way to you in no time!

Here’s today’s question: Did you ever wish your layouts had more journaling?

By Karen Grunberg

I’m an organized person. I like to wake up every morning, make a to-do list, and then get to work. As I complete each item, I cross it off my list and it makes me a little happier each time. If I think of more items throughout the day, they go on my list and get done when their turn comes. I know it might sound odd or even a bit off to some people but I am a computer programmer by trade so having some sort of order and logic to things comes naturally to me. 

I also believe in the power of stories. I believe that even a few words, chosen carefully, can make my layout meaningful and I try to always make sure I think of the story behind my page before I sit down to make it.

This wasn’t always the case. I used to make layouts that were just a lot of photos. Or layouts that showed off my current favorite products or a technique I just learned. And while there’s nothing at all wrong with any of those things, a few years ago I went back and looked over all my layouts and realized that the ones I loved the most were the ones that had a story associated with them. The ones that were meaningful to me. I tend to forget the small, ordinary details of life so the layouts that captured those meant were the ones I treasured the most.

As someone who focuses on journaling, I often hear some of the following complaints:
- I don’t know where to start
- My stories are not interesting
- I don’t have any stories
- I don’t have any photos to go with that story
- This photo doesn’t have a story, it’s just a pretty photo
- I don’t know which part of the story to tell

I can go on and on. People have a collection of reasons for not journaling. But most people do want to journal more. They wish they did. They want to create more meaningful layouts. Ones that capture their personal stories.

The thing is, it seems that we don’t always know how to come up with story ideas. Or sometimes we have ideas but we’re not scrapping at the time so we then forget. When we actually sit to scrap, nothing comes to mind.

 
 

I decided it would be a great idea to merge my two passions: organization and storytelling and create a workshop that helped you create a system for your stories.

My goal with this class is to focus on four steps to creating your own system:

1. Collecting: finding where your stories come from, what inspires you, how do you generate more stories?
2. Organizing: how do you sort your story ideas, what details do you want to make sure to get down on paper?
3. Storing: What’s the best way to store all these stories and details? Will you have a mini book to hold or do a system on the computer?
4. Using: Now that you have your new system, how do you use it? How do you make sure it’s a living, breathing system and doesn’t get stale. When you sit to scrap, how do you find the story you need or want?

 

This way, when you have a new story idea, you know exactly where to put it so that you can find it later. And when you sit to scrap, you have all your stories right there waiting for you. You will NEVER have to worry about having story ideas ever again.

If you’ve ever struggled with coming up with story ideas or finding your stories when you need them or matching up a photo with a story, I hope you will consider taking the Book of Stories workshop.

I promise it will change the way you scrapbook.

PS: If you want to see an example of how my Book of Stories changed my scrapbooking, head on over to the inside access page at Big Picture Scrapbooking (All you have to do is create a free account if you don’t have one yet.) I have a special layout I created just for you, that shows you how I’ve used my brand-new process to make my layout more meaningful.

First Day Friday for July 9th

Taft and I have been counting down the days for Kidding Around to open and it's obvious (from the gallery) that we weren't the only ones excited about this mom + kids summer adventure.

 

Look at these cute kids! This is Cambria and Breven and they are "kidding around" with their mom, Kristen, who just won ten dollars to use towards her next BPS class!

It's NOT too late to join mom and kids from all over who have committed to email challenges and summer scrapbooking dates. In fact, you can register HERE.

This week one of the assignments is to visit an ice cream parlor -- for some odd reason, I'm not encountering any resistance from Taft at all!

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We love your enthusiasm and want to reward you for posting in the galleries on the first day of class.  We will randomly scan the classroom layouts galleries the day after a new class opens (Friday morning) and select a winner.  The winner receives a $10 BPS gift certificate and their masterpiece is featured on the BPS blog on First Day Friday! 

First Day Friday

We are thrilled to have Claudine Hellmuth teaching the summer workshop in our 4Experts series. Evidently, Evalyn is too, as she has already completed her technique book and posted it on the first day of class ...

I absolutely love this shot too -- so inviting and colorful!

It's NOT too late to join Evalyn and hundreds of others wanting to explore some new artistic territory this summer. Click here to learn more.

and have a wonderful weekend.

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We love your enthusiasm and want to reward you for posting in the galleries on the first day of class.  We will randomly scan the classroom layouts galleries the day after a new class opens (Friday morning) and select a winner.  The winner receives a $10 BPS gift certificate and their masterpiece is featured on the BPS blog on First Day Friday! 

My purpose in teaching Library of Memories

There is NO way I can possibly select a WINNER from these amazing comments.
Thank you all so much for opening your hearts in response to Dawn's post and question.

I have used a Random Number Generator to grant comment #89 a FREE seat in the 2010 session of Library of Memories that begins Thursday, February 4th.

Congratulations Norma-ann!
My greater purpose for scrapbooking would be to soothe my own panic! My baby is turning 1 in 10 days. My bigger babies are 7 and 5. Everyone is growing so fast! Time is going way too fast. I want...no...I need to get some of the little moments scrapped so I can have them, to remember them, when things are no longer the same. I love my girls so much. I really just want to remember...every. little. thing.

Posted January 13, 5:57 pm
Visit Norma-ann's adorable blog, The Mommy Project

Norma-ann,
Email us [email protected] and put LOM WINNER in the subject line.

 
My purpose in teaching LOM every year is to create an environment of encouragement where people can reconnect to their individual purposes and find a kinder, gentler approach to the organizational and creative processes of scrapbooking. The community that develops in this classroom each year is nothing short of phenomenal. You will find the direction, support and clarity you need to move forward in what is a very exciting time to live.

The way we capture, share and use our photos is forever changed and I am preparing myself to teach you how to embrace technology and all the excess that has come with it. I wish I could give this class to everyone. Please give this class to yourself. It is an investment in your family, the legacy that you are part of and the stories that will guide your posterity for years to come.

Register HERE.

Here are just a FEW of my favorite comments. If you have a minute, read and enjoy!

Comment from Sara:

This is tough...originally, I thought the purpose of scrapbooking was demonstrating what we did in our life, in the order we did it. I still feel the pull to explain what we were doing and when, but now, I think the greater purpose is to explain to my kids who my husband and I were before kids, who we are now because of having kids and what our family cherishes. I want to capture my kids doing the things that matter to them, not just opening gifts or celebrating holidays (things which yes we do, and yes, are fun, but are not "who we are"). I guess I look at it more of an exercise in family identity so someday, we can all look through our scrapbooks and remember what we were like, way back when.

Comment from Aggie:

Ever since I can remember, I have always been at odds and ends with my Mom. It wasn't just because it was a "teenager" thing -- maybe we were so alike yet so different that as a kid, I tended to repel her. Only when I became a mom myself, and communication lines opened, did I understand myself, and my mom. And how much did I learn from hearing her stories. It is as if we have parallel lives. If only things were different when I was young. Now that I have a daughter, who I know is so like me in a way, my heart goes out to her in a way that I can foresee (or am I scared?) that in the future, I will just be a Mom to her and not my friend. Scrapbooking is in a way my solution for that. By recording everything about me, my life, OUR LIVES, her life before she can even remember, I am putting stories in my pages. She will be able to look at them in the future and connect reasons behind the stories. That's my higher purpose why I take time to document the everyday, why I document M-E. Because someday down the road, once my kids go through that stage and would want to stop listening, I won't talk - but my albums will :)

Comment from Aimee:

As a child, I loved the Little House books and Anne Frank. As I always loved reading about other people's lives. I loved skipping to the middle of the book to see the pictures that went with the stories-it made everything more real. Memoirs are still my favorite type of book. As a college student, I was a history major. I loved imagining how people lived, what they were thinking and feeling through different historical events. Scrapbooking incorporates all those things for me. It is our memoir, our pictures, our history book.

Comment from Betsy:

One day I was at a used book sale. I was suppose to be selling but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to cruise to find a title or two. I had just rounded the 2nd corner when I spotted it. It was THE book. I couldn't believe it. The book was called "The 50 states" and I had won it in 2nd grade. Oh I loved that book (I never really won anything so it was special on that account) but the book was cool. Neat snippets of information, cool pictures, stories about states, there were even these "transparencies" that overlaid the photos. OH I was taken back looking at page after page, reliving the reports I did with that book, reliving the games my sister and I played with the maps, reliving the time spent reading the book. I was instantly a child again. I was overwhelmed with the emotions this book brought out in me, I finally paid for my purchase. Walking away I realized why this book was so special to me. There was power in it. It had everything my scrapbooks did, cool pictures, snippets of information, neat stories (and even an embellishment or two (transparencies anyone?) The book transported me to a place of my childhood, a place of the past that I wanted to remember. When people ask me why I scrapbook, I share this story with them that there is an amazing power in my books. Where else can you bring memories back to life?. In a moment I can relive a child's first steps, or once again see Grandma's smile. I can enjoy the joy of a favorite toy or the sorrow of loved one's passing. And being a scrapbooker I have the power to create those books for those I love.

See? Wow.
Thanks for sharing with us.

 

Calling ALL Busy Women

I'm thrilled to announce annual "Take August Off" promotion. 

image link.

From the launch of Big Picture Scrapbooking, we have had an ethic of "relax and have FUN."  We believe a stop-and-smell-the-roses mentality is crucial to our health as creative professionals and to our success as human beings engaged in the art and passion of storytelling. In an effort to be true to this ethic, we decided that every year in August we would invite our teachers to reach out to our community in the spirit of sharing and encourage each other to relax, enjoy, be inspired and have FUN.

Each spring we discuss possible themes that might guide our month-long campaign of sharing. This year I've had the opportunity to work closely with three of our great teachers -- we lovingly refer to them as our featured teachers -- and I hope I speak for all of them when I say we have really enjoyed the commitment to a greater degree of collaboration. Lisa Damrosch, Georgana Hall and Elizabeth Dillow are accomplished women who approach teaching with caring and passion and yet approach teaching from very different places and with different talents and skill sets. It has been enriching for me to spend more time with them.

As the four of us discussed our plans for August, we kept coming back to the context of our daily lives as they are affected by the growth of social media and the online culture as well as the struggling (but recovering) global economy. We (everyone) is so busy all of the time, we feel a need to be continually multi-tasking or at least fully informed, connected and engaged in the moment, camera in hand. There is so much that vies for our attention. At the same time we are trying to do more and more, we seem to have less and less to work with -- both in terms of time and money. We decided that even in the midst of this imposed scarcity, we can choose to find and feel inspired and when we do, we will inevitably find the solutions we need in to move forward, prepared and optimistic. 

This is a very LONG and perhaps somewhat esoteric way of saying ... OUR AUGUST PROMOTION is LIVE with the theme:

BUSY WOMEN, OUT OF TIME, ON A BUDGET, BUT STILL INSPIRED.

You are officially invited to set aside whatever it is you think you should be doing and login in to our FREE classroom, so you can treat yourself to some good old fashioned inspiration. There is much to be had, so pull up a chair (grab your timer if you need to) and enjoy.

note: These ideas will not quench your actual thirst, so you may want to grab a nice tall glass of lemonade first!

Telling Stories Deeply with Karen!

I love scrapbooking because I love to tell stories -- to me, the stories make my pictures complete.  Because I value stories so highly, I want YOU to check out this awesome workshop by the amazing Karen Grunberg -- Telling Stories Deeply.  Karen has put together a simply fabulous workshop to help all of us (storytellers and non-storytellers alike) make our journaling richer and deeper.  If you've been hoping to overcome writer's block and to make your stories memorable, then I hope you'll check out Karen's workshop and spend four weeks with us as we make our stories the focus.  Registration closes March 25th and trust me, you won't want to miss it!

I'm going to give away one seat in Karen's workshop to a randomly selected winner -- just tell me what your storytelling stumbling block is and I'll get random.org to help me pick a winner!  Leave your comment below by 5:00 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, March 24th.  And if you're signed up, don't worry -- we'll credit you for your registration! 

Edited March 23rd to add this:  Karen has responded to some of your comments here!  Check her blog out!

Sneak Peek

A Life Well Crafted has officially started, and I wanted to give you all a sneak peek of the classroom!

Kolette has outdone herself with this class. Her audio messages with Jason are completely inspiring, the projects are incredibly cute and meaningful, and Kolette has designed some of the most amazing templates to compliment the class projects. It's not too late to sign-up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

To register for A Life Well Crafted, click here!

Product Playground 2: The Albums! (edited to add winner!)

Mini-albums are favorite little projects for BIG reasons: they are fun to create and give as gifts, and they  have closure (unlike some albums, where we just add a layout at a time with no defined end to the album in sight...). Mini albums are great places to try new styles and techniques, too -- after all, the project is neatly defined and it's fun to create something "different" and see how it will turn out.  Sometimes, though, it's hard to know where to begin...and that's why we're lucky to have Lisa Damrosch at BPS teaching us how to use our stashes of product to create six fun and fabulous mini-albums in Product Playground 2: The Albums.  I love how Lisa helps us start with a concept and move all the way through to a completed project, and I really love how she inspires all of us to use what we have -- after all, we do have lots of supplies just waiting to be used.  I hope you'll join us and get your goodies out of your organized (or not-so-organized) craft spaces and into SIX fabulous albums.  So, check out Lisa's class description and tell me what supply category you want to use the most...and why not tell me what you want to make a mini about, too?  I'll pull a random winner on Wednesday, October 15th, at 7:00 a.m. PDT to win a free spot in Lisa's class! If you're signed up, we'll happily refund your registration fee, too!  Remember, registration closes on Wednesday, so don't miss out on this great opportunity to PLAY with Lisa!

Edited to add our winner, courtesy of random.org's integer generator (as usual!):

So loving this class. Lisa is a great teacher and expains everything so well!

Posted by: Sherry U | October 14, 2008 at 07:20 PM

Sherry, please email admin @ big picture scrapbooking. com (without the spaces, of course) and you'll have your fee refunded (since it sounds like you're already enrolled)!!  Congratulations!

 

Recipes for Scrapbooking Success!

Have you ever wished that you had a recipe box for scrapbook pages?  A set of tried-and-true techniques for journaling, embellishment placement, photo placement, and paper pattern mixing/matching? Well, look no further, because May Flaum has opened her recipe box to share her secrets to creating pages like this:

May's Recipes for Scrapbooking Success is more than a layout class: May will show you how she makes her layouts, but she shares how she adapts and adjusts those recipes to create multiple layouts with a few simple twists.  Your pages will all be unique, but your creations will feel effortless -- as long as you have the recipes, of course!

I hope you'll join us in Recipes for Scrapbooking Success.  I'd like you to visit May's class description here and tell me about what kind of recipe you need most as you create your layouts.  One of you will win a seat in the class:  I'll pull a random winner Sunday (October 5th) at 5:00 p.m. PDT...and be sure to grab your seat in cooking class before registration closes on Wednesday, October 8th!  (By the way, if you want to make sure you get your spot, go ahead and sign up -- we'll take care of the winner if she's already enrolled)!