Elizabeth Albers: [00:00:00] I have seen people do amazing creative things with templates, with my templates and with other templates, that I was like, "I would've never thought to take that direction with that template." So I think getting over that idea of like it's cheating. Think of it as a starting point, and go from there. Let the kit inspire you, let the photos inspire you, let the template inspire you. You can make it your own.

Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 339. In this episode, I'm chatting with Elizabeth Albers about designing digital scrapbook templates that help memory keepers document their stories quickly and consistently.

Elizabeth shares how being a scrapbooker first shapes every template she creates, and why she believes getting your pages printed is the most important step of [00:01:00] all

Hey, Elizabeth, welcome to Scrapbook Your Way

Elizabeth Albers: Hey, thank you for having me.

Jennifer Wilson: Can you start by sharing a little bit about yourself?

Elizabeth Albers: Um, sure. Um, I'm Elizabeth or Liz online. Uh, I, um, am the mother to seven children. I've been married to my husband for 20, almost 27 years. Um, we live in Western North Carolina. Um, recently, um, my oldest daughter just got married, so that was fun.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, congratulations.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. And last year my other, my second daughter got married. Uh, my daughter, my other daughter just graduated, so we're in this weird transition period with, we have four kids at, at home, three off doing their thing.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah, so.

Jennifer Wilson: Super fun, yes. And how old's your youngest at this point?

Elizabeth Albers: Uh, she just turned 12.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay, okay. So still middle school age.

Elizabeth Albers: Yep, just now middle sc- getting into middle school. We're done with the elementary years. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: [00:02:00] Yeah. Do, like, do you feel that kind of wistfulness of like, this is my last one type of thing, and especially with the other ones getting, going off to their own families?

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. I homeschool too, so I'm seeing like the light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, yeah.

Elizabeth Albers: I'm excited but I'm also like, "Oh no, this is, ah.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Elizabeth Albers: Six more years, you know?

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. So I always like to ask our guests a few little icebreaker questions. Do you have a favorite recent layout or project that you've worked on, and why do you love it?

Elizabeth Albers: Oh, that's a tough question. So, um, every year I do a weekly scrapbook, uh, uh, album, uh, that shows our weekly life. It's just in a double page layout throughout the year, and that's... My most recent is usually my favorite just 'cause I love the project. I like looking back at those pages from the year. Um, but I was looking at another album that I'm working on.

It's a trip my husband and I took for our 25th wedding [00:03:00] anniversary two years ago to Hawaii.

And there's a recent recent page I created, um, of a beach we went to. And I was just looking at it now. I was looking through my pages, and it really stuck out to me. I really like it. Because it has, uh, the pictures are really big and beautiful on the page of the beach, and it just reminded me of our time there. Um, I think that's my favorite one. It's called Waialea Bay.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, Okay. Do you, do you have a shared online where we could link to it?

Elizabeth Albers: It is on my Instagram and my Facebook page.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay, perfect.

Elizabeth Albers: It's, it's a, it's a more recent post, so you should be able to find it.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Yeah, yeah, we'll definitely link that up in the show notes as well as, you know, anything else that you mentioned today. Now, is there something new that you're excited to do, use, or try, either in scrapbooking or in your everyday life?

Elizabeth Albers: Oh, I don't know. That's a tough question. Um, I'm, uh, I'm so in a routine of what I do. I have been very, um, inspired by, [00:04:00] um, hybrid scrappers. And I really want to try it. I really wanna try to do, like, a paper/digital, um, album. But, uh, honestly, I'm, I'm kind of afraid to try it. I'm afraid that, uh, I'll be really, almost kind of, like, be really hooked to it and wanna, wanna do that. Um, and time-wise, I just don't have time. But is something as my... I see my kids getting older and and having a little bit more free time, of something I would like to jump in and try to do.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. So I, I remember one of my first YouTube videos a long time ago was like how I fit all of my scrapbooking supplies in one, one tiny cart. And that's because I was primarily a digital scrapbooker. And yeah, it's, it does spiral in- into the stuff.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Because then you wanna try the other thing, and then.

Elizabeth Albers: Mm-hmm

Jennifer Wilson: It's mixed media, and then all of a sudden you have a whole room full of stuff.

So.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: I can get that for sure. So you are primarily a digital scrapbook template designer. How did you get started doing that versus, you [00:05:00] know, choosing to do something more like kits?

Elizabeth Albers: So when I start... I, I've been-- I was a traditional paper scrapbooker before I started digital scrapbooking. Um

Jennifer Wilson: Do you still have any of that stuff or did you kind of let go of it at some point?

Elizabeth Albers: I have the albums. I don't have the stuff.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

Elizabeth Albers: I actually, I do have some of the fun scissors. You remember the, the fun.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh yeah

Elizabeth Albers: Scallop scissors and all of those? Uh, I did hold on to those just mainly for my kids, 'cause.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Elizabeth Albers: Projects and things, you know, that's always fun. So I do have some of that stuff, but majority of it is, is long gone. So when my kids were really young, we had recently moved to North Carolina. I had made some new friends, and a friend just mentioned, "Oh, have you tried digital scrapbooking?" I was like, "What is that?" I...

"Show me." Um, and so she introduced me to Photoshop. She introduced me to digital kits, and so I started learning, you know, how to use Photoshop. How to, how to use the kits. [00:06:00] Um, and I, one of... When I was a paper scrapbooker, I loved of designing the page and laying it out. That was my favorite part of scrapbooking to me. Um, so naturally that translated into digital scrapbooking.

Um, and when I first started, I, I used a lot of free stuff online, 'cause I didn't want to, I didn't wanna invest heavily in case this was something I wasn't too sure about. So there were free templates, free kits, you know, back in the day.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh yeah, especially back then too.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. So I started off with the free stuff and, um, I came across a template one day and I...

So I tried it out, I was like, "Oh, I... This is pretty cool. I could totally make my own templates." Um, because I- that's the favorite, my favorite part of, um, designing a page. So, and I think too, it was probably a little bit easier to jump into designing a template than to designing a whole kit. So.

Jennifer Wilson: Certainly.

Elizabeth Albers: I, I did.

And I did, I did try to... I, I dabbled a little, [00:07:00] l- very, very tiny bit into designing, um, some papers and some elements and things like that, but my knowledge of Photoshop and-- was very limited. And with the time constraints of my family and homeschooling, I just didn't have time to, dive into learning all of that really well. Um, so I stuck with templates. It was my favorite part. It seemed natural. So, um, that's how that happened.

Jennifer Wilson: Now, do, are your templates based off a layout that you made, or do you start with, you know, the, the, the empty blocks a- and the concept for it?

Elizabeth Albers: I start out with an empty page. Um, so, so I might be inspired by some photos I have or a page I might wanna create or an album I might wanna create. But for the most part, it is just a blank page, and I, um, start out with that.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice, nice. So your templates are described as eclectic, fun, and easy to use. What, what makes a digital template easy to [00:08:00] use?

Elizabeth Albers: Okay, so for me, I think an, a template that is easy to use has minimal extra stuff. So we

have the basic, you know, photo spot, some journaling. What's... I was thinking what... I... Okay, I'm gonna be honest. I create templates for my- myself, and so I think about what do I wanna, what do I want on a template for my own personal scrapbooking? I want photo spots. I want journaling. I want a place for a title. I want a place for a date. Those are the most important aspects of, of a page to me. So I, I start with that, and then I might add a few elements in to kinda balance it out or add some, you know, creative fun. So to me, that's what makes a template, easy to use is, is ba- it has the basic parts and, and it's easy to kinda plug and go. Um, I do... And, and then the eclect- eclectic part of it, you know, I have, I have some creative templates out there, my art journaling sets, um, some blended photo type templates. [00:09:00] So I get creative there too, but even those templates are, are simple as in that it has the fun parts, but it's still simple enough where you can just kinda put your stuff in there, and it can be done quickly and easily.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure. So without a lot of, I mean, you can choose to e- embellish to your heart's content but, um, it feels complete without that too.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So you mentioned that you do weekly pages, so this would be similar to maybe a, a paper scrapbooker's Project Life album.

Elizabeth Albers: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: And, and you've talked about how you try to work on getting them done even during busy weeks.

Elizabeth Albers: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: Can you talk more about how being a scrapbooker first and foremost informs how you design templates and the, the decisions that you make in terms of making series and different, different overall styles?

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. So when I'm designing, especially on weekly template sets, I think, "What is my purpose this year? What do I want to make sure I capture on my pages for my family.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Albers: And so I, I, I want [00:10:00] to think about that first and foremost when I sit down to create a template or scrapbook. My weekly scrapbooking, um, the way I get it done quickly is when I design the templates, I design the templates to, um, be able to sit down and scrapbook them quickly. I think about what is my goal, do I wanna accomplish with my weekly, um, templates, with my weekly pages for my family.

So then when I sit down to, to scrapbook, kinda plug and go. I can get my pictures in there, I can get my journaling in there, I can add the few little fun things. And something that keeps me, um, keeps me on top of my projects, keeps me going, is that I sit down at the same, on the same day every week, and it's my number one priority is to get that weekly page done. So I make sure that's done before anything else.

Jennifer Wilson: What day of the week is that?

Elizabeth Albers: So usually Sunday afternoon or evening is kind of our break.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

Elizabeth Albers: You know, restful day. And so I'm like, "I'm

sitting down, I'm creating this page." Um, and this year's templates especially are... I've created them [00:11:00] especially simple. 'Cause I just know life has been crazy. So I even, even the week of my daughter's wedding, I completed my double page spread, which.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that's amazing.

Elizabeth Albers: You know, yeah. So I was able to sit down within 30 minutes, get my photos. I had my template ready, and just go and do it. Um, so that's something that keeps me, um, designing the template so that I can quickly and easily create those pages, but then also having that time set aside every week where my family knows this is Mom's time. I know, like, this is my time to focus on this and not have any distractions of other things I need to get done. And then also think about my family because my scrapbooks for my family have been a huge blessing. My kids love looking at them. It's helped them feel like, their place.

They get to see how our family was formed. They get to see the activities that we do, the, the way we do things together as a family. So it's just, it's a priority.

Jennifer Wilson: I love that. I love that. Yeah. No, it's, you, you do have to choose to make it a priority as well and. I think [00:12:00] that's, that's the difference between someone who can get it done in a busy week and someone who it, it's a lot harder. So talk to us a little bit about your design process? Are you doing a lot of batching work, or do you really work on a, on a schedule, a rhythm?

Or are you kind of a more organic creator in terms of waiting for that piece, point of inspiration?

Elizabeth Albers: So mostly I would say I am a batch worker. Mainly I have very limited time. I... Usually my design work is done in the evenings after the kids are in bed. I have, you know, a couple hours in the evenings. Um, and so each evening I kind of have a thing, okay, Monday night's this. You know, my, I might be getting, uh, my, my template packs in packaged up and d- and zipped and all of that. Uh, Tuesday my, Tuesday and Wednesday are usually design nights. Thursday is usually getting my newsletter ready and marketing stuff. So I do s- kind of have that batch process. Now, I will say sometimes I get in the zone. And I, I get working on a [00:13:00] template pack or an album, and it's all coming to me, and I'm like, "I got it."

Like, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna do this until it stops, until the creativity.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Elizabeth Albers: Just stops.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah

Elizabeth Albers: That happens sometimes. Um, but for the most part, I do have a... I'm a type A person. I have a schedule. I have a checklist. Um, so that's, that's how, kinda how that works.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm curious, and this is, this is kind of a follow-up question, um, what advice you might have to someone else who, uh, is an aspiring business owner but also has a very full, busy family life and is trying to fit these things into the margins. What have you, what have you learned about not even just your choices of what to do, but maybe even choices of what, what you can't do?

Like, I just don't have time for that.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. So I am a big list person, and so what I... And I, I make a schedule, you know, Monday through Saturday or Monday through Friday, at whatever days are available to you. And I, I have a very [00:14:00] detailed checklist, even if it's the simplest thing, and I try to really focus on that checklist, like not get sidetracked. You know, we can easily get sidetracked by the internet or by a fun little project over here or whatever. Um, so I go through that list every night, like am I, have I done this? Have I done this? Have I done this? But I keep it pretty simple, too, um, so that I'm, it's not, it's not overwhelming. And that's the, kind of the approach I take to daily life is, you know, even when it comes to thing as like cleaning the house.

Like if I can just clean for 15 minutes every day, I can, I can keep my house straightened up. If I can just sit down.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Elizabeth Albers: And, design a template for 15 minutes or sit down for 15 minutes and scrapbook, I, and I can do simple, do, do kind of that simple process every day. I can get something done by the end of the week.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes.

Elizabeth Albers: I would say break it down into the small chunks, make a list, don't get sidetracked. S- um, that's, and that's also my Type A personality. So that has [00:15:00] helped me sort of at the end of the day, especially when you're tired or worn out and you're like, "Well, maybe I'll just," you know. But I look at that list, I'm like, "Well, first I gotta get through this list, um, then maybe I can scrapbook or desi- m- do some fun designing or do whatever." But that list really helps me stay focused, um, to get done what I need to get done.

Jennifer Wilson: Well and I think for everyone, if you can really believe that 15 minutes counts and is substantial, like when you really do focus, put down your phone, and don't look at anything else, and do something for 15 minutes, you can get a lot done.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: And sometimes it just because time can, uh, fritter away so easily, and I am 110% guilty of that, you don't, you don't always believe it.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. Yeah. So it

does. Those time chunks help.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. So it looks like you have kind of different template series for your weekly pages depending on how someone wants to approach it. Uh, you have Tell Your Story series, a Note series. How do you approach [00:16:00] designing your weekly templates versus ones that are not for that type of storytelling?

Elizabeth Albers: Um, so weekly, my weekly templates, um, and my monthly templates, I would say I'm really focused on, I know how I would wanna approach that as a scrapbooker. I

want something where I can get these pages in and they have s- very specific things in them. You know, you have your journaling. If it's a monthly template, uh, maybe it has some specific things to do with that month that I know that are happening, like, you know, in June, or May and June you have end of school year or vacation.

So there's some, a little bit of maybe that thrown in on the template. So those specific things. But mainly my goal with those would be, uh, quick, easy, get it in there, get the main parts. Um, those, that's my goal for those types of templates. For templates outside of that, more, the more eclectic side, maybe the more creative side, so to speak, um, there's a little bit more freedom there. And I try to let [00:17:00] myself, um, think about me as a creative person.

If I just wanna sit down and create a page for art's sake, if that makes sense. I might add... I'm gonna add some of those fun things in there that maybe I don't try all the time. Or maybe my normal scrapbooker, uh, customer base doesn't try all the time, to give them some kind of encouragement. Like, think outside the box a little bit.

Try some fun journaling. Journaling like wavy lines or try some stamps.

Jennifer Wilson: yeah

Elizabeth Albers: Some, some things that maybe that you're not necessarily gonna use on those weekly or monthly pages where you're just trying to document your, um, you know, your year or your week in a quick and easy way.

Jennifer Wilson: Well and especially I think, you know, I've noticed with some of your templates, I mean, it's a, it's a truly original design where you're fitting papers to, to certain shapes that you may not come up with on your own. And so I think that, that really, um, highlights the value of, of using templates for getting started when you wanna do something.

You wanna have the freedom to, you know, choose all the things, but not have to [00:18:00] come up with the idea.

Elizabeth Albers: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So we've mentioned that, you know, your audience is primarily digital scrapbookers. Mine skews a little bit more towards paper and hybrid, but I certainly have a lot of digital scrapbookers in the community. Um, what do you think paper scrapbookers misunderstand or underestimate about being a digital scrapbooker?

Elizabeth Albers: Hmm. I don't know. I'm, I'm... Uh, maybe it's less creative. I don't know, maybe it's not.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Elizabeth Albers: You know, it's because you're not working with your hands and real materials, so to speak. Um, but I've seen some beautiful, especially at Hey Scrapper, some beautiful, um, artists create these layouts using my digital templates, but making paper, um, pages with them.

So I think it's can be fairly e- very easily crossed over. And used as a start- a template can be used as a starting point, for those hybrid scrapbookers. But I th- I think they're both equally, can [00:19:00] both be equally creative.

Jennifer Wilson: Certainly.

Elizabeth Albers: So.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you think it's easier to be a digital scrapbooker in 2026 than it was in, say, 2006?

Elizabeth Albers: Probably. Because there are other programs out there to use

that, that are more drop and go programs rather than Photoshop had a, has a pretty high learning curve. Um, so I think in that way, and then obviously all, you know, we're all taking digital photos. So it's all the photos are digital. So if you're a paper scrapbooker, you know, that's another step.

You have to print those out. And, so I think, I think it's easier. Um, there's more resources, there's easier programs to use, um, than when I first started back in the day.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, yeah. Do you, um, are your templates delivered only as a PSD file? Do you provide the PNGs? And do you still, like, get a lot of requests for alternate formats and, and where you have to say, you know, "I can only do so many things"?

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah, I have [00:20:00] PSD, TIFF, and PNG, and then page files, um, for Ar-Artisan creators. I, have... The, the only request I've gotten is, um, probably to work with Canva and make Canva templates. And I've tested it out. I've tried, um, to see how that might work. Basic template-- my basic PSD templates will work in Canva. Um, the ones with more unique photo spots or journaling don't necessarily, aren't as easy to use. But you could still possibly use them as a starting point. That's recently the, the only, um, requests, um, I've been, I've received, you know.

Jennifer Wilson: It's so interesting cause I am, I guess I'm glad that Canva bought Affinity. Because Affinity's a great program, and they know how to actually do drop shadows, whereas Canva still hasn't seemed to figure that out.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. Yeah. I think that all, from-- I've tried different programs just so I kinda know, but I [00:21:00] do think, and I'm, been using Photoshop for 20 years, you know?

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Elizabeth Albers: Crazy to say. But, um, Photoshop is, I think has the m- you just have a lot to work with and a lot you can do in Photoshop compared to some other programs.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, certainly, yes. So you mentioned that you have some curiosity about doing more hybrid work. You might wanna start dabbling in that again, I'm sure that's part of being at Hey Scrapper. It, it tries to, to bridge this divide between the digital and paper communities.

Um, are you seeing more folks use your templates as a starting point for hybrid pages?

Elizabeth Albers: I've had-- I have seen a few. Especially at Hey Scrapper, and I think it's very inspiring, so I'm hoping that ki- you know, it kinda takes off and I think s- sometimes when I'm creating those more, um, creative or like art journaling or kinda have u-unique photo spots or unique pa- um, paper spots, I do have, actually have the hybrid scrapper in mind. 'Cause I think, um, this would be so much [00:22:00] easier if you use a template to get some of these shapes or some of the, these design elements into that hybrid, um, layout.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, it'd be so interesting to like have the template be literally all the pieces on the page, like all the layers separated, not overlapping, so that you could just clip your papers and then print that out rather than... I tend to think of like, of, of hybrid, like true hybrid as I'm gonna print the embellishments and either cut them out myself or do print and cut, and/or I'm gonna print out, you know, larger pieces of paper from that. But actually having like the clipped shapes printed out, that would be really interesting.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. There's, there's some scrapbookers at Hey Scrapper who do that. Maybe I'll, um, sh- give the links and you can share some of those pages.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, that would be fabulous. When you think about the scrapbookers who get the most out of your templates, what do you think they have in common? Like, think about some of your very best customers, maybe some of your creative team members.

Elizabeth Albers: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: what qualities do they share?

Elizabeth Albers: I think, um, [00:23:00] that probably the focus for the pages are usually on the photos.

They wanna scrapbook their photos. They wanna keep it simpler. Um, the, the majority of pages I see that, that's, that stand out to me are that, that more people have used my templates is they... I can tell they want to show their photos off.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Elizabeth Albers: That's an, that's sort of that number one thing about, especially my weekly life or monthly templates is, is focusing on the photos and just the memories. Not necessarily all the, the extra stuff.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, I love that. So I remember back in the day, I felt like there was such a debate about templates, and it was almost between digital and paper scrapbookers, and they're like, um, it's like digital was bad enough, but now you're gonna use a template too? Like, that's truly cheating. I don't know. I had a, like a, a Twitter, uh, [00:24:00] argument with Noel Hyman about using templates in, I don't know, 2009 or something.

And yeah, have, how have you seen that evolved, and is there anything that like, that you still want more scrapbookers to understand about using your templates?

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. So I think, I, I think there's a, there's like been an ebb and flow with template use. And I think it took off, took off for a while. I mean, I know in

the beginning it was kind of like, "Eh, I don't know about this." But I, I think what people need to understand is using a template is just a starting point.

It's, it can be a creative.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Elizabeth Albers: Starting point. So if you're, if you are... I think there's could be two, two purposes with templates. One, and, uh, my weekly sets, my monthly sets, it is about documenting the memories, getting that in an album so that you can share it with your family and friends. Then there's the creative aspect of scrapbooking, where we wanna be creative and we wanna, um, a beautiful page that's our own, so- sort of has our own stamp on [00:25:00] it. Um, but that template again, is just a starting point. You can add or take away whatever you want to it. I have seen people do amazing creative things with templates, with my templates and with other templates, that I was like, "I would've never thought to take that direction with that template." So I think getting over that idea of like it's cheating. Think of it as a starting point, and go from there. Let the kit inspire you, let the photos inspire you, let the template inspire you. You can make it your own.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think with like so many things in life, it's much easier to react to something than to start with a blank page.

Elizabeth Albers: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: I think that's why many of us feel like it's, it's easier to edit something than write something from scratch. Um, because we're reacting to it and making choices, yes or no. Do we like this? Do we not like this?

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So it just gives you that place to start even if you completely change it and it looks nothing like the template when you finish.

Elizabeth Albers: I'm a homeschooler, so I'm applying this to other areas. Well, I think of, you know, when you're teaching your student to write a essay, you start with a [00:26:00] outline, right? You're not just gonna give a blank.

Jennifer Wilson: Yep.

Elizabeth Albers: Canvas of like, "Do whatever," you know? And as they use that outline, as they use that template, they get better and better and get more creative.

And so I think it can just be the same way. Like, it's, a template, if it's a good template, has that good core to it, you can build on it, um, and do what you want with it

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Definitely, 100%. I think one other thing that stands out to me is that I feel like if you start digital scrapbooking with templates and just learn how to do a clipping mask, like you don't have to know 98% of what Photoshop does, but if you can do those things, you

can, you can make your layout.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah, yeah. How, that's how I started. I mean.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Albers: You know, and I think it's a great... If you wanna learn Photoshop, it's a great way to start.

Jennifer Wilson: So you've been at this since at least 2012. Was it before that? Blogging, YouTube, Instagram.[00:27:00]

Elizabeth Albers: So I started-- So my daugh- my, my daughter was, I remember we moved up here and she was about six months old, so that was 2008. When my

friend introduced me to Photoshop and digital scrapbooking. I think it took me about a year or two before I kind of s- kind of, um, took it into the blogging. I sort of, I think I started with a blog and just started sharing my pages, and I was, I started creating free templates. And that's how I started. And then I think, I cannot remember exactly when I started at Scrap Orchard. That was my first store. So that might have been 2000, that might have been 2012, 2011.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay. Awesome. How has, like how has your approach to showing up online evolved over the years? Especially, you know, since you've been in the, like the busy family season of life for, for so much of that or all of that really.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. So this is, uh, this, at, at the beginning it was a little bit easier because it was just taking off, [00:28:00] you know, blogging, Facebook. It, it was kinda easier to get into it and figure it all out, and I was, I was younger, I was more, like I kinda knew what was going on in that, that world. And as I've gotten older and more kids and, um, I would say that learning curve of social media, social, being socially present has, has gotten harder. I think 'cause there's just more out there.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Elizabeth Albers: I, this goes back to my tried and true schedule. Like I have some basic things I do, um, that just keep me present. Now it might not be the best way to do things currently. But it's... But I'm like it's, I'm, I'm doing what I can with the time that I have. Um, through my blog post. I still have a blog, my same blog. I still put my pages out there. I share my pages on Instagram and, you know, my new releases out there and Facebook. I every once in a while try to be creative, you know, and put a little reel or something like that. But I can't, that's something I'm having a harder time [00:29:00] finding time for or wrapping my brain around as I get, um, get older or I don't know, social media stuff changes. I guess the most important thing to me about being present online is I do wanna share. I love sharing my weekly pages. I like showing people how you can do this, you know, you can do this every week. You can

scrapbook a page every week and make an album for your family. I think that's probably my number one, uh, goal of being present online would be sharing my weekly pages and saying, "At the end of the year, you can have a complete album for your, for your family."

And then I sh- throw in my extra creative pages every once in a while that I've done for other albums or other projects. But I just wanna show people, "Here I am. This is my page. You can do this." it's, that's kind of my extent of, of what I, um, have time for online, I guess. So to speak, and sharing and being, trying to be present in that way.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, it sounds like that's kind of [00:30:00] deeply integrated with your motivation to keep designing, and like your your personal scrapbooking fuels your interest and passion for sharing these tools with your audience.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah, and when I'm creating, especially my weekly set, when I'm sitting down and creating those templates, I think, I, I'll be honest, I'm a little bit selfish. I'm creating them for myself.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure. Yeah.

Elizabeth Albers: That is my goal. Like, I, I... if I couldn't make these scrapbook albums for my family, um, I don't, I don't know. I don't know that I would be doing what I'm doing.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you print your pages as a book at the end of the year?

Elizabeth Albers: Yes. Yep.

Jennifer Wilson: And do you have a, a service that you really love to use?

Elizabeth Albers: I've tried different ones. Uh, I've done Shutterfly and Blurb. I've done the, um... I've used Persnickety Prints to print 12 by 12 pages and put them in a three-ring album. The last couple years I've done Shutterfly. It just seems like the easiest and, um, the, um, you know, [00:31:00] you can get the...

wait for a deal, get it done, done pretty cheaply with a good deal. But yeah, and that's an, that's another important thing I tell people, and I want, wanna make people sh- you know, you're creating these digital pages, print them.

'Cause that's how people are really gonna enjoy them. And my family, mean, they...

I would say every week at least an, a scrapbook album is pulled out, and it's really fun. Or we'll do an event, or we'll think of... Um, my kids will be like, "Oh, I remember that." And they'll, they're like, "When was that?" And so they'll go find the scrapbook album, find the page. They're like, "Oh yeah, that was, you know, so and so, and that was..." So it's... having them printed is, I think, super important.

Jennifer Wilson: That's really cool. Yeah, no, I totally agree. Um, whether it's just printing photos, printing your digital pages, or actually getting your paper layouts into albums, we need to make sure that we're closing that loop and, and getting our work shared.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So last year you moved to Hey Scrapper after a long time with The Lily Pad. How has that transition been for you?

Elizabeth Albers: So [00:32:00] it's, uh, it's been great. I think it's helped me... The way Elif has set out the release schedule and, um, the calendar, it's, it's actually relaxed me a little bit.

So that I've had a little bit more time to try some new things and experiment. And I'm a, like I said, I'm a Type A person, so if there was a release every week, I- that's what I'm...

You know, I'm, I'm releasing something every week, and at Hey Scrapper, we release, make, uh, new releases every, uh, two times a month. So that has freed me up a little bit. So I've learned Illustrator some more. I've done some photography classes. Um, so it's actually helped my creativ- creativity a little bit. Um, and then also I love seeing, it's, it's a different... There's some different design styles there, and so it... I see the hybrid scrappers using my templates.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Elizabeth Albers: So it's, it's been inspirational in that way. Um, it's, it's been a tr- I mean, it's, it w- it was definitely hard moving away from The Lily Pad. It was... I was there for a long time.

A lot of, [00:33:00] a lot of people, a lot of, um, customers, a lot of, um, friends. But through social media and all that, we still... There's still connection there. So it's been, been good.

Jennifer Wilson: We will, we will link, uh, Elif's episode, um, that she did with us right when, uh, Hey Scrapper launched. Because she really talks a lot about how she wanted to create a, um, a designer supportive environment, and how important that was to the whole, the whole business model.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. Yeah. It's, it, it helped me, just be a little bit more relaxed in that sense, but then also focus on some other creative and design, like learning some different, learning some new things.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Elizabeth Albers: So yeah, she did a good job at that.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. If, if you, spaciousness is what breeds, you know, new creativity, new ideas, um, for sure. So just to wrap up here, is there one thing you want listeners to know about you or your work that doesn't always come through online?

Elizabeth Albers: Oh, I don't know. I thought about this. I, I would hope that I'm, I'm transparent [00:34:00] online with the way I scrapbook and the way I design things. So if not, if people don't know this about me, I, I do. I scrapbook, I design for myself. I'm always thinking about what... How would I want this page to look? Would I, would I personally use this template myself? so I, I, I think about that a lot when I'm designing. You know, also feel free to message me, ask me questions. Like I love, I love... I always say there's a couple things I love talking about. I love talking about scrapbooking.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Elizabeth Albers: And I love talking about homeschooling. So like anybody wants.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

Elizabeth Albers: To ask me any questions on those things, you know, just send message.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. Can you share where our listeners can find you online? Anything else you might have new or coming up that you'd like to tease, um, for later this year?

Elizabeth Albers: You can find me at scrappingwithliz.com, that's my blog, and then Hey Scrapper. Um, and then you can find... Also, [00:35:00] I'm on Instagram and Facebook under Scrapping with Liz, so you can find me there. And, oh yeah, something I have coming up. Okay. So my family and I have a really fun summer trip coming up. It's, it's, it's big, and it's something we've been looking forward to for several years. And so keeping that in mind, I've been designing a special vacation album. That will be coming out hopefully in July. And I've, I've... As I've been designing it, I've been really thinking, how do I wanna scrap- how am I going to wanna scrapbook this vacation?

Thinking about the kinds of photos I'm gonna take and the kind of memories I wanna document. So I've kept that in mind. So that's a, that's gonna be a bigger album that's gonna be coming out in, July. And I'm hoping to have multiple different sizes of albums, so there's gonna be a variety, uh, um, for all different kind of, um, hybrid scrapbookers and digital t- 12 by 12 traditional scrapbookers. So, um, look out for that.

Jennifer Wilson: Can [00:36:00] you share whether the album would work for any kind of trip, or it's specific to a location or type of trip?

Elizabeth Albers: It, it will work for any trip.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

Elizabeth Albers: Uh, well actually, and it will be very easily, um, u- can be very easily used just for any sort of album. It's not gonna be a specific area or specific place, or even really specifically vacation.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure.

Elizabeth Albers: I'm calling it a vacation album. There'll be some vacation-type elements on it that you can definitely use or not use. Um, but I'm just thinking of the big, beautiful pictures I imagine taking on our vacation.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Elizabeth Albers: Uh, so it's kinda h- I'm keeping that in mind when I'm.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. I can't wait to see it.

Elizabeth Albers: Also, I think it would work really well 'cause I have, I have two weddings that I still need to scrapbook. I'm thinking, "Oh, this, this might work really good for big, beautiful wedding photos too."

So, yeah, it should be good for, for any, any type of, uh, that, that [00:37:00] type of album. So.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. Do you feel, like, intimidated to scrapbook your daughters' weddings? 'Cause these are so, like, so big and important.

Elizabeth Albers: It's, so probably. Because I haven't even started my, my daughter's wedding from last year. I haven't even started it. And I did ask her, I said, "So, want me to scrapbook this? Is this something..." She, 'cause she dabbled in digital scrapbooking a little bit. "Is this something you wanna do? What..." She's like, "I don't know, Mom, you do whatever you want." And so it is, I'm like, "I don't know." Too much freedom.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Albers: It is, it's, it's so, it is, it's... And when I think about my, my wedding album, I was a paper scrapbooker, did Creative Memories with all the fun scissors. So I look back and I'm just like, Ah, I don't know." I, I... So I, I wanna, I, I don't know. I haven't, it-- That's probably why I haven't even started or thought about it really, because it is a little bit daunting and overwhelming. Um.

Jennifer Wilson: I bet. I bet

Elizabeth Albers: But um, [00:38:00] think, I mean, it's definitely something I want to do, and it's on the back of my mind. Um, so maybe it will be next year's goal. We'll see

Jennifer Wilson: Sure, sure. Yeah, no, best of luck on that. Um, I'm sure you'll come up with a, an original beautiful idea for that too, so. Thank you so much for spending time with me.

Elizabeth Albers: Yeah. Thank you for having me. This was fun.

Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to scrapbook your way.

Molove Lee: [00:00:00] I will always say that my first love is scrapbooking and memory keeping, and part of that is adding a photo. Like - we say in my family, "It didn't happen if there's no photo. You didn't share a photo in the text, so did it really happen?" So I have some of that in my memory keeping junk journaling to also add a picture to just about everything.

Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper, and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 338. In this episode, I'm chatting with Mo Lovely about her journey from traditional scrapbooking to junk journaling, and how she's building a creative community through in-person events and online meetups

Hey Mo, welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Molove Lee: Ah, thank you for having me.

Jennifer Wilson: Can you start by sharing a little bit about [00:01:00] yourself?

Molove Lee: Sure. My name is Mo Lovely. A lot of people call me Mo. I'm married with two bonus daughters, living in Brooklyn. I am a teacher by trade. I taught for about 11 years, and now I'm the school counselor for about 11 years now.

Jennifer Wilson: How has that transition been in terms of like, which do you like better, uh, being a counselor or being an in-classroom teacher?

Molove Lee: They both have benefits and their kind of flaws. I did enjoy being in a classroom, but, um, I wanted to come out of the classroom with some of the evaluations they were, putting on teachers. So.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Molove Lee: I was like you know what, maybe I'll put school counselor in my back pocket for when I'm ready to come out of the classroom. And when I finished with my second master's, I was ready to come out of the classroom. I do love small groups, one on one. So I still have the connection with the students. But it's on the other side, not academics, [00:02:00] but more the social-emotional part, which I enjoy because this way I get to play with them and use some of my other talents in my office.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, for sure. And then you also have the really important context of having been in the classroom and knowing what they're experiencing in there, so I love that.

Molove Lee: So sometimes they can't even learn because of all of the other things.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Molove Lee: That's going on in their life. So, um, I have that. You know, I'm able to speak to the teachers about some of those things like, you know, "Be a little easy because..." You know, and I didn't have that when I was a teacher. So yeah, I have, uh, the pleasure of having both worlds, um, in the education system.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, that's one of the things. My child is now 14, gonna be a sophomore in high school, and it's been so interesting to see how, like, their education, it was so different from mine in terms of all the support they've had since, since day one in kindergarten for making them [00:03:00] well-adjusted people as best as they can.

Molove Lee: Oh yeah, so different. I don't, I, I shouldn't, uh, maybe I shouldn't say this, but I don't even remember sc- uh, elementary or middle school school counselors in the building. I knew they existed, but I don't remember them. But definitely in high school. But, um, it's mandated that all schools, I'm in New York City, all schools.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Molove Lee: Have at least a school counselor and/or social worker to meet the needs, especially after COVID. To meet.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, yeah.

Molove Lee: Those needs of the students in the classroom.

Jennifer Wilson: That's wonderful.

Molove Lee: And the support parents a lot, also.

Jennifer Wilson: So getting into the crafty conversation here, do you have a favorite recent layout project thing you've made?

Molove Lee: So I've been into junk journaling here recently. I would say the last two years maybe. I fell in love with attending events, and I wanna capture everything for the events. Like these, uh, conferences for planners and journals. [00:04:00] I'm, like, at the events and taking pictures and having people sign my journal and collecting all of the ephemera, the tickets. I recently attended DC Planner Journal Con in DC. I believe the organizer is Michelle. I loved the event. I had an awesome time. I met so many people. Not too long ago, maybe two weeks ago, I attended, uh, New York City Planner Addicts, um, in Maspeth, Queens. They had their 10-year anniversary, and I met so many people, and I learned so many things. So I wanna get it all into a journal. I don't know. I'm, like, obsessed with I gotta take notes from the speakers, and I wanna put the speaker's picture in my journal. So it's been, like, this whole crafty event of the crafting event. And I've been enjoying that recently. Definitely junk journaling is top on my list right now.

Jennifer Wilson: I love how, you know, with this particular [00:05:00] format you can get people to, to sign it. You can do things maybe that you wouldn't think of in more traditional scrapbooking or even more traditional journaling projects. Um, I love the, the combination of things and the freedom.

Molove Lee: There's definitely a freedom. Um, do come from traditional scrapbooking, if- I'm doing air quotation marks, right? Traditional scrapbooking and even Project Life, but junk journaling you can just glue the things down.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Molove Lee: And it looks cute. If, if it doesn't look cute, so what? I wanna keep this ticket here. I wanna keep this bracelet here, and it's just a place for everything here without any rules.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. So is there something new that you're excited to do, use, or try either in your crafty life or in your everyday life?

Molove Lee: Um, surprisingly, um, I was inspired by, um, Ali Edwards. I call her, uh, the godmother of scrapbook. One of the godmothers.

Jennifer Wilson: Uh-huh.[00:06:00]

Molove Lee: One of scrapbooking, along with, uh, Becky Higgins. But definitely Ali Edwards I call the god- godmother of scrapbooking. She sews, like, pockets and does- she does some stitching on her pages.

And I asked Santa husband, for a sewing machine last year, and my birthday's also in December, and I got one. So I did sign up for.

Jennifer Wilson: Ooh, fun

Molove Lee: A class, and I made my first, um, denim tote bag. So cute. Um, and I've taken a series of classes. So I think it's evolving into something else. I haven't stitched one thing in my scrapbook, but I'm all about I wanna make a pillow.

Um, I want to make, um, another makeup bag. I want... So I don't know what it's evolving into. My mom definitely sews. She's made, um, clothes for my dolls growing up. She's stitched things for us growing up. So I definitely would like to one day make a quilt. So I don't [00:07:00] know. I'm excited and a little nervous.

The, the objective was to sew in my scrapbook, but I think it's growing into a little more than that. we'll, we'll see what's next.

Jennifer Wilson: Well and I think that it's actually, there, there is a degree of helpfulness to learn some of the basics of sewing on fabric before you try to sew on paper. Because I feel like it's a little, it's a little trickier than, than sewing on fabric. Um-

Molove Lee: True. But funny, funny enough, the first class that I took, they had us sewing on paper.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, really?

Molove Lee: How to do straight lines.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, nice. Okay.

Molove Lee: Mechanism of sewing. And I was.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Molove Lee: This is it. This is what I want to do.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Molove Lee: But of course we moved to fabric, but you know, they, I just learned some stitching on paper first.

Jennifer Wilson: Maybe your first, like, quilt could be like a quilted cover for your junk journal.

Molove Lee: You never know. You know what? But I do have a scrapbook from my aunt in, from Savannah. My first year of teaching, she made me a [00:08:00] scrapbook. Um, she covered it with, like, this plaid material, put some batting, I believe that's what you call it, inside.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Molove Lee: And she had, like, a little schoolhouse and some little kids stitched on the front cover. So, um, I'm, we not reinventing the wheel. My aunt's been this.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Molove Lee: For a little while now.

Jennifer Wilson: That's awesome. I love that you have that.

Molove Lee: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So tell us more about your evolution as a memory keeper. When did you get started, and how did that change over time?

Molove Lee: Well, speaking of my aunts in Savannah, um, growing up, uh, as a little girl, I remember s- going to visit... My mom's from Savannah, and her two sisters are down there. And she had all these pictures, and she used to have us cut people out to make, like, silhouettes, and they would pop dot them and put them into scrapbooks. So I felt like I was jumped into scrapbooking through them. So, um, I did start off with some traditional scrapbooking, you know, with the photo mats, one or two pictures.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.[00:09:00]

Molove Lee: On a layout, a single-page layout. I quickly realized y- years later that I take way too many pictures, um, for that type of scrapbooking, that format. Um, I did transition into project... Well, let's say pocket page scrapbooking. Because I can house more than one or two pictures in, like, a two-page layout with the pockets. And, um, then I realized that there is something to be said about the daily, everyday, um, moments that can be captured by weekly Project Life. So the last three years I did do weekly Project Life. Along with, you know, special events. I may do a few extra pages on special events. But right now I'm behind in Project Life, let's- I'ma be honest. Because I'm all into junk journaling.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, do you find that the junk journaling is satisfying some of [00:10:00] what you are getting out of Project Life? Or are they very different for you?

Molove Lee: Okay, so I don't wanna get into the debate on what's junk journaling, but junk journaling for me includes a picture. There's rarely anything that I create that does not have a picture on it.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

Molove Lee: Um, because I am a scrapbooker, and if you ask, I can go to all the planner and journal events I want to, but I will always say that my first love is scrapbooking and memory keeping, and part of that is adding a photo. Like - we say in my family, "It didn't happen if there's no photo. You didn't share a photo in the text, so did it really happen?" So I have some of that in my memory keeping junk journaling to also add a picture to just about everything.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah

Molove Lee: So that's... I get that from the scrapbooking and the junk and the ephemera and the ticket stubs.

I feel like I have a nice... [00:11:00] I like the balance that I have with adding the picture, the memory keeping, and then the parts of the memory added is what I'm calling junk journal memory keeping.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, I l- no, I love it. I think you have to make it your own, and particularly since there are so many different creative projects that we could and want to do. And now with sewing, maybe you have other ideas as well. We can't do everything, so maybe we have to combine some of our interests into specific projects so that we're satisfying all those needs.

Molove Lee: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: So, so what other approaches or formats to memory keeping, journaling, planning, scrapbooking are you doing today?

Molove Lee: Well I, I do enjoy, like I said, uh, Ali Edwards is the mother of scrapbooking in my world. So I do, um, every year, um, December-- Okay, so December's my birthday month, my anniversary month, and I love Christmas. So.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh gosh, perfect. Yeah.

Molove Lee: Yeah, so the last maybe six years I've [00:12:00] done December Daily, um, with, you know, Ali Edwards and, you know, some of her products. I do indulge in Week in the Life. Um, I do some faith journaling with scripture writing. Um, I also make ATCs, you know, artist trading cards. I just like.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm

Molove Lee: Those are smaller canvases for dolls or stickers or little phrases of encouragement. And I love a tag book. So, uh, these four by six tags that I create, um, and I bind them with a ring binder and put a bow on it.

It's like a mini scrapbook for me, a smaller canvas, a little bit bigger than a ATC. And I, I love adding pictures and ephemera to that. So it's like a mini scrapbook, and I like to use that as like gifts, um, to my girlfriends and family members, and like little memory keepsakes. So those are some of the projects that I- are ongoing with me.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you have any things that you're [00:13:00] specifically working on right now that you think of as a project? And, and I, I guess part of this question is, are you doing your junk journaling in terms of I fill a book and then when I'm done I start a new book, or do you have multiple books that you're filling?

Molove Lee: Multiple books only because there are multiple projects, like you're calling them.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

Molove Lee: I do have a junk journal that's... I don't have a title for it, but it is from A to Z.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, fun. Yeah

Molove Lee: Say if I'm working on a project, I have some stickers and/or even junk, and I have this, uh, cookie wrapper, and I have no place to put it, I put it in the C section of my junk journal for cookies. Um, if I have a sticker that's left over from something I'm working on in my junk journal, and it's green, I have a green page also in this junk journal, and I put it on a green page. So I do have a place to kind of put [00:14:00] everything, um, which is ongoing. When that book is finished, I'll close it and I'll, you know, share it with others when I go out to different events.

But it is shelved, and I'll start a new book. I do have some, um, running projects like that, like the junk journals. Once I finish, like, one junk journal, it's about a nine by 12. Um, it was a planner of some sort that I knew I wasn't going to use the way it was, so I just put scrapbook paper on each page and just junk journaled on top of it. And, um, here it is June. I'm about finished with that book. I'll finish it off and then it, and I already have a new nine by 12 album that I would like to start, for I guess June to the end of the... Until it's full. Then I'll start a new, quote unquote, "project."

Jennifer Wilson: I think that tip for reusing planners that didn't fully get, uh, get enjoyed, actually even planners [00:15:00] that did and maybe you don't need those pages anymore, that is still an awesome foundation for a new project.

Molove Lee: I actually won this, uh, planner at a, at an event, like a raffle. And I won it and I was like, "Oh, this is so good." And I'm like, "Oh my God." When I got home, I was like, "What am I gonna use this for?" And it was on my bookshelf for about six months, and then I was like, you know.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Molove Lee: What? I'm gonna junk it up." And everybody loves it when you, when they see it, you know? 'Cause I have junk, I have memories in there. I have all of the things in there. So but yeah, there's something to be said to repurpose. I repurpose old planners. I just cover the dates and keep it moving. Nothing wasted.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I love that and I love the, your, your A to Z and your color book for kind of all the extra bits that maybe don't fit somewhere else, but you've saved it, so now we have to put it somewhere, right?

Molove Lee: We do.

Jennifer Wilson: So what kind of supplies do you enjoy using beyond the things that you collect from everyday life?

Molove Lee: I mean, scrapbook So I do [00:16:00] have, still have a s- I do have a stash, right.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Molove Lee: Scrapbook paper. Um, I'm sorry, but I love Dollar Tree and Five Below right now. Um, you know, they do have some scrap paper. They do have stickers there. Cheap, um, know, that I can find a place for anything. I do like the brand, um, Simple Stories for their scrapbook paper, their ephemera.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Molove Lee: Bits, their frame, like little photo frames. Of course, I, like I mentioned Ali Edwards for her project-based, um, supplies that, you know, she puts out. And like I said before, the packaging, the wrappers, you know, along with everything else. Those are the main supplies that I use. My paper cutter, scissors. I do love a tape those are my basic supplies.

Jennifer Wilson: Now you've been on some like sticker creative teams or ambassador t- type teams before?

Molove Lee: Yes. I've been on a few, um, printables. So printables are really big right now. [00:17:00] Um, I've been on a design team for Chela Creates. Um, but currently I'm on a design team for, her name is Crafty Planner Queen is the shop. And her name is Robin. Um, she does like junk journal kits that you can print or you can purchase also, um, you know, pre-printed. She does, um, also what you call printables. You purchase a printable and you can print them on regular paper, sticker paper, clear sticker paper. And I'm also on a design team for Plum Soul Studios. Her name is Bernadette and she's a sh- straight stickers sticker club. Um, not sticker club, sticker shop. Um, she does sell like some T-shirts and some magnets, but her main, the main thing that I do with her are stickers.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, there was a conversation I had recently, I don't know if it was on the last episode, it might have been. At this point I ha- I've, I've been doing a lot of interviews in a row. Um, but we were talking about how [00:18:00] hybrid is becoming and will become kind of so important because shipping is so expensive, even within a country, let alone to other countries.

Molove Lee: Wow.

Jennifer Wilson: And so I love how that kind of bridges the gap to get folks access to, to fun ind- especially independent creative suppri- supplies that they wanna use in their projects.

Molove Lee: And I love that the printables, I, you can resize them, make them smaller, bigger based on the project.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Molove Lee: That you're working on. I love um, that you know, you have that ability to do that on a computer with printables.

Jennifer Wilson: So you mentioned you do still have, you know, scrapbook stash as, as I would expect. How are you storing the ephemera and junk that you're gathering? Is that next to your supplies? And h- and how does, how does kind of organizing all that differ from organizing, you know, pattern paper and embellishments and things like that?

Molove Lee: So my pattern, pattern paper I do keep by color, um, [00:19:00] or by kit. Like, you know, I have the school, school-based supplies together. I have the baby, you know, children papers together. But my junk I do organize by color also, strangely. Um, I do have, like, this binder with, uh, folder, folder pockets.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Molove Lee: Once I get some junk, you know, I may, depending on what it is, I may have to clean it up a little bit, like crumbs. Clean it a little bit and I do slip it in the color section, of this particular binder. Um, I do have several drawers with, um, ephemera, um, stickers, chipboard by season. I do organize by season. I do keep all my letter stickers together. But the junk definitely is by color. My paper is definitely by color. Scraps, uh, yes, I do keep a lot of scraps by color. So whenever I do need a [00:20:00] three, five, four piece I don't have to cut into a new sheet of scrapbook paper. I can just reach into my red scraps to grab that piece that I need. So I would say a lot of things are still by color, um, organized in binders. And I am a Ziploc girl, you know.

Um, I love a Ziploc, and I will put things in a Ziploc until I'm ready for them.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. Now I'm curious if, um, you are finding yourself using more scraps now that you're doing junk journaling than you did in your scrapbooking.

Molove Lee: Um, I always use a lot of my scraps.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

Molove Lee: Um, I wouldn't say that, you know, I'm into junk journaling or more, that I'm using it the more. I would say still the, the sa- at the same pace.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay. Yeah

Molove Lee: Then remember I do AC- ATCs and I do tag books.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Molove Lee: So those are also good places for me to use those smaller bits also too.

So I'm always in the scraps.

Jennifer Wilson: For sure.

Molove Lee: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: So let's [00:21:00] talk about some of these events that you mentioned. In particular, you just hosted an in-person junk journaling event this past weekend. Tell us about it, and, you know, were you, were you teaching? Was it like a crop? What was the, what was the situation?

Molove Lee: So it was more like a... It was so awesome. It was more like a crop, if you will. We had about 20 people at a local restaurant, um, Therapy Wine Bar in Brooklyn. I did tell everyone this is, this will be a working event, so bring your journals, bring your pictures, anything you would wanna create, um, use to create pages in your journal. I did give out goodie bags, being that the venue was named Therapy Wine Bar, I said, "Let me, you know, springboard a theme from there." So they did receive a goodie bag, wine-themed goodie bag with junk and ephemera and papers of wine and corks and, you know, wine quotes. But additional were available for them to forage.

I had [00:22:00] magazine clippings, I had, um, pa- other papers and other ephemera that they can use, um, if they wanted to for the event. Um, so what I would say it was more like a crop. But did give some guided prompts. Wine theme, of course. Um, some things like design your dream wine label. Create a page using wine colors like burgundy, blush, p- plum. Um, make a wine and dine bucket list. So I did, you know, give a few prompts. Some people did use the prompts and the ephemera and the little goodies that were given. Um, so it was, it was an awesome... The vibe in that place was so good. Even the owner was like, "Everyone's engaged." Um, she didn't even... She was like, "What is junk journaling?

Like, is, is it like vision boarding?" So, you know, I had to... Mind you, I had two conversations regarding junk journaling, I felt like she still needed to see it for herself to get, like, what we [00:23:00] were doing.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, yeah.

Molove Lee: And, um, she was like, "Wow." She was like, "Feel free to have another event here." Everyone engaged.

Everybody seemed to have a good time. Even some of the guests were asking other guests who were there, you know, in the restaurant asked about the event. um, I was very happy. Everybody left happy. They had their pages made. They were sharing and trading and looking at each other junk journals. Um, I was happy.

I love getting people together. I love sharing ideas. I love seeing other people, how they create, how they think and come up with their ideas. Um, I w- I'm really happy with the event and I, I look to have more. Um, especially in the part of Brooklyn where I live. I'm in Bed-Stuy, and I, I do travel to go to, you know, day crops or day events.

I do like meeting new people, but I was like, you know what, maybe there are more locals that are interested in junk journaling, so I'm glad that [00:24:00] I, I had it here.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, wonderful. I'm, I'm curious, like what was the range of experience level of the people that attended? Was there anybody like brand new to it?

Molove Lee: Brand new? No. I'm gonna be honest. So my guests were mostly, um, people who I've met, in the community, um, at other planner events that I've, I went to. Um, had one guy, his name is David. Um, he just launched his own label or brand, if you will, called Pinkiverse. He came to hang out. He brought some stickers with him. So I would say everyone had some experience in anything paper crafting. And you know, one young lady, she was like, "Well, what's it, what should, what can I do with this? Let me see one of your, one of your albums or one of your junk journals to get some inspo." um, I think that was the basis of the [00:25:00] event.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Molove Lee: No matter the level, your expertise level, you can still learn from anyone else that was at the event.

Jennifer Wilson: Well and everyone has, whether we're talking about junk journaling or scrapbooking or any form of crafting like this, that everyone has their own approach. To h- take these supplies and do something with them, and you can always learn something new that maybe you wouldn't have thought of from, from actually touching and, and viewing somebody else's project.

Molove Lee: Exactly.

Jennifer Wilson: So you mentioned that you've attended o- other in-person events as a participant. Um, have you done things in past years or is this a relatively new thing?

Molove Lee: Um, with junk journaling?

Jennifer Wilson: Or going to like planner events

Molove Lee: Um, I have. So I've been venturing out. I've been to a few, uh, like evening crops. Uh, it's this one young lady, I can't remember the area. But she has, uh, an event, bring your journal, bring your planner. This is a working event, with your ticket you get a happy [00:26:00] hour drink, you know. So a lot of people are, you know, come in, come hang out, bring your journals.

So I've been to quite a few of those events just to meet other people, hang out, learn from other people. So it's, it's popping up. Um, I went to even a free event, um, where all you had to do was make sure you, um, patronize the coffee shop and.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Molove Lee: Just come out. She had supplies out, and we just hung out and chit-chat and crafted for hours. So I think that's a thing, you know, it's this thing about, uh, analog and, you know, touching the things. And, um, n- lessen, um, decreasing your screen time and I think people are, quote, unquote, "buying into it" and like, "You know what? Maybe it is a good thing for me to get out and create something."

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I love this idea that, that our hobbies are at the center of what people are craving right now. And I, and I hope that it kind of, it helps to [00:27:00] reconnect folks with their, their creative side, you know, regardless of what format they choose.

Molove Lee: Exactly.

Jennifer Wilson: You've also done some online teaching and have a Facebook group. You know, can you tell us a little bit about that and anything you might have coming up?

Molove Lee: Sure. I do have a Facebook group. It's called Remember The Dayz, with ends with a Z. Um, where I post, we post ideas. I'm like, "Y'all wanna meet up, um, on this date? Let's work on a tag book. Um, purchase this printable at least so we all have, like, a starting point. Purchase this printable. Um, if you like, pull out some papers and things that you think will go with it, and let's create a, a page."

So we meet monthly. Um, our next meetup, uh, does not have a date yet, but we do meet monthly. The last time we met up, we made a tag book together. um, the month before that, we, um, created, um, what they call it, a Dutch door situation.

Jennifer Wilson: [00:28:00] Yeah

Molove Lee: Um, so, you know, we're here, like, creating together, figuring it out together. So they are classes where, you know, free classes, they're free, where we come together. Just let me know that you purchased the printable, you know, so you know at least the base of what we're using. Um, and then we create something in our journals or some paper craft together, and you have a finished product when we log off after two or three hours. So that page is on Facebook.

Jennifer Wilson: I love that. Sounds totally fun.

Molove Lee: And I do, um, host other classes. Um, I d- I've done, like, Thankful 30. That's in the month of November, where we prep a journal in O- in the October, and we, um, prep for 30 days to be thankful. I do give out prompts, um, I do give out, um, like, a little kit to start you off, and we do create a journal of 30 things that we're thankful for, um, in the month [00:29:00] of November. That's one project that we, we do as a class, a paid class where you get a kit, and then you take the class online.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, cool.

Molove Lee: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, yeah. Those projects are always so, um, gratifying. I mean, just, just to elaborate on the word. Um, but yeah, it's, uh, definitely very satisfying.

Molove Lee: Yeah, I have a lot of people when I post things, it's like, "Oh my God, this is so cute. How did you do that?" Or, "I would like to learn how to do that." So you know, I take some of, some of the ideas from the, you know, people. When they show an interest in, you know, something that I've created. And I say, "You know what, let me offer this," or, "Let me see if there's an interest for this." You know, and I think I'm more, I do not wanna sell things.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Molove Lee: A thing, you know, where you can make money, but I think I'm more on the education side where I wanna teach and share how I, create and make things in, you know, in my journals or planners. So [00:30:00] I'm more on the education side and I wanna share how to, rather than what to use.

Jennifer Wilson: Well and it's kinda ends up being best of both worlds. You can lean on what you know and do best, and then also support the shops that you love.

Molove Lee: Oh, definitely.

Jennifer Wilson: Keeps our industry thriving

Molove Lee: Definitely. I do have some, the favorite brands that I mentioned earlier that, you know, I do support and I do push. You know, when creating 'cause, you know, qua- good quality is good quality.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. Well, Mo Lovely, can you share where our listeners can find you online?

Molove Lee: So you can find me on Facebook at Remember the Dayz Days, D-A-Y-Z. can also find me on Instagram, also RememberTheDayz21 and the name on there is Mo Lovely.

Jennifer Wilson: We will include those links in the show notes for the episode, as well as everything else that you have mentioned. Thank you so much.

Molove Lee: Thank you for having me.

Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have [00:31:00] permission to scrapbook and junk journal your way.

Marci Villanueva: [00:00:00] I'm in a phase and have been for a couple years where I am just really into the products, like the pretty products. I won't make a page that doesn't have some story on it. But maybe I would make a six by eight or even a 12 by 12 page with a small story. Just because I got a new collection of paper and it's so pretty and I just want to use it.

Jennifer: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper, and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 337. In this episode, I'm interviewing Marcy Villanueva for the My Way series. My Way is all about celebrating the unique ways memory keepers get things done.

We're excited to have Marcy as the June featured artist at Simple Scrapper

Hey Marci welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Marci Villanueva: Hello. Thank you for having me.

Jennifer: I am so [00:01:00] thrilled to chat with you today. Can you start by sharing a little bit about yourself?

Marci Villanueva: Sure. Um, my name's Marci Villanueva. I live in Edmonds, Washington, which is just north of Seattle. Um, I've lived in the northwest most of my life, and I live here with my husband, Rapheus. And I have two kids. One is in college, so she sort of lives here, but sort of doesn't. She's in her first year at college.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: And then I have a 16-year-old who is obviously living at home. And then we also have a dog, Pepper and we have a 40-year-old Russian tortoise.

Jennifer: Oh, exciting. So tell me about, uh, your daughter going to college and how that transition has been. Because I'm just very curious and I'm gonna start asking everybody this.

Marci Villanueva: Yes.

Jennifer: She's, mine's only a freshman, but I'm like, oh God, it's coming so soon.

Marci Villanueva: Yes, it does come so soon. Um, those high school years, people say it goes quick and it really does. Um, our transition has actually been great. [00:02:00] She's going to Washington State University, which is where I went. And I think it helps that I know the campus really well. When she says she went to a certain building, I know exactly where that is. So it feels very familiar.

Jennifer: Yeah, that's cool.

Marci Villanueva: But she's done really well. She's made friends, she's doing good in school. Um, she actually, um, is coming back home, um, in about three weeks for the summer. And I think that is gonna be an interesting transition. It'll be so exciting to have her back, but it'll also be a different dynamic. 'Cause she's, you know, kind of a pseudo adult now and,

Jennifer: Yeah.

Marci Villanueva: But living under parents' roof, so it'll be, it'll be fun and exciting.

Jennifer: It's so funny to think about how when I was in high school, I felt like those years were so long, like I felt like I was in high school forever.

Marci Villanueva: Yes.

Jennifer: And now looking back, you realize it's just two seconds. So.

Marci Villanueva: Exactly.

Jennifer: So I always like to ask our guests a couple icebreaker questions. Do you have a favorite recent layout or project?

Marci Villanueva: [00:03:00] I would say, um, my favorite project right now is I'm working on a scrappy spiral notebook.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: Heba Alsibai puts those out and makes those. And I'm using that as like my Project Life type documentation. So I do, um, approximately two spreads and they're roughly about six by eight. So two, six by eight type pages.

I actually think it's seven by nine is the notebook size. um, I do two spreads per month. And it, those are just really small stories. It could be one snapshot of a big event, and I'll just document that I did that event, but I might do a bigger spread somewhere else. But then I might document my coffee or might walk with my dog or just fun things like that.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm. And have you done like Project Life in other formats before this?

Marci Villanueva: Yes. I started Project Life in the [00:04:00] traditional sense that we know it in 2013. And I finished that album in 2014. And then going forward, there are different albums in different stages of completion.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: Mostly pockets. Um, and then a few years ago I started doing notebooks. 'Cause I wanted 'em to be a little bit smaller.

I was starting to get too many albums and I thought I'd try the notebook style. And I do like it. I think it's, um, it feels like less pressure. The pictures are smaller. The, I feel I can use my stash.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: Not everything has to be so matchy matchy. And so I'm liking that 'cause I'm really into using my stash right now. So I can use scraps and orphan embellishments and things like that.

Jennifer: Do you think having the, the foundation that has boxes, places for your stories, does that help you more than say like a blank [00:05:00] page, like just a traveler's notebook?

Marci Villanueva: I definitely do. Um, I, when I was into the pocket pages, the 12 by 12 pocket pages, I really enjoyed those. And then I tend to get bored kind of easily. So I moved into the notebooks and I do like the blocks. Um, 'cause when I'm not feeling very creative or in a design mode, I can just fill in the boxes.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: Sometimes if I want a picture really large, I can print it so it covers say, four boxes. Um, and I can do my own thing if I want to, but I have that choice, so I like that.

Jennifer: Oh, I love that. Yeah. So of course I also like to ask our guests about something new they're excited to do, use, or try, and it could be inside of your hobby or in your everyday life.

Marci Villanueva: Well, I already mentioned, but I'm really excited for my daughter to come home from school.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: We just went to parents' weekend, uh, last weekend. And for us it's a, a five and a half, [00:06:00] six hour drive. So we went over, we did a ton of activities, we had so much fun. And then we go back in three weeks to pick her up, move her out, and then bring her home. And I do think it'll be, um, a very interesting transition. Trying to her some independence when she needs it, but also be there when she also needs parenting. Or, yeah. So it'll be, it'll be fun and definitely a change.

Jennifer: And how will your younger kiddo, like how has, how has she dealt with that transition as well?

Marci Villanueva: So my younger kid, so my oldest is a girl, and my younger one's a boy.

Jennifer: Oh, sorry. I goofed that.

Marci Villanueva: No, that's okay. And um. He actually, um, he came with us to parents weekend and they get along really great now that they're teenagers. When they were younger they did.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Marci Villanueva: Not, they fought all the time. So it's now, now they have a really great dynamic and I love that.

Jennifer: That's awesome.

Marci Villanueva: It's gonna be interesting because he [00:07:00] still has six weeks more of school and she's gonna be out.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Marci Villanueva: I've already, I've already had to tell him just 'cause I know him so well. Just because she is outta school does not mean you are outta school. You still have to go.

Jennifer: Yes.

Marci Villanueva: So that's gonna be interesting. But hopefully she, she's looking for work and hopefully if she has a job that'll give her some, um, reasons to be outta the house.

And then it's not gonna feel like she's totally on vacation and he has to go to school.

Jennifer: Yeah, I can see that. But yeah, I hope, I hope it all. She has a great summer.

Marci Villanueva: Yeah.

Jennifer: So this is our My Way episode because you are our featured artist for June. Um, what would you say to a non scrapbooker about why you love this hobby?

Marci Villanueva: You know, I love, um, documenting, like small memories and stories. I had a situation recently where I, I needed to go look at an old album. I can't remember exactly why. But I pulled out one from several years ago and I was [00:08:00] looking for the specific story that I wanted to reference. But I saw all these pictures of my kids when they were little, um, that I had kind of forgotten about. And I had documented maybe little things they had said or things they had done. And I had totally forgotten about those things. Had I not had it written down or in some type of book that I could go back and reference. So I think it's so fun to be able to record all those memories. 'Cause I think a lot of them would get lost if I didn't have 'em written down. And then I also just love pretty paper and pretty stickers. Um.

Jennifer: That helps doesn't it?

Marci Villanueva: It, yeah, I think most scrapbookers probably when we were kids, I know I had the sticker book with all the scratch and sniff stickers.

Jennifer: Oh yeah.

Marci Villanueva: Yeah. And now I get to just play with stickers and paper and I just love it.

Jennifer: I am curious. When you're working in your spiral notebook and [00:09:00] you're also interested in using your stash, are there certain parts of your stash that you're gravitating towards?

Marci Villanueva: I tend to pick a collections that kind of inspire me for that particular year. Right now I'm trying to use a lot of.

Jennifer: Okay.

Marci Villanueva: My older, like Pink Fresh Studio and older Citrus Twist. I feel like they kinda have the same look a little bit.

Jennifer: They do. Yeah.

Marci Villanueva: It's a good way to pull out those products that I haven't looked at in a long time.

Jennifer: That reminds me of some, um, six by eight and six by six, uh, papers that I have in the closet that need to see the light of day, so.

Marci Villanueva: And those are papers I don't use very often for 12 by twelves.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: And so they're perfect for smaller projects. Like little boxes.

Jennifer: Yes.

Marci Villanueva: That I wanna cut up a little piece of paper for or something.

Jennifer: Ah, so fun. So let's, let's go back a little bit. Tell us how you got started scrapbooking and, and why that came about.

Marci Villanueva: Well, I [00:10:00] have always been into pictures, which, um, even in elementary school, my parents did not take a lot of pictures. But the pictures we did have, I loved and I kind of hoarded them. And they were just, um, would collect their pictures in a shoebox. But whether it was family pictures, like grandparents, or of me. I just loved looking through 'em all. Then when we were, when I was in middle school, we lived in South Carolina for two years. 'Cause of my dad's job. And I knew that I'd be leaving and I would never see these people again. And you know, as a kid, your friends are everything. And so I made my first scrapbook. Um, it's not in the traditional sense that we think of scrapbooking today, but it was one of those magnetic page protector type things.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: And I used construction paper to cut out titles 'cause that's all we had back then. Um, and I still have that scrapbook. I mean, the construction paper is totally faded, but it's like my first real attempt at [00:11:00] it. And so I've kept it. Um, the funny thing, when I do look back at that, I have pictures of all my friends and I did not write anybody's name next to their picture.

Jennifer: Oh gosh.

Marci Villanueva: I just, you know, they were the, my life.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Marci Villanueva: Like I thought I would always remember who they are. Um, and sure enough, I don't know, 40 years later, I have no idea what their names were. So that is one, um, reminder that to, at least write down some basic information next to your pictures.

Jennifer: Yeah, I'm thinking like I definitely didn't do that and I think I would remember most people, but I haven't also tried. Then again, I can never remember like, names of things that I used to know the name of. So I'm not sure I wanna try that. But it's a, it's a very important point, so that's why we should at least be doing that now if we didn't in the past.

So we know you create in your [00:12:00] Project Life style in the notebook, but what other sizes or formats are you typically creating in.

Marci Villanueva: Yeah, I tend to do most sizes. Um, I mean I started in 12 by 12. And actually going back a little bit after that, um, more uh, construction paper type scrapbooking, I got into after college, I got into Creative Memories. 'Cause someone invited to a party and that's when I got into the more traditional. That got me into 12 by 12 scrapbooking. So I've done mostly 12 by 12 and I have a lot of 12 by 12 albums. And then when life was really busy when I had little kids, I got into the pocket page 12 by 12. 'Cause that seemed like an easier thing to do. And I was busy and I could just put or cards into a pocket. And now that I have more time, 'cause my kids are older, I've been jumping around. And I kind of feel like every say couple years, I get bored of a certain size and I kind of move to a different [00:13:00] size. And right now I'm doing a lot of smaller format six by eight. Um, maybe even like a five by eight and a Life Crafted size. And that's what I'm doing mostly. But I often go back to 12 by 12. Maybe if a lot of classes are 12 by 12 size or sketches. So I do always return to 12 by 12. But right now I'm really enjoying the six by eight or the journal size, which is about seven by nine.

Jennifer: So for someone who maybe has always created in 12 by 12 or larger formats, um, what do you enjoy about the smaller ones?

Marci Villanueva: I think, um, sometimes the, the 12 by 12 blank page can be really intimidating and overwhelming.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Marci Villanueva: That's why sketches can be great 'cause it's a jumping off point. And for some reason the six by eight or something with, um, pre-designed blocks, is kind of taken the first step. [00:14:00] Away from my brain having to process what to do.

And then I also for some reason feel like I can be a little bit more playful or try new things in a smaller size. And I don't know why that is, but I am more likely to dabble in mixed media on a smaller size than I am a bigger size. I think that's just me. And I don't know why my brain thinks that way, but um, for me, I am, I feel a little bit more free to try different techniques or styles when it's smaller.

Jennifer: I can see that it just, it feels less risky. Um, you know, it doesn't feel as hard that maybe you might want to discard a smaller piece of paper versus a full 12 by 12 sheet.

Marci Villanueva: Right.

Jennifer: If you, if you were to, to mess up or really just strongly dislike what you created. Um, yeah, I can see that.

Marci Villanueva: Yeah.

Jennifer: Are there any other projects or activities that you're focused on this year? Or are you really just kind of telling the stories that you wanna tell and, and, [00:15:00] and don't have a particular plan around it?

Marci Villanueva: Um, my scrapbooking, I don't have a specific plan. Right now I am just in the mood to play and have fun. That's sort of my goal.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: Um. I wanna play with my products. I'm on obvious two design teams, so I'm on obviously Simple Scrapper and then I'm on

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: Elle Studio. Um, so I get to play with their products every month, and that is super fun. I'm also, right now really busy. Because I decided to go back to school. And I'm working on a master's program right now. So I am actually doing a lot of creative work through that. And I'm not getting as much scrapbooking time this year. And so I think that's why I'm just really focused on having fun, playing, and whatever comes of that.

I, I have no, uh, objective of how many pages or how many projects at this point.

Jennifer: Yeah, it sounds like a great, a great balance for where [00:16:00] you're at in your life. What are you going back to school for?

Marci Villanueva: Going back for graphic design. I'm enrolled.

Jennifer: Oh, excellent.

Marci Villanueva: In a Master of Fine Arts program.

Jennifer: I can see that taking a lot of your creativity, yeah.

Marci Villanueva: Yes, it does. Um, sometimes I just need to like take a break. My brain needs a creative break for a little bit.

Jennifer: Has doing that work, has that started to inform like more of your scrapbooking? Or are they very separate for you?

Marci Villanueva: At this point in time, they're separate.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: The projects I'm doing are not, um, related in any way. And, but they're still, my brain has to think of design or think of colors or, um, so there is some crossover in that way. Which is why I am only scrapbooking a few hours on the weekend right now, when I have time. And then I have to do my schoolwork during the weekday and then do my other adult responsibilities.

Jennifer: Those darn adult [00:17:00] responsibilities.

Marci Villanueva: I know they get in the way of everything.

Jennifer: So how would you describe your style?

Marci Villanueva: Oh, I always find this to be a hard question. I always want other people to tell me what they think. 'Cause I'm like, I don't know. I just do what I do. But, um, I'd say in general, I think my style is, um, simple, straight line. I like things very symmetrical rather than just some people can throw things on a page and it just randomly looks good. And I'm that kind of person that if I, I want that random scattered look. I spend, um, hours trying to like, no, that, that sequin should just be over, just a little bit over here. Um, to make it look like I just threw it haphazardly on the page.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Marci Villanueva: Yeah. Yeah. Um, but then I also think that, um, I like to be playful. I love embellishments. I like to probably over embellish my pages because then I can use more die cut, stickers, all [00:18:00] that kind of thing. So I would say it's a combination of, um, simple, but then also playful. Because I'm trying to use a lot of fun stuff.

Jennifer: Do you think that your, kind of, your, your why behind scrapbooking has shifted over time? Because you've mentioned the playfulness a lot, but then you also mentioned like wanting to have the memories. And obviously we're doing both of those, but, but how has that evolved as you've been a scrapbooker?

Marci Villanueva: Yes. I think it changes lot depending on what I'm doing that particular year or phase of life. Um, for example, when the kids were young and I was doing the pocket pages, I was documenting a lot of like things they would say or maybe the cute outfit I put them in or the activity at school.

So those were kind of small stories. Um, and more factual type based stories. And then as they got [00:19:00] older, um, and I was using more like Ali Edwards style products where there are a lot of prompt based. I was writing more stories. Longer journaling, which is really not something that I consider myself a big journaler.

I've never like had a diary as a kid. Never really liked writing papers at school. But, um, I got more into longer journaling when I was doing prompt based, using prompt based products.

Jennifer: Oh, for sure. It, I mean, it helps immensely.

Marci Villanueva: Yes. And then now I think I'm in a phase and have been for a couple years where I am just really into the products, like the pretty products. I won't make a page that doesn't have some story on it. But maybe I would make a six by eight or even a 12 by 12 page with a small story. Just because I got a new collection of paper and it's so pretty and I just want to use it.

Jennifer: So what are some of those products or even tools and [00:20:00] techniques we're gonna see most often on your pages?

Marci Villanueva: I would say, uh, again, I like to use a lot of embellishments, love puffy stickers. Um, I'm always trying to do like visual triangles. I'm always trying to balance the color. If I have a pop of yellow over here, I wanna make sure I have a pop of yellow over there, those type of things. So I think balance, um, and I like to be rather colorful.

I like, again, like the, the big collections and picking out the different papers and using several so I can get all the colors to match and blend with the embellishments and such.

Jennifer: Are there any particular trends that are standing out to you or influencing what you're picking up from your stash or, or purchasing new?

Marci Villanueva: You know, I'm sort of on a spending freeze right now. Um, and that's why I think I'm so into using my stash. Last [00:21:00] couple years and maybe starting in the pandemic, I started just, you know, buying a lot of stuff. 'Cause we were home and we were scrapbooking a lot. Um, and then I started accumulating too much. And like about this year or within the last year, I was like, I have so much stuff. I'm getting a little overwhelmed and.

Jennifer: Sure.

Marci Villanueva: I have too much stuff, it's harder to, um, actually be creative. Which everyone says, but it sounds sort of backwards that way, but it totally is.

And so I am just trying to pull out something older and go, Hey, I haven't used this in a while. Let's, let's pull this out and see what we can do with it.

Jennifer: Fun. I think. Yeah, when you, especially when you make it a fun challenge, you gamify a little bit and just know why you're doing it. You wanna use your stash and, and just make it more exciting than you can make it just as exciting as the new thing that's gonna come in the mail. So.

Marci Villanueva: Yes. Yes. And a lot of the stuff I'm like, oh, I didn't know I purchased this. I didn't know I owned this.

Jennifer: I know.

Marci Villanueva: Like new.[00:22:00]

Jennifer: Yes, I've been looking at the Ali Edwards sale and I'm like. I don't know a hundred percent which of these things I already have. So I'm not gonna buy anything. 'cause I don't wanna have to go through and and figure it out.

Marci Villanueva: That is a big problem for me. Yep.

Jennifer: Especially with like, with like alphabet stamps, I'm like, I, I don't have a, personally have a stamp index.

I don't find that, that's not something that I wanna have. A lot of our members do like having that. But I'm gonna flip through regardless to look at all the stamps. The, the names of them or whatever isn't gonna help me. Um, even a visual index, I'm gonna wanna see like the size and the scale and whether or not it has texture and, and all that.

But I'm like, I don't know which alphabet sets I have, so, um, I should just not buy any.

Marci Villanueva: I agree. I'm in the same boat. I have way too many stamps. Um, several refrigerator bins full of them. And I need to just pull them out and make sure I'm using them regularly.

Jennifer: So is there something through all of your [00:23:00] journeys that you found that really just does not work for you in scrapbooking?

Marci Villanueva: The one thing I haven't been able to get into is the, like, memory planning, documenting. I see other people on say Instagram. And I, their pages are beautiful and I'm like, oh, maybe I should try that. Kind of get fomo. I wanna do everything. But I just cannot keep up with, um. Whether it's a picture a day or filling out the whole week calendar, um, and journaling that much.

It's just, it's too much and I can't keep up with that. So def that's something I'm not gonna get into and buy stuff for 'cause I just know I can't keep up with it.

Jennifer: Well, and your, your notebook does provide a lot of that experience without the barriers of, of times in terms of having like days or weeks that are constraining things.

Marci Villanueva: Yes. And I think for me the flexibility with [00:24:00] the journal is better for me. Um, because then if one particular week I don't have anything going on, but next week is really busy and I wanna do two spreads of just that busy week, then it works fine.

Jennifer: Oh, I love that. I like, yeah, I like that freedom. That really appeals to me as well.

Marci Villanueva: Yes, so.

Jennifer: As you mentioned, you're on our creative team. What is your favorite team assignment and why?

Marci Villanueva: I really love the new sketches that come out.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: Every two months. Um, for the design team, we get, we get to see all of them as you know. And we get to pick one that we wanna work with. But I think they're all so great and right now I'm actually having a lot of fun taking them and shrinking them down. So they're usually 12 by 12 or or a square shape, I should say.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Marci Villanueva: That you can make any size you want. But I've been using components on the sketch and making a six by eight or even maybe a traveler's notebook [00:25:00] spread. And that has been really fun. Again, it gives you the sketches, give you the jumping off point and.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: They do the first step for me and then the rest I can play and, and do it the way I like.

Jennifer: Yeah, I love just having someone tell me how to, uh, orient the photos in relation to each other and maybe whether or not the papers are like under them or elsewhere on the page. And then I can go from there, but I just want somebody to make those initial decisions for me.

Marci Villanueva: I agree. And I tend to layer papers more, when I have a sketch. Because I'm like, oh, I didn't think I could put three layers of paper in that way. Um, but now I get to use all three different patterns. That's so fun.

Jennifer: Yes. Yes. And what about your least favorite? Assignment what's one's more challenging?

Marci Villanueva: You know, I would say the, um, the streamlined storytelling with the digital templates. I think those.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: [00:26:00] Are great. 'Cause they're, they've got the prompts and they're easy to tell stories. But I like touching paper and stickers. Um, if, and so what, a lot of times what I'll do is I will do the digital layout. And then I'll print it off and then I will add things, physical things to the spread once it's done. So it makes it more hybrid.

Jennifer: Yeah, I love that approach.

Marci Villanueva: Yeah. So I get the best of both worlds. I can do the prompt and then I can also use some of my stash.

Jennifer: Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. So kind of thinking more about the, the lifestyle of scrapbooking, where and when can we typically find you scrapbooking? You mentioned right now it sounds like it's concentrated on the weekend.

Marci Villanueva: It is. So I tend to allow myself either Saturday or Sunday, depending what's going on, um, at least a half day. And I do have a scrappy friend that she used to live near me, but she moved to a different state and [00:27:00] we will Zoom, or FaceTime. We kind of crop at least a couple weekends a month together. And that's fun. I can, it's a good way to keep in touch. And in fact, we actually joke, we scrap up together more now that she's moved to another state than we actually did when she was here.

Jennifer: Oh, you know, I think that happens a lot. So especially when you have that desire to stay connected.

Marci Villanueva: Yes. so I'll, we'll do that. Um, at least one day during the weekend.

Maybe both if I can swing it. I do take care of my mom a little bit. She lives on her own, but I do go see her on the weekend, the opposite day that I'm not scrapbooking.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: And help her with stuff. um. So that's about all the time that I get right now, which is kind of a bummer. But, um, I'll take what I can get.

Jennifer: Oh, for sure. And, and has this evolved over time? Like what were you doing, you know, five or 10 years ago?

Marci Villanueva: Well, so I was working part-time when the kids were [00:28:00] really little. And so I would at the time, 'cause I didn't have a scrapbook room, it was sort of, um, in a closet, so to speak. And I would put things out on the dining room table. Um, and I would lay out my book and then I might just put in a picture throughout the day or throughout the week.

I would just do little things here and there whenever I had five minutes or 10 minutes. Now I have my own room. Um, and so I can have all my stuff out. I can have it ready to go. I can have the project on the table. Um. But it helps me to have more concentrated time now. Now I don't really like the five or 10 minute breaks. I wanna have like a couple hours to really immerse myself from start to finish on a project.

Jennifer: Well, and I think understanding those preferences is important. Because maybe you keep trying, someone keeps trying to do the 15 minutes and it's just not working. Maybe [00:29:00] you do want to really make sure you get that mental, mental, uh, investment and flow of it, and you need to try to work things out a different way.

Marci Villanueva: Yes. And actually I'm also remembering, I think when my kids were, say like elementary school-ish. I would always try to scrap out of the house. Like I would go to scrapbook crops if I could, um, whether it was like Scrapbook Expo would come to town, I'd go there or there. There was a place, um, where someone rented like a library room, and I would pack up my stuff and I would go to that crop. But then now, and I think maybe it was the pandemic that did it. Now I don't like to leave my house when I'm scrapbooking. I wanna be in my room with all my stuff. I don't wanna pack it up. I don't wanna carry my stuff anywhere.

And so that has changed quite a bit too. I think it's a combination of just, phase of life, and [00:30:00] also my kids are older and I think that changes a lot of what I can and can't do.

Jennifer: Oh, certainly. Well, and technology also supports, as you said, cropping from home when you, when you can connect with others.

Marci Villanueva: Yes.

Jennifer: So let's talk a little bit about organization. Are you a super tidy person or are you a chaos All the time kind of person.

Marci Villanueva: Oh, I, I'm kind of a little bit of both. Um, it's funny, I am obsessed with organizing and decluttering podcasts. I listen to 'em constantly. I'm always trying to declutter my house. Not a minimalist in any way. But just the less clutter I have, the less I have to put away or clean or dust or all that kind of stuff.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: However, in my craft room, that's a bit of a different story. I do not like to purge when it comes to my craft supplies. I, I, I don't know why. Every time I see something, I either remember the [00:31:00] project I bought it for, or I bought it 'cause it was pretty, and it's still pretty.

So I wanna keep it. I do try to keep my desk pretty tidy. If it's kind of chaos, then I don't feel mentally ready to start on the next project. So.

Jennifer: I agree with that. Yeah.

Marci Villanueva: Yeah, I like to clean up my desk between projects. Even if I'm using say the same collection. I will just.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: Tidy things up. And make piles and be like, okay, now I'm ready to start. I also love my, um, project cart. And I believe it has six trays. And I will put future projects on each tray. Or if I'm working on, uh, a certain project, but I need to put it away because maybe I have a design team project that I need to do more urgently. And I can keep things organized that way. However, I also have piles on my floor that I need to deal with.

Jennifer: I understand that as well. I'm curious, with the project cart, do you find, are you able [00:32:00] to kind of keep it, keep it moving, or does it become another flat surface?

Marci Villanueva: Both. For both.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Marci Villanueva: I would love to be able to just start at the top tray and work my way down. But, um, what I find is I will set up the trays. With that intention, like, okay, these are the next six projects I'm gonna do. But then something will happen. Um, maybe, yeah, like I have a design team project that's due this week and I wanna do that first.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: Um, maybe I'm taking a class and I didn't have time to finish those six projects and now the class is starting, so I wanna work on that. Um, so I think what I'm trying to do is not fill up all six trays right now. I'm trying to limit it to like two or three. 'Cause I don't really think I can get through all six, um, before something will come in and, and take my attention away.

Jennifer: [00:33:00] Well, that makes sense. That's a great course correction. Um, still allowing you to have something in the wings that's ready for you and also to know that it, you probably won't get through a list of six.

Marci Villanueva: Yes.

Jennifer: Plus also, there's so many. If, if you're not getting through the list, something else is going to become more interesting to play with as well.

Um, that's been one of my struggles is I love that, that prep. But then if I prep, if I over prep, I won't ever get to the bottom of the pile because something else, even if it's not an obligation, something else will catch my interest. Um, before that.

Marci Villanueva: That is absolutely true. I find that all the time. Yes.

Jennifer: Any other organization strategies that have worked particularly well for you or have we, we captured them all.

Marci Villanueva: I think, you know, I've got my paper really well organized on my Kalax shelf.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: I've got these, kind of plastic 12 by 12 paper, I'm gonna call 'em in a bin. I don't know if that's really the right word. But I got 'em from scrapbook.com and they hold collections. And I've got all my [00:34:00] collections alphabetized by designer or by theme. So like, as an example, I have a lot of coffee themed, um, scrapbook pages. So in the Cs I'll have coffee. So everything will be by designer, but I'll have a coffee. And then I have a dog section. Um, but everything is pretty organized, so I know exactly where to go when I want

um. a certain collection or designer. The only downside to that is when I have everything together, if there is like, um, a random sticker or die cut that I could use on a different project like mix and match, I might not know exactly where that is. Like I might not remember that there was a lemon die cut in a certain collection and I'm doing a page about lemonade or something like that. A random example.

Jennifer: Yeah, I mean, but I, but I get it, and it's hard. I think no matter what, [00:35:00] what strategy you choose, it's always gonna be harder to find something. Um, like I don't, I organize my embellishments primarily by like, shape type. So flags, banners, circles, you know, leaves.

Marci Villanueva: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer: But then if I'm actually looking for, I want a bunch of yellow things, it's gonna take me quite a while to find all the yellow things.

Marci Villanueva: Yes. I do joke sometimes that it's like I organize this way, but I need to cross reference it

Jennifer: Yes.

Marci Villanueva: By color and then cross reference by shape and then cross reference by, yeah.

Jennifer: And I think that's why sometimes we tend to go more towards, like, I always wanna work with this collection. It all goes together and I don't need to look for other things.

Marci Villanueva: Yes. That is something I'm debating a lot with right now.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Marci Villanueva: I do use collections primarily. Because everything goes together. Um, but then if I want to break things up, I don't go to the broken up stuff as [00:36:00] much.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Marci Villanueva: And so I'm kind of in this like gray area of what do I keep together, what should I break up? How am I gonna find it best? But for right now, I think, um, I've got a good system for me.

Jennifer: That's wonderful. One of the things that I've been thinking about was, uh, my Vicki Boutin stash and my Paige Evans stash. Those are very like, like, uh, visually distinct. Um, I'm, I'm liking to keep all of that stuff together rather than separated. Because I'm, I'm more likely to use it together even across collections. Because there's gonna be similar colors and motifs and, and just overall style.

Um. So I'm kind of experimenting with that to see is this gonna help me use more of it by keeping it together versus. Splitting it up into here's all my Vicki Boutin papers, but then putting my embellishments with everything else. Um, to never be found again. You know.

Marci Villanueva: Right?

Jennifer: Because they'd be no longer distinguished as a particular designer. So. [00:37:00] I don't know if there's one perfect strategy, but I think if we do a combination of things like you mentioned even doing, you know, manufacturers and themes, um, that can help.

Marci Villanueva: Yes, and it's reminding me maybe a year or so ago when you mentioned Paige Evans and Vicki Boutin I had them all by designer, had those designers together. But then when I needed a travel collection, I had kind of forgotten that I, both of them have done travel collections, and.

Jennifer: Yes.

Marci Villanueva: I then made a travel section and labeled it. And I pulled out the Paige Evans and the Vicki Boutin travel, and I put those in travel. So I think every couple years, sometimes my brain just starts thinking of things differently, and I sort of readjust. And maybe looking for those in travel will help now, or maybe in a couple years I'll move them back. Who knows?

Jennifer: No, that's a good point. Particularly if there's things that are like very, very thematic and you probably wouldn't be able to use them on something that's [00:38:00] not travel.

Marci Villanueva: Right.

Jennifer: Just like I, yeah, like all of my Christmas stuff is totally separate. So, um, once in a while I'll dig in there for something silver or gold, but but it's, it's does pretty well by itself.

Marci Villanueva: Yes. Yes. I do have Christmas in two Iris bins of Christmas. It's a little crazy.

Jennifer: Nice. So our last two questions are a little bit broader, broader, big picture. Where would you like your scrapbooking to be in another decade?

Marci Villanueva: Well, I definitely think I'll be scrapbooking for sure since I've been doing it for so long. I just can't imagine life without it. Um. I also, since I'm going to school for graphic design, I kind of would like to design some products. Um, I would really love to do that eventually. Um, I can't say anything right now, but I am, am in talks with one company and I might be having something come out sooner than later, but I don't wanna jinx anything.

Jennifer: Fun.

Marci Villanueva: So.

Jennifer: That's exciting.[00:39:00]

Marci Villanueva: Yes, that will be very exciting if I, it would be my first designed product and I will be ecstatic if it all comes to fruition.

Jennifer: Yeah, definitely keep us updated on that.

And then what has being a scrapbooker taught you?

Marci Villanueva: I have definitely learned to appreciate the small things. And I do think that my general like mood or personality is something that would not have done that if I didn't have scrapbooking. Um, for example, just appreciating my cup of coffee. I mean, I don't need to scrapbook my coffee all the time. But knowing that I had a peaceful moment on the patio with my cup of coffee when the sun was shining. That is something to be grateful for because not, that's not something that we can always do. And so.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Marci Villanueva: If I do a fun scrapbook page about that, um, maybe [00:40:00] I won't keep it 10 or 20 years from now. But maybe I'll look back and go, oh yeah, I forgot I used to do that. And that was a really busy time in life, and that was a really great moment that I was able to just sit for a little bit and enjoy the, the birds and the sun and something like that.

Jennifer: Yeah, those are the photos that I take that I'm like, I this feel, I feel something with this. And I need to have a home for it. And it sounds like you have a lot of home for that in your scrappy notebook. And maybe that's something I need to think about. Not that I need to think about anything. But um, but those are the ones that I'm like, yeah, like I really wanna document this.

And sometimes I do end up being a full page, even if it's something that seems really small. I just wanna play and express myself and to freeze that feeling, I guess.

Marci Villanueva: Yes.

Jennifer: Well, Marci, can you share where our listeners can find you online and anything else that you might share about what could be new or coming up?

Marci Villanueva: Well, you can find me on Instagram. I'm coffee_scrap_travel. [00:41:00] I came up with that, um, name when I was, um, just starting to post things and I was kind of embarrassed if people would like my scrapbooking, so I wouldn't put my real name on it. And now they won't let me change it.

Jennifer: Aw.

Marci Villanueva: I know. Um, and then I have a very small YouTube channel. I'm trying to get that going. And that's just my name, Marci Villanueva. And then with my schooling um, and design work, I actually have an Etsy shop where I have some scrapbook, um, cut files. And, uh, 3D cards and things like that. And that's just at Marci Villanueva Shop on Etsy.

Jennifer: Oh, wonderful. We'll definitely include all those links in the show notes to the episode.

Marci Villanueva: Great.

Jennifer: Thanks so much for spending time with me. This has been delightful.

Marci Villanueva: Thank you for having me. This, um, is my first podcast and so I'm super excited, um, and grateful that you invited me.[00:42:00]

Jennifer: We are welcome back anytime. For sure.

Marci Villanueva: Thank you.

Jennifer: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.

Rachel Tallman: [00:00:00] this year I was kind of, falling out of love with paper crafting a little bit. Like, I just was like I needed to find my place in it again or find my spark again. So that's when I turned to junk journaling. And I'd seen it a lot online. And I specifically really like junk journaling for documenting my travels and my trips and stuff.

Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 336.

In this episode, I'm chatting with Canadian paper crafter Rachel Tallman about her journey through scrapbooking, junk journaling, and running a sequin mix subscription business. In our conversation, Rachel shares what it felt like to close that shop and what made the business model no longer workable

Hey, Rachel. Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Rachel Tallman: Hello. [00:01:00] Thank you so much for having me.

Jennifer Wilson: This is going to be a fun conversation I am thinking, and I'm excited to chat with you.

Rachel Tallman: Yeah, I'm very excited to be here. I love chatting all things crafting.

Jennifer Wilson: Can you start by sharing a little bit about yourself?

Rachel Tallman: Sure. So my name is Rachel Tallman. I live in the Niagara region in Ontario, Canada. Um, I often describe it as in between, like, Toronto and Buffalo, so I'm right by the border. I'm, I'm, I'm right along the border there. And, um, great area to live in. I, I... So we don't have Target here, but I, I like to tell people that I kinda get the best of both worlds.

I'm 20 minutes away from Target in the States, but also I have free healthcare, so love that. But that's where my location is. Um, for work is... Yeah. Yeah, I love it. my job is, my day job is I work with adults with disabilities. So I basically just, like, take them to do fun things, go to the movies, [00:02:00] plays, musicals, classes, crafting, baking, all that stuff.

So, so that's what I do for work, kind of split my time between, between crafting and that. And, um, my hobbies, obviously crafting, paper crafting. I'm a huge reader. I'm a big Buffalo Bills fan. I'm a season ticket holder. I love to bake, travel, Disney. And traveling goes, like, great with crafting, because I love documenting my travels.

So yeah, that's a little bit about me.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, wonderful. Yeah, I, that, I love that part of the world, and that is super cool that you do get the best of both locations, so.

Rachel Tallman: Feel very lucky. Yes, I feel lucky.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you have a favorite recent thing that you've created, and why is it a favorite?

Rachel Tallman: Ooh, yes. So this year I kinda made it my goal to fall in love with paper crafting again. And not that I ever disliked it, but I've been paper crafting for maybe about 15 years or so now. [00:03:00] And, I've done scrapbooking, Project Life, happy mail, all sorts of things. And so this year I kinda wanted to try something new in the paper crafting world.

So I've been doing a lot of junk journaling the last couple years. But, um, one of my favorite projects this year is, um, a book journal, like a reading... Basically like a reading log that I've made. That's been really fun. I mean, I didn't invent this or anything. It's all over, like, social media and stuff. But, um, it's kind of a year-long project, and it's simple.

It's in like a traveler's notebook style notebook. And it's, um, just a way to, like, document what I read, but also like the stats of what I'm reading. So there's like book graphs and like a little like hall of fame of the books I'm reading. Um, like a diversity tracker, a book bingo, what I'm reading in my book club, what I, what I buy. And yeah, documenting the books I read each month and the ratings I give them.

So that's my latest favorite project. It's simple, it's easy, it's straightforward, [00:04:00] it's low maintenance, but at the end of the year I'll have a full album of all the books I read.

Jennifer Wilson: I love how that type of project fits in well with your desire to, like, rekindle your love. When, when we need to do that, often a simpler approach can be, um, really helpful.

Rachel Tallman: Exactly. I love it.

Jennifer Wilson: So is there something new you're excited to do, use, or try, either in your hobby or your everyday life?

Rachel Tallman: Yes. So I've actually, in the last month or two kind of been exploring different, um, hobbies or crafts outside of paper. And I've been needle pointing in the last month, which has been really fun. And like with, with scrapbooking there's like that... I don't know if it's like an instant gratification or what it is about finishing a layout in one sitting, and that's great.

But with needle pointing it's like, that takes a while. I've been working on this for, for weeks, hours and hours and hours every week. And it's taking a long time. But it's, [00:05:00] I think it's good for my brain to, to slow down with a project and not get the, the excitement of finishing it until... I don't know. I don't know how long this will take me.

But it, it's been, it's been kinda cool to try something. And that I'm sure I can incorporate in paper crafting somehow eventually. But, um, maybe it's like kind of a cousin to paper crafting. But I do wanna try cross stitching. That's kinda my next thing that's kind of similar to it. So, so those are two things.

Jennifer Wilson: I think those could be really fun for the cover of a mini album.

Rachel Tallman: That would be amazing.

Jennifer Wilson: So I haven't done any kind of, like, fiber crafting in decades. Um, can you remind us, like, what needlepointing is versus embroidery or cross-stitch?

Rachel Tallman: Oh, dear. Okay, I can try. I'm still new to it, but I actually, I just bought like a few different kits from, um, Michaels that were on sale. 'cause I just wanted to try something new. So I bought a few different kits. Um, [00:06:00] and yeah, one of them was needle pointing. And so cross stitching I think is on like a fabric, and then needle pointing is, I don't know if it's like, like a wax kind of thing or what it, what kind of material this is.

But also, um, the needle pointing uses like yarn, and cross stitching uses, um, what is that called?

Jennifer Wilson: Embroidery floss.

Rachel Tallman: Yes, that's the one. Uh, yeah. Um, yeah, so- I am still very new to it, but I am enjoying it, and I'm excited to learn more. And it's good, like, while watching TV. Instead of, like, scrolling my phone, I just find myself on, working on this project.

And I like to read, but, like, reading you don't have anything on in the background. With, with these projects it's kinda nice to have something on in the background and doing something with my hands. So it's good. It's helping me be on my phone less, that's for sure.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, 'cause, you know, sometimes it's really hard to resist the pull of the phone while you're watching TV.

Rachel Tallman: Oh, yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Or a [00:07:00] movie, and then you find yourself like, "Oh gosh, I missed that joke," or, you know, "What did say?

Rachel Tallman: Yes. It's such a bad habit, this... Though this last, like, 10 years or whatever it's been of, of social media and just, like, being so attached to our phones, like, it's so hard for our brains to just simply watch a TV show or movie now without grabbing our phone. It, it's, it's very interesting and something I gotta check myself with, for sure.

Jennifer Wilson: Well and I want all the info, like if I've seen an actor, particularly like those actors that are in everything. You're like, "I have to know where I saw this guy last or the six different things that I saw him in before." Um, and that drives my family nuts, but, um. I ha- I always Google those things.

Rachel Tallman: Yes. I'm like, "Where do I know that actor from? I've seen him or her somewhere. Like, where is this person from?" And you gotta Google it, and then you go in this rabbit hole of like, oh, that movie. Oh, that TV show. That, uh... Oh, they're married to this person, or their child. Yeah, I get it.

Jennifer Wilson: Wanted to chat with you today about paper crafting and the state of small business. Um, [00:08:00] you obviously, as you mentioned, you've crafted a lot of formats over the years, all centered around what I, I'm seeing as like a sense of joy in the products themselves. Um, before we get into more of the business side, can you tell us more about how you shifted from scrapbooking, Project Life, and into junk journaling this year?

Rachel Tallman: Yeah. So I grew up, like, watching my mom's scrapbook, like in the '90s and, and 2000- like early 2000s and stuff like that. Like scrapbooker childhood. Um, and so when I was a teenager I wanted to make scrapbooks for friends, and then when I got married about, uh, 10, 11 years ago I- was actually making... Okay, I wrote it down 'cause I forget what it...

Do you remember, like, there were these, they were almost like junk journals. They sold them at Michaels. I'm sure they sold them at other stores as well. Oh, Smashbooks. That's what they were called. Yeah. So it was, like, almost like junk journal style-ish, but that's kind of where [00:09:00] I started, like, when I... Like, about 10 years ago, like, when I really, really was getting into paper crafting, and that was a lot of fun.

But then I discovered more traditional scrapbooking and Project Life, and I dabbled in that. And about 10 years ago, I got really deeply into pen pals and happy mail and making, like, 3D projects. Um, and then that also, like, just being in the YouTube space and constantly watching YouTube videos got me into mini albums and creating these albums from scratch.

And I document my everyday life, but I'm... At this point, I'm probably like three or four years behind. 'cause I just haven't been keeping up. But hopefully one day I'll catch up. But I was kind of getting bored of scrapbooking and just needed something different. Like I was saying, this year I was kind of, like, falling out of love with paper crafting a little bit. Like, I just was like I needed to find my place in it again or find my [00:10:00] spark again. So that's when I turned to junk journaling. And I'd seen it a lot online. And I specifically really like junk journaling for documenting my travels and my trips and stuff. Um, last year I went to, for my 30th birthday, I went on a solo trip to Disney. And I brought a little, a, a really, really small kit of stuff to...

And a little, a mini printer, uh, to document my trip while I was there, and then I would collect junk as I went. And that was a lot of fun. And so at this point I've kind of combined... I, I know for a lot of people junk journaling is, like, straight up junk. You'll have a notebook and you'll put, like, literally just junk in it. So receipts, tags from, like, clothing that you buy, or like ripping up, like, paper cups or whatever, things like that, and it makes a beautiful spread.

And that's so much fun. It's accessible, it's affordable, it's something anybody can do. Um, but my type of junk journaling is kind of a combination [00:11:00] of that and scrapbooking. In the sense that my pages oftentimes look like scrapbook layouts, but I, from my trips I'll collect and keep everything. And my husband knows to, like, keep all the little paper place mats and the receipts and all the things.

So, um, I have that for my journal. So my type of junk journaling is kind of a combination of, of everything I've, I've tried over the years, and that's what I'm having a lot of fun with now. So it's a mix of memory keeping and journaling and the, the traditional sense of a junk journal. So yeah, I don't know if that answers the question.

Jennifer Wilson: It, it does. It's, it's awesome. I'm curious what size or format of kind of foundation of book you're using this year. Or are you using multiple?

Rachel Tallman: Okay. So for my day-to-day life, I'm still doing the traditional scrapbook. But for my, um, for my travel albums, I... I'm trying to get a ruler here to measure, 'cause I have the book out right in front of me, but it's probably like, um, maybe like, uh, 8 and [00:12:00] a half by 11-ish. Maybe a little bit bigger.

Yeah. So it's, um, the one I'm using for my trips lately are like a spiral bound, um, notebook from, like, the dollar store. Nothing fancy at all. And I usually end up taking out most of the pages 'cause it gets pretty thick. Because I'm adding layers and all that stuff. So, um, yeah, that's the last couple I've used.

Um, my book journal is, like, probably half that size though, so yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: I think it's really cool how junk journaling obviously isn't new. I mean, you could say that that's what my grandmother did in the '40s too, in terms of, like, bringing all those things together. But I love how this provides a different kind of entry point for those kind of your age and then, you know, and even much younger, down to even teenagers these days.

Rachel Tallman: Yeah, absolutely. I love it.

Jennifer Wilson: That excites me a lot about, you know, the future of, of crafting, and especially this whole conversation about grandma hobbies and the analog bag and, [00:13:00] and this kind of rejection of that constant online culture.

Rachel Tallman: Yes. When I first started scrapbooking, I was like, I kept it quiet around my friends 'cause I was kind of insecure about it. Like, who scrapbooks anymore? But, like, I don't know, I love seeing, like, even TikTok videos of young y- young people like teenagers or people in their 20s who are getting into memory keeping and buying little printers so they can print their photos.

I always tell my friends, "Print your photos. Put them around your house. Like, you don't have to make a scrapbook, but print..." Like, they're stuck on our phone. Um, but it, it's cool now to see. Um, in the last year or two I've also seen conversations online in Facebook groups and stuff. Just reminding people to, like, share your projects online so that, like, younger generations can see how fun memory keeping is and that we can...

So we can keep this hobby alive. And, and keep these small businesses alive that we love, 'cause we've seen so many of them close down over the last couple years. And we need to keep them alive. We need, we need more people buying [00:14:00] these fun products.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm, for sure. So it looks like you started playing with sequins and shaker pockets in 2020. So I mean, was this a joy-seeking activity, uh, given that time period?

Rachel Tallman: Yes, absolutely. Sequins are so fun and sparkly and colorful, and I like to think of it kind of like baking. Because I love to bake. And I love like with sequin mixes, you're just taking these sequins that are just one color and you're putting them together and you're making a really pretty mix. And it's like a little recipe that you put together and it makes something completely new.

And I saw a lot of my friends, um, and a lot of people online using sequins in different ways, like making these like shaker pockets or covers or, um, just different like interactive elements or things that like make, made noise or had texture, like made noise when you shake it or have texture. [00:15:00] And that was like exciting to me, like making, um, charms and like just stuff that's like, uh, more than just like flat paper.

So I was kind of intimidated by it and like using sequins and making these like 3D-ish elements or whatever, it kind of intimidated me. But once I tried it, it's easier than it looks, and it adds so much to a page or a mini album or whatever it is.

Jennifer Wilson: I think there's a lot of, like, trial and error. 'cause I've certainly done ones and it's like, oh, that worked out well, and like, oh, that really did not work out well.

Rachel Tallman: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Falling out. The, you know, you made something too thick and so it's not folding properly and.

Rachel Tallman: Yeah, sorry, I used the wrong adhesive or something. Yeah, I get it.

Jennifer Wilson: So how did that, that playfulness lead to a business for you?

Rachel Tallman: Well, I was having so much fun making these sequin mixes, and I, um, was just... I don't know, everything I made had sequins in them. So then I decided, well, I'll make a couple [00:16:00] extras, put it out there on Instagram, see if anyone wants any. If anyone's interested, I'll just put it out there and, um, and just have fun with it and see whatever.

Just share it because I have extra. And yeah, it, it went over really well, and so pretty quickly I decided to turn that into, like, an actual website. And, um, and then quickly after that I started to, um, do my subscription. So every month you would get three brand new sequin mixes. Um, and that w- that was really fun because then that just, like, kept me making sequin mixes every single month 'cause I needed three, three new ones a month.

And one of my favorite things I got to do every year was I did, um, like, a Christmas sequin mix advent calendar. So that was really great. I loved that. Um, that always sold out really fast because everyone loves an advent calendar, and there aren't too many crafty advent [00:17:00] calendars out there. So this was really fun.

I did some Christmas mixes, but then some non-Christmas mixes in case you couldn't go through all your Christmas mixes in the month of December, whatever. So anyway, tha- that was really, really fun for me. So that's kind of how it started. It kinda, it kinda went quickly and I just kinda put it together and, yeah, it was really successful in the beginning and, and just so much fun for me.

I do... Like, I make YouTube videos and, and Patreon videos and, and Instagram. I love all that. Like, obviously I love all of it, but this shop was like my baby. It was so much fun for me and I got to do, um, collaborations with Vicki Boutin and Paige Evans, and, um, other people, like other crafters, people doing crops, different things.

It was just some... I love to collaborate with, with people and businesses because I love to, like, bring our ideas together and, and bring their vision to life. I, I made... I also dabbled in, like, making bookmarks and I made, um, for anyone who is, um, a reader, I... If you know the author [00:18:00] Carley Fortune, we did, like, um, in my town we did, um, a fundraiser where she came and did, like, a little book talk and stuff. And I made some sequin mixes, um, that were in, like, um, acetate bookmarks with, like, a tassel and charm. And I made those to match her newly released book at the time.

So just, like, so many fun opportunities with sequin mixes, and people are always like, "You sell what? Sequin mixes?" Like, if they're a non-crafter they don't understand that, so it's kind of hard to explain. But yeah, it was, it was really, really fun.

Jennifer Wilson: Is there a particular mix that is an all-time fave? Like, this is like the most beautiful thing or the most fun thing I ever created, or do you love all your babies the same?

Rachel Tallman: Yeah, there's not necessarily one in particular, but any mix that was like a pink and purple pastel situation with gold in it, those are just my favorite colors to craft with. And there's not a lot of purple in paper crafting I feel like in, in a lot of collections. And I love purple, and pink, and gold. So [00:19:00] anything with that combination was just always so fun for me.

I always tried to do, um, one pink sequin mix at least in each month, and then I'd have like a colorful one and then either like a blue one or whatever. To try. Because lots of, lots of my customers also liked, like pink as well. So, um, I, I always try to incorporate pink as the main focus in at least one of the mixes.

But, um, yeah. And I also, I named, just because I had to, I had to Disneyify it some way. I, I named each of my mixes or most of my mixes after Disney characters. But you run out of Disney characters pretty quickly after like three mixes each month. You kinda, okay, how many like purple dress Disney characters are there?

You kinda run out of them. But anyway, it was fun.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, for sure. And, um, you mentioned the bookmarks. How did you start adding, like, new products to your shop? I know you're doing, um, charms as well.

Rachel Tallman: Yeah. Yeah, that just kind of came naturally just with, [00:20:00] with playing and with, with paper crafting and being inspired by other people. And just trying to figure out, what else can I do with sequin mixes that is maybe something that's more for everyone and not just crafters? And as I got more into junk journaling, I also, um, like repurposed like old Disney books into junk journals and, and was selling those, and charms.

Um, it was just kind of like whatever I'm crafting and feeling inspired by, hopefully like my love for that kind of is, is shown through what I, I make, and other people like that too. Um, so it's just kinda naturally what I am making and what I'm having fun with I just kind of added to the shop.

'Cause sometimes when I get inspired by something or I learn something new or I, I'm just having fun with something, I just can't stop making it and I'm just making like 20 of them. I'm like, "Hmm, what do I do with all of these charms now?" So yeah, it's just naturally what I'm into I guess.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes, for sure. I mean, and that's, that's the natural way, and it comes out of what customers are [00:21:00] asking for too, and then what people are wanting to use.

Rachel Tallman: Yes, I never wanted to force anything. I don't wanna like just because I think this will sell better, I don't wanna make it... 'Cause I want, I wanna make it 'cause I love it, and I don't wanna, I don't wanna force anything I guess.

Jennifer Wilson: So you have such an infectious energy, which makes it all the more sad that you, last month, announced the closure of your shop. Um, what were some of the biggest factors in this decision?

Rachel Tallman: Yeah. So, um, it actually, the start of this decline was about a year and a half ago. There were some- like complicated like tariff things whatever popping up here and there. And some conversations starting. But then also at that time Canada Post went on strike in November. And then I think it was for about five or six weeks from November to beginning or probably about middle of December something like that. And that was kind of the first time I was like [00:22:00] whoa this it shook me a bit. Because um it was during my busiest season of the year like I said with the advent calendar. So I believe that year I either didn't do advent calendars or I just made a small amount. And just and I had a bunch left over. Um but with Black Friday and um like Christmas sales that's just I I depend on that time of year to help during the slow seasons. Usually the beginning of the year like January February is a little bit slower like post Christmas. Winter whatever. Um so I I think like a lot of businesses depend on that busy time of year to help during the slower times. But because Canada Post was on strike it made it really tricky. Um so there were some ways to get around it that I could ship anywhere else besides Canada Post. Like there were other or anywhere besides Canada. Because there were other um like carrier services that I could use. But I just couldn't [00:23:00] in Canada at an affordable price. Um so I was able to get through that. It was it sucked. But I thought it's all right next year next Christmas will be better we'll be back to normal. It's fine. So and then um August I think it's like it was like August 29th or August 30th the end of August of um 2025, um rolls around. And that's kind of when the tariffs came into effect. And I was seeing a lot of like businesses online kind of panicking and I don't know maybe I didn't do enough research into this but I just thought it'll be fine it'll all work out it always works out. Like it it'll be fine it'll work out. Um I yeah and I was just seeing a lot of like paper crafters um online in Facebook groups in their Facebook lives in Instagram uh Instagram lives. I was watching um from like I don't know Australia or [00:24:00] New Zealand and and here in Canada as well in the UK. Like people panicking a little bit because so much of our customer base is American. Um and like just to give a little bit of like perspective I googled this earlier just to make sure I had my numbers right but the Canadian population is 41 million people the American population is 342 million people give or take. So like I rely a lot on my American customers. And they've been so amazing over the years and, like, so supportive and just the absolute best.

I mean, like, just, yeah, I, I would probably say, like, 90% of my customer base was Americans. Um, so anyway, August comes around, these tariffs come into effect, and I just think it, it can't be that difficult. Like, when I drive over the border to, like, do shopping, like, go shopping at, like, Target or whatever 'cause I'm [00:25:00] just right over the border. I...

So if I go into the States and go shopping and buy stuff from Target and come back, a- as long as I don't spend more than $200, then I won't be charged, like, duties or, or not duties, but, like, taxes or whatever. Um, so, like, anyway, it's kind of a lot to explain. I won't go into the, the nitty-gritty, but, like, there is some leeway.

Like, if you spend, um, under a certain amount of money, then it's fine. There's no extra tariffs or duties or taxes or charges or anything like that. But then now, um, for Americans ordering from outside of the US, there's going to... There's now, like, a, like, there's now, like, um, like, a minimum. It's like it doesn't matter how much money you spend.

So anyway, Canada Post came up with this progr- this app, I guess, that you can take a picture of whatever product you're sending over, even if it's a gift. I, I looked into this even over the weekend just to make sure I was correct, but even if it's you're just sending a gift, they're not [00:26:00] purchasing anything, um, you still have to pay the tariff.

So anyway, on this app with Canada Post, I'll make this short, um, you take a picture of whatever you're sending, and the AI thing on the app will, like, determine how much, um, the, the duties, the tariffs will cost. Um, and so when I did that, I took a picture of my products, and you can adjust it if, if the AI thing is incorrect. But the tariffs would cost just as much money as the Sequin Mix subscription would cost.

So it was, um, my subscription was $12 Canadian, which is about $9 USD, um, and the tariffs, because of, like, the charges of, of the, the f- different fees, of course, there's always different fees that come up. Um, it was about the same. And I just, I... So you can still send there, but I just couldn't justify, like, charging my customers that much money for a $9 product.

It [00:27:00] just didn't make sense, and I had some lovely customers say that they will pay the tariffs, they don't care. But then I... A- and that was so nice of them, but I just heard so many nightmare stories from people of, like, like, if something was sent incorrectly or, like, put in the system incorrectly, like, if you input something incorrectly, like, the whole thing would be sent back, and I was just hearing these n- nightmare stories.

So I made the decision to I was thinking temporarily not send to the US anymore. Um, and that was really, really sad. But I thought this can't last forever. It's fine. But here we are and about maybe eight months later, whatever it's been. I just had to make the decision to close it down. And, and the other thing that was hard about it is in this, in August, I'm making like three sequin mix subscriptions ahead.

So I had dozens and dozens and dozens of subscriptions worth that was going to nobody. So, uh, 'cause I [00:28:00] had, I had worked ahead and I didn't see this coming. I didn't see this lasting this long. So anyway, fast-forward to the spring and, um, I just, I had to make the decision and I kind of saw it coming, but I just had hope that like these tariffs wouldn't last forever, and I just thought like there's gotta be a light at the end of the tunnel or at least like maybe like a minimum.

Like, 'cause it's only a $9 USD subscription. Like, it's not like it's I'm sending $9,000. So I thought there's gotta be some changes, but I never saw them, and I was just seeing business after business closing down and I thought that's not gonna... I'm, there's gonna be a way around this. But there, I just couldn't figure out a way around it, and so I had to shut down the shop, and it was heartbreaking and so sad.

And, um, it really sucked. But I knew it was the right thing to do because we couldn't go... Like, I, my, I have my website fees. I have the cost of buying the sequins. I ha- like, I even buy the [00:29:00] sequins from an American company. So like then there's like all of those fees and, and, and, uh, yeah, I just couldn't, I couldn't figure out a way around it.

And, um, I knew I wasn't the only one, so that was like, I guess, comforting in a sense, but it also really sucked 'cause i- it's not like, um, like I was doing something wrong. I, I could see other companies shutting down. So, um, yeah. Anyway, that's kind of long story long of the last number of months.

Jennifer Wilson: How are you feeling about the decision now?

Rachel Tallman: Now I'm feeling good about it. Um, because after every month I was just so worried, like how we're gonna get through the month with this business. Like, I have another job so it's fine. And I feel very lucky that I have another job to rely on. I have a husband who works, so like there's that too. But a lot of people, this is their entire, like, income.

This is what they use to pay their bills. So, um, [00:30:00] makes me much sadder for other people. Um, but it's was the right thing to do. I still ha- I I did a big, um, clearance sale when I closed down the shop, and I just had the most generous people buying so many things, and it, it was so lovely. I still have lots in storage, so maybe I'll do, um, an Instagram sale or something like that one day.

But, um, I still... I'm still around. Just 'cause my shop shut down doesn't mean I'm not playing with sequins. I'm still on YouTube and Patreon and Instagram and, and all the things, and crafting. But, um, it was really hard because this was my favorite thing to do. Out of all the paper crafting things, this was my favorite thing to do, and like this was like my baby.

Like, setting up this website, like it just felt so... It, it was, it was, it... I don't know. The shop just gave me so much life, and it was so much fun for me. So to shut it down really felt like a failure. And like, "What could I have done differently? What did I do wrong?" Like, how... 'Cause I tried for so long to like just make it work, like push through each [00:31:00] and every month.

But I just, reality just hit me, and I just thought, "I, I have to, I have to shut it down." I, the, it, and it's not a failure. I'm still crafting. I'm still in the crafty community. But it just, ugh, it just sucked. But it, uh, I... The emotions of it are, like the, the raw emotions of it are gone now. Like, I've kind of like worked through it.

Um, but you know, it's still like, "Oh, man. I wish I could still be doing that." But I know it's for the better and that I have other adventures ahead of me. And then it's giving me space, like I said, to fall in love with paper crafting again and to try book journaling and junk journaling and, um, needlepointing and whatever.

So giving me time to try other things.

Jennifer Wilson: So do you feel like there was a lot of intersection between what was going on in your business and, like, y- your personal passions in, in crafting, and then that was driving some of this decision to try something different?

Rachel Tallman: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Um, and I [00:32:00] think because, like at that point I'd lost 90% of my customers, like it just feels discouraging. Like, it feels like, "What, what am I even doing here?" Like, and then you start like doubting yourself. Like, "Do people even like me?. Whatever. Because like I felt like- I don't know.

These people are gone, but it's not, not by their choice. Like, they would s- like, like I said, some of my customers were like, "I will pay the tariffs. I will pay it." And, and I just, I could, I didn't wanna risk it. But yeah, it definitely felt like I was, like, losing my passion a little bit for paper crafting because it felt like I was failing in the paper crafting world.

So then I thought, "What is the point of all of this anyway?" And it was so discouraging. But, uh, yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Would you ever bring it back if the situation changed, or do you feel like the door is, is closed?

Rachel Tallman: Um, yes, I would love to bring it back eventually, maybe in a different [00:33:00] capacity. I don't know. I, I haven't really thought about that. But the definite- the door is definitely still open if, if that were something that m- yeah, would be an option. It... I would definitely be open to that again.

Jennifer Wilson: Now, you mentioned, you know, the website fees. There's a lot that goes into running a business that the customer side, they don't see, they don't understand. Um, are there other challenges that you wanted to mention of having a product-based small business that our listeners might not realize, even beyond and before, um, these issues were, were making it harder?

Rachel Tallman: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I would say, like, all of the other fees, there's even... There's a project I am, I'm working on that I, that we might talk about at the end. But, um, just, like, all of those hidden fees are just quite wild. Like the website and buying the product and then... And, and because I order, um, I order my sequins from the US, I will sometimes get, like, an extra charge because who knows [00:34:00] why, 'cause taxes or whatever.

There's always these extra charges somewhere. And I think the other thing that, um, is challenging in running a business, not necessarily specific to a product-based business, but businesses in general. Is that, and this was at least my experience with the tariffs, but it can be applied to anything, is that it just felt so unpredictable and out of my control.

Like, there was nothing I could do to change it. And it felt like nobody had, um, like, straightforward answers. And, like, everyone was just kind of, like, I was just hearing horror stories from everyone. And I just didn't know what was true, what was accurate. Like, some people saying that, like, if, if one piece of documentation is wrong on, like, somebody's delivery truck, then the whole truck's being turned around.

Like, you just are hearing these horror stories that, um, [00:35:00] again, I just don't wanna... I don't know what's true. And, like, there were so many different, like, tariff, I, I don't wanna say threats, but like so many different like now it's this percentage, now it's this percentage. And there was nothing that was straightforward, um, like which country is it?

My country, is it this, is it my product? Even, I think it was a year and a half ago, uh, before the Canada Post strike that there was, um, a rule where there had to be labels placed on every single product in the package that was being sent of where the product was made. So sequins are manufactured, most of them, in India.

So I went to the office store and I printed out hundreds and hundreds of these labels, I think this was last summer, um, made in India or manufactured in India or whatever it was. Um, because supposedly every single product in the package had to be labeled with the country. I think, um, yeah, there was a crop I went [00:36:00] to last year that had major issues with this and import fees.

And anyway. Um, for me it was easy b- because it's just sequins, but for people who are sending enamel dots and sequins and paper, all of these products are made in different countries. Anyway, I got a hundreds and hundreds of labels printed and then like a month, like three months later the tariffs are in effect. And now I have all of these labels that say made in India that I don't need.

So all of these rules that are just constantly changing is, it, you gotta keep up with it, but it's hard when there's no, um, single resource, I guess, to help guide you with that. So that, that's hard but, um, I guess that's just part of it.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, for sure. So tell us about what parts of the business are you're sticking with, things that you've already been doing that you've been loving and will be continue to do, and how folks can support you in those.

Rachel Tallman: Oh sure, yeah. So, so yeah, the shop is no more. But I'm still like on YouTube making videos [00:37:00] almost every Saturday. And I, I have a Patreon with videos that, more longer videos on Saturdays. And, um, and I think the, the thing... Well, probably a lot of people know this already but like just a reminder to, to anyone and everyone that like even just as simple as like sharing someone's reel or like what, liking a YouTube video or whatever are just, are free ways you can, you can support someone.

Especially for people who this is like their, um, source of income. Again, I have another job so, so it's all good. But, um, there are so many free ways to like support each other. Um, and yeah, so I'm still like in the paper crafting community doing all my things, just, just not the shop.

Jennifer Wilson: Are there any other ideas that you're exploring that you might wanna share?

Rachel Tallman: Yeah, sure. So, um, yeah, so I kinda mentioned something earlier that, um, I do have [00:38:00] something new and exciting coming up. And it's, it's pretty cool how things kind of always work out the way they're meant to. Um, but long story short, my mom and I are opening a small craft studio to host, um, classes in person.

So, um, that we're starting in the fall. Um, so it's a project we've been working on. A- and this kind of thing where it's in person is very new to me 'cause all I've ever d- I've done online classes and stuff like that, and things online, but not teaching classes in person. So that has been, um, a really exciting project.

We've been painting the studio and coming up with class ideas, and I'll be doing book journaling and junk journaling, and I would love to do, like, mini album classes as well. But all sorts of, um... My mom, u- um, who I'm doing it with, she, um, is into, like, floral design and, um, sewing and quilting and all that.

So we both, we're both crafty, but crafty in different ways. So I think we [00:39:00] complement each other well. So that's my next project.

Jennifer Wilson: That's so exciting, and I love that you're working with your mom on it and, you know, taking advantage of, of things that perhaps in some ways are easier to do right now in person. Um, and you can get folks across the border to see you as well.

Rachel Tallman: Yeah, I'm, I'm in the Niagara region, so if you're in Buffalo or Niagara Falls in, in the States, I'm just a, like a 20-minute drive away. Or if you're in Toronto or Hamilton or whatever, um, this is, this is a new little, little side project that is opening in the fall. So it's, it's gonna be fun. I'm excited.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, I'm excited for you. Um, b- before

Rachel Tallman: you.

Jennifer Wilson: are there any paper crafting small businesses that you wanna give a shout-out to? Ones that, you know, you would love to see others checking out and supporting?

Rachel Tallman: So I was thinking about this and, like, there are so many. I have so many friends or just, like, people I follow that I love. But, um, instead of naming each and every one of them, I actually last year [00:40:00] made, um, like a Google Doc that is on my Instagram profile that you... It's racheltallmanco. Um, you can...

It's just on my profile there that you, that you can click. And it's... Last year I asked the community to tell me every single paper crafting small shop or brand that you know of, um, to put on this list. So anywhere from... I, I'm working on, like, a US version of it, but we have, like, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, uh, Canada obviously, different parts of Europe.

Um, I don't remember all the countries, but, um, we have this whole Google Doc and with the links of the website of, um, small shops that are paper crafting. So I do have that list if anyone wants to access it. 'cause I, I know that it's, like, so easy and convenient to shop at, like, Amazon and, and these, like, Temu and all these websites, and they're super cheap and all this stuff.

But, like, it, it's, [00:41:00] um... We have to remember that the people who own these small shops are so passionate about what they do, and they love it just as much as you do, and they're, they're crafters making products for crafters. And, like, the people at Amazon or wherever the cheap stuff is from, they're never gonna love paper crafting the same way you do, or they're never gonna get as excited about an order as these small business owners would.

And I know it's more expensive, and I know, like, the status of, like, the world today is not easy to spend an extra few bucks on a, a hobby. Um, but if you have the chance to buy from small shops over these other big stores, I would definitely encourage it. And not saying I never shop at Amazon or any of these things. But, um, maybe if you're looking into something, look at, look at this list and these small shops first before you go to the big ones.

Jennifer Wilson: Thank you so much for sharing that, and we will include the link, um, as well as all the links y- things you mentioned in the show notes for [00:42:00] this episode.

Rachel Tallman: Awesome, you so much. I had such a lovely time chatting with you today.

Jennifer Wilson: Likewise, um, can you remind us again where we can find you online?

Rachel Tallman: Yeah. So, um, my Instagram is racheltallmanco, so you can find me there. And I'm the same on YouTube as well, and Patreon if you're interested. So those are the places you can find me. And for the craft studio, it's called Backdoor Craft Studio. So I did just start an Instagram, but I haven't started a website or anything like that yet.

So that is, that is coming, coming soon. But, um, still kind of in the works. But yeah, I am, I am posting on, on all the social medias my paper crafting products. So you can find me there if you're looking for a little bit of inspiration.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. Yeah, thank you so much. You have such, as I mentioned, just so wonderful energy, and I wish you all the best,

Rachel Tallman: Aw, thank you so much. I appreciate that. It was, it was good chatting with you today.

Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to scrapbook [00:43:00] and paper craft your way.

[00:00:00]

Kristine LeRoss: I'm choosing to document. Having my phone with me and taking photos of something that I find beautiful, and then I go back and I write down what I loved about its beauty or what it reminded me of. So I think it's just an opportunity to pause, right? To stop how blurry everything can be, and step into your life.

Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper, and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 335. In this episode, I'm chatting with Kristine LeRoss about memory keeping and the Stop the Blur format.

Kristine shares how this approach to documenting weekly life became a lifeline during the transition to empty nesting, and what she's learned after two years of figuring out the format on her own [00:01:00] terms.

Hey, Kristine welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Kristine LeRoss: Hi. Thank you so much for having me, Jennifer. I appreciate it.

Jennifer Wilson: I think this is gonna be a fun conversation. I can't wait to learn more about you. Can you start by sharing some of the basics?

Kristine LeRoss: Absolutely. Um, I have been, well, scrapbooking, an avid scrapbooker since the nineties. Um, I had a, a family member who, um, was a Creative Memories consultant, so back in the day, that was kind of my introduction. I think I've always been a memory keeper um I have loads loads of memorabilia from, you know, way, way, way back, even prior to high school. Um, and so when scrapbooking was introduced to me, it was just like this language that I loved. It was just... I'm very visual, I'm very creative. Um, I work in real estate, so I do-- and I do staging. It just all came together. And then, um, the process really honed in. You know, I stepped away from, Creative Memories, and that was at the [00:02:00] early, you know, two thousands when we had so much access to companies and scrapbooking kits.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Kristine LeRoss: And things like that. And so I have been a die-hard twelve by twelve scrapbooker of those years, and you know, little memory books and things. But, um, Stop the Blur was something I was introduced to a few years ago, I think twenty twenty-three was when I first started. And I'm in a completely different season of my life now. I'm empty nesting. My daughter's out of the home. You know, when you have young kids, you have constant content, um, of things.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, no doubt.

Kristine LeRoss: You can do. And so I think It made me sad that I didn't have these big moments to scrapbook anymore, like to go on my twelve-by-twelve pages. And so this concept.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Kristine LeRoss: Came up, and it was perfect. Because it really just-- it fit into I was struggling in my life, I guess.

Well I can't wait to hear more about it when we get to that part of the conversation. Um, yeah, we are gonna be talking about memory [00:03:00] planning as an approach to scrapbooking today. So if you've been curious about that or wanting to get back into it, um, Kristine is a, a lover of this format. Um, but before we get there, I have a couple icebreaker questions that I always ask my guests.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you have a favorite recent layout, spread, or project?

Kristine LeRoss: Um, you know, up on, on the, um, Simple Scrapper site, I just uploaded a, a recent, um, Stop the Blur planner page that I love. You know, sometimes I love my, my weeks and sometimes I don't. But I loved that particular one, and it all came together. So I had just put that one up. Um, I'm trying to think if I did... I did a layout, like a twelve-by-twelve over Christmas, and I really liked that one as well. But those are, are fewer and far between, I think.

Jennifer Wilson: So you said you don't always love the weeks that you do in your memory planner. What kind of... Are there any defining characteristics of you really liking it?

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah. What I love-- So there [00:04:00] is-- Well, there used to be. The format's changed a little bit. So there was a monthly kit that came out, and there's a kit with the class, and then there's a printable that goes along. And in the kit is all kinds of little things. And so I think to me, when I have a week where it's just not a, a basic, boring, everyday week, there's, you know, elements in it, um, I'll pull those out, and then I decide, like color-wise, what kit I wanna use, and then it just-- it all comes together. It's, it's fun. It's like a puzzle piece, right?

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: And so you're fitting the photos with kind of the verbiage that's on the printables and then the color formats, and it's just... It's this big design blob that all comes together, and I think, I don't know, that's-- I, I just find so much gratification in that.

Jennifer Wilson: I do find it is quite like a puzzle because there's so many smaller pieces, and you're trying to figure out how do we fit all the things we wanna fit.

Kristine LeRoss: And I'll-- Maybe we will talk about this 'cause it took me a couple of years, I would say two years, to try and to, to finally figure out the format [00:05:00] because it is so different than.

Jennifer Wilson: It is, yeah.

Kristine LeRoss: How my 12 x 12 brain works.

Jennifer Wilson: Is there something in scrapbooking or in your everyday life that you're excited to do, use, or try?

Kristine LeRoss: I love memories. I live in my memories. I love to look back in my photo memories. And so I think in general, I don't have, like, a particular, like, tool that I love, I don't think. Um, but I love to be able to document and put the memory on a page. And because when I go back and I look at that visual memory, I feel every single thing about it.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

All right, let's jump in. Um, you've already shared a little bit about how you got into scrapbooking. Tell me about the time at which you made this transition from 12 by 12 to a brand-new format. Was it gradual? Was it abrupt? Did you stop scrapbooking somewhere in there and realize you needed a different approach? Tell us about how that evolution came about.

Kristine LeRoss: I think I wanna say that I started Stop [00:06:00] the Blur in two thousand and twenty-three. And my daughter was graduating from high school. She's my only child, and she was leaving for college, and it was just this-- a kind of this abrupt change of season for me. And so I love, I, I love watching Heidi create pages, and so the classroom content was fascinating.

But again, I was a- an immediate subscriber, but I didn't get the kit initially. I started with just the class and the, eh, the monthly printable. So it was the ideas. And so it was kinda me, like, lurking for months, you know, to see what was going on and dabbling in it and can't figure it out. And, um, so I was still twelve by twelve scrapbooking, but it wasn't-- I wasn't spending a lot of time in my creative space. I would say, that season was a little sad for me, and so I was having a hard time emotionally to transition [00:07:00] sadness to a twelve by twelve, right?

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: What I was called to then with Stop the Blur, it was-- it's more documenting. It's not a journal. I'm not a journaler. Um, I don't keep, you know, journals like lots of people do. Um, but it was a way to kinda bring in sadness and emotion and speckling that with, you know, other moments in life. And so I would say I was a, a big spectator for many months. Um, but I was gathering all of the, the resources and stockpiling my kits.

Jennifer Wilson: Why do you think that change in format was a better fit for this season of life? Was it just because it was a change? Was it because it was, uh, s-smaller, You were, you were telling maybe smaller stories?

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah, that's interesting. Um, I think like I said, it was, you know, I had so much emotion, and I didn't know how to translate that to a [00:08:00] twelve-by-twelve page. For me, you know, those twelve-by-twelves were always big, special moments, or it was, it was this weekend doing that, or my daughter was in an activity and doing that.

There wasn't a lot of me time. I think there was a lot of kids' activities. Um, and then, you know, everyday life going through, it can be very boring being an empty nester. You know, you wake up. You have my animals. I go to work. You know, I do the things. And, and if I don't stop for a minute and really, like, immerse myself in, in gratitude and noticing, and I think that's where, like, the Stop The Blur verbiage came into play.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: It was literally making me stop to appreciate and know that this season may be different, but it's not empty. I can still fill it, but it doesn't feel... I'm not drawn to create with twelve-by-twelve that way. I, I feel more drawn to the planner pages.

Jennifer Wilson: Are you still creating [00:09:00] 12 by 12 layouts?

Kristine LeRoss: I am. Yeah, I am. Um, but I did one at Christmas, and I've got Easter to do, and, and I don't want it to be just big things, but yeah, I do. It, it just depends on what the project is.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure, sure. Now, okay, so for those maybe who aren't familiar at all with what we're talking about, maybe, you know, they've primarily done traditional layouts. Can you give us kind of a, a visual description of how this is different from other types of scrapbooking?

Kristine LeRoss: Oh, yeah, and I think it's very different than other types of, like, weekly journaling. Lots of people have weekly planners. And I, I, I think, I, I don't know, Heidi's system is different. And I wanna call it a system, but the way that she visually creates pages, there's lots of interactive bits. So rather than just, you know, putting stickers on, weekly pages and then kinda journaling or documenting what your calendar is, um, [00:10:00] it's a two-page spread, and there's different page formats. Um, but it's essentially a Monday through Sunday. Um, so you can write down special events that happened or items or emotions or things or what you're currently reading. Um, and then you take those elements, and you start to lay them out on a page. Um, you can do chronological, or you can just, you know, do a, a weekly summary. Um, but you use photos, stamping, um, folders, flips, like flip pages, waterfall pages. It depends on how many photos you have. I have some pages that are super thick because there's lots of elements. And it's different than just sizing down from a twelve by twelve, and I think that's initially what I was trying to do, was just scrapbook on a smaller format. But it's not really that. Um, it's really [00:11:00] diving into your days. But again, not in a calendar, you know, um, I've got this going on type of way. For me, it's more visual. It's like if I'm out and it's, it's lilac season, so there's going to be pictures of lilacs or, or what's on my coffee table or, But it's how, I guess, I envision my weeks.

So you-- there's no wrong way to do it. Anybody could put their week down.

Jennifer Wilson: How would you distinguish it from something like Project Life.

Kristine LeRoss: So Project Life to me yeah, is like cutting down those cards. So you've got folders. Um, what, what do you call this, where you slip in the, um, the pocket pages? It's not pocket pages.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Kristine LeRoss: It literally is, like, if I'm looking at a, a two by six space for a Monday, I'm not gonna slip in any type of pocket page. I'm gonna maybe write what the date and the day is, and then I'm gonna start to build elements on that day.

I might put a photo in there, or I might put a photo pocket, or I might put a [00:12:00] folder pocket or a flip for that particular day. And then I'm gonna dress up that day, and then I'm gonna move to the next day.

Jennifer Wilson: Are you rigid with trying to have something for each day, or is it sometimes you have three things for the week? What is your level of, I don't know, detail and desired precision, I guess?

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah. I am not at all rigid. So I have-- I really, really embrace that there are no rules. Um, Heidi has some format, like some general page guidelines. Um, I guess they'd be kinda like sketches in a way. There's two particular ones that you can use to jot down your notes. There's four things per day that you can jot down. And then there's another one where you can actually sketch your layout before you do it. I use those roughly. I definitely use the four things per day, to go in and just kinda label any highlights that there are. But I don't have-- I do not have a hard [00:13:00] and fast format. And part of what I love about their, switch to a new planner system is that there are pages now that you can choose from.

So there's three different page styles. So therefore my pages don't look the same every single week, and I prefer that. Because I like change. You know. And, it all goes with what's going on that week. But I also do not, um, journal every single day or every single week, um, at all. Because there are weeks that there isn't anything happening and I'm not going to sit and force myself to create something where I don't feel the inspiration. So I do try to go chronologically, but there are lots of weekly gaps in my pages and my pages are still very full.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Can you tell us more about the change in overall format and structure of the project? They moved from a bound book to something [00:14:00] new.

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah. Um, the bound book was roughly like seven and a half by nine pages. And they were... It was essentially seven days. So over those two pages it was, it was the week of and then you would do a Monday through Sunday with some notes. And every single day was the same. It had a different color, um, but so every page, you know, could essentially look in that same format. What I found-- Well, I found this, I don't know if this had to do with why some of the changes happened. But as you're building your pages in a tiny little notebook, it's not tiny I guess, seven and a half by nine, but your pages get really thick

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: It becomes hard on one page to try to stamp and do all the things when there's a bunch of ephemera and things underneath it. It gets bulky. So one of the things that this new system does, the pages are all flat. [00:15:00] Um, and then they're hole punched and then there's a ring binder. Um- So it makes it so much easier to pull out two pages, and everything is flat. You can attach, detach, you can sew, um, you can put your brads on and then still put, um, like some, some tape or something over it to make it flat. So it's a lot easier. And then there was also the introduction to... there's dividers now that are more of a rigid plastic. So you can decorate or embellish, um, dividers between weeks or months. Um, there's also three different formats now. And so you can choose whether or not you still wanna have that original, uh, two-page Monday through Sunday plus the notes. Or there's different segments that you can add into. So they're just... For me, it actually felt more like, like a [00:16:00] December Daily album, like Ali Edwards does.

It felt like more of that format that you could now bring into Heidi's system. Because, again, Stop the Blur was very different to me than other memory planning that I see going on. Um, and so the closest thing I can, uh, relate it to is, like, what I do in a December Daily, where you've got choices on how you do your pages and how you bring things in.

And you don't have to use now, um, Heidi's pages, because if I have a ephemera or memorabilia from an event, I can put, um, a binder on it, and then I can also stick that in my, my planner and add that in. So it created so many more possibilities. And Heidi all the time, like, one of the things she says a lot is, "Possibilities are endless and expanding."

And I have that written next to my desk, and it's true. I mean, it's, it's endless. The creativity [00:17:00] and no wrong way, and everybody can create and add the way they want to. It's-- That's what I see this as.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you think all of your pages for a year will fit in one album?

Kristine LeRoss: Oh, gosh, no, because I've already tried.

Jennifer Wilson: How many albums do you think you'll need?

Kristine LeRoss: My gosh, for one year.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah, probably four, I would say. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay. Now, and one question I think we're gonna have from, uh, our audience, 'cause I know I get asked this a lot about other formats. How are you dealing with the backsides of your spreads? So you're pulling two pages out.

Kristine LeRoss: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: And you're putting things on them that are three-dimensional. Now, in the old format you mentioned we don't wanna then stamp on the opposite side because it's hard.

How are you handling that?

Kristine LeRoss: So that's interesting. Uh, so in the old format, I still did it back to back to back to back because, your pages.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: Were right in there. And so it just made more sense. And so now where I run into a problem is [00:18:00] that when I wanna switch, you know, I don't do the same layout every week, right? So then I have on the backside one side of what and one side of the other.

So, so far, because we're only in May, um, I'm able to kinda just... I haven't gone back to fill those filler pages. Because I still only wanna do the format I want for that week. So rather than force myself to use that backside at this time.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: But what I will probably do with those backside pages is to go back in to do a one photo, you know, and, and paste that on.

Um, I will change up the format and do some fillers for those.

Jennifer Wilson: I also think it'd be a good use for some patterned paper that we might have stashed away.

Kristine LeRoss: Yes, exactly. All of my, my scrapbooking kits that I have, because I still have all my twelve by twelve kits, yep, you can pull those out and then, yeah, you can intermix. And isn't that great too? That there's, again, no format. You can add any [00:19:00] color or vision that you want to your pages. Absolutely.

Jennifer Wilson: So you mentioned you are lightly using some of the products to help plan your spread. How are you keeping track of, you know, the, the documentation aspect in terms of, um, are you creating along the way or are you gathering things separately and then sitting down to do the spread in one, you know, one sitting-ish?

Kristine LeRoss: One sitting-ish. So it takes me probably two to three days to do one spread.

Jennifer Wilson: Uh-huh.

Kristine LeRoss: It depends on how many you know, like, how much time I have in a week. Um, but I will sit down, and I will pull out this, this rough outline that Heidi has. Uh, there's seven days listed and then four things per day. So I pull that out, um, and then I pull out my phone 'cause I have everything documented. I use my, my iCalendar as my, kinda my journal or whatever's going on. So I flip through my photos. I will, uh, copy all the photos from one [00:20:00] particular week and then put them in a folder so that I have easy access to print them. And then I go through my calendar to see what was going on that week, and I jot down notes for my week.

And at that point, I may decide I'm not gonna - to document that week. Um, but if I am, then I start to just, to write my rough, rough outline of, of what was going on on those particular days.

Jennifer Wilson: There might be weeks where you decide, "You know what? I'm just, I'm not gonna do this. I'm just gonna skip it and move on to the next one."

Kristine LeRoss: Heck, yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you think that's a, an important permission? Like, are, are there other types of permissions that folks need to have, um, perhaps to feel successful with this type of project?

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah, I think that's super important. For me, I mean, I, I used to be a perfectionist. You know, I grew up as accomplishment and, and part of my big life learning lesson is that I need to live in the gray area. You know, everything is not black.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: And everything is not white, and everything doesn't have to [00:21:00] be a particular way. And, uh, this has been huge in my life now to, um... Because Heidi's stamping isn't perfect. Um, someone asked me just the other day, I just posted one of my layouts on Instagram, and they were like, "But how do you protect your photos? Don't you have page protectors?" And it's permission to not have page protectors.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: Because this to me, this is archival kind of, but it's not archival in the way that I think that I grew up learning about scrapbooking.

You know, everything has to be, um, archival safe and all of those things. And to me, this is a different format. And life is messy. Life is chaotic, and this is a way to bring a little bit more calm. But also to not have the rules unless you need them. I mean, if you're someone that needs to have chronological, and you need to have the rules to follow to make it all make sense in your brain, absolutely give yourself permission [00:22:00] for that. But it's really important for me to know that my permission is to create how I can that day. It's more important to me to be in my craft space, um, which is my safe space.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: And have permission to feel peace.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, I love that. I love that. You mentioned earlier that a Stop the Blur spread is not just a small layout.

Kristine LeRoss: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: What other kind of lessons learned have you, have you had to learn along the way, um, to adapt to this format that might be different from, you know, the way we approach layouts?

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah. Um, and, and that's why I say, like, for months I was a lurker. And I, in preparation.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: For this, I, like, brought out all of my past ones so that I could look through. And, and some of my past ones are so awful. Because I was trying to figure it out. And I think that, um [00:23:00] What I have learned is that I can screenshot ideas, I don't, uh, follow those like a sketch.

Like when I was 12 by 12 scrapbooking, I don't know if you remember Pencil Lines. Um, Pencil Lines was a site that had sketches that you scraplift.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Uh-huh.

Kristine LeRoss: We, in our, in our group for Simple Scrapper, there's, you know, sketches. And so you took a sketch and you created your 12 x 12 layout. And it was so, you could do whatever you wanted with it, right? To follow that general sketch. And so I think with Stop the Blur, it's, it's not really like that. I mean, for me, I can, again, I can watch Heidi's classes and, and she's got all kinds of photos in every, uh, monthly class that's out there, and I can screenshot ideas. But it's not mine if I'm just lifting somebody else's journal memories.

Because that's their life and this is my life. So I may look at a [00:24:00] pocket that they've done, and I can create that pocket, and I can put it in there. But I definitely do not look at somebody's week and do exactly what they did that week with my week. Because it doesn't feel like that's mine.

Jennifer Wilson: That makes sense. That makes Do you do handwritten journaling, typed journaling, or a combination of the two?

Kristine LeRoss: I really love to print journaling on vinyl sticker paper, clear sticker paper. But

Jennifer Wilson: also.

Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: You know, that takes time, and I don't always have extra time. So I do a lot of handwritten journaling. Um, but not like beautiful journaling that you see in some people's calligraphy pages either. I mean, it's just my handwriting, um, top of a lot of the elements that are already laid out for me.

So it's ri- my writing definitely is sprinkled in, kinda like puzzle pieces. I fill in, fill in gaps.

Jennifer Wilson: And how do you approach, um, selecting and printing your photos for this project?

Kristine LeRoss: I look back at that week, like [00:25:00] I said, I will look back and I will put everything, not everything, almost everything from a week into a folder. So that I, uh, then I can look at the folder and decide which ones I'm gonna pull out. Um, it depends on like what photo goes with the story versus like, it... I tend to also screenshot lots of like memes or, uh, motivational, um, sayings. And so things that I want to use to document that week. Um, that's how I'll put them in, in a folder and then pull them out that way.

Jennifer Wilson: Are there certain sizes that you typically print in? Or is it all over the place?

Kristine LeRoss: It's all over the place, and that's become, you know, kind of a learning journey too. It depends on, again, what, what, what particular pages that you're using. There are outlines on the pages, so they're not blank. So it gives you kind of a template. So there are photo sizes that I'll print that fit into the template, but I don't print [00:26:00] every single photo for every single page on the template either.

I will maybe use, if there's five templates, I may use three of them for photos and the other two for embellishments or journaling or a folder pocket. Um, there's a lot of 2 by, you know, 2 by 1s or 2 by 2s, uh, because that's how, the format is for the pages. So I I follow that as more of a rough outline, but again, that's the permission to print a full, you know, 7 by 9 page or, or whatever it is you wanna highlight for that particular week.

Or there's also photo inserts, so I've got some, I guess more like a pocket page that you can, um, put in there too so you can add more photos, um, as opposed to just sticking them into a photo pocket.

Jennifer Wilson: That's fun to be able to have those things. I know that I've used-- I subscribed to the kits for a little while. And I've used the various components, and I'm s- [00:27:00] I'm there with my, trying to see it as well w-with my ruler, trying to measure like exactly how many, how many little, um, millimeters it is, the, the height and width of this.

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: And then I make a little box on the computer that's exactly that size.

Kristine LeRoss: Yes. Yes. Okay, and then so let's talk about that for a minute too because that was part of me lurking. So I have, looking back, I've got all of these like random pieces of paper that I've, I put out like the templates or I measured and I bought rulers and I did all this, but all that did was make my brain so fuzzy. Because then it became.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Kristine LeRoss: You have to do it this way. And you have to print it that way. And so I, I approach it differently now, but because I don't want all my photos to be 2 by 1, 2 by this, 2 by whatever.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: But that's part of opening up the, the possibilities are endless and expanding. So they're not just in a 2 by 1 photo.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you include larger photos? I mean, you mentioned you wa- you [00:28:00] might wanna do that on the backside.

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah. Yeah, I do. Um, like I did a, a spread a couple of weeks ago, and one side was a full seven by nine photo. And then the other one, um, just was documentation on what was going on in that particular photo. And actually, that turned out to be one of the ones I loved the most too. Because it was so different, um, but it still complemented all my pages.

Absolutely.

Jennifer Wilson: Would you say that one is more like a mini layout than your other spreads?

Kristine LeRoss: Yeah, that was... It ki- yeah, it's more like a mini layout, I would say. With a large photo and then the journaling on the right side. Yeah, that's definitely true. And I did some sewing on it, so that was more like a traditional, layout.

Jennifer Wilson: When do you find yourself working on this? You, you mentioned that you're in real estate, so you're working, and I'm, I'm assuming not necessarily consistent hours. You know, it's it's.

Kristine LeRoss: Ah,

Jennifer Wilson: All the time whenever the clients need you, right?

Kristine LeRoss: Totally.

Jennifer Wilson: When can we typically find you, [00:29:00] or do you just try to fit it in when you can?

Kristine LeRoss: Well, you know, because Simple Scrapper has all these designated hosted crop times, I often am in a lot of crop groups throughout the day just depending on my schedule.

Good.

Now I have friends that I can join in with, and so it's not just me coming up here at any particular time. But I ki- I, I do look at the master schedule to see when there are hosted crops, and then depending on what my day is, I'll pop in there and get things done. Um, often I'm up here at night. I mean, a big part of real estate happens at night as well.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: But there's lots of flexibility in my schedule. Um, and so I will pop up here in the evenings too. I think it really depends on what goes on. Um, right now my life is revolving around the crop schedule.

Jennifer Wilson: I love that. What made the difference for you in terms of deciding to become a member?

Kristine LeRoss: You know what? I had... I didn't know you... I, I followed you on Instagram. I didn't know there was a [00:30:00] membership thing. And so you sent me a Light Your Fire, um, questionnaire. And I loved it so much. And then I was like, "Oh my goodness, there's a group." Oh my... Uh, like it blew my mind. And that first week when I joined, I think I went to every single hosted crop, and I am announcing to everybody, "You know, I'm new here," and it's fabulous. I love it. I can't believe it's been going for so many years, and I didn't know it existed.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, I love hearing that so much, so much.

Kristine LeRoss: Loved it.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you have any other tips that you would share with someone who's curious about this format? Are there just, like, things that you've pulled away that have really made the difference?

Kristine LeRoss: I think that the name of it, Stop the Blur, I think really Is so intentional. I think the intention behind what Heidi creates, and she talks about it all the time. Life is fast-moving. Our life is stressful. Our life is overwhelming. Things are always going to go on out in the world, and there's no ways. But this is a way to slow down [00:31:00] and stop and be intentional and be in your present moment in your life. And that is what I love about it. again, I could just say, "Gosh, my life is so boring," and I could, you know, be sad and, and just forget all of this. But, you know, I'm choosing to document. Having my phone with me and taking photos of something that I find beautiful, and then I go back and I write down what I loved about its beauty or what it reminded me of. So I think it's just an opportunity to, pause, right? To stop how blurry everything can be, and step into your life.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, beautifully said, for sure. Do you... I mean, I'm sensing that you do include maybe some messier stories, some more difficult stories in this, whereas that wouldn't be the focus of a layout for you.

Kristine LeRoss: Absolutely, and that has been therapeutic. And, you know, it's kind of hard though too because I share these layouts publicly in my public Instagram, and sometimes I blur them out [00:32:00] before I post.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kristine LeRoss: Them 'cause people read your journal and it is personal. Um, and I have struggled with not being a journaler, right?

I never carry, carried a diary or any of those things when I was younger. And so sometimes things I'm writing on a page, it's so personal. Um, and I wanna share it for me, but I don't necessarily want the world to read it. And, and sometimes I do. Because it's okay to be messy. And I, and I'm learning that as I am living life as well, that if we can talk about the messy things, we normalize it for other people because life can be sad. So I do use it, uh, therapeutically, and I actually just this week when I posted, um, my week, it had a lot to do with therapy and healing and where I'm at in my own therapy journey. And so those things are really important to me.

Jennifer Wilson: I love that you found this outlet and were able to, uh, embrace it at this particular time in life, which I, I will be going through in a couple years here, so I'm already kind of [00:33:00] thinking ahead, like learning from the, the empty nesters.

Kristine LeRoss: Yes. Yes. It is a different place in life for sure.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, Kristine, this has been so lovely to chat with you. Can you share where our listeners can find you online and anything you know you might be sharing later this year?

Kristine LeRoss: Absolutely. So, um, I do have an Instagram. Um, and it-- my name on Instagram is iamkristinefaith. And, um, I just share, you know, weekly layouts and, um, I share a lot of other content from other, um, makers. It's entirely only a maker account for me, so I, I don't follow politics on the account. I don't follow, you know, lots of doctors on the account. I only follow makers, and so it's a, a source of inspiration.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. We'll definitely include that link in the show notes for this episode.

Kristine LeRoss: Thank you.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, again thanks for spending time with me. And to all of our listeners please remember that you have permission to scrapbook your way.

[00:34:00]

Miranda Webber: [00:00:00] if you're not helping yourself or keeping yourself healthy of whatever that is, you're not gonna be able to do things for others. But you have to do stuff for yourself, and if that means you're in the scrapbooking world and you love to do for others, start doing stuff for yourself. Because it's gonna make you feel better, and then in turn your stuff that you're gonna give away or do for others just looks that much better.

Jennifer: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper, and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 334. In this episode, I'm chatting again with Miranda Webber, a South Carolina scrapbooker and longtime YouTuber who is back for another conversation about her creative practice.

Miranda shares how a difficult personal season led to a creative hiatus, and what brought her back to the craft room with a new sense of [00:01:00] intentionality.

Hey, Miranda. Welcome back to Scrapbook Your Way.

Miranda Webber: Hi, this is Miranda Weber, #myscrappylife, and I'm so glad to be here again.

Jennifer: Can you share a little bit about yourself to remind our audience who you are and what you do and all that?

Miranda Webber: All right, well, welcome to the new ones that have not heard my first vlog or podcast. Um, and welcome to the ones that are returning. My name is Miranda, and I have been scrapbooking since my son... really got into scrapbooking since my son was, um... I was pregnant with him in 2003. So I've been scrapbooking that long.

Um, I now have a 14-year-old daughter. Um, back when we first did it, she was a little, a little smaller. Um, so she is going to be a freshman next, come next school year. And I am a full-time elementary teacher. Um, I've been now doing that [00:02:00] for, this is my eighth year. Eighth or ninth year. I can't even keep straight anymore.

Um, and then my husband is now retired. He was still active duty the last time, so now he's retired. Um, he has a job out, still out at Fort Gordon, 'cause we still live in North Augusta, um, South Carolina, so he's still out at Fort Gordon, but as a contractor. Um, and yeah.

Jennifer: Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, my daughter is 14 as well. She actually is already a freshman, but she's, you know, the youngest in her class, and I'm, I'm sure we, uh, I don't know, I'm sure we connected on that in the past. It's.

Miranda Webber: Yep.

Jennifer: This is such an interesting age, and it keeps getting more interesting.

Miranda Webber: Yes. For sure, for sure.

Jennifer: They are definitely in this phase of discovery, and I'm like, "Was I like this? I guess I was, but I don't, I don't remember that part."

Miranda Webber: I, I, I don't remember the defiance, if you wanna call... Like, discovery/defiance. [00:03:00] Or I'm gonna try to test the boundaries as much as I possibly can to the point of, like, wanting to pull your hair out.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Miranda Webber: I don't remember it either, but you know, I mean, I know that at 14 things have changed. You know, things, things are changing, if you know what I mean, for girls and boys and everything alike, right?

And, uh, I, I swear my daughter's gotta be, like, the only one that doesn't have a cellphone yet. But, she comes with me to school. She goes on the bus to her middle school, and then Dad or I pick her up. And I'm like, " Why does she need a phone?" And I feel bad for her, but then at some times I'm like, "Nope, I'm good."

Especially since after the C word, if you know what the C word is, it really got big with social media, right?

Jennifer: Sure.

Miranda Webber: Media. You know, so I was like, I'm just not ready for her to have that. So we're starting as a freshman next year, so she'll be- Um, she'll turn 14 in August, so I guess she'll be, like, the [00:04:00] youngest 14-year-old in her class.

We'll see. She's gonna ... She knows she's already getting ... It's one of her birthday gifts in August is her phone. So I'm gonna be diving into that this come fall. I'm a little worried, so if y'all are the praying type, pray for me because I'm ... I, I don't know how I'm gonna do with this.

Jennifer: You know, I was surprised at how, how disciplined my kiddo was in terms of good habits. I feel like they've talked about it in school so much, and other kids and their behaviors, so I'm, I'm sure it'll be okay.

Miranda Webber: I, I'm, I'm hoping s- yeah, I am too. It's just sometimes I'm, like, thinking, "Is she gonna do what the others do, or is she going to do the things we have taught her at home and go that route. And hopefully not feel [00:05:00] pressured?" Because, you know, that for- 14 to, like, I would say ... I guess for me it was, like, 14 to 16 was, like, that pressure stage, if you know what I mean.

Like, you're changing. You're in high school. You wanna fit in, but you wanna be yourself, and you wanna make sure you're doing things that you know is right, but then you see others do that maybe your parents aren't saying is right, but it's okay for them to do because Mom and Dad say on that end that it's okay.

So it's like that pressure stage that I think all of us go through it as teenagers. And so it'll be, it'll be interesting. I think I'm throwing in high school, phone, and then, she's as of right now, she, um, got into the IB program for her high school. And so she's gonna go play soccer there too.

So she's big into soccer. And she [00:06:00] still has stayed as a keep for her traveling team and everything. So she's navigating that. It's just all the other stuff that I guess maybe I feel like I've maybe sheltered her, but maybe I didn't.

Maybe I didn't, and I'm just being naive.

Jennifer: Well, maybe it's a, maybe it's a mix of both.

Miranda Webber: Yeah.

Jennifer: We ended up getting the phone in sixth grade, but it was because of travel sports. Because she was going on a bus and we're like, "How do we know when the bus is gonna come back if she doesn't have a phone?"

Miranda Webber: Y- y- yeah.

Jennifer: That's, that's what ended up being the challenge for us, is just like being able to, to pick her up from, then that time, at that point it was softball, pick her up from her softball games.

Miranda Webber: Yeah.

Jennifer: So.

Miranda Webber: She does have those watches. Like, we have a, like, a Verizon watch, so it's like a kid watch. So when they would do, like, field...

Yeah, so you know, like, we do those field trips and stuff? She would wear that, but she knew [00:07:00] that it was just on. And I would just track her that way just to make sure. But at the same time, she just knew that I was just using it to make sure if for some odd reason the bus would break down versus back in the day when we were all growing up that we'd have to wait for somebody to call or we'd have to go back to the school or some type of crazy thing 'cause cell phones weren't a thing.

At least here I can track her and be like, "Oh, something's wrong with the bus. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to meet them at the school," but at least I can kinda see where she's at and making sure she's okay type of thing. But other than that, I never let her use it.

Jennifer: Yeah. Like, uh- it was the Gizmo watch is what we had. I don't know if that's the

Miranda Webber: Yeah, we do too. Yep, yep, yep.

Jennifer: It's when it, it died is when we're like, "Okay, well, we have to either replace this or go ahead and get a phone." And so that's what we did.

Miranda Webber: Yeah

Jennifer: But.

Miranda Webber: Yeah. I, [00:08:00] yep, I gotcha, I gotcha. That's kind of where we were at. I haven't upgraded hers because we knew that this summer she was getting a phone. It was like, well, we'll just keep up- we'll keep, like, updating it and hope and pray it'll get us to close to August.

Jennifer: Yes, for sure. Well, we better dive into some more of these questions.

Miranda Webber: Yeah.

Jennifer: Otherwise we will never finish. Do you have a favorite recent layout or project?

Miranda Webber: I have been really being more intentional on what I'm doing. So without getting into, like, very deep, deep personal things. So January of this year was the first year probably a year and a couple of months. That I've been really doing a lot of layouts per month.

There was a lot going on with, like, friendships and life and just things in general for a little bit into 2024 and almost all of 2025. [00:09:00] Where I was on design teams for, I think I was up to six, seven, or eight of them. And they were very consistent, having two or three layouts, and I had to push those out a lot every month.

And it was always consistent when they would ask, "Hey, would you like to join back?" "Yes, I would like to come back," that, all of that, to where some of them closed. Um, some of them I decided not to join, again, for another term. And then I took a hiatus. Like, when all of them, either I said no or they were closing or decided not to have a design team anymore, I was like, "You know what?

I'm just not gonna do this." Now, kind of fast-forwarding in, in May-ish of 2025, The Scrap Room, Raquel, um, reached out to me and was like, "Hey, I know that you're guest - designing for me, in June. I was wondering if you saw the design team post [00:10:00] about it. Um, uh, we would really love to have you, but if you, if you can't, we, you know, we understand."

So I was like, "No, I saw it," and I was... And I sat here and pondered. I'm like, "Do I really want to do this at this time?" Because there were certain things going on in my life that I'm like, "Am I gonna give it my all?" And I was like, after a lot of thought, I was like, "Yes, I'll do it." I, I, 'cause I, kind of backwards a little bit.

When I did the guest designership for The Scrap Room in June of 2025, that was already in the works. Before all of the design teams kind of started to either I said no or disbanding, you know, in that respect. So I wasn't gonna tell her just because I took a break, I wasn't gonna do her guest design ship.

Because I'm one of them that when I say yes, I'm gonna do something, it's gonna get done. So I'm like, "Nope, I'm gonna do it," because it's only two [00:11:00] layouts a month. And I went from, I would say November of 2024 Up until May of 2025, there was zero layouts that went on. Zero.

Jennifer: Wow.

Miranda Webber: And I, a- a- and there was a lot.

A friendship is what really put me into this damper. And I had to get myself out of it, but I didn't know I was in the thick of it until, my closest friends have said something. And I was like, "I've got to start doing something for this. So that I can get back to doing what I love to do," which is scrapbooking.

So as I was doing this, I realized that my style has changed. I'm tired of producing 10, 12, 13 layouts a month. And producing stuff that I really didn't like. But I was doing it because I needed, you know, I had to do it for a design team. And I wasn't doing things for me. And for what [00:12:00] I wanted to do. I was doing it for them.

Even though they're my layouts and they're going to go in my album. So I would have to say since I have come back, I would honestly say there's not just one, but since I have came back full force in December of 2025 to current. I really enjoy what I have been doing. I can't say I do not like a single one of my layouts. Since I've come back because I've really been thoughtful on what I've been doing. And put into my layouts.

I still have my same mentalities of, if you can remember, 15 minutes a day, no matter what it is, you get in your room, you scrapbook, you edit. If you're a YouTuber, edit film, something, right? I still do that, but back then I wasn't doing that. And I [00:13:00] was in here to force out layouts, and then I came into this personal thing that really went too far into my life that I didn't realize it did, till I looked back at it.

And now I'm like, "Nope." If I don't like something, I stop. And I'm like, "Okay, let's rethink this." So I've kind of put that 15 minutes into thoughtfulness every day versus, "Oh, I gotta get this done. Oh, this DT needs to get done," or, "This needs to get done. I need to batch film. I need to do this." So it's more thoughtfulness of what I've been doing versus the other, you know, versus the other stuff that I was doing in the past.

And even when we did the podcast, you know, the filming the last time when we did this. Um, back then I wasn't really thoughtful on what I was doing.

Jennifer: So do you feel like that, this, this kind of, I don't know, the c- the coming back is also a sense of like freedom and escape, [00:14:00] where allowed you to, to dive deeper into your own style, and why you've been feeling so good about the pages you've made? Is that how you'd say it?

Miranda Webber: Y- yeah, because, I, I feel like when a person's not being thoughtful about things... Now, we can do things on the fly. We can, you know, sometimes you set yourself down a path and it may, you know, take a left or a right here and there, and you gotta kinda have that flexibility. And I'm not saying I'm very much rigid on what I'm doing, like it's gotta be this way or no way.

But it's wanting it to be more... I wanna enjoy what I'm doing versus producing so much for design teams and not liking what I'm producing. Even though they, you know, the world may like it, or the design team company may like it, or, you know, who's ever doing those. [00:15:00] I wanna like it for myself. And I've learned through, you know, talking through counselors, da, da, you know, all that fun stuff, um, that I had to get back to who I was and the way I used to do things, and that was being thoughtful and intentional of what I'm doing and how I'm saying things and how I'm putting stuff together.

Because when I look back at a lot of those layouts and through that time of where I kinda took a, a hiatus, in the retrospect of things, I wasn't doing stuff for me. I was doing it for everyone else. And if you don't take care of yourself, how can you take care of others and do things for others?

Jennifer: Certainly. Yes. Yes. Yes. yeah, it sounds very integrated between your life and your creativity and finding a new sense of balance.

Miranda Webber: Yes, for sure.

Jennifer: I- is there something new you're excited to do, use, or try in your scrapbooking or in your everyday life?

Miranda Webber: Well, I've been [00:16:00] reinventing, like, I've been kind of reinventing my, I guess, my rules of scrapbooking. So like, I know in here there's some things in here that we're gonna talk about that we'll get to. But it's like, I'm gonna bring up the chickens. 'Cause I,

Jennifer: Yeah.

Miranda Webber: I saw the note, okay? And I think it's kinda funny to say 'cause I have no chickens. I live in town, i've got houses all over me. My backyard is a wood line, and if you go past the wood line, there's another set of houses. But my last layout, and it was funny, so, um, I was, you know, reading the notes and I g- I giggled when you brought up the chicken thing. Because I'm like, "Why not?

I have a house. Doesn't mean I have to have chickens, and I can't not use this paper because I don't have no chickens in my, you know, in my layout.

Jennifer: It's just about the overall vibe of the [00:17:00] chickens.

Miranda Webber: I'm like, the chickens are up in a coop, and I've got pictures. To give y'all context, y'all, if you don't know what I'm talking about, the non-literal embellishments that some of these companies give you. To the people that are very literal, and I am in my life.

So, but in my scrapbooking world, a non-literal thing would be why would you have chickens on your layouts when, one, there's no chickens in your photos, and two, if I remember correctly, I had one outside photo and the rest of them were my inside photos of my downstairs.

And I have chickens up in the rafters because the paper, it's 49 and Market, and it's one of the papers, Whispering Way, I think. And it had the rafters, and the chickens were in the rafters. And then I added the little chicks and I added butterflies, and I think a windmill was on this one. And I'm not on a farm, I'm in town.

Jennifer: Well I [00:18:00] think this is where it's important, whether you're shopping for something new or trying to use something you have, that those things, like even like the weird llamas or whatever thing that, that you happen to have.

Miranda Webber: Yeah.

Jennifer: That could create a, a, party vibe or, you know.

Miranda Webber: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer: It makes you feel and the impression that you wanna give.

So maybe, you know, home is, uh, nostalgic or peaceful or, um, maybe it reflects your decor style even though you do live in town. So there's so many different.

Miranda Webber: Y- yeah.

Jennifer: Interpretations and reasons why you could pick a supply like that that has nothing to do with.

Miranda Webber: Correct.

Jennifer: With what it actually is.

Miranda Webber: Honestly, the reason why I got it was because of the Highlander cows that are in it. My decor in my downstairs. So I have a two-story house, and my downstairs is, like, my area. And then the upstairs, while I scrap room, my room is in the upstairs. We turned one of the bedrooms [00:19:00] into a, like, office-type space for me. And so the upstairs living room is, like, my husband's man cave. So the vibe up here.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Miranda Webber: More the grungy, you know, man vibe. Downstairs I have blacks and grays on my walls, and my accent color is, like, olive, so it's like that Scandinavian style.

But my big elements are Highlander cows, and that's why I bought the collection, was because of the Highlander cows.

Jennifer: So there was a literal connection too, so.

Miranda Webber: There was, but when you put chickens on a layout, I, I... You wouldn't believe the amount of comments I got.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Miranda Webber: Like, "There's no chickens." And I'm like, um, you know, I'm not saying that I bought it because I used to live on a farm, but I could kind of interpret it to that.

I used to have chickens when I grew up. I used to have cows and steers and bulls and horses. I could [00:20:00] kinda tweak it back to that and be like, "Hey, you know, I'm acting like I have a farm without a farm 'cause I used to live on one."

Jennifer: Yeah, and you have-- That's, it's part of who you are, so...

Miranda Webber: Yeah. But truly though, I'm one of them that if the color matches, it, I use it. And that's always been my thing. You know, saying the two things that I always say is, "They made the collection for a reason. You bought it for a reason, so then use it." You know, so obviously, if the color matches, then use it. Who cares, you know, who cares what the embellishments are?

Jennifer: Yeah.

Miranda Webber: You know what I'm saying so it it can be hard. Um sometimes you can't get past the fact that it's a chicken. Not that anything's wrong with that collection but I understand because I used to be that person. I never purchased 49 and market like I don't know how I'm gonna use this. I have almost all of their [00:21:00] collections since I've came back to scrapbooking. Because I love their mutedness their very boho vibe. I'm just using them as an example because they're the ones that give you those non-literal things like a highlander cow and a calf and a chicken and a horse. You know the farm life.

Jennifer: What do you think changed for you to be so kind of, uh, not attracted to those supplies to really embracing it in terms of being, you know, anti-49er Market.

Miranda Webber: Yeah I think we evolve. You know, as a person, if you don't like learn something new every day or, you know, the saying of you can't just be the same person every minute of your life because you're not, then you're not growing type of thing. I think learning what I went through and learning what I didn't see.

Jennifer: Mm.

Miranda Webber: Changed my [00:22:00] perspective, not only in my personal life, but everything around me.

Not only in scrapbooking, but teaching, my personal life, and then just in general. And I think I was proactively not noticing something that I should have noticed, or at least in my mind, I'm like, "Why did I not notice that?" So now, because I didn't notice something that was so huge and important of who I was then, I'm being more intentional to make sure I don't miss those signs again. And I think that's why I was glad, not that I didn't want to stay on design teams, because I love the design teams.

I love doing all that. I did love doing all that. But I'm glad that that went away. I'm glad that I stepped away from my favorite thing that I love to do, which is scrapbooking, and got a [00:23:00] new sense of me.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Miranda Webber: And then taking that sense into my scrapbooking, and that's when my style started to change. And I noticed that.

Jennifer: Would you say that you're more in touch with your feelings now through, by working with a therapist and really understanding and, and going through this process?

Miranda Webber: Oh, only if you could see my face right now. I, I, I gave you the stink eye on that one. I, I still don't do my feelings. I think, I'll be honest, I, I grew up where feelings was not shown. So- It's, it's hard to say, "Oh yeah, I'm, I'm in touch with my feelings." I may be, but I don't show it. And then, you know, you got the military because, you know, military, everything around 24 years of it, you don't show it, you can't show it there either.

So I think being in touch with those feelings, I'm probably there, and I probably was there, and going through all of that. I just [00:24:00] don't express it as maybe as what other individuals do, but I take that expression into my layouts. If you would go back to what I've done prior leading up to, like, the hiatus of things, and then you come into what I'm doing now, it's very different.

They're different, for sure.

Jennifer: So one thing that I notice is that you do scrapbook a lot of non-people photos, and I can empathize because my kid does not want me to take photos anymore. And so I have fewer things to often take photos of.

Miranda Webber: Yeah, so I started, . I know everybody does, like, a s- something like this of, like, 52 weeks of 52 photos of some sorts. You know, they call it f- you know, like, it's your one layout that you should do a week or w- you know, however you wanna do it. So back in January of 2025 when I thought I could try to get myself going again. Because I took such a long break [00:25:00] because of everything else, there was, like, a smidgen of time where I s- so tried to wanting to get back into this. I'm good. I f- I figured I got everything through. I knew what was wrong with me. I th- thought I fixed it, which I didn't. I thought I fixed it. Okay, I'm gonna do this. Well, I came up with, well, why don't I do 52 weeks of my favorite 52 photos?

That'll at least get me 52 layouts done. That's one layout a week. That should be easy to do, right? So I thought.

Jennifer: Do you respond well to challenges? Like, does that excite you?

Miranda Webber: It, it depends on how the challenge is given to me. So if a person just come to me and says, "Hey, I need you to "Be challenged with this," I'd probably look at you and be like, "Nope, not doing it. Because you're wanting a reaction out of me. But if somebody comes up and tells me, "Oh, you can't do something. Oh, watch me.

It's gonna get done, and I'm gonna do it more than what you expected me to do because I'm gonna make it look like I'm so over the top [00:26:00] that you're never gonna wanna challenge me again. Because that's where my mind goes. And that was kind of... It goes back, that goes back to my growing up. I had an individual in my life that would tell me I couldn't do things, and so I had to prove I felt like in that time, um, I had to prove to show, mm-mm, you don't tell me that I can't do something.

I'm gonna show you that I'll do it better than what you thought I was gonna do, and I'm gonna make it so over the top that you won't ask me again. And I think I kinda just made that goal with my challenges. I think at that time it was I don't mind scrapbooking the minute stuff. I don't mind scrapbooking a picture of my coffee cup sitting somewhere, in my room or my craft room or if that's all I only took for, like, three weeks in a row.

I don't mind taking photos of landscapes or, you know, do- you know, like my house. [00:27:00] Um, when we talked the first time, I- if I remember correctly, I think I was only in my house for, like, maybe a year, and so I didn't get to do anything. 'Cause I had to wait for the contractors to be done. So all my walls were white or builder paint white, and so I was like, "I documented all that. I took all those photos. Why am I not putting this in a layout?"

And so those were the things that I went back to when I started the 52 weeks, and then it... Like, I fell off again. Because I got back into that rut that I thought I so-called fixed myself, and I thought I was good. And then when, obviously, when I was talking about the Scrap Room, they asked me to join, and then going forward, the two a week or the two a month. Um, I kinda struggled in the beginning.

And obviously, um, I had conversations with Raquel and about that over there and [00:28:00] saying, "Hey, you know, give me some time. I gotta get back into the swing of this 'cause I haven't done a design team in well over..." By that time, it was, I would say, six, seven months.

Filming was rough 'cause, you know, you had to get back into the swing of it, right? I think knowing that I was in that harder time and, you know, that harder part of those chapters of your life and then coming out of it, I realized that it's okay that you don't scrapbook like everybody else.

I really enjoy doing what I'm doing now. There for a long time, I was doing it because it was required of me. Because I joined a design team. It's required for me to do X, Y, Z to get whatever out of it, right? Well and it wasn't, I didn't join them and was fighting through it. That was not it. I love the design teams that I was on.

I was on one of them for six years. The shop is [00:29:00] closed, but I was the OG and I was the only one left when she shut down her shop. So I wouldn't stay that long if I didn't like what I was doing with that particular company. But I think I was going through the motions and not really having feelings with it.

And I love that I got feeling back, even though I may not show it. But I know I have it because I see it in my papers. I see it in my layouts.

Jennifer: Well and There's something that-- about finding those stories that otherwise wouldn't be told. Um, I was, uh, taking my camera with us to a volleyball tournament last weekend, and I was trying to take some test shots on my desk just to make sure everything was working okay.

Miranda Webber: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer: I took a photo of my, my headphones, you know, and I wear these.

Miranda Webber: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer: Uh, noise-canceling headphones a lot nowadays.

And I'm like, "This is a d-- A, it's a decent photo, and B, this is actually a, a not insignificant part of my life where I'm wearing noise-canceling [00:30:00] headphones on the treadmill, in a Starbucks when I'm recording podcast episodes. Um, when I wanna watch something in the living room which is not what my family wants to watch." Uh, so that is a story in itself. And it's maybe not the one that would come if I'm scrolling through my library. I'm gonna think, "Oh, well, I haven't scrapbooked, you know, that birthday party." But if I really think about it, that is a very worthy story about what my life is like right now.

Miranda Webber: And that's the thing is, is that we, I feel like we as scrapbookers, we scrapbook everybody else's life, but we forget about ours. What about us?

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Miranda Webber: Me taking that photo every week about what my coffee cup looks like as an example, because I do do that a lot. I scrapbook those. I go back on Instagram if I posted it there or Facebook or whatever. Or say, if it was April, I [00:31:00] could go back in April, even though I may not have talked about it on social media, I could scroll through what was I doing during that day or that timeframe to be like, "Why did I take that photo?" And then scrapbook it. And I don't journal on my pages. I don't like to journal.

Very seldom do I journal. But I do a, video planner. And I sit and write down like what I did the video on, so, you know, if it's a hop or a design team, what day it's gotta film, just so that I can keep up with myself.

But then in there, I document my process so that I have something to talk about when I do my voiceovers. What inspiration came from and what the photo's about. So when you're listening to my YouTube channel, I try to use that thought process now versus what I used to do in the [00:32:00] past. In the past, I never did this.

I started this not necessarily because my, my counselor/life coach thought I should. I did it once and I was like, "This is nuts." Like, why? But then the more I did it, I actually enjoy writing down my process, writing down the materials I use, writing down what the photo is, and then document like the page numbers. Because those page numbers is how many layouts I've done so far in the month, the year, or whatever you wanna look at it.

So if I do the videos that I have done process-wise, like filmed in January, I'm up to 56 since January. So that gives me my knowledge of I've already surpassed 52 weeks, if you [00:33:00] think about it.

I've already scrapbooked more than what a year's worth of photos I should have done with my challenge that I did in January. That I started in January of last year. 'Cause I- we rolled it over into this year. 'Cause, the group that does it with me, I asked, I was like, "Hey, do we wanna do this again?"

They're like, "Yes." So I've already done 56. So that means I'm already four layouts over what I would have done if I would have just done one a week.

It feels fantastic, you know. And if I really truly wanted to go and look and say, "Hey, this is how many I've done truly since January, I would say probably 10 more we got added to that, so I'd probably be 65, maybe 66.

So that's fantastic. Because that's way more than I did in 2025. I, I, I think I maybe have done 30 layouts, maybe 40 tops in 2025.[00:34:00]

Jennifer: Well, it sounded like you needed the practice of taking photos. Again, the practice of, of filming, of recording.

Miranda Webber: Yes.

Jennifer: Understanding, you know, how we're gonna combine things together to find a new groove for yourself.

Miranda Webber: Yes. Yes, for sure.

Jennifer: So I really wanna talk about some of these things that you really do on every single layout, and it's so interesting. Because I started writing some things down. I'm like, "Well, maybe this is just, like, on this one." I'm like, "Oh, no, that she really does this on a lot of pages." And the the first one is so distinct is that you mount a pattern paper on a larger piece of cardstock. Like you... But you only cut... It's not like a one-inch border. This is, like, a quarter inch maybe around the edge. How, how did that get started? Was it functional or creative?

Miranda Webber: Mercy Tiara

Jennifer: Okay.

Miranda Webber: So Tracy Banks.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Miranda Webber: If you don't know who Tracy Banks is, she's from [00:35:00] Canada. She used to do, um, Mercy Tiara She's still on there. She does a Patreon channel, um, and that's where she does most of her stuff, and I've been a Patreon of hers for years. And it's a, it's a priceless plug here, but she did a very, very, very, and when I say a very bright layout, I was like, "What in the God's green earth is she d- she wants us to do what?"

And me, the very non-bright person, I'm like, "How in the heck am I gonna do this challenge?" Uh, i- so in the Patreon chat, or in, like, the Patreon thing, if anybody doesn't know, you kinda do, like, what we're doing here, but we get to see the videos. And we're live, and we can either talk there or get on Discord and talk, and, I literally said, "You're nuts." And Mercy Tiara's like, "No, you gotta do..." And I said, "You're nuts." So then she [00:36:00] started putting black cardstock around her papers, and I'm like, " Now you're wasting a black piece of paper. I'm like, "This is not making sense." So as she's going through this, I realized what she was doing was taking her bold papers and giving them a box within a box.

So if you look at it, it's like, okay, so that's, like, one box, right, for your layout. That's the outside. Well, then, if you want to make it look like your eye to go into the center, she was taking a black border, like a very thin one like you would do around your photo.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Miranda Webber: Around the, those big, bright papers she was using.

And she's very much pattern on pattern on pattern, and I'm a very much pattern on pattern. Tracy and I were a lot alike when it comes to that. She would do patterns. It didn't matter to her. I, it didn't matter to me either. But she was taking those big, [00:37:00] bold, patterned papers that I'm just like, "What are you doing?"

And putting a black, thin cardstock around it. And it toned it down enough to make it very minimum, where it wasn't like, boom, it's in your face, and she used all these patterned papers. And that's what started my obsession. Sometimes I'll use other dark colors but it's typically white or black.

But that's why.

Jennifer: I, I mean, I'm familiar with her, but I, I haven't really watched her, her channel before. I, I love that concept of kind of grounding a busy pattern paper.

Miranda Webber: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer: Giving it a container to live within, rather than it it's just expanding and overtaking you. So.

Miranda Webber: Yeah, correct.

Jennifer: Now you also draw a border around the border.

Miranda Webber: Yep, I do.

Jennifer: And you, and you do that a lot.

Miranda Webber: Yes, I do. I do it on everything.

Jennifer: I love a good hand drawn border around a lot of things. I do, I do it very similarly too.

Miranda Webber: I know, and I'm trying to think of where that came from. It was [00:38:00] her too. I think if I remember correctly she did it and I loved it. And then I couldn’t stop doing either of them. It was like its almost my signature I get more comments about you didn’t line your paper than I do anything else. Because I changed it up. But yes, I do do that. I do the border within the border. I do the line borders, and I'll do it on... I do, I know why I started the line. Now I remember. So back when I was talking about, you know, the black paper on the pattern papers. Okay, so if you didn't wanna use up all your paper, I was telling them way in the beginning when I did this, take your pen and do the black border around. Or a white border if you love them white gel pens.

They're like my nemesis. But, um, those two, use those, and it's like a box within a box, so it tones them down, or it gives them dimension without giving them dimension. [00:39:00] So if you take those black pens of whatever, you know, you could use the thick ones. I use the fine Sharpies, you know, most people use for anything else but scrapbooking, and that's what I use around them. So if you don't wanna use all that card stock to make it thick, use the pen, and it still gives you that dimension.

Jennifer: Correct. Correct. Yeah. And I mean, some people will like cut out the center if they're matting something. I find a little fussy that there's... like doing it, um, but I understand.

Miranda Webber: Don't either.

Jennifer: Get the most out of your paper. One of the other things I noticed is that you are often, like, making... Like, yes, we, we often make like maybe embellishment clusters off the page, but you're making like layers of papers. Like strips of papers, or you're multi-matting your photos multiple times, and you're doing this kind of off the page, and then you're adhering this bundle down.

Miranda Webber: I don't need my foundation paper to be underneath my photos. [00:40:00] I have a glass mat. Um, any mat. It doesn't matter what type of mat you have, as long as you have, like, the lines. I just know where my 12, where my 12-by-12 is. So I use my foundation. I get that done, and a lot of times, that could be off drawing, or I need lines to make sure.

I'm one of them that I don't like crooked things. And if I use my foundation, it's not straight. Like, I mean, it is straight, but if I need it really straight, I use my lines on, like, my glass mat or whatever that I'm using. And then I'll just, if I've got that already adhered, I'll use then my background piece that I'm needing it to go on.

I'll bring that back in, make sure that that's lined up 12-by-12 straight. And then I'll place it down. And then I'll work in my, my corners. I always start in the inside and work my way out. a lot of times I don't use my photos as my [00:41:00] focal point. It's typically what the photos are about is what my, n- not even my title, it's my, um, it's what the photos are about.

So it could be the event or whatever and that's my style of do I want it in the center do I want it off to the side. Do I want the embellishments to be more of the focal point

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Miranda Webber: Or do I want the title to be big or is this going to be one of them that I need a cut file and I'm going to put multiple photos on. But I don't need to show the whole photo. A lot of individuals and there's nothing wrong with this they won't cut into their photos. They'll do four by six or three and a half by five or whatever other sizes they have. Right. And but to cut down them down it's like scary to them. And it's fine I get it but it's okay to cut out the white side like the white [00:42:00] stuff. Or I call it the white noise. There's no point there's nothing there so cover it up or cut it out. Because then you can add more things to tell the story outside of just the photos. And that's why I don't journal I don't journal. Because if you want to know something about the photos let me know I'll tell you. Because I'm I'm pretty good about remembering what this was.

Jennifer: Sounds like your video planner is kind of turning into a memory keeping document as well.

Miranda Webber: Yeah that too for sure. I I do I try to remember that not everybody scrapbooks like me. So when I am doing my voiceovers or my process videos I try to explain to them that I'm like look you can do it other ways. This is just how I do it. But you can take little bits of what I do and turn it into your own. You could take that the splatters or you could take me [00:43:00] doing the border like the cardstock and then cutting that little strip around to give yourself a little bit of something that's fine too. You can still do your style within everybody else's style.

You're just taking bits and pieces. It's just like a sketch. You're starting out with a layout that you're scrap lifting. You could literally just take the placement of the photo where you place it on yours, and that's considered a scrap lift. Because you used that as your inspiration, and that's okay. It doesn't have to be everything.

Jennifer: Yeah, yeah. Well and I think it's about it as am I taking the style? Am I taking a technique? Am I, knowing that there's so many different layers to a page that you're looking at that you can, um, absorb, copy, uh, keep for later, uh, whatever, whatever works for you.

Miranda Webber: Yeah, most definitely.

Jennifer: So you were talking about dimension, and I know like you, you're the one, you're gonna fold the butterflies. You're gonna like bring up the, the leaves of a flower.

Miranda Webber: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer: And [00:44:00] you also use a distressing tool quite a bit on a lot of things.

Miranda Webber: Yes.

Jennifer: How long have you been doing that?

Miranda Webber: Well, the dimension side, I think I've been doing... I learned a lot of that when I was in Germany. When we got stationed over in Germany, I met two very amazing friends that we're still friends now. One of 'em, our kids are the same age. We, we've, our kids have grown up. One of 'em... So one's a freshman. My daughter's an eighth-grader, and then she's got a sixth-grader. So now it's gonna be a sophomore, freshman, and a seventh-grader come this next school year, and we, we've learned a lot from each other. She's taken things from me, and I've gotten things from her.

And she's the one that's like, "It's okay to do these little things." Well, I've taken these little things and either added it to everything I did. I don't think I have a single layout in years that is not distressed. I [00:45:00] don't think I have... I, I, I don't know how far back I could go in any of my albums that wouldn't be distressed or have dimension of some sort.

Jennifer: And it's, it's so interesting because I've, uh, c- I came from digital scrapbooking to paper. Um, so I didn't come from like a traditional scrapbooking place, and I, I had learned about like even inking the edges and, and some distressing. But the distressing of die cuts is so genius to me because sometimes they're just so flat.

Miranda Webber: Y- yes.

Jennifer: This is a little piece of paper, um, of a, you know, a camera. But.

Miranda Webber: Yeah.

Jennifer: How can we make this look more organic to the page, uh, and just not so, not so two dimensional.

Miranda Webber: Well, yeah, it's even the stickers. I think for me it's the stickers that are the worst. And I think it's because you can distress like the paper embellishments and paper and all [00:46:00] of that. It's a little bit harder to distress a sticker. Now, can you do it? Yes, 'cause I've done it.

Um, I, I mean, I've done it just so that it's not so, like, like I placed it there and it's in the wrong spot type of thing. And, you know, sometimes I feel like, "Is this gonna look good?" Or I try to hide 'em. Like, I'll tuck 'em in under things so that where you can do dimension or you can do distressing to give it a little bit of life, there's a little bit more life to it.

Um, that's why I think I've gotten to like 49 & Market a little bit more, or like the laser-cut stuff. Because they have... Even though that they're flat, right, like, there, there's something to them to make them look more realistic than like a sticker. Or like what you were saying, like just putting a piece of paper down or a, a, you know, a die cut down and it's just flat.

Jennifer: Yeah, it's been so interesting to see [00:47:00] how the manufacturers are using different, like, weights nowadays. Like.

Miranda Webber: Yeah. Yeah,

Jennifer: The laser cuts and, um, oh, the, the paper repacks that have been in some of the Vicki Boutin collections. Um, some of those almost, like, me 'cause I'm like, "This is just so thin. What am I supposed to do with this?" But I think it is, it is giving us new opportunities for, for layering, for dimension, for, uh, playing with things in different ways.

Miranda Webber: Well, we've evolved, right? Like, we keep trying to evolve ourselves. So.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Miranda Webber: For, for example, like you were talking about digital scrapbooking. So I, I never did digital, period.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Miranda Webber: I... And I have, I do have the printer. I have the Canon printer that prints out 12 by 12 papers from one edge to the other, and I do use it.

But I realize that I'm not one to [00:48:00] like do digital digital. Like, I'll get like the digital... Like, I don't do digital. Like, I don't go on... You know what I mean? Like, it's like hybrid. Yeah.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Miranda Webber: I'll print out the digital stuff, and I'm like, "I don't like how this looks and feels." Now, do I love the paper that I...

Yes. I'm the one that bought the paper to be able to print it out, right? So I know that the, it's not the paper, but I'm just like, I think there's something to say. And I don't know exactly what it is, but it's something about getting the paper in from other companies that makes my life a little bit easier.

Because when I print it out, it looks different than, say, you would print it, print out the same thing on whatever printer you have, right? And if we would put it together, we don't look the same. And I think that, like, messes my [00:49:00] OCD brain up. Because my printer and your printer should print out the same thing, but they're not going to, and it messes, it messes it up.

So while I tried hybrid, I don't necessarily enjoy it. But I see a ton of individuals that do it, and I love what they do.

Jennifer: You mentioned in one of your videos, like you enjoy making hard things simple. Um, in terms of like using mixed media, but not, not going to 110% or level 11. You're doing it like your level and trying to make it, uh, still approachable and fun for you.

Miranda Webber: Yeah. Well and that not just for me, but for other individuals that may not have dipped into it yet or don't know where to start. I mean, I love the junk journals. I mean, junk journals are huge. Um, a lot of people do 'em. And I was just at a crop, during my spring break, and, there was a lady that sat right next to [00:50:00] me, and she became a, like, my whole table, we all ended up becoming friends. 'Cause I went to a crop by myself and didn't know anybody else. But lo and behold, I did actually know quite a bit of 'em, I just didn't realize they were going, 'cause I've met them at other crops, and we ended up all kind of sitting together. And my table mate was doing a bunch of decoupage, all of this, taking,

they had the What is it called? Gel plate. Is that a gel plate?

Jennifer: The Gelli plate? Yeah.

Miranda Webber: Yeah, yeah. Okay, they're taking that and taking these random things and putting them on there, then rolling more paint on it. And I'm like, " What in the world are you doing?" And, and she was explaining it, right?

She flipped it over and she was showing me, "Well, this is what it'll actually look like," and I'm still like, " You are doing all that work for the bubbles?"

Like, I'm all confused. And so, like, that's the mixed media that I, I [00:51:00] c- I can't get my brain to, like... Like, I see it and I'm like, "But how are you gonna use it?" She did the first layer, and then she got my... This is gonna sound funny, but I, I know why she did it. So some of the really cheap paper towels you get have those weird pattern, patterns on them.

They're not just like plain. So she put that down as like the bubbles. Like, 'cause it ended up looking like bubbles after she pulled the, napkin off. And so then couple weeks later, she actually got to use whatever she made at the retreat, and she showed me.

It was a card that she made, and it actually looked gorgeous. Like, I would, if, if that would got sent to me, I would've been like, "Oh, this is so cool. I can tell that it's handmade." I really would have enjoyed getting that card, so whoever that is going to would enjoy getting that card. But in the beginning, my brain couldn't go that deep into mixed media. So I think [00:52:00] for me, my mixed media, I try to make it simple and easy to use. So that if you wanna make it more complex, go for it. But if you don't, here's a simpler way to do it. And so that's why, like, on my channel recently, when I joined the Crafty Maven Getaway, I used to be on her design team through Hannah.

I used to do it a long time ago. That was one of my DTs. But then she, had some life stuff, so then she quit the design team part of her business because she just couldn't keep up with it with everything else. She emailed me saying, "Hey, you made part of the design team." She gives me a call right away and she's like, "I don't want you to overthink your mixed media. I need you to be the simple one." And I was like, thi- 'cause I was like, "You ain't gonna get much more than that."

Jennifer: Yeah.

Miranda Webber: But she needed that. Part of her team, she needed that. Because she does, her focal [00:53:00] points are mixed media. Like, when she does her layouts, she has less paper and uses fibers.

So it's, like, all the texture-y, fiber-y type stuff with the mixed media. So that's her backgrounds on a 12 by 12 layout. She doesn't use a lot of embellishments or paper. She uses her mixed mediums and fibers for her background and her embellishments. I'm the opposite. I use mixed media for my background, and then use the paper die cuts and photos as the main focal point.

Like, the background's my extension to what I'm trying to achieve. Where hers is the other way around. While, yes, she wants her photos to be the focal point, but she does a huge, a bigger part of her layout is mixed media. So when I a- asked to see if, you know, wanted to do the design team call and turn myself [00:54:00] in for that part of it, um, and she came back, she's like, "I need you to stay simple.

I want you to use my stuff and do simple." And that's what I've been doing. I, you know, sometimes I make it a little bit more than others, but a lot of times you see me with stencils. I don't do a lot of backgrounds without the stencils. Splattering, all that kind of stuff is just typical stuff that I feel like most people do if they want a little bit of mixed media.

Splatters is the best way to go. If you wanna dip into it, splatters. Um, that's what I did. Before Germany, I never touched mixed media. Never touched it. You would never think with the layouts I've done that I've never touched mixed media in my life. It wasn't until I went over to Germany, met my two friends that I have now, those are the ones that got me into mixed media.

And I've, I've taken mixed media further than what they use, but they're the ones that got me into it, and they started me out with splatters. And then I [00:55:00] went from there.

Jennifer: I love hearing how you've kind of picked up these different things from, from different fellow creators and have molded them into your own style.

Miranda Webber: Mm-hmm. Yeah, so that's why I feel like if you get anything out of, you know, this episode of, you know, of the podcast, of this season. Don't think you have to act like every other scrapbooker. Stay true to yourself, pick up on things, try new things, but don't think you have to do what every scrapbooker does.

Stay true to yourself. Because you're going to enjoy scrapbooking a lot longer if you do that than trying to stay with everyone else and try to keep up with the Jones. You don't need to do that in scrapbooking. Take little pieces, work with it.

If it doesn't work, find something new if you want to or stick true to yourself. 'Cause you're [00:56:00] gonna feel better in the long run anyway, and you're gonna enjoy your layouts a lot longer. Versus looking at them and saying, "Why did I do that? Why do I need to do that?"

Jennifer: I certainly have, uh, a collection of pages from a certain time that, that, that feel that way,

Miranda Webber: Oh, me too.

Jennifer: Yeah. Now, one of the, like, the tools that you've been using to really make things simpler is these giant black and white paint sticks. So can you tell me what these are? I've not seen these before.

Miranda Webber: They're, they're, honest to God, they're Liquitex paint sticks. Go onto amazon.com and type in Liquitex paint sticks, and they're just, they're, they're a tube of paint. And you push down on it, and you just shake it, and it drops splatters. Like, um, you know how enamel dots look kind of like there's a little bit of a bump to it?

Jennifer: Yeah.

Miranda Webber: Like a cheaper version of that.

Jennifer: Okay.

Miranda Webber: You know, by the time that you buy enough enamel dots, you could have probably used one paint [00:57:00] stick for that timeframe, right?

Jennifer: Yes.

Miranda Webber: You know. So that's what they are. They're literally a paint stick. They're on Amazon.

Jennifer: Okay. We'll link 'em up.

Miranda Webber: Yeah. Yeah, and if you go to my channel, they're in my, they're in my description.

Like, if you click on the links, they take you right to Amazon. That's where they're at.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Miranda Webber: And they're white and black.

Jennifer: Yeah, I'm gonna definitely check those out because those two core colors, there, there's always a use for black and white splatters. Um, and my little bottle of, of old Heidi Swapp Color Shine Gold.

Miranda Webber: Oh.

Jennifer: Holding on to.

Miranda Webber: Y'all. Oh, my God. That, that gold Color Shine, that, that was the one that I said I was never gonna use in my life, and I've never, after I bought one I never bought it again. Because I don't think I sh- I, I'll probably be honest, but I'm almost betting I didn't shake it up well enough.

Jennifer: Yeah, you really do have to, to shake it well, too. And now I think a lot of the, the portion of [00:58:00] it that is more evaporative perhaps has changed, so the, the composition is quite different than it was, say, 15 years ago. Well, let's end, though, on a positive note with, like, kind of a, a quick rundown of some of your current favorites. Um, what about adhesives?

Miranda Webber: Stampin' Up!'s dimensionals. I, I have a full drawer of all of theirs. If they would ever stop selling theirs, I'm gonna be in trouble. That's my adhesive.

Jennifer: What about your liquid glue versus, uh, tape and foam.

Miranda Webber: That's the Art Glitter Glue. That's what I use. I know that some of them will use the Scotch one, um, that's the fine line, fine, in that fine liner bottle or whatever they call. I know that they're very comparable, so, um, I just know that mine is the Art Glitter Glue. And I've had the same bottle for three years. I just fill it up.

Jennifer: Oh, okay.

Miranda Webber: Yeah, I just ... 'Cause you can buy, like, the bigger bottles just like you can with the Scotch. [00:59:00] I don't know what they call theirs, but their Scotch glue, that's kinda the same thing. The thing that I notice differently between the two, and maybe, and I could be wrong, but I know with the Art Glitter Glue, it doesn't leave, like, there's not a hint of ... You can't tell that there's glue there. Where I know with the Scotch, it would leave, like, a white hue. It was, like, almost like it wouldn't dry all the way.

Jennifer: Okay, great, great. What about your favorite pens for outlining and.

Miranda Webber: Those are Sharpies, the Sharpies fine liner. That's it. That's all it is, black.

Jennifer: And I notice you're using, like, a tool to pick up sequins, and I feel like there's this whole world of, like, I'm guessing this comes from the diamond art world that I don't understand. This, this uh, sorcery, I guess.

Miranda Webber: So it is on Amazon. They're jewel pickers. So you know when you would do either ... Yes, they would [01:00:00] use them for those diamond art things, you know, 'cause those, those little jewels are super, super small.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Miranda Webber: You, like, honestly, go to Amazon, and you type in jewel picker, and that's what comes up. And I don't know what Houdini stuff they do, but it works.

Jennifer: Okay.

Miranda Webber: Just, it, it ... And it, it works so well to the point where it ... I, I won't go back. I used to use my, I used to use, um, my tweezers. I used to use, like, all of these things. Nope, jewel picker it is. And I have a set that I scrapbook with here at home, and then I got a traveling set. I bought two of them.

Jennifer: My Amazon cart is going to keep getting larger here, I think.

Ok, what's your favorite distress color right now?

Miranda Webber: Oh, that'd be the Distress Spritz by, um, Tim Holtz, the Antique Linen. I use that for almost everything. And that, if you guys, [01:01:00] y'all in your Heidi Swapps, go to that and you'll never go back.

Jennifer: Okay, okay.

Miranda Webber: I'm challenging y'all 'cause I know there's a lot of y'all out there still hoarding those white bottles with the black and white lids. Mm-hmm, I know them.

Jennifer: And do you have any other, like, secret hacks that you use or random non-scrapbooking things you're using in your hobby? Like, just, you know, weird tips that you would share, 'cause I feel like you've got, you've got some.

Miranda Webber: Um, uh, man, um, I think.

Jennifer: Well, there was one that I noticed, so I can say that.

Miranda Webber: What was that?

Jennifer: You were talking about how if you, um... We just tend to think of rub ons as something we add to the background, but if you wait and add them last, it adds more, like, texture and dimension to the page because you're adding them partially over things.

Miranda Webber: So I did a layout where it had a bunch of, um, it was a cut [01:02:00] file. So the cut file that I was supposed to use, you can use it either as a stencil

Jennifer: Mm.

Miranda Webber: Or you could use it as like a background piece to like put paper on it, and it was like the little stars. Not like a star star, but more of like a, like a weird diamond shape.

Jennifer: Okay.

Miranda Webber: Like, you know how the stars up in the sky, you know how they kinda have that little middle and like the twinkle and the lines kinda coming out of it.

So that was the cut file. Well, what I decided to do was I used the negative pieces, so the actual little pieces of that cut file. I put it on my background, the negative I guess, or like the template of the stencil. I put that down, and then I took the little star pieces and glued them in on my background.

And then I took the stencil off, and then I left those stars on there. Well, I [01:03:00] was, as I was scrapbooking, I, decided I wanna use some of these rub ons, and in my brain I was like, "Oh, shoot," you know, blah, blah, blah. Glad I'm doing a voiceover because I know I said stuff I shouldn't. I wanted this rub on on there.

So I was like, "Well, here I go. I'm gonna take this chance. First time I've ever done this." So I rubbed it on there and I was like, "Ooh, I actually kinda like this." I kinda liked how it softened up the starkness of these stars. But then, but then how are you gonna see the stars? So then that's when I got out my black little Sharpie, my thin one, and I outlined the black stars on top of the rub on.

So as you rub it in, right, you're c- you're going over whatever it is, like the paper embellishments, right? But if you push it down enough and you take your black, like I would do the fine tip and just outline those pieces, [01:04:00] you're actually giving it dimension. 'Cause if you would take and look, like bring the 12-by-12 or whatever you're doing and put it, like, eye level with you, you can see the dimension. It's like dimension on dimension, and that's kinda what started my reasoning on why I'm like, it's okay to put rub ons on top. You know, e- because I really liked how that was. And there was a lot of people that commented that they're like, "Oh, I never thought to do this." And I was like, "Shoot, you, you and me both."

I didn't know that this was gonna work. I thought this was gonna be in the trash, scrapping this whole thing, starting all completely over because I messed up, and it actually turned out to be a really cool thing.

Jennifer: Awesome. I'm so glad that worked out.

Miranda Webber: Yeah.

Jennifer: Miranda, this has been such a fascinating conversation. Do you have any, like, final tips or things that you wanna share about what you have new or coming up this, later this year?

Miranda Webber: Well, [01:05:00] I, I mean, I'm gonna keep focusing on, you know, doing my layouts, being thoughtful and intentional. And then obviously you guys can definitely find me on all my social media platforms. Um, none of them have changed since the last one, so if you're there, thank you. If you're new, come on over. Um, I do know that I joined two design teams since I have taken time off.

So I'm part of the Scrap Room design team, and then I picked up the Crafty Maven Getaway. So now I'm kinda back on some design teams. I'm being more intentional about that. So my thing is, the last thing I wanna leave you with, with y'all is just be intentional and make sure that you're enjoying what you're doing.

Because if you're not enjoying it, stop, rethink, and then restart. Because I have realized, take my own advice, and I should have done this a lot sooner, is if you're not helping yourself [01:06:00] or keeping yourself healthy of whatever that is, you're not gonna be able to do things for others. But you have to do stuff for yourself, and if that means you're in the scrapbooking world and you love to do for others, start doing stuff for yourself. Because it's gonna make you feel better, and then in turn your stuff that you're gonna give away or do for others just looks that much better.

Jennifer: I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for spending time with me.

Miranda Webber: Yes, you too, and thank you for asking me to do this again. It's always been a pleasure.

Jennifer: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to scrapbook your way.

Carolyn Murray: [00:00:00] the fabulous supplies that you can buy and organize, and I've always been a stationary junkie. And then of course, there's the artistic outlet and a great feeling of satisfaction when you've completed something. So, yeah, it, it just checks every box.

Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper, and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 333. In this episode, I'm interviewing Carolyn Murray for the My Way series. My Way is all about celebrating the unique ways memory keepers get things done.

We're excited to have Carolyn as the May featured artist at Simple Scrapper.

Hey Carolyn, welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Carolyn Murray: Hi Jennifer. It's really great to be here.

Jennifer Wilson: I am so looking forward to our conversation today and getting to know you better. Can you share a little bit about yourself?

Carolyn Murray: Uh, sure. I'm Carolyn Murray. [00:01:00] I live, um, just outside Toronto, Ontario, in a place called Mississauga. Um, been married for about 30, just over 30 years. To my high school sweetheart. We have two children. I have a daughter who, um, was living at home for a couple of years, but has now moved about two hours away with her fiance.

She's getting married later this year, and also a son who has just graduated from architectural design. And we also have a a 10-year-old golden doodle named Finn. And so we're basically empty nesters except for Finn.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, I have, uh, met some golden doodles in the past few years, and they are just such, uh, fun, sweet dogs. So.

Carolyn Murray: He's very goofy and he's in actually quite a lot of my scrapbook layouts.

Jennifer Wilson: So speaking of your layouts, do you have a favorite something, a recent layout, a recent project that seems really special to you?

Carolyn Murray: I have, um, earlier back in January, I really like to go back and do a layout about the books that [00:02:00] I read in the previous year. I'm on Good Reads and I record, and I don't do a lot of reviews, but I, I do rate all the books that I read. And, uh, I looked it down with a little thumbnail of each of the books and somehow put them together on, uh, on the layout and kind of say which ones I liked the best, which ones I wasn't able to finish. And, uh, it seems to be really popular. I've, you know, a lot of people have commented on it and, and I've seen other people doing the same, and I think it's, it's a really great way to combine two hobbies.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. Anytime we can combine those things, it makes it even more fun. Right? Excuse to buy more things.

Carolyn Murray: Yep.

Jennifer Wilson: And.

Carolyn Murray: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Themed products and stickers and things like that, so. So is there something that you're excited to do, use or try either in scrapbooking or in your everyday life?

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, I guess it's kind of both. My, uh, my husband and I are going to Scotland later on in a year. And, uh, I've been relearning how to use my DSLR camera because I've been very a lot on my, uh, on my iPhone camera. [00:03:00] And I actually got a new phone recently. It's got a fabulous camera, but I'm just thinking for capturing some really great photos of our, our trip. It's good for me to reacquaint myself with my, with my DSLR camera. And figure out the easiest way to carry it around with me. And then the other thing I'm excited about is getting my hands on my, uh, my daughter's wedding photos after their, their wedding in November.

Jennifer Wilson: Exciting.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you have an idea of how you want to scrapbook that yet?

Carolyn Murray: I have, I have no idea. She's, uh, she has booked the photographer. And, uh, it seems really great. I've looked at sort of the, um, the website and the style of photos that he, they take and, uh, it, they're gonna be great photos. And I, once the wedding's done, I'll speak to her and ask her if there's a way that she might like to have me scrapbook them.

You know, theme or colors and I mean, obviously the colors of the wedding. But, uh, you know, she'll, she'll be able to guide me a [00:04:00] little bit and maybe she'll even wanna help. Which would be nice.

Jennifer Wilson: That sounds delightful. Something such a big thing to look forward to. So this is a My Way episode because you're one of our featured artists this year. Um, what would you say to a non scrapbooker about why you love this hobby?

Carolyn Murray: I thought a lot about this question and uh, it just checks so many boxes. Every box, like every box that a hobby would need for me. I love photography. I love looking at photos. I love the memory, memory keeping aspect of it all. My, um, my grandfather was a photographer. My dad, you know, followed in his footsteps. Always loved to take photos. We went on, both my parents were teachers. We went on some fabulous vacations when I was growing up. My dad always shot, uh, slides and so we used to, you know, campaign to get to, you know, have a night of looking at the slides and that to me was my first introduction to kind of loving to go back and relive the memories and look at the pictures. And, [00:05:00] and, uh, you know, that has really stuck with me. And then, you know, there's the supplies, the fabulous supplies that you can buy and organize, and I've always been a stationary junkie. And then of course, there's the artistic outlet and a great feeling of satisfaction when you've completed something. So, yeah, it, it just checks every box.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I was gonna say, it does all the things for sure. It's so interesting how that history of, uh, just family context with photography and how like being surrounded by photos and, and slides and all that really influences, um, how we view it ourselves. And, I hope. That we're we're, That we're doing that for our children, even though it looks a lot different than it used to.

Carolyn Murray: You know, the, the greatest compliment anyone can give me and when they come to my house is wanting to look at the scrapbooks.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah. My sister-in-law visited and she hadn't, she hadn't visited our house. In quite some time. And, uh, she had her partner, she and her partner sat [00:06:00] down and they went from start to finish.

And over the, the few days they were staying, staying near us, they looked at every single scrapbook cover to cover. And I made a scrapbook layout about how excited I was about that. Because yeah, it, it's just, it brings me so much happiness. To, you know, to have people look through them and, and, uh, you know, my parents love to look at them when they come to visit. Or when I visit them, I try to tote a few along with me. And it's, uh, yeah, it's, it's just a really feel good kind of hobby.

Jennifer Wilson: No doubt. No doubt. Yes. I totally agree. Can you tell us more about how you got started at scrapbooking?

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, I, I didn't act when I was young. I, I was always sort of the documenter of the trip. I like to take pictures, but of course, you know, before digital cameras existed, the pictures that a young person takes are not always the greatest. I love to collect the, you know, the brochures and I always like to get the passports and get the, you know, the national park stamps and that kind of [00:07:00] thing. But I didn't really even know scrapbooking existed other than just putting these things into a, you know, into a regular photo album. And when I went to my, uh, my very first Creative Memories party, kind of 10 light bulbs went off and I, you know, it instantly became something I was so passionate about. As soon as I thought, I was like, where have you been on my life? Kind of a reaction. So that was about, 22, 23 years ago. But I went to my first Creative Memories party. And then Stampin Up and, and uh, there was a nice group that got together and once a week we would get together and scrapbook, and I was hooked.

Jennifer Wilson: What sizes or formats are you typically creating in today, and how much does that look like the way you started scrapbooking or not?

Carolyn Murray: Hmm, I, I've always done 12 by 12 albums and with Creative Memories, they were, you know, 12 12 by 12, maybe just a little bit less than that. So my first, [00:08:00] you know, 15 albums are all in that Creative Memories format. And then I switched over to the binder style with the page protector. And then the Creative Memories gatherings kind of dwindled and I got quite busy with the kids and I took a little break from scrapbooking. And when I came back I kind of expanded outside of, of just buying things from Creative Memories. And a scrapbook store opened you know, fairly close to me. And, uh, you know, my eyes widened and uh, and so yeah, I mean, I think the basics are still kind of the same. But I've definitely become more artistic with it. And, and, uh, you know, with youTube videos and, and Instagram. The inspiration is, is all around. So.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh yeah. That's for sure. And are there any particular projects or activities that you're focused on this year, or do you really think about it in terms of just, you know, making one layout at a time?

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, I, I'm, I'm very, a very linear thinker and [00:09:00] my scrapbook are all just chronological, with the exception of if we take a big trip. I, you know, if there will be enough pages to fill a whole album, then I'll make a separate album for that. This year I have some trips to scrapbook, so I just actually finished an album from a trip we made to Vancouver Island last year. So that was enough to take up a, a whole album. So I was quite happy to get that finished. I'd like to continue working on, uh, on my annual chronological album this year. And I also have a family history album that I work on, you know, if I need a break from just kind of going chronologically. Where I'm, um. I'm going back and looking at, uh, the, all my, the genealogy that I've done.

That's another, another aspect of the memory keeping for me. And, uh, and trying to tell some stories about my ancestors. And I'm fortunate that I do have some photographs of, of some of these family members going back a few generations. So I try to write it [00:10:00] up in a way that will, kind of more like a story than, you know, she was born here and then she died here, and in between she lives here, here and here. So it's, uh, I like to work on that as well, and I've, uh, I've a couple of those albums as well.

Jennifer Wilson: I am curious in terms of your annual chronological album, how are you keeping track of the stories that you want to scrapbook and include in there?

Carolyn Murray: I, um, I really rely on the photos that I take to, to tell me what it is that comes next. Um, if, if it's something exceptional, I kind of keep a, i on my iPad. I, in my notes, I keep just some notes about what happened. When we go on a trip, I'll type up, you know, just what we did today. So that I, when I, it comes time to actually scrapbook those pictures, I'll be able to go back and, and remember the smaller details. So something like, uh, someone like our trip to Vancouver Island every day. At the end of [00:11:00] the day, I would say, you know, this is, it rained and we got really wet. And you know, the stuff that you wouldn't remember if you, if you waited a year to scrapbook that. That's been something that's really, that's really helped to do the journaling while you're in the moment.

Jennifer Wilson: Did it, was it, uh, kind of difficult to get that to be a habit?

Carolyn Murray: Yeah. Yeah, I have um, I have two very big gaps in my scrapbooking where, you know, life just kind of took over. And so I'm going back and filling in those, sort of gaps in the timeframe as well. So that the chronological thing can, can continue. And so to do journaling for some of those events. It's really, it's more just, you know, birthdays, vacations. I did make some notes about, you know, funny things my kids said. And, and, uh, I can ask them too, like, how did you feel when this happened or what, you know, do you [00:12:00] remember what, why we were doing this? And they can, you know, they can sometimes remember as well. But yeah, definitely writing things down. I'm not a flowery writer. I just kind of like to write down the facts. Who, what, where, when, why.

Jennifer Wilson: So shifting to your style, for someone who maybe has never seen your pages, not looked at your Instagram yet, how would you describe it in three words?

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, I'd say most of my layouts are pretty colorful. I like to use lots of pattern paper and mix the patterns up and use brighter colors. I would say my style is also quite precise. Like, as I said, I'm a linear thinker.

I like to, measure things and, and make sure that things are lined up. If something's gonna be askew, it has to be sort of purposefully askew. With something that's on the other side. Um, so yeah, precise. And then I think essentially, almost, all my pages are photos first. Like I, I. Don't think of a page until I know what [00:13:00] photos I wanna put on. And I, I like to use a lot of photos. So sometimes my photos are very small. But I just finished a few layouts for Allison Davis that has eight small photos of a chipmunk going in and out of, uh, its little, uh, its little hole. So, you know, I like to try to fit as many in as I can. And in that, you know, when you, when you're doing that, you have to make sure your photos are pretty good and you have to edit them and crop them. And, and so yeah, de definitely sort of photo centric.

Jennifer Wilson: Perfect. Yeah, no, I totally agree. That's a, that's a great description. Are there any particular products, tools, or techniques that we can find, like throughout your pages. Something we'd notice if we were flipping through?

Carolyn Murray: I don't know if you would notice, but the, the tool I use the most are sketches.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay. Oh, you mentioned Allison Davis. So.

Carolyn Murray: Yes. Yeah, I'm on Allison Davis and Scrapbook Generation, uh, Sketch Cut File, and, uh, Principal's Design Team. And so I, I had been using Allison Davis' [00:14:00] sketches for years. Like I really, I really do rely on them.

I, uh, I'm not that great at coming up with my, my own designs. But sketches are awesome because you can make one big picture into eight small pictures, or you can flip it around and you can, you can mirror things. So I almost, 99% of the time we use a sketch. Um. I love to use a lot of dimensions and my albums are getting really fat. So things like foam tape and I like to, um, cut out letters for the titles with my, with my Silhouette. And, and, you know, stack them together so that they have good dimension. Um, I like sewing. I have my mom's sewing machine that's almost 60 years old and it's still working like a charm. And I sew on almost all my layouts as well. Yeah, I mean, those are the things that I think I do on almost every, every layout.

Jennifer Wilson: Is there something in scrapbooking kind of as the bookend that you've decided is just not for you?

Carolyn Murray: I, as much as I hate to admit it, [00:15:00] I, I don't think multimedia is for me. I've, I've tried, I love stamping. And I love, you know, doing, using blending brushes through stencils. But, um, anything that's messy, like pastes and paints and things like that. I, uh, I love how they look and I really admire other scrapbookers who use them so beautifully. And I, just doesn't really, it doesn't work for me. It, I just, I think I, maybe I try too hard and then it just looks like a big page full of mud when I'm done.

Jennifer Wilson: That makes sense, and that is the number one response to this question most the episodes. Either someone is very clearly into it or they're just not so.

Carolyn Murray: Uh, yeah, I think, I think if you're like the true artist who loves to paint and loves to do other forms of art outside of scrapbooking, I can see how you would really be into doing that.

Doing the multimedia. But you know, as soon as you need to, well, I guess with stencils you have to wash them, but you know, as soon as you [00:16:00] need to soap and water, I, it's, uh, it's too messy for me, I guess.

Jennifer Wilson: I am so guilty of not washing things promptly. Um, and that, yeah.

Carolyn Murray: Oh.

Jennifer Wilson: It literally makes me feel guilty too.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, I, yeah, I'm the same. I don't have a, uh, well, I guess I, I have a bathroom fairly close. I don't have a sink in my scrapbook room, so I, you know, I try to minimize.

I mostly use the stencils when I'm making cards.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. I've had to use my daughter's bathroom and like that, I'm trying to like, leave stuff to dry and it just, it just causes problems. And I actually do enjoy the process. Just the, the cleanup is logistically not ideal for me. Like, it'd be great if I had, you know, a big utility sink in here, but this, unfortunately, this, this very small bedroom is not, it's not plumbed. So.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, that's, uh, that's my, my issue as well. I sometimes find stencils in my drying rack, in my kitchen for, you know, two or three days later. That I had forgotten to put away.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Now within our [00:17:00] industry, there's always new products. You know, sometimes they're coming a little faster, sometimes a little slower. I think we're definitely in a slower era right now, but are there any particular trends that are standing out to you, something that maybe you've tried or you're interested in trying?

Carolyn Murray: I really am loving, um, the Allison Davis cut files. I, I've always used my Silhouette, but it was more for making titles or for make, just making shapes and cutting, cutting out, uh, mats for photos. And, uh, but the cut files I've always sort of had admired how beautiful they look on people's, people's layouts.

And yeah, I finally, last year, started, started using them and, and what a great way to use up scraps and, and get to put as many different pattern papers onto a layout as you, as you want.

Jennifer Wilson: Now, are you typically using cut files that become more of the background or are they, you know, titles or a combination of those?

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, that's the, uh, that's the million dollar question. [00:18:00] I like a background, but then because I like to use so many photos, I feel like I'm cutting, I'm covering too much of it up. And then, and sometimes the titles are so big that, you know, again, with my, my love of using so many photos, i. I, hate to cover them up. So it's, it's a bit of a, a balancing act for me. But I think the background would be more, more what I would, uh, what I would gravitate towards.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure, sure. Yeah, those are, those are fun. I, I don't always have the patience but to, to, to do the digital part of it, but it is, it is a really beautiful impact in the end. So.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, it took, uh, it took me a while to figure out, I don't have any kind of graphic design or design of any kind in my background. So figuring out how to use the Silhouette software has been trial, trial and error. But there's lots of YouTube videos.

And I couldn't, I couldn't figure out how you got the paper behind the cut files [00:19:00] and I was trying to cut out the backgrounds and, and then, and then match them up, but it never worked. So I think I've, as long as, as long as the spaces are fairly substantial, it works for me. When they're really tiny little ones, I, I, I get a little frustrated.

Jennifer Wilson: I bet. I bet, yeah. Where and when we typically find you scrapbooking?

Carolyn Murray: Well I retired recently.

And, uh, thank you. Yeah, thanks. I, uh, after 30, uh, 34 years, I, I was able to retire. I'm still very, very lucky. And, uh. Yeah, I thought I'd be scrapbooking all day every day. But, uh, but it's, uh, yeah, it's been a bit of a, a learning experience to how to, how to, how it's, it's interesting, like once you don't have work anymore, I was, was thinking, I, I don't know how I'll ever fill my day, but my day still get filled. And I don't really feel like I'm just sitting around doing nothing. So, but I would [00:20:00] typically try to scrapbook every day unless I have so something big on, for the day. And I have over just since I retired, I had a little room in the basement that was all set up for scrapbooking. But it didn't have a window and it didn't have a closet, and the ceiling was low. And I've moved it up into, uh, a spare bedroom. So now I have lights and I have things set up kind of how, how I like. So yeah, you'll find me in here just about every day.

Jennifer Wilson: Now, are you more of a night owl or a morning person?

Carolyn Murray: It's, it's a little bit of both. More of a night owl. I've always been more, more of a night owl. I like to do, get my workout done in the morning and then, you know, if there's groceries or other errands, get those all done and then I can be uninterrupted for a couple of hours.

Jennifer Wilson: Now, are you, uh, an organized, you know, neat and tidy everything in its place, person? Or are you someone who embraces a little bit of chaos?

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, I think, I think I'm somehow at both ends of the extreme. [00:21:00] I, uh, I, my supplies are organized. I have sort of rules for myself where I've got these four little bins that have my, my paper kits in 12 by 12 plastic envelopes. And if I can't, you know, I, unless I use one up, I don't have room to add anything more.

So I kind of keep myself organized that way. At the end of the day, I try to, I try to put everything away. In terms of the mess that I make while I'm creating a page, yeah, I can be pretty messy and, and, uh, you know, sort of at that one end of the extreme. But in terms of thinking about how I want to move forward with scrapbooking and thinking about the pages that I want to make. And thinking about the sketch that I might wanna use in the photos I'd wanna use in the supplies I'd wanna use, I'm, I'm pretty organized.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I, uh, really resonate with that description. Because the underlying systems are there for me. It's like the everyday clutter creates a layer on top of it that makes things feel [00:22:00] messy.

Carolyn Murray: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: There's just, oh, you know, I have trouble, I guess, putting things away.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, and when once I got this room set up how I wanted, now I have a, a home for everything. So I can make a big mess and then easily put things back where they belong without thinking. Oh, you know, when I first started scrapbooking I had, first was the dining room table. And then I, we moved to a bigger house and I had a little desk in an un, an unfinished part of our basement. And then, but then it was open to the kids when they were small to come down. And you know, I had labels on all my scissors. Don't use these scissors, they belong to me. You know, it was open for everyone to use. And then over time, um. We were able to finish the basement and I got my little corner and, and, uh, so I've refined it as time has gone by.

Jennifer Wilson: Are there any particular organization strategies that that stand out as something that's worked really well?

Carolyn Murray: I think my, I like to think my photo [00:23:00] organization and my page planning organization is, uh, is, I I think it works really well for me. I, and I, I don't know that it would work for everyone because it's very, as I said, like linear in terms of how, I think. I just kind of go chronologically through and I look at my photos in, mostly just in iCloud.

Or, um, iPhoto. And I go through and I say, well, for this page I want to scrap up these five photos. So I download the five photos. Then I find a sketch that kind of ties out and I save that in the same place as the photos. And then I can go on, I just upgraded to Photoshop Elements 2026 and it's fantastic.

So I, edit the photos to be the right sizes, and then I'll do that. You know, 10 or 15 times, and then I can print them all out and not waste my paper. And get, you know, get 10 or 15 pages planned all at once. So it's kind of a batch process for me. And then I don't have to worry about it for, you know, a few weeks because I've got, I've got, [00:24:00] got, it all planned out.

Jennifer Wilson: So your planning process includes a sketch, I'm assuming.

Carolyn Murray: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: And then supplies as well.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, supplies less so. Because I, you know, I've got a, I've got a lot of, a lot of pattern paper. But I'll have an idea, you know, if it's something outdoors, I'll, you know, I've got, I've got paper for the lake. I've got paper for hiking. I've got paper for, you know, so, depending. Or if it's just the general page I can use, I can use kind of whatever, whatever, I like. But mainly first is the photos I would want to to use. And then the sketch that kind of tells me how big or small my photos need to be. And then I can spend the time in a batch kind of editing them. So that they're cropped and the colors are good and, and uh, and then once I've done that and I printed my photos then I go out and figure out what paper I want to use.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Yeah, and I mean, really [00:25:00] having a good system in connection to your photos, from taking the photo to having it ready to scrapbook, that can be either a, a system of flow for someone. Or it could be a roadblock to getting things done. So I love how you figured that out for yourself.

Carolyn Murray: It, uh, yeah, it was sort of an evolution.

Where, um, I, I, I have some friends that, uh, that we've been scrapbooking together for quite a long time and we, we try to get together two or three times a year for, um, for a weekend. Or, okay, we're all retired now, so a week, so three, you know, a three day stretch. Where we all get together and, uh, you know, you can't bring the entire scrapbook room with you, so you have to be really organized.

And over time, I've, uh, kind of figured out the best way for me to prepare for something like that. And then why not use that for, for every day as well.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. No doubt. Now, these last two questions are a little bit big picture, a little bit more abstract. Where would you like your scrapbooking to be in 10 [00:26:00] years?

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, that's, that's a tough one. And in 10 years beyond, gonna be almost 70 years old. So my hope is that I'm still scrapbooking the trips that my husband and I go on. That, you know, the times that we have with the kids. We go on a big family trip with extended family every year. Hopefully still be scrapbooking that. Yeah, I. And you know hopefully There's been some challenges in terms of, you know, I guess what you call it, supply chain, where supplies are getting, getting more expensive. And, and uh, and tools are getting more expensive. So hopefully I'll be a little bit better at just using what I have as well. That's sort of being a focus for me this year as well. And probably going into the future because, you know, at some point, um. At some point, all this paper is gonna be left for my kids, and uh, it would totally be good for them if I used some of it up.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, that's such an interesting [00:27:00] conundrum. Because we want to use what we have so that it doesn't go to waste and no one else has to deal with it. It, it saves us money. Yet at the same time, we want this industry to exist for us, and if we're not buying anything new, then it won't. So.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: It's such an interesting balance.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah. I, I, uh, I feel the same way. And I, and also, you know, new paper, paper comes out and I we're lucky enough to have a few scrapbook stores. There's not one super close to where I live, but within an hour's drive, there's a couple. And, uh, I love to go with, especially with my scrapbooking friends, and we go and we, we make a day of it.

We have lunch, we go to the scrapbook store, and, and we, you know, we get to buy, buy some new paper and it's it's all part of the experience and part of the fun. But again. It's, uh, I I only have four bins for paper. So I have to use some of what, what I have or get rid of it and, or give it away. My [00:28:00] daughter, um, my daughter's a teacher, so every once in a while I kind of both do a, yeah, do a big culling of my paper. And last year she had, uh, a big stack of 12 by 12 paper pattern paper. And she did a little, um. I think an all about me, page. She's, uh, she's a French immersion teacher, so she's getting, you know, getting the vocabulary, um, going with these kids and, and she lets the kids in her class select one of the pieces of pattern paper and they loved it. So, uh, she might, she might be the recipient of some more paper.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, that's fun. That's a such a great project.

Carolyn Murray: You had a guest on, uh, recently who was talking about digitizing her paper scrapbook.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Carolyn Murray: And I, I believe what she said, and this kind of is the situation I'm in, is once. But, um, she needs space on her shelf. She goes to a shelf, or there was some way she selected which scrapbook she [00:29:00] was going to digitize. And I think I'm, I'm getting to that point, so that might be something to focus on over the next, you know, 10 years as well.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I mean that's, that's a whole kind of endeavor in itself. I hear there's so many folks talking about this. Of course. Uh, some doing it, but I think it's quite an interest to many longtime scrapbookers who are maybe looking at downsizing and, and just thinking about what's gonna become of all this and how.

What do you really want to physically leave behind? Um, and is that the same way that you created it?

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, I've, I've been making my mom, we, I, I mentioned that we have this family trip that we go on each year with the extended family. And my, my mom had always made a, um, I can't remember the name of the company. I don't even know if they exist anymore, but it was a digital scrapbook that you would print out in a hardcover book. And she doesn't do that anymore. And so over the last couple of years. I've been making a Mixbook scrapbook. And [00:30:00] they turn out beautifully. And uh, so I've been making that for the specific trip. And I'm just thinking those would be a really great way of taking these big fat scrapbook with all the, the, uh, dimensional adhesive and foam tape and stuff that I use and putting them in a format that the kids can each have one. And, you know. It'll be a hard thing to do once I get to that point. But I really enjoyed your guests and I'm sorry I can't remember her name, but I really enjoyed her, uh, her philosophy about it.

Jennifer Wilson: I apologize that I do not recall exactly which guest it is, but will definitely include the link for us in the show notes to the episode.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, please do. Because it was something that, it really got me thinking.

Jennifer Wilson: I think that, um. This particular topic and, and talking about it with multiple guests over the years has also made me think about how I'm making my [00:31:00] pages. And I mean, I'm typically photographing them anyway. But I often will have like envelopes and pullouts and I, I am not gonna stop doing that, but sometimes I am a little bit more mindful of do I really want to have hidden items? If the end goal might be to digitize all the pages. Now you could take separate photos and, and have all those pullouts and stuff. But, that is an, that is more another step.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So it's just, yeah, it's it's, it's influenced me for sure.

Carolyn Murray: Mm-hmm. And then you, you recently had another guest and I should have written down their names so that I wasn't just saying, you had a guest. But I, I was listening to it the other day. Um, and she makes one page layout that has, that had like 60 or 70 photos of them with flaps and flips and.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. That was, that was Brie Beaupre. It, it's amazing.

Carolyn Murray: I went on and looked at her. I, I hadn't seen that before. And [00:32:00] I found her, her YouTube and I was like, wow, this is, this is an idea as well. That would be perfect for like a small weekend trip or something. And if you can save some space that way.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, it's, it's such a fun way to think about it and, um, also just I think really enjoyable and satisfying to create something like that.

Carolyn Murray: And so fun. Like I, you know, you can imagine like little years, you know, maybe grandkids one day flipping through and, you know, having a, having a great time looking at these things. Finding, finding things that they didn't find the last time they looked, kind of, kind of idea.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, the surprises of it. I, I really appreciate that too. So. I mean, there's always, there's so many points that are kind of, I dunno, conflicting, I guess.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, it is.

Jennifer Wilson: There will always be things to discuss. For sure.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah. Which is another awesome facet of, of scrapbooking is, you know, there's so many different ways to do it. And, uh, yeah, I struggled putting my last trip album together because it was getting too full. [00:33:00] Because I, my, the first half of the album is very puffy, and then the second half of the album is very flat. Because I was run outta room. But I'm not stop.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I mean, you shouldn't, I don't say you shouldn't. Our style is our style, and yet that might evolve over time. You might experiment with different things. But I don't think you should hinder your own creative joy in the moment for for the end result. I don't know. Some people, that's why some people are digital though, is because they don't want the space. They don't want the bulk, they don't, they don't want to have large albums. They want to have photo books and that's it. Or some don't even print their pages at all. They keep them digitally and it's, that's, that's a choice. And they, everyone has their own reasons for doing that.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can almost have a website or, or have your page where everyone can go and look at them if they want. But then again, that, my the biggest thing that I love about scrapbooking is it's the paper and the tactile feeling of putting this [00:34:00] together and, and saying, does this look good or does this look good? And, you know, this is puffy and this isn't puffy. Just, it's so, uh, yeah. I could never, I don't think I could ever give up the paper.

Jennifer Wilson: I understand it's different. It's for sure. Um, so final question here today. What has being a scrapbooker taught you?

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, I, I, I think it's more than taught me, it's reinforced things that I've always kind of known about myself.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

Carolyn Murray: I love to document things. I love to take photos. I love to, um, go back and, and research history. And I I love a way to put it all together. I always, I always enjoyed art when I was in high school. But I went off to, uh, to university and, and studied math and business and worked, you know, in a financial capacity for, for most of my career. So the art kind of went by the wayside, and I think it, it really has given me a [00:35:00] way of satisfying the need to do something artistic as well. And just to be able to kill two birds with one stone, be artistic, and then document the things in the way that I like to do that. Is, uh, yeah, it's really a big, a big part of my, of my personality for sure.

Jennifer Wilson: When you are certainly not alone in that, which is why we have so many that are listening to a scrapbooking podcast because that's what we're talking about here, because we love it.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah. Well that's the other thing about scrapbook is the community and, uh, you know, even who would've known that, you know, during the pandemic, you know, stepping really outside my comfort zone and posting, uh, a layout on Instagram would lead to like, lead to so much great stuff that has happened in my scrapbooking.

Jennifer Wilson: You know, you are not the first person to say that either. And I, there is, there is such a power [00:36:00] to that, that that step of vulnerability. Of just being willing to share, to put yourself out there to, you know, share your real life stories and your art with others, and to be part of a community of folks that are doing that. It's, it's, it's something really amazing.

Carolyn Murray: It is, the community is incredible. Like I've, I've never, you hear about horror stories of, of people leaving mean comments on, on social media posts. I've never gotten anything, anything less than you know. Hearts and fabulous and beautiful. Like it, it's such a supportive community. And then I, you know, I've got my, my two close friends that I scrapbook with as well, and it just brings us all like so much happiness.

Jennifer Wilson: For sure, for sure. Well, this has been just such a yeah. A joyful conversation. I can tell how much you love this hobby and it, it, it brings out all the, the warm fuzzy feelings for sure.

Carolyn Murray: That's good.

Jennifer Wilson: Carolyn, can you share where our listeners can find you online? Anything you might have new or coming up later this [00:37:00] year?

Carolyn Murray: Well, I'm on Instagram, which is, I think you have my scrapbook713

Jennifer Wilson: I do. We'll include that link in the show notes for sure.

Carolyn Murray: Awesome. And then I'm also, as I said on the design team for Allison Davis and Scrapbook Generation. So in their Facebook group, um, Allison posts her design team layout, and she posts a lot of great free sketches. And she posts a lot of her own designs as well. Which if you're not following her already, like you, you really should. Because she's, you know, she, she's definitely been a big inspiration for how I scrapbook and, uh, and Scrapbook Generation as well.

Jennifer Wilson: Now their business just went to online only. Correct. But they, they are still an online retailer.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, that, um, yeah, and that actually happened. I, you know, I live in a different country, so it's difficult for me to order supplies across the border. But a similar thing happened with, uh, one of my favorite stores up here too. I guess it's just, [00:38:00] you know, the business model of the future. But they still have, they have a huge selection of things. Like I I, my eyes bug out when, whenever I look online in their store.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I recently had that with just a clothing store that I appreciate it. I feel like it hadn't been open that long and I went there last night and it had closed. And I'm like, how? How did this happen? You know? I really appreciated having a place where I could try stuff on to figure out the size and then mostly so that.

Carolyn Murray: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: To return it if I ordered something online. But I think that was the problem. Is that people were just using it as a return location, to not have to pay shipping. So it made me sad.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, I, I think the, uh, you know, having a, a physical store is, you know, it's overhead. You have to pay people. You, you've got your rent and I know things are just becoming more and more expensive, and the logistics are the same because you already have an online store. So why not? Um, you know, if it, [00:39:00] if it keeps the business going, then totally the way to go for sure.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, for sure. Yeah, just it's, it'll be interesting to see how things look in another 10 years. And I think as long as we continue to, uh, yeah, give to the community and celebrate the joy of this experience and keep telling the younger generations why we love it. Then it'll, it'll keep going. So.

Carolyn Murray: Yeah, absolutely. I every, you know, every time my daughter sends me a photo, I'll say, oh, it's really too bad you're not a scrapbooker. And you know, eventually the bug, the bug will bite her. I'm, I'm pretty sure she likes to make cards. We make cards together, we've taken some card making classes together. So hopefully I'll, uh, pass that, pass that on to her one day. I know she probably doesn't want my entire scrapbook room full of supplies, but, uh, but you never know.

Jennifer Wilson: You gotta use 'em up then.

Carolyn Murray: I'm gonna be working on that, uh, every day and for, you know, [00:40:00] indefinitely for sure.

Jennifer Wilson: Certainly. Carolyn, this has been so fun. Thank you for spending time with me.

Carolyn Murray: Oh, thank you so much for inviting me and having me on. It's been, uh, it's been a pleasure and really quite an honor, so thank you.

Jennifer Wilson: most welcome and to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.

Amy Zwart: [00:00:00] going back to granting that permission, I think it's true because, as women we can get caught up in, well, I already spent this much time on it, or I already spent this much money on said supplies or things. And so what would that mean if I, charted a new course and, did it a different way. Sometimes just that permission to get over ourselves and think is part of it too.

Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of the New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 332. In this episode, I'm chatting with Amy Zwart, Simple Scrapper's community manager, about what it actually takes to finish a scrapbooking project.

Amy has a front row seat to every member win that happens inside the community, and we talk about the habits, tools, and permissions that help scrapbookers close the loop on their [00:01:00] projects.

Hey Amy. Welcome back to Scrapbook Your Way.

Amy Zwart: Hi Jennifer. Great to talk to you today.

Jennifer Wilson: For those who haven't heard you before on the podcast, can you share a little bit about yourself?

Amy Zwart: Yes, I'm a Midwest girl. I'm in Minnesota, just south of the Twin Cities. Um, I live with my husband and two kids and our dog. Um, my oldest is my son who's now 18 and graduating soon. He has one quarter of high school left I realized. And my daughter is uh, right, right. And my daughter is a seventh grader and she'll be a teenager this summer. So we got, we have both of those events on the horizon here.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Big milestone year.

Amy Zwart: Right?

Jennifer Wilson: I'm curious, are you doing anything specific for your son in terms of memory keeping and this special graduation time?

Amy Zwart: Yes. So, um, well, one thing kind of on the side is I am trying to pull photos for some posters and, you know, things for [00:02:00] the graduation party. So people have been hearing me talk about that for a year. 'Cause I've tried not to procrastinate it, but there's still some things that'll be coming down to the wire, I'm sure.

But yeah, so that's been fun looking through past photos and, you know, pulling things and school photos and all of that. Um, and then I have been working on his regular school album that's a 12 by 12. Um, my daughter's is a little bit more neglected in the last couple months as I try to catch that up as far as I can.

I know it won't be done because he does have events coming up, you know, like there's big things that happen in May even. So finishing it by June is not likely. Right. Oh. Um, and then I did also start an album that I'm trying to decide, I think it's maybe more for me than him.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Amy Zwart: It's a, it's a six by eight album that I call letters to my senior. And I've just given myself permission to write a letter and [00:03:00] include it in that six by eight album with, you know, it's kind of some fun papers and real easy kit of embellishments.

Um, and then sometimes some photos too. So, for example, I wrote a letter about, you know, we went to Disney World and how we've been there a few times in the past, and I pulled some photos from when he was really little and how it was giving me how the mom feels that now I'm bringing him at, you know, this stage in age.

So it's been fun. I, like I said, I'm not sure how much he's gonna love it or want to read it. But, um, I, I called this project kind of a bookend project because when I was pregnant with each of my kids, I also wrote what I called like a dear tiny baby. When I was pregnant. And had a, you know, a book of letters. And just kind of things that were going on at the time.

And a lot of it just things that I was thinking and feeling. So I'm not a big journaler, so this is maybe my, my most feelings kind of projects that I've [00:04:00] done, so.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm sure it's a, a helpful companion for this time and, uh, you know, he'll appreciate it someday, I'm sure.

Amy Zwart: Right, right. That's what I like to think too.

Jennifer Wilson: Now, is this your favorite recent layout or project, or do you have something else that you wanna share?

Amy Zwart: Um, those are definitely what I've been working on. Um, that feel serious I would say. Or feel, you know, when you talk about some of the legacy ideas behind scrapbooking. Um, I did kind of pause and take a break from that and worked on an ornament album. And that has been actually more rewarding than I expected.

I thought it was an easy plug in the pockets, kind of, you know, put some things in order kind of thing. And it was that. It, in some ways it's an inventory project, right? And so not a lot of, you know, extra doodads or things. Um, but I really enjoyed the memories that it brought up, of, you know, these are the trips [00:05:00] we've taken. Or we have a tradition with my family about making homemade ornaments each year. And seeing those and how many we really have, you know, was surprising and kind of fun to have it all in one place.

So that album is very close to done. And I did one for us. And then I have like the kids specific album or specific ornaments in an album of their own as well. Um, so there's a few kind of sections. I'm still trying to wrap up and get the journaling cards done on. But I, I paused that again to go back to the senior, senior project.

So.

Jennifer Wilson: Those are very cool. I, yeah. I love hearing stories over the years. Like it always comes up again and again on the podcast of folks who've started that type of album and how rewarding it is and, and memorable. I, I'm curious if like, the specificity of it has helped you tap into those, those feelings that sometimes are hard to come by when it comes to your journaling.

Amy Zwart: Yes and no. I would say like there's some things that [00:06:00] are, they still feel very factual, you know, to record. You know, we got this on this trip, but I also added a few things that were like holiday decor kind of items. Um, this is where I like to expand my projects, right? Like, 'cause ornaments wasn't enough.

So, no, I laugh, but I am glad that I expanded it a little bit. So I have things like, you know, we have a, a Cookies for Santa plate that we've used, you know, since they were really little. And just, you know, I have a photo of that and just a quick note of, you know, it's been something that's been part of our Christmas since the beginning.

Um, so I, I, I do think there are some feelings that are coming out. It's not just factual, um, or, you know, I have an ornament in memory of my dad, or, you know, things like that, that some of 'em are definitely more sentimental.

Jennifer Wilson: So fun. Yeah, no, now I wanna do that, but not allowed to start any projects at least until all [00:07:00] the rest are finished. So, before we get to that topic of finishing, is there something new you're excited to do, use or try either in scrapbooking or your everyday life?

Amy Zwart: My items today are not scrapbooking related, and you may laugh, but I have some new shoes that I'm really happy if I'm a got.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, tell us about 'em. New shoes are hard.

Amy Zwart: Well, my first question is, would you call them tennis shoes, sneakers, or trainers?

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, uh, probably tennis shoes more often. Sometimes sneakers never trainers.

Amy Zwart: Okay. Okay. So I don't know if that's a Midwest thing or not, but yes, I grew up wearing tennis shoes, and that's what we call them. Um, I know that's not always the case, but yeah, I had some that clearly, like I wore out and I didn't realize I wore them out. And it was kind of a commotion, um, which made me then go through all of my [00:08:00] shoes.

And so, yeah, I got some Hokas based on what everyone said online, and you know, what everyone's wearing. And I, I also got some Nikes. So yes, get out, hopefully the weather will help me wear them more, get out walking and any kind of things were up too.

Jennifer Wilson: I love my Hokas, they're amazing. So.

Amy Zwart: Well, yeah, as soon as you talk to people, that's, you know, that's where it's at. So I'm like, all right, I trust you.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. And then you, you're gonna mention something else.

Amy Zwart: And then next month I get a new washer and dryer. So again, super exciting.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, front loading. Top loading, know, what's your preference?

Amy Zwart: Uh, we're a front loading family 'cause we have like a shelf that goes above it. Um, and I have to say, it's really just, this is a replacement product, right? But you don't know what you got till it's gone and we're having some issues. So we're trying to stay on track here.

Jennifer Wilson: I saw this gadget on YouTube recently where it's [00:09:00] kind of like, like if you un undid a hanger, but it was made of like rubber slash silicone and it was flexible. It's just basically this thing that helps you keep the door open but not totally swung open. So it can be open just enough to, to keep it dry on the inside. But not all the way and kind of in the way of things. Um, I'm, I'm sure I don't even know what it's called, but it seemed really handy.

Amy Zwart: Right.

Jennifer Wilson: I, I, I have a top loading for that particular reason, but we don't have a shelf above it, so.

Amy Zwart: Yes. Yes. Um, yeah, we've had different homemade gadgets like that in the past too. So we'll see what happens with the new one or what it needs. I've heard some of 'em have something kind of built in and I don't know that I checked that specifically on ours. So.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I would think that would be something they would start doing. So.

Amy Zwart: My first question when we were checking was I had to make sure the doors opened the right way. 'Cause I remember in the past having, you know, the dryer door had to be [00:10:00] flip flopped or something, so I was.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh.

Amy Zwart: Trying to figure that out.

Jennifer Wilson: Gotta make sure. I bet there's some that you can change and some maybe that you can't flip. So.

Amy Zwart: Right, I had to be sure.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, we had to get a new dryer recently that was not the most fun, but we're It's fine now.

Amy Zwart: Right.

Jennifer Wilson: It caused, yeah, we. Uh, how do I say this? Like it was between the dryer and the vent situation basically created a compounded issue where the vent ended up killing the dryer. And yeah, it's all very sad, but it should be good now. Now we know if things don't, don't dry very quickly, go clean the vet right away. Before it gets backed up. Um, yeah. Anyway, yes, those fun things that we just love to do, right?

Amy Zwart: So, so fun.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. So I wanted to chat a little bit about finishing today. Um, in part because we have finishing day coming up this weekend. And there there'll be more of those later this [00:11:00] year if you're not listening to this episode when it comes out. But I wanted to talk to you both as our community manager and, and what I like to call our keeper of the testimonials.

The person who keeps track of all the nice things that members say. Um, because I, you are the most in there and the most connected to what's happening day to day. And you happen to catch all these wonderful things, whether it's on a Zoom or somewhere in a chat. And sometimes I'm just totally floored by, the words that are shared.

Amy Zwart: Yes, we've had a lot of people working on things and you know, making progress, but a lot of finishing has been happening. And it's amazing to see. It really is very fun, especially if people have reported, you know, kind of along the way that, you know, okay, they're making progress, they're making progress, and then when they hit that final, this is done.

You know, it's such a celebration. The whole community comes around for it.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and really that, that reporting along [00:12:00] the way, that's, I think that's one of the tricks towards getting something done. Is if I say that I'm doing this and here it is. Somebody might check up on me. It's like, Hey, where, where are you at on that thing? Um, and so, and this, the more you do report, I think that increases your chances of finishing in the end.

Amy Zwart: Right, because, and for myself too, I'm almost using that as that's my checklist. Like, I look back at where was I at last week when I, you know, when I gave an update or things too. So sometimes it's a reality check with yourself of like, oh, I did get a lot done. I actually saw someone posted that this week.

I, I didn't think I had done much, but you know, when I looked back, now here are the things that really did happen. So it is great. So I do have some examples of some member wins that I've seen lately.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, there's been some like big and small. The one that like really stands out to me as a member who'd been like carrying around a box of [00:13:00] photos for 30 years and not doing anything with it. And then she finally was able to empty it and sort it and get them where they needed to go. And I'm like, yes.

Like, let's, let's do this.

Amy Zwart: Right, right. Yeah. 'Cause you know, the, the box of things becomes intimidating, right? Because you don't know, well, what, what is that really gonna be? Or if you don't have the plan, so it's a box of photos, but where are they going to go? Or what kind of sorting needs to happen. Or, you know, figuring out that plan is the first part of being able to get something like that done and accomplished.

Jennifer Wilson: Well sometimes like the longer you leave something, it's a box or it's something silly, like measuring something, like something that just isn't particularly fun maybe has some steps, you have to figure out how to do it. We put those things off and they become more and more intimidating and in the end they're never that bad.

Amy Zwart: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Very true. Or how you word it on your to-do list even is what I noticed. You know, [00:14:00] like sometimes it really should be just open the box. Like see what's in there, know what you're dealing with. Not take care of the box. Just first open the box.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I mean, that's a skill in itself of like being able to give yourself checklist items that are things you can do. Um, and that's taken practice for me over the years. But once you really get going, I, I definitely feel like it's easier to feel like I did something today. I maybe didn't do the whole thing, but I at least took some steps forward.

Amy Zwart: Right, right.

Jennifer Wilson: So what are some of those wins that you had noted?

Amy Zwart: Yes. Yes. So Natalie, uh, had a very successful month for LOAD. And she got a larger sized photo book done for a trip, um, in the past. So that's a, that's a very large project. That's, that's a huge win in, I don't wanna say in a small amount of time. 'Cause I think she had started it before that month, but also a month is still, you know, it's a [00:15:00] reasonable amount of time.

Jennifer Wilson: Well and the consistency of working on it every day too, right?

Amy Zwart: Right, right. That's the. That's the, I don't know, the spectacular part of that for me, as someone that doesn't do things on a daily basis like that, is like, wow, that's, that's amazing for me to see. So I loved hearing about that. And you know, she, again, because it was a daily project, was posting daily with updates and, you know, where she was at.

And, and the community rallied around that to help her, you know, continue on and to help with, you know, some proofreading and, you know, encouragement. So it's a great example.

But I also have, Bre worked on some vision boards for One Little Word. And this one sticks out because I think, you know, there was some conversation she had to have around it about how to make it work and how to make it fit in her actual project.

And, you know, if you're buying magazines and cutting things out, sometimes you wanna cut out all the things. And so she had kind of some size [00:16:00] concerns, I would say are, you know, trying to figure out with problem solving that other people helped, you know, why don't, why not make more than one? Why not take pictures and add 'em into your project so that you can make 'em whatever size you want?

And then the photo can be printed at what fits in the project.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh yeah. I love that. Sometimes like we're thinking that this is, is a certain process or this looks a certain way. But then maybe there's like five other ways you could be accomplishing the same thing. That might be more fun, more easy.

Amy Zwart: Right. and I, I just wanna point out that the size of a project, like, it doesn't matter. Like, when you're finishing something, you're finishing something. And, you know,

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Amy Zwart: Sometimes, you know, my Project Life album, you know, or month is different than someone else's anyway. So, you know, they're never apples to apples, but,

a couple other fun ones were Lorian you know, again, working on, uh, a Project Life month at a time, [00:17:00] so for February. And that's a big win because she had been away from it for a little while too. So coming back in and taking it head on, it was a good thing.

Jennifer Wilson: Well and she works primarily in traveler's notebooks.

Amy Zwart: I think so, but maybe not for Project Life.

Jennifer Wilson: Maybe she wasn't when she was reporting on this. Yeah.

Amy Zwart: I think for Project Life she has, you know, more of like a nine by 12. I'm not sure. If I know that for sure. Um, but travelers notebooks for sure, for other projects. So you're right. So that's interesting too to, you know, have the, the mix between the two sizes and getting back into something can be tricky because of that.

Jennifer Wilson: Uh, certainly. And there was one more I, sorry, I interrupted you.

Amy Zwart: No, that's all right. Um, Judy, uh, finished a layout about her dad. And I saw in the comments, you know, she thanked some people for encouraging her and helping her get it done. So in some ways that might've been from attending, you know, a crop and just being there together. [00:18:00] And in some ways that might've been, you know, asking for specific help about how to make it happen or how to make it work.

Um, that story was specifically from a Story kit idea. So, you know, sometimes those ideas can be in your head for a while when you've had the kit. And sometimes they're new and you haven't figured out how to put 'em together yet.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, sometimes you need like troubleshooting with maybe not having the, the, the right images that you would love to have. Um, or part of the story is difficult and how do you want to include that. Um, in terms of sharing that with others, uh, getting what you need from it. I mean, there's many different approaches and so it's often helpful to, to kind of get, bounce that off others.

Amy Zwart: Right, right. Yeah. And hers was a sentimental layout, so I'm sure, you know, getting those feelings down is part of that process as well. Courtney and Christine both had [00:19:00] album wins. So Courtney finished a cruise album and Christine did what she called an Alice in Wonderland album for her daughter, which sounds fun.

Um, I haven't seen any pictures yet. She said she would maybe try to have her daughter take some. But, um, that one sounds like a fun project and again, had some popups and different things that, you know, when you're doing extra, extra, extra, um, things. Sometimes it can slow you down and have you figure out how it works, like the mechanics and the logistics of it.

Jennifer Wilson: Well and because we have, you know, paper, digital, hybrid people who've done either in the past as well. There's always like something to learn, um, from others. Maybe you're trying a new technique or, yeah. There's just, there's just there's just like shared wisdom from having a of diversity of experience that we have.

Amy Zwart: Right. And I think, you know, sometimes, you know, there's a card maker in the group and they're like, well, this is how the popup works on this [00:20:00] card or on this thing, you know?

Right. So the, like you said, the diversity of experiences across is really helpful.

Jennifer Wilson: Now, I think sometimes the, it's not just about the big wins, it's about the day-to-day showing up, the consistency of creating and finishing of closing loops. That really stands out to me as well. What do you think that we do that most helps members be finishers?

Amy Zwart: We offer accountability. But we also offer planning. So I think a big thing for me is having member meetings where we're talking about our plan for the next journey, you know, the next two months. But then we're checking back in too. So a month can go by really slowly or really quickly. It depends where you're at with, you know, what else is going on.

And having that check in again I think has been really helpful to people.

Jennifer Wilson: And like [00:21:00] how, how do you see accountability coming through? I mean, not every type of personality needs accountability. Some just enjoy the comradery. But I do think there is I think there is maybe a personality type that does need others around, whether it's to say what they're gonna do, they need the bodily, the body doubling aspect of, of being on camera with someone. Um, they, yeah, they, they need something to keep them showing up. Maybe it's the date on the calendar to, to attend a crop.

Amy Zwart: Yeah, I think that's true too. That the crops provide, you know, that, that consistent date and time. But then there's also member meetings that might be that date in the future. Like, this is when I'm going to schedule this next project or this next step of this project. Um, and then along with that, I would also say just having the community there to help get you unstuck.

And so [00:22:00] sometimes that is very specific to how do I fix this thing that I can't move forward? And sometimes it's just more of a, I've been away from scrapbooking for a while, how do I reengage. Or, I left this layout, you know, in a box for, you know, six months and I'm coming back to it and now I don't like this part, or I wanna change this part, or this new piece to the story needs to be added, you know?

And so they ask other members how, how would you do this? Or what are your ideas to help me move forward? And I think that support is, I don't wanna call it underrated here because I think everyone does appreciate it. But I don't think we realize how that support really does get us to finishing. And taking that next step and completing something.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, it certainly does. One thing that's standing out to me, I'm trying to figure out how, how to, how to say this and, um, ask the question. So what [00:23:00] are some of those maybe things that you think end up needing to be troubleshooted when it comes to, to finishing? Like what are, what are those stuck points?

Amy Zwart: I think my first reaction is the, I'm stuck because I haven't been working on it for a while. So, you know, kind of revisiting the what was I trying to do here and what's changed since my last idea. So, um, you know, taking my ornament album as an example, it was gonna be three by four cards of ornaments and three by four cards of journaling about said ornament.

And I was like, well, I don't want just all ornaments all through the book. I wanna, they're kind of in categories in my mind. And so I wanna put some section dividers in and what does that look like. You know, so I put in a four by six card, but now I [00:24:00] have a a pocket page. So now I have three other four by six pockets to put that page in.

So now what do I do with those pockets? Um, I ended up adding photos that went with that section. So for example, our vacation, vacation ornaments now have, you know, a little section title that says vacation or travel. And then I have just a couple of pictures of us on said vacations, you know, so three pictures from, you know, what's more than 25 years.

So it's a way to not capture every vacation in a, in a photo of the family kind of way. 'Cause the goal is the ornaments. But it also shows like this is how long ago some of this has been from. Where, this is where we found some of these little mementos that, you know, hold the memories. Um, so I [00:25:00] think talking something like that through can be helpful to say, you know, what would, what would you put here?

Or is this a place just to have like decorative, open space in my album. Because there's not a lot of that. Every page is full. Right. And so that's the example I can think of in my own recent album. And thinking of other people asking that, you know, in a, in a different way, like, what would you put here? Or how would you document, you know, that I have three years of this, but I really only want it to be on one layout.

You know, how would you combine that? Or what, what do you wanna see across the years versus what's unique from each year? And you know, I see this like, Tiffany does a very awesome creative December Daily. And she'll, she'll say, well, I have, you know, this, this day is showing the crafts that my kids made. But I kind of wanna get all the kids on there, you [00:26:00] know, like they, each daughter is doing a different craft and doing different things.

So how would you fit that on? So it's a six by eight album, and that's where she ends up with fun ideas of little tags that come out or something flips over, you know, to show the backside is the project. You know, picture with the daughter or things like that. So it's fun to see, you know, what, what their ideas start as.

And then, you know, as they get input or talk things through, you know, how it, how it ends up in the end, how it turns out.

Jennifer Wilson: And even with your example that adding those photos of your family adds some really like meaningful context to the album. Of which otherwise could be, yes, the journaling is meaningful, but the images themselves maybe are not as like, as exciting. At one point. It's kind of like a catalog. It's really cool.

Trust. I'm not, I'm not trying to like underscore it but uh, or undersell it. But when you add personal photos [00:27:00] along with it, I think that just makes it even more of a richer story.

Amy Zwart: Right, exactly. That, you know, and I, I take no offense. Because I was calling it my inventory album for a while, right. Because I was like, it's all about, you know, organizing the dates and trying to see, you know, when did we get this one. Um, so I do think that that's a great example of like kind of lifting it up a notch. And you know, when other people reach out to ask questions like that. You know, and sometimes, sometimes the right answer is the easiest, smallest option. Or like, don't worry about that, that doesn't have to go in this album. And so members have a lot of, you know, variety of answers and opinions too. And so you, you can take all of those and then go, okay, what's right for me? Or what feels best right now?

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, so with our Before Your Story Class, I'm always recommending from the very beginning you need a piece of paper. You can put it on the back of your original worksheet and, but you have to [00:28:00] have a place to write down all the ideas that you're going to have while working on this project. You cannot put them all in the album.

It won't fit. Or you'll never finish. But I, you're gonna have all these ideas and so I keep reminding 'em 'cause it comes up again and again. Well, you know, I wanna add these five additional layouts. If you wanna add those later, great. But in order to finish the project, you need to put that aside for now and just keep a note. Um, because yeah, just like kind of having, those rails is something that, that I like to provide. Just because I know that I need them. Otherwise I won't, I won't get things done. So I'm always trying to like structure things like that from the very beginning.

Amy Zwart: Yeah, and asking someone else, you know, what would your rails be? Is a great example of this. Like, you know what, this is my goal for this project or this layout, you know? How would you keep it in check?

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. And I think you, you mentioned also like the, the having stepped away from it, like [00:29:00] reconnecting with your why. So like, you might say your goal and it, it's a, you know, a, a creative description. But really why, like, why do you care about this? Then like, what is also, what is enough? Like what is enough photos, you know, how much does this need to, to capture in order to be both meaningful and, you know, creatively enjoyable to put it together? And I think when you think about it a little more critically, you might not end up with the same project that you originally envisioned.

Amy Zwart: Right. Right. And that's, that's also the joy of the membership. You know, the community is helping you pivot when that's the appropriate move. Right. And.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah,

Amy Zwart: Yeah, taking that advice and knowing when, when it applies and when you're like, no, that I'm gonna push back on that. This really is what I want this time. So.

Jennifer Wilson: In the Finishing project classroom, I, I talk about these as like [00:30:00] course corrections. Um, but I really think we just need to use that, that friend GIF of Ross with like the pivot, screaming, pivot. And like, that should just be the, the theme of the Finishing project.

Amy Zwart: That's great.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, well, I, I'll touch more on that in a little bit. But I did have one other question about kind of how things all fit together with the way that we, we support scrapbookers with finishing. And, and you already mentioned the journey planning process, but I know this particularly helps me with this problem of, okay, I want to finish all of these things. And my list, you know, might not even be like, here's the top of mind list and then, oh, here's the other list that I have down.

Let's refer to those as well. So my list keeps getting longer. But I know I can't finish those. I have to make choices. So how do you think the planning process really like, helps, uh, members be more realistic about what they can actually [00:31:00] do?

Amy Zwart: Here you're talking to someone who usually sets a pretty unrealistic plan as my journey plan. So I feel a little bit, um, I won't say called out. But I'll say I'm, I'm maybe not the best one personally to discuss this. But overall I do think it's the idea around how much time do you really have, what else is going on?

And you know, you're helping call that out as we work through that workbook. And you're saying, you know, and, and even if that's specifically about Finishing day, you know, how many hours do you really have? What, what's your dedication level? You know, what's your energy and effort, you're willing to do this Saturday or whatever.

Um, and I think those are good questions to answer, right? Like, we can push back on our own selves with that and say, you know, if, if we [00:32:00] have dinner plans at seven, that doesn't really mean I get to scrapbook right up until seven. I have to stop and clean up a little bit and get ready for dinner and, you know, all the things, or we have to drive there, or whatever.

So, like, just really making us think about that. Is, I think where, you know, you really provide some success in, you know, the planning ahead. Um, the other thing that you talk about a lot is, you know, make your list and cut it in half. And, you know, be happy with getting half of that done. Um, or let's see, I'm probably not gonna have the right words, how you word it.

Again, in the workbook, having, you know, your, your first goal, but then what's your, what's your above and beyond goal? So I know you have a better word for it than I don't have it on the tip of my tongue right now.

Jennifer Wilson: So, uh, my, my friend Jill Allison Bryan, who's also been on the podcast, she uses these [00:33:00] terms certain, possible and audacious. And she encourages her clients to, to think about their objectives from, from that perspective. So that you're always thinking about what's possible, but then you're also trying to stay grounded at the same time.

Amy Zwart: Right, right. So that's, that's exactly it. Having an audacious goal, you know, I then I feel better that I can still write it down, even though I might not be getting to it. Right.

Jennifer Wilson: It's helpful to know where you're headed. Like even if that.

Amy Zwart: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Audacious is gonna take, like, it doesn't mean it's not possible. It just means it might take time, it might take planning. Um, but if that's where you want to head, you need to then construct your plan around that. Um, otherwise it, it never even becomes possible if you don't have a direction.

Amy Zwart: Right, right. And you know, things happen in the day and you know, sometimes something gets canceled and it opens up. So then instead of panicking and saying, well, what am I gonna do with that time? Or [00:34:00] kinda withering it away, then now you have that written down as, oh, look at what might happen today now, because you know, these other things have changed. So I do really like that approach.

Jennifer Wilson: I think there's also the opposite case of, today I was, Emily has a club after school, and so I was gonna pick her up at five instead of, you know, 3, 3 15. And now we're expecting a hailstorm. So I'm probably gonna pick her up at three 15. So I'm not driving around in a hailstorm at five o'clock. Um, but that means that the things I had planned from 3:15 to five, uh, which might've been fun things, are, are not gonna get done. And that's okay. But there, there's like that, that well could happen just as easily. So.

Amy Zwart: Right, right. Yeah. There's, yeah, the weather. Weather is definitely still a factor in so many things too. Oh, what a bummer.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and yeah, who knows? They might change the forecast a million times between now and then. I'm gonna check like an hour before and figure it [00:35:00] out. But, you know, um, that's part of why having that 50% goal might mean that you could still get something done, even if you end up interrupted in ways you didn't anticipate.

Amy Zwart: Right, exactly.

Jennifer Wilson: So, so talking specifically about Finishing Day, like, how would you describe that from your perspective? You know, having been first a member and, and also also as our community manager.

Amy Zwart: Um, I still put it as one of my very most favorite events.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice.

Amy Zwart: There's something really special. Yes. There's just something really special about coming together, knowing you have a plan. Um, seeing everyone, you know, on the Zoom, that's usually how I do it. You don't have to be connected. Um, and just seeing the replies come in, you know, the updates of what people have been working on.

So I think it's fun to always kind of know what, what's happening out there, but also, you know, what's getting done. So. I think [00:36:00] this the social side, like it's actually honestly kind of a quiet crop generally. Um, if people have been on a long time, sometimes there'll be little breaks of, you know, discussion or again, if someone has, you know, a question to ask or a way to get unstuck that they wanna talk about, um, that's always welcome.

But it is generally a quieter crop. And anyone that's been my crops, that's usually not the case for me. So I do always have to adjust a little bit in my thinking of that. But overall, it makes it productive. And I'm able to do some of that heads down work on a Finishing Day. So again, I appreciate kind of having that on the schedule and knowing, you know, that that could be it a good day to finish the journaling on those layouts that are almost done,

just need the journaling. Or to think through the planning of, you know, the new project or the next step in this project. So. I've really enjoyed it as [00:37:00] like, I mean, I guess even a borrow from our latest book, club book, it's like immersive time that you're able to, to spend and know other people are getting things done as well.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, it's just that additional layer of accountability beyond just a regular crop. Or it, it's not just coming to your table to scrapbook as like a regular thing. It's, I have an objective here, whether your finishing goal is very small, like clean off your desk, to empty your space. I mean, it could be any there anything in between. But whatever it is, you have a clear thing that you wanna get done. You try to be realistic about it. Maybe, uh, have the, as again, have those audacious goals as well. Um, then you have a kind of that time buffer around it too, of this is when we're, you know, inviting you to do it. And we have so many members that end up saying, okay, I can't do it on this day, but I'm gonna do it on Friday.

I'm gonna do it on Sunday or the Monday after. They [00:38:00] choose an alternate day. Uh, because having that label means something.

Amy Zwart: Right. Yeah. And some people extend it and they make it finishing weekend, and I think that's awesome too. You know, then your, your list can be a little bit longer and you know, you have more time dedicated towards it. And I, I should also point out that the Plan, Prep, and Pep Day that comes before Finishing Day is equally, I don't know what to say, exciting or appreciated by me. Because there really is something about knowing how you're gonna start that day and having some of your supplies out or,

you know, having looked in that box that you were gonna handle. Or, you know, whatever your task for the day is, you've, you've gotten a jumpstart on it. And you've started to think about it. So, you know, in the past it's kind of worked that, that day is on a Wednesday or a Thursday before the Saturday of Finishing Day. And it gives you a few more [00:39:00] days to just think about what's coming up.

Jennifer Wilson: And I, I like to talk about it as not being surprised. Because I know I've said I'm gonna do something on this day, and this happens a lot like with house projects. Okay, this is the day we're gonna do this, and then you open the door or the box and you're like, oh. And it's not exactly what you expected. It could be better, it could be worse. But by having that Plan, Prep, and Pep You know what to expect. You've gotten past the element of surprise and can then be even more, uh, realistic and strategic about actually making progress. Um, because you can gather items, you can adjust your plans, you can, you know, uh, really figure it out with facts in front of you.

Amy Zwart: Right, right. And that, again, going back to the pivot term, that gives you a chance to pivot projects. If you actually don't have the photos in hand or you know, don't have the printer ink or you [00:40:00] know, if something is missing. Well now you don't have to waste your whole, you know, Finishing Day because you were unprepared.

Now you have time to pivot and get a new project or go, you know, do that errand to get the printer ink or you know, whatever the case may be.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I mean, with a Wednesday Plan, Prep, and Pep, that's enough time for Amazon to deliver your ink if you need it to. So.

Amy Zwart: If there's no hailstorms or blizzards.

Jennifer Wilson: No, very true, very true. One other thing that stands out how the habits and routines that we lean on, like the rest of the month. The rest of the creative journey, how those support finishing. And I think, you know, staying connected to your photo management, staying connected to your stash, like I think all the things we do add up to make Finishing Day something that is even more fruitful than it could be if it was in isolation.

Amy Zwart: True. Yes. Um, [00:41:00] I know like I order my photos so I know if I if I haven't done photo management as far as, you know, the ordering of the photos for a while. Then I get a little twingy like, uhoh, where am I at? You know, I have to look back. But if I've stayed on task with that, then that's not a question. That's not part of the equation when I'm going into Finishing Day or, you know, the next part of that project.

And so I think that's key. But also, if I have been to crops that week, I already am on my way of, you know, doing the next step and I know where I left it. So it ties in with all the fun things, right, of like attending crops and leaving yourself breadcrumbs. And, you know, knowing where you're at. That's so much easier when it's, you know, a daily or weekly process than when once a month you're coming in or you know, even longer.

It's always harder to reconnect when it's been when you've been away for a little bit.

Jennifer Wilson: [00:42:00] And those, just the, the little bits of connections. Sometimes you might not think the 5, 10, 15 minutes is valuable. But it, it usually has more of an impact than you think it might. Whether it's like delete, you know, the daily delete before bed or, you know, you can only come to 30 minutes of a one hour crop in the morning, but you do it anyway before you have to head off to a meeting or, or whatever your responsibilities are. Making those like small commitments to yourself add up to something much bigger.

Amy Zwart: Yes, for sure. So showing up, you know, in those ways, or even just looking at your list of what's next and kind of keeping it top of mind so that you know. You know, here's what I can do in that 30 minutes. Yeah. So you don't sit there for the first 20 minutes figuring out what you should be doing.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, that's one of the reasons why I often create kits. 'Cause if I have everything for a layout on my desk and it's just one layout, and I [00:43:00] have photos and a sketch, and I have products, I know where I'm headed. Like it's almost an inevitability that that page will get done. Because it is, I feel like it's almost 90% there when you've done that much planning for it. And so that, that, that's what helps me keep it top of mind. Now, if I had five of those on my desk, I wouldn't, I couldn't do it because I didn't have to make a choice. But just having the one is really, really helpful.

Amy Zwart: Yeah, that's a great example.

Jennifer Wilson: Now I mentioned the Finishing Project earlier, and this is a class that's more than a decade old now. Um, it was originally taught many times as a four week class to finish a specific project. Usually something a little bit on the bigger side. And then also think about what can make you a better finisher. And every year I think, oh gosh, I should update this. And, and this will sound arrogant and it sounds arrogant to even think it to me. But I review it and I'm like, I'm not sure what I would change, because I think it's really good. I think it's very, it's a [00:44:00] very helpful, thoughtful, straightforward process of figuring out

like, where do you get stuck? Why do you think that is? In trying to troubleshoot it to figure out, is it, you know, because this format. Uh, doesn't, or this size doesn't work for you? Is it because you weren't ready with your photos? Um, and yeah, we're doing that ad hoc all the time for Finishing Day and in the community. But this is definitely like a, know, a very focused, concentrated effort around becoming a finisher. Is there anything from the Finishing Project that stands out to you that you think it's, it's good with helping with or, or other things that members have said about it?

Amy Zwart: I think you nailed it with the focus. So I think there's lots of reasons why projects can end up unfinished. And I love, I love the content in the Finishing Project. For figuring out, you know, was there, was there a mistake made along the way of thinking, you know, it could go this way or that I had more time [00:45:00] or different things.

So it lets you explore different options. But the, the other half to the Finishing Project, I think is just as important and it's, it's giving you the focus to say, this is what I'm gonna work on and I'm gonna be consistent and I'm gonna report back. And I'm gonna be heads down on this. Because sometimes the answer is just always, I just need to do it.

Like there are no stumbling blocks other than the dedicated time to do it. So seeing others do that has been great. Um, Shannon recently has been going through it and she does add in little updates, so I should back up and clarify the Finishing Project, we sometimes run as like a community. And you know, like a CoLab where everyone's doing it together. But the materials are there for anyone to do any time.

So Shannon has been going through and doing it, and I believe she's working on like annual [00:46:00] albums that she does in photo books. And so she's running into some of the problems. Yes. Like, you know, where are these photos or this, this year is missing, you know, certain event photos that I need to track down.

Um, unfortunately she also ran into a, the photo book size constraint. And had to kind of back out some layouts and do some things right? So there, there are still issues and, you know, problem solving to happen. But the real win for her has been the dedication to that project and really saying, Hey, I can do this.

And it's, it's just, it's like having someone along your side, you know, or something like that, this encouraging little voice to say, keep going and, you know, so that the dedication and the time I think is just as important as the content of figuring out if you, you know, need to course correct or, you know, if [00:47:00] you've looked into other options for how to do this project.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. One. One aspect related to that course correction that stood out to me as well was. The permission to pivot. That, that it's okay if maybe your original plan, isn't gonna work out. Um, maybe even your whole project isn't gonna look like that way you started it. In the end, the meaning will still be there regardless of how you finish it.

Um, and like sometimes having that permission to make the change is what someone needs. Because otherwise they just feel stuck because like, I can't, I can't do it this way. Like, it's too time consuming. Uh, it's, there's way too many pages. It's not gonna fit in the photo book software. Um, or it would have to be multiple books, which is, I mean, photo books these days are very cost prohibitive, so let alone multiple books is, is even more challenging.

So, um, I think that's just another layer of, of what makes it helpful.

Amy Zwart: [00:48:00] You are right, the permission that, you know, as adult women, we shouldn't need to hear someone else say. But boy, does it feel good when someone else could say, oh, you can change that. You don't have to do it the same way you first envisioned. You know, it's, it's definitely valuable.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, there's that, like, you know, uh, I don't know, sexist old adage of, you know, it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind. And I'm like, do you know how stubborn women are at not changing their mind and sticking to it and saying, no, this is how I'm going to do it.

Amy Zwart: Very true.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm saying that for myself that that is something that, uh, can be difficult.

Amy Zwart: Yes. Yes. Well, and, and again, using my ornament, uh, album as an example, I started that project a long, long time ago. And I don't think I recognized fully that that was a sticking point to me. That I didn't like how it was going, or I, [00:49:00] you know, didn't give myself permission to pivot until other members did one.

You know, and I, I started to pull the things I liked best, you know, from each of their versions that would work for me. Like, so this still matches my end goal, or, you know, and I even struggled. So I found the original album that I had started with, it was a different size. It had not a lot done in it, but it had some,

some photos printed. So then it felt wasteful. What if I don't use those. And I can't tell you how good it felt just to throw some of those photos away and be like, who cares? It doesn't matter. It's not done. It's not doing any good sitting in this box either. So let's clean that out. And then I actually thought I was gonna get rid of all of the pages that I had started too, and I ended up revamping 'em and using 'em as some of those divider section divider cards or things.

So yeah, so I felt [00:50:00] great about it. You know, in the end I also was able to repurpose that album for something else. And so, you know, in the end, that's probably one of my most recent and probably biggest, you know, major pivots on a project. But I don't think I realized that I was stuck on it as much. I think I thought it just wasn't a priority. And that, that maybe was the case too, that it kind of got tucked away. Um, another great thing is photography of like taking ornament photos. Like I had a lot of photos in the early years 'cause I wanted to do this project. But when I looked back I'm like, oh, they're so blurry, or they're not crisp.

And now like the iPhone portrait setting, you know, while it dangles on my tree is like, this is amazing. Right. So, so that I'm happy about too. Yeah. So on one hand it's kind of funny to see like a really old ornament look like a really crisp new photo. [00:51:00] Right. You know.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Amy Zwart: And then I did save a lot of the old photos just because then it kind of was a timestamp too for me to, to know, well we had that at least in 2004 or whatever.

So.

Jennifer Wilson: That's fun.

Amy Zwart: But going back to, you know, granting that permission, I, I think it's true because, you know, as women we can get caught up in, well, I already spent this much time on it, or I already spent this much money on, you know, said supplies or things. And so what would that mean if I, you know, charted a new course and, you know, did it a different way.

And sometimes just that permission to get over ourselves and think is part of it too. Like

Jennifer Wilson: We're great at adding guilt on top of guilt. So.

Amy Zwart: Right.

Jennifer Wilson: Little guilt ice cream sundae there for us. Um, we know how to pile it on and yeah, it's, it's, it can be challenging to tease that apart and [00:52:00] tell yourself that it's okay. And, you know, you'll, we're all learning from it. Um, and every time that we do make that change, it's gonna impact the next project that we start. So that we can be more realistic, be more understanding of our own limitations of, you know, what creative processes are exciting and fun for us.

Which ones maybe good for others, but not for us that we can admire without having FOMO about. that can be a challenge for sure.

Amy Zwart: Right.

Jennifer Wilson: Is there anything else that you wanted to highlight from our community that you've noticed over the years? Um, I, I feel like we've talked a lot about this, that it's been so helpful to just, to be able to share, to ask for questions, to say, okay, how do I, how would you do this? Even sometimes, you know, I'll be teaching on a Zoom and I'm doing something live and I'm like, okay, I can't figure out which, which pattern paper direction to go here.

And then I'll get six different reasons from six different members about why I should choose one [00:53:00] or the other. And that helps me figure out what's important to me and, and to make those decisions. Um, I love, yeah, I love just hearing the different perspectives and sometimes it makes me think about things in a, in a whole new way.

Amy Zwart: Right. And an example that I was thinking of as this, you know, this idea of talking it through was, you know, you recently did your December Daily decision of, I don't wanna do a whole project. I just wanna try it as still a large and complicated layout, but trying to put it all together in one kind of story in place. Instead of how I've done it in the past.

And your example with that also, like the permission was also there, not just to pivot now, but to pivot again if you didn't like it. And I think that was really key. Like, you know, here's my plan going forward, if this doesn't work or I don't like it. So I don't know if you have anything to add with how that's been now kind of [00:54:00] on closer to the backside of that experience.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I can say that I'm almost done. We are here at the end of March. And if it all goes to plan, I should have everything like photographed in a blog post written, uh, and queued up for the week after this podcast goes live. Right now. That's what's on the calendar because I wanna share like, the whole process of how this came together and, and what I think about it.

And I will say it was both easier and harder than doing an album. Um, and, and just for those, I, I've mentioned this a couple times, but what I did is I have a, it's a two page spread and there's 25 little pockets, envelopes, bundles, flip ups, all kind of all different types, kind of all designed differently. And they all have photos or journaling or both. I guess they all have journaling and some of them also have photos. It's all printed [00:55:00] very tiny. And future me is going to really be mad that I printed it so small. But I did learn a lot from it and I, I do feel like I'm, I am feeling done, at least for now with doing a big album. I don't feel like our, our December season as full in, in the holiday way as it used to be.

We're kind of just because Emily's getting older and she's more interested in doing things with her own friends during the holiday season when she has a break. When she's not playing volleyball and not in school, she wants to go to hang out with friends and, I don't know, play video games and do whatever they do. So it's just different and that's okay.

Amy Zwart: Right.

Jennifer Wilson: The stories and the photos that I have are also different. And so I do think that some sort of layout, is something that I wanna try again. So that's where I'll leave it for now. Hopefully. Next

Amy Zwart: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Next week there will be a blog post and I will, [00:56:00] we'll share more about all of my, my observations.

Amy Zwart: That's awesome. We have, we have that to look forward to. And, and again, I, I just appreciate, you know, that you shared the experience along the way and the decision making and like I said, kind of the, the backend what ifs. You know, and options for the future too. So, and I, I think it's also a, a key part in this community is recognizing when kinda life has changed.

Like you said, Emily's doing different things, but it doesn't mean you don't have, you know, it doesn't mean there's zero stories that you wanna capture, but how, how's the best way to capture that or where. You know, and what does that look like now? So I think those are great, you know, thought provoking questions to ask ourselves too.

Like, what, what does this mean? I have a similar example, um, for a Week In The Life. People were first talking about, you know, is Ali gonna do Week In [00:57:00] The Life this year? And what, you know, so I wanna say back more in January when people were trying to figure out, you know, when would it be and what's going on?

So I started commenting that I think I really still wanna do it, but it's gonna be a busy time of year. And, and it has been with regular school things, but the senior year graduation stuff on top of it felt like a lot, right? And kind of had me going, oh, is this the right choice? So Peggy actually was the one that first said to me, what if you moved it?

What if you captured a different time of year, you know, from the community, but also different than what I had been doing in the past? And I was like, oh, there's options. Wait a minute. And, um, I sat with that for quite a while and I, I think it was tied in with me building my original, you know, journey plan [00:58:00] and kinda looking at across the year or two, kinda an annual plan.

So I definitely sat with that for a while and I kept coming back to, um, but things will be different later in the year. And then I will no longer be capturing what I want to capture. So those changes would be captured next year, right? If I did it again. But what about, you know, what's happening right now. And so the, the kind of compromise that I came to is that I still do want to document it and kinda keep it at the same time.

So I've, I think I've always done mine in April or May. And, you know, it's tied in with like, there's also like naturey outdoors, you know, we get our light back, we get some flowers and green trees and you know, things. So it's been kind of a fun season to document too, in that way. So I think my [00:59:00] plan right now is to document it, but then maybe not do the album until the fall. Because then I will be through all the graduation stuff and, and I'll probably still be working on the school album, don't mind me. But, you know, it can be a, a project on the side later in the year. Instead of trying to say, okay, now I gotta get through all the photos and I have to do, you know, I just wanna document it,

first. And give myself permission to just have that be enough at first. But I, I will say that it wasn't an option I had given myself. And then, you know, Peggy's question really had me like, well, I don't know. And, you know, I had to think that through for quite a while. And, and I appreciate that, you know, like giving me pushback on my, this is how I always do it, kind of mantra.

So.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, and I think doing it in the fall will give you different perspective to share than you would normally in the album. Because it's not so in the moment. You're gonna be [01:00:00] looking back from a different place and maybe even starting to make some of those comparisons of what life is like now in, you know, September, 2026 versus May, 2026. And it might look a little different.

Amy Zwart: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, so I think that'll be really, really interesting.

Amy Zwart: Yeah, that's a good point that, you know, I, I try to capture the journaling in the moment, but that's happened in some other albums when I've, you know, when there's been an extension on actually getting it done. That then you do have that opportunity to add more detail from later kind of a thing. So yeah, I like that reminder too.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think I've had projects where I had journaling from the time, and I added journaling later. And I just, I literally labeled them that way. Like, you know, by, by the date. Or even just by the year. Like, you know, recorded in 2018 versus recorded in 2026. Just so that it's clear to the reader's perspective, but it's valuable to include both. Because then I'll read [01:01:00] the things that I wrote a long time ago and I'm like, well, that's not really how I would say it now, but that is how I said it then.

So what is the real one? They're both real. I mean, it's, yeah, that's an interesting conundrum, but I think there's lots of solutions.

Amy Zwart: Right, right.

One other example from the community that I've seen recently about talking about the start of a project and you know, what it looks like. And that, that is like around school albums. Like what would you include for your kid's school album? And what's interesting is sometimes it's because my child starts kindergarten next week and sometimes it's because I have a graduate, you know, so I'm going retro and both are fine.

You know, I make no judgment on which approach. But I think the answers kind of come out differently then based on, you know, what the scenario is and you know, what is your end goal and is it, one album summary [01:02:00] of things. Or, you know, in my case, each of my kids will have multiple albums, and I'm okay with that.

You know, I've done it along the way. So I think it's, you know, it's just another topic of like, this is a big project, but does it have to be a big project? Do I want it to be a big project? What, what are the rails? Again, going back to your question earlier or your comment about, you know, establishing rails. Is people are asking the right questions so that they can establish their own rails.

You know, it's, it's Scrapbook Your Way and it's finest of, you know, you don't have to do it how everyone else has done it, but what do you want it to look like? And then, you know, if you want that included, then now, yes, you do have to save that, you know, worksheet one once a year. Or, you know, capture their, their printed name or, you know, different things.

So having that foresight to, you know, look at what you wanna save or what you wanna capture, I think helps people when [01:03:00] setting that up too.

Jennifer Wilson: And, and also even finding the, the surrogates for that. You know, I had grand plans of doing like the worksheet or a currently list every year. And I think I have some notes somewhere for like a couple years. But now I'm gonna have to go back through my photos and really all I want to include is like, what was she into every year?

Like, what was she, you know, watching, reading? What was she playing with? Um, and I think I'll be able to get that from context clues from the photos. And also just like chatting and having memories and sharing photos and, and kind of coming up with maybe some missing pieces. Um. because not everyone is perfectly organized and going to remember to do that. Like some folks have maybe a tickler file that has a reminder to do that every May or whatever. Um, I'm not that person. have to have reminders to like take my medicine every day. So thinking about May is not really on my agenda, but I do take photos and [01:04:00] I, I love going back and kind of looking for those clues in them that can help me put together the journaling as well.

Amy Zwart: Right. And that's again, another great example of doing it in the moment versus doing it later. You know what, like I, I have, I think it's uh, you know, on his first grade pages or kindergarten, it's like this tiny little photo that says he played soccer and then as a senior he finished playing soccer, right? Like, I didn't know that back then. So it's this tiny little photo. It's like, I don't know where this is gonna go. Right?

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Amy Zwart: So, you know, that that'd be the equivalent of, you know, Emily with her first volleyball out there, and it's like, I don't know what's gonna happen. And now you're like, okay, volleyball 24 7. Right.

Jennifer Wilson: When you start, even like having these conversations has helped me start creating little folders of I might want to use altogether later. Whether it's for something like a graduation or even [01:05:00] like, okay, here's a picture of every one of her volleyball teams from when she was like 10 years old. And then like, oh yeah, like we were in a tournament in Milwaukee and I recognized this kid and mom from a different team I mind you and one that's even like two hours away from us. Oh, no. She was on her team when she was 11, so. We were in Milwaukee. So it just, those little things. But because I had those photos, I can pull it up and be like, oh yeah, that kid looks like that kid. Even, you know, a little bit different 'cause they're five years older. And, uh, I went up and talked to the mom, which having the data empowered this introvert to do. And yeah, it ended up like it's a whole thing now and I have my little folder of here's all the team photos so that I can have that as, as a reference and for this, you know, eventual layout that I'll make.

Amy Zwart: That's awesome. Yeah, that is a great, great example.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, Well, I hope this has been helpful [01:06:00] to all of our listeners, whether it's ideas for your own projects, permission to, to make that change or, or also the invitation to, to come join us in, you know, the coolest place to hang out for Scrapbookers on the internet. So.

Amy Zwart: Simple Scrapper where it's at,

Jennifer Wilson: No doubt. Yes. Yes. Amy, can you share where our listeners can find you online? Are you on social media?

Amy Zwart: I'm not, so you have to find me in the community. And you can look for me in the crop room as well. We have a couple different times I'm usually there, but I do try to attend our events as much as possible as well.

Jennifer Wilson: You have to have exclusive access to get, to get ahold of Amy. So, uh, if that's another incentive to come join us, definitely a, a wonderful asset to our community. I always, I always appreciate everything that you do.

Amy Zwart: Thank you. I love being here, so it makes it easy.

Jennifer Wilson: And thanks for, uh, spending time with me on the podcast. I appreciate this is not quite super last minute, but you know, [01:07:00] relatively last minute recording and I appreciate you, uh, hanging out and chatting.

Amy Zwart: No problem. And I wish you the best with your predicted hailstorm today.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. Hopefully it will all go well. We are blue sky and sunshine right now, but we'll see what.

Amy Zwart: Oh, good.

Jennifer Wilson: Happens in the next few hours. But I don't like the idea of baseball size hail, other than the fact of maybe we'll get some new siding out of it. But it doesn't sound like a fun project, so.

Amy Zwart: No, I do not wish that on you.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. All right. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I'll talk to you again soon.

Amy Zwart: Sounds great. Thank you, Jennifer.

Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.

Kim Chaffin: [00:00:00] I think of all the different ways that people tell their stories, like through music or art or whatever. And think that it's a very important thing to document what it is to be alive as a human. And I think that that's the reason that I don't get tired of scrapbooking.

Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 331. In this episode, I'm interviewing Kim Chaffin for the My Way series. My Way is all about celebrating the unique ways memory keepers get things done.

We're excited to have Kim as the April featured artist at Simple Scrapper.

Hey Kim, welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Kim Chaffin: Hi.

Jennifer Wilson: I am looking forward to our conversation today. Can you start by sharing a little bit about yourself?

Kim Chaffin: Yeah, sure. Um, [00:01:00] my name's Kim Chaffin and I live in northeast Tennessee. I'm married, uh, my husband and I have four grown children. We have one grandchild and a beagle and a cat. And we live in a 100-year-old farmhouse, sort of out in the country.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, very fun. Very cool. We just stayed at this very, very old Victorian house, um, in, in Iowa, on the river. And we decided that we couldn't, we probably don't ever wanna live in a really old house. 'Cause literally everything creaked, every step, everything you do, it creaks.

Kim Chaffin: It does. It does. It's very drafty, but it was always my dream to live in an old house.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah, it's beautiful. I'm sure. So I always like to ask our guests a couple icebreaker questions. So do you have a favorite recent layout or project, and why do you like it?

Kim Chaffin: Well, okay, so we lately, uh, in this area, we don't get much snow anymore. And my kids did get a lot of snow when they were [00:02:00] younger, but it, it makes me kind of sad that my granddaughter doesn't get to see as much snow. But we have been having a little bit of a snowy winter and so I'm really enjoying using some of those like, wintery products that I don't get to to play with very much. So, a recent favorite. Um, my kids each have sent me, they're grown, so they don't all live with me anymore. But they each sent a picture of themselves in the snow. When we, we did have a snowy winter and one of the big storms, they sent me a picture.

And so I did this layout, uh, that featured those pictures and it kind of had some like, um, I don't know, I guess words of advice to them about, you know, enjoying the magic of life and the moment slowing down and the way snow kind of makes you do that. And so that's, that's one of my favorites lately.

Jennifer Wilson: That's really cool. I love that story and I love how you invited your family to participate by taking photos from where they were.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah. I like to do that because they're not, I can't be the one, you know, taking all the pictures [00:03:00] anymore. So I love it that they share with me.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah, it's lovely. So is there something that you're excited to do, use or try so something new inside of scrapbooking or in your everyday life?

Kim Chaffin: Yeah. Yeah, scrapbooking wise, I've been kind of collecting more stamps lately. I'm, I'm kind of perfectionist, and so I've kind of gravitated toward digital things. Because I can control it a little more. And stamping to me is, I don't know, it's a little imprecise and messy. But I've been having a little fun with like, just trying to lean into that and not be so perfectionist. So I've been collecting some stamps lately, and I hope to, to play with those more in the future.

Jennifer Wilson: It's very cool. Yeah, I hear that a lot. 'Cause there's, they're so beautiful and I think, I feel like stamp sets are getting bigger and bigger too. Now we have the six by eight ones and so we just, that's just that many more stamps that we have to play with and yeah, I can't wait to see what you do.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah. It's really fun, I think. But yeah, I just have to learn not to be so, you know, so control oriented. If it gets a little messy, it's okay.

Jennifer Wilson: I [00:04:00] totally get that for sure. So this is our My Way episode because you're one of our featured artists this year at Simple Scrapper. Um, what would you say to a non scrapbooker about why you love this hobby?

Kim Chaffin: Well, yeah, I've been scrapbooking a really long time, so it's something that I really do love a lot. And I'd say probably at first it was just a creative outlet for me. But I think now that I've had a lot of years to think about that and why I do keep coming back to it is, um, the storytelling aspect of it. Um, I, I think that's really important. I live in Jonesboro, Tennessee, which, it's a really small town, and if you, if anybody has heard of it, it's probably because you, it's known as the international storytelling capital of the world.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh wow.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah, even though it's a really small town, we have a festival every year where it draws more than 10,000 people that that come and they listen to [00:05:00] just oral storytelling. I just, for me, I think that's what scrapbooking is. I mean, I think of all the different ways that people tell their stories, like through music or art or, or whatever. And think that it's a very important thing to document what it is to be alive as a human. And I think that that's the reason that I don't get tired of scrapbooking. And go on to some, you know, there's a lot of creative outlets.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, for sure.

Kim Chaffin: But for me its the storytelling, I think.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you do any storytelling that's outside of scrapbooking?

Kim Chaffin: Not, not like officially like.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Kim Chaffin: Storytellers do in the, in the festival, but I kind of think we all do in the ways.

Jennifer Wilson: Certainly,

Kim Chaffin: That we share our, I I don't know, like, you know, anytime you get up in front of a group and talk about your life to people. That's sort of storytelling. And then just the things that you choose to share. I don't know. I think we all do it in various ways if you pay attention, but not professionally. No.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh yeah. The paying [00:06:00] attention part, that's, that's so important. And the more that you kind of embrace the different identities that we have. Like whether it's being creative or being a memory keeper, being, you know, a family legacy keeper. What, whatever it is that you feel in your connection is to this hobby.

When you embrace that, the more that it just, I don't know, permeates your life, I guess.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So tell us about how you got started scrapbooking.

Kim Chaffin: So, um, I was invited to a Home Creative Memories party, uh, by a friend, like, I don't know, 28 years ago, I think. And I had no idea what it was. She told me to bring photos along and that's all I knew. And that was, that was it. I was just kind of immediately hooked. Because, well, she knew that I, that I took a lot of pictures of my kids and my family. And I also kept a journal at the time, so it was just, I don't know, it was kind of a perfect fit for the things that I loved already.

Jennifer Wilson: And where were you in your [00:07:00] like life stage in terms of your kids and and your marriage and that at 28 years ago?

Kim Chaffin: Gosh. Yeah, I was, I was young. Uh, yeah. My, my, my kids were young. I was very busy. I really barely had time to scrapbook back then. All my kids hadn't been born yet. They, some of them came later. So yeah, I was just in the middle of young parenthood.

Jennifer Wilson: How has your scrapbooking changed since that time? Are you still scrapbooking exactly the same way as you did 28 years ago?

Kim Chaffin: No, no, no. Yeah, no. Back then it was like cut the photos into stop sign shapes, and I don't know if you've been with it long enough to remember all of that or not.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I started with a Coluzzle cutting photos into circles. So not quite.

Kim Chaffin: I remember that.

Jennifer Wilson: More, let's see, like 21 years I think was my first layout. So

Kim Chaffin: You're, close to close.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Kim Chaffin: Uh, yeah. No, it's, it's style has changed a lot. My love of it hasn't changed, but yeah, [00:08:00] I'd say I'm a lot more like simplistic.

Jennifer Wilson: Uhhuh.

Kim Chaffin: And clean in my style. Then I was like, you know, cut out the photo into a shape, write some things on the page and slap some Mrs. Grossman stickers on it, and that was it.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes.

Kim Chaffin: But It's evolved a lot since then.

Jennifer Wilson: So tell us about the sizes and formats you're typically working in these days.

Kim Chaffin: So yeah, um, I mixed it up a little bit. But over the years with, with Creative Memories, I started with 12 by 12. And that's probably kind of been my go-to over the years. But, um, not all, you know, I, I do mix it up this year. I'm working nine by 12 just because I think sometimes it helps spark creativity to change up the size a little bit.

Um, within each album though, I usually will insert smaller pages occasionally too. So it's kind of a mix. But I do usually keep it pretty big. I kind of need a, I don't know, I feel like I need a lot of real estate to work with, so, so [00:09:00] yeah, I gravitate toward the bigger sizes.

Jennifer Wilson: Now you, you do a lot of hybrid work, right?

Kim Chaffin: I do. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: How has incorporating more of that impacted the size or not at all? Like do you, do you do more like six by eight or the 10 by eight, that type of size? Um, because you're doing more of the hybrid things or.

Kim Chaffin: I don't, I don't know if that really makes, I have a large format printer, so it doesn't, I don't know that that really makes a difference. So I just, yeah, do whatever size I want to. But kinda like the bigger, because it gives me more room to put a lot on the page.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. And has switching to nine by 12 like is the rectangular canvas. How does that, how does that work with your brain versus the square? Has it been a challenge or.

Kim Chaffin: I. No, I think I liked the change because I think I always did find the six to six by eight appealing.

Jennifer Wilson: Uh,

Kim Chaffin: But it was kind of too small. for me. Like I felt like I couldn't squeeze everything in. And like I do have the focus [00:10:00] on storytelling, so I usually have a lot of words. So the nine by 12 is the same, you know, ratio as the six by eight. So I think I enjoy that, that change. Um, since I've done some, I did 12 by 12 for a lot of years.

Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Nice. So, what kind of projects or recurring activities or one-time activities, uh, will be part of your repertoire on your plate this year? Or are you just making one layout at a time about your stories?

Kim Chaffin: Yeah, I, I've been doing more story. But last year I kind of did the week to week Project Life and. So that's another change I made this year is to get a little back into more story focused. So I'm not doing the week to week anymore, and I'm enjoying that change also. Um, I'm still trying to finish up my December Daily album, so I'm a little, I don't know.

I'm trying not to see it as behind. I'm just, it'll get done when it gets done. But yeah, I'm, I'm doing story focus pages. And then something I'd like to get into before the year's up. I have a lot of, of, um, like heritage type [00:11:00] things.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm.

Kim Chaffin: Old family pictures from my grandparents and my parents. And their stories before I was born.

I've interviewed some family members and I've done some like research tracing genealogy. So I'd really like to get into getting some more of that into albums too this year.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. I think that's like a, a back burner project or maybe even front burner for a lot of people. But I know it's one of mine too. Like I have boxes and boxes of things that I'd like to tackle.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah. I think I'm intimidated.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Kim Chaffin: I'm afraid I won't do it justice. It feels more precious somehow than, than just the everyday stuff that I'm doing for myself.

Jennifer Wilson: Totally. I see that a lot. How do you store your layouts? Do you store use categories chronologically as you make them? What does that look like?

Kim Chaffin: Roughly chronologically, it's kind of a mess really. So I don't keep up to date chronologically. 'Cause it, um, there's years that I haven't done anything with. So I have all of these [00:12:00] open albums in my scrapbook room. And I've got little post-it notes on them with what year it is. And so roughly chronologically I'll insert layouts sort of where they go. And it'll, it'll come together somewhat chronologically in the end, but precisely. So it's not like. I would be upset if a layout that happened more recently appeared in the album.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure.

Kim Chaffin: Know, earlier it's, I'm not, not real picky about that, but yeah.

Rough. I don't scrapbook chronologically. Not at all, but, but roughly It'll be chronologically in the end.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure, sure. I think that works for a, a lot of people to have the freedom to, to work with whatever story they want to, and then file things in a way that maybe feels the most comfortable.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So let's talk about your style. How would you describe it, um, in, in three words, if you could?

Kim Chaffin: Okay. Um, well, you used one of the words already, hybrid, I would say for sure.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Kim Chaffin: Um, minimalist and [00:13:00] maybe photo centered. Because I, typically have very large photos somewhere in the layout.

Jennifer Wilson: What would your process look like? Do, are you typically working from a story idea, a product you wanna use, a design inspiration, or could it just be any of those any day?

Kim Chaffin: It, it can be any of those. I rarely, well, no, I will, I was gonna say, I rarely start with product inspiration, but that's not true. Yeah. Any of, I would say any of those, it can be, I think I'm more often starting from the story or photos.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kim Chaffin: That I want to use, but, but yeah, I've definitely been inspired by a product and found ways to make it work.

And yeah, any, any of those can be a starting point.

Jennifer Wilson: Are there any particular products, tools, or techniques that we would see really often in your scrapbooking? Like some sort of like a technique through line that defines your style?

Kim Chaffin: Um, I, I think I, I'm pretty, uh, I really just need the basics. I think I'm pretty.

Jennifer Wilson: Uh.

Kim Chaffin: I [00:14:00] have my computer, my printer, some card stock, photo paper, adhesive, and trimmer, I could probably be happy scrapbooking with, with just that alone. But I, you know, I do like the other fun stuff too. But, but I think most of mine is more computer fo I do a lot of the putting together the layout in Photoshop on my computer first. And then I print out the parts as and put them together. So, so it's definitely very computer oriented.

Jennifer Wilson: Let's dive a little more into that. So what, what parts of your pages are typically hybrid and which are you using physical supplies for?

Kim Chaffin: Hmm, that, that varies. But, um, so some of it can be completely printed from the computer and some, some of it will be, you know, like physical product that I add afterward. Um, typically though I will print, I, I usually sketch out a design prior to getting on the computer. And then once I'm on the computer I will print. I will figure [00:15:00] out the size of photo that I need, and usually it will have the title, so maybe the title might be a digital thing on the photo. And then I'll print that. The background could be plain white card stock, or it could be patterned paper that I have already. But, more often it's, I use a lot of digital, so more often it's some digital pattern paper. And then I print it out and the embellishments might be digital also, or sometimes I draw from physical things that I have, so, so that varies a little bit.

Jennifer Wilson: And so when you are using like digital embellishments and digital pattern paper, you're typically printing those out as separate items.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay. Very cool.

Kim Chaffin: The nice thing too is you, I can resize them.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Kim Chaffin: Or sometimes even change color if I need to.

Jennifer Wilson: Fun. Fun. Is there a trend that you are loving right now?

Kim Chaffin: Hmm. I, I, I struggle with that question a little because I don't know whether I'm very [00:16:00] trendy. Um. I do think I've seen like a shift in the pages used to be that you saw, you know, people sharing and publishing were a lot more white card stock and not a lot of color. I'm seeing more color and pattern paper and I think, I think lately I'm a little into that too. Like enjoying putting more color back on my layouts than I did for a while.

So. Maybe, I don't think I'm really trendy in terms of like. necessarily keeping up with what the latest thing is in scrapbooking. But I, I do think there's a trend toward more color, and I think I am kind of on that band bandwagon a little bit.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think it's such an interesting thing because the, the paper world is typically pretty slow. And the digital world tends to be much faster, but they're, they're not always kind of in sync with trends. But what you described though, actually seems to mirror what, what's happening in fashion. We've, we're going from minimalism to maximalism.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: [00:17:00] Um, that's, I don't know, kind of interesting. Yeah, I, this question stumps me too, because I'm not even sure where I would go to figure out what is trendy. Like we all, especially with, you know, my philosophy and scrapbooking your way, I hope everyone is doing just what they want. You know, what, what they like, what they enjoy.

Kim Chaffin: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So is there something in our hobby that you've decided is just not for you? You've tried it and you're like, Nope. Or maybe you haven't even tried it because, you know, uh, this isn't gonna be work for me.

Kim Chaffin: Um, yeah, that's, that's another difficult question. And I don't, don't know that I have a great answer. Because, even when I look at things that aren't really, um, my kind of thing, I, I kind of think of it as a little bit of a fun challenge to try to at least once try to, to find a way that I could make it work. Um, I will say that back, I don't know, maybe 10 years or so ago I was putting like heavier, bulky things on the page. Metal even, you know, gluing metal [00:18:00] frames and things like that. And I've kind of like never again with that. Because I found that over time they kind of, uh, the pressure in the book, it, it makes indentions on the facing page and I just. Yeah, I don't, I don't like the damage that that can cause to other pages in the book, so probably really bulky embellishments I'm done with. I wouldn't do that anymore, I don't think.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, those little like round buttons were popular for a while. I think I got so many of those in various kits and I, I did use them, but you're right, they do make quite an indention. On the pages around them, so.

Kim Chaffin: Exactly. Yeah. I used a lot of that. And even like, just big like stones and.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kim Chaffin: Things like that. And now I open 'em up and they've kind of like, they're, they're not doing nice things to the other pages in the book. So I, I don't think I would do that again.

Jennifer Wilson: So where do you typically scrapbook and like, how does that fit into your week?

Kim Chaffin: So being creative is kind of an important thing to me. So it's a little bit of a goal to, uh, be creative at least for a [00:19:00] small period of time every day if I can. That doesn't always work out 'cause you have busy days. You're not even in town some days. But I try, if nothing else, just to print a few pictures or type out some journaling on my computer, even if I don't have time to sit down and do a whole lot. I do have a scrapbooking room now, which is really nice because. For a lot of years when my children were younger, I didn't have the space to do that. So it was on the dining room table or even spreading out on the floor sometimes.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kim Chaffin: That made it a lot more prohibitive, you know, because you have to get everything out and put everything away.

So now that I can leave things out, I do try to do just a little something creative every day. And if I have time, it's usually in the afternoon. Um, sometimes I'll find free time before the family comes home to really dig in and, and get a lot done.

Jennifer Wilson: Now talk to me a little bit about organization. Are you a like neat and tidy? Everyone has, its, everything has its place, person, or are you a like this is, it's all chaos and I love it kind of person.[00:20:00]

Kim Chaffin: I want, I want to be neat and tidy, but it's a little bit chaos. Um, I wish I had someone to come and like help me, help me organize things. That's not my strong point.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kim Chaffin: Uh, I do have like baskets and bins and I try to keep everything labeled so I can find things. But, I'm maybe a little bit with scrapbooking,

I might be a little bit of a hoarder too.. So I have things here that are decades old and it piles up after a while. And so, yeah, I'm not, not the greatest with organization. But, um, I, I do pretty much know where everything is, but it's a lot sometimes.

Jennifer Wilson: So with that, do you have any particular strategies, either for photos, supplies, or tools that has worked well?

Kim Chaffin: Um, well, okay. Digitally, I'm a little better.

Jennifer Wilson: Uh.

Kim Chaffin: With photos. I do, I do keep those organized so that I, I can pretty much find a picture anytime I want to. Every year, I, I make a, a folder for that year, and then within the folder, each month [00:21:00] and at the end of every month, I upload all the photos that go in that folder. So that my, my pictures are pretty organized and easy to find, but it's just, yeah, my supplies that, that, that could use some help.

Jennifer Wilson: And so your photos, are they, they're living in a folder structure. Are you using software? 'Cause you mentioned you use Photoshop for your scrapbooking.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, so my, my actual computer hard drive probably couldn't hold a lot.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kim Chaffin: I, I keep them backed up on, I keep them backed up on hard drives. But, um, and then, yeah, I pull 'em in, pull them into Photoshop when I'm ready to use them.

Jennifer Wilson: Great.

Kim Chaffin: And then my, my digital supplies are fairly organized.

They are by collection and designer. So yeah, I guess I do okay organizing digitally. It's just the physical stuff that I'm overwhelmed by.

Jennifer Wilson: I understand. I understand for sure. Are there any products that you're like eager to work with next?

Kim Chaffin: I, I don't know that I have an answer for that.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, That's okay. Or a story that you're, they're wanting to tell, [00:22:00] so.

Kim Chaffin: I'm, I'm sorry. I think you, I think you stumped me.

Jennifer Wilson: That's okay.

Kim Chaffin: I have a lot of stories, but nothing, nothing's jumping out at

Jennifer Wilson: no, that's okay. It's okay. I think we're always in progress on lots of things. Particularly with, with you, it's like the creative fulfillment part of it is a priority, and so as long as you're touching it and moving things forward, you're staying connected and you're moving things forward. So that's, that's what really matters.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah, and I just, I kind of get excited about all of it. So I don't have anything, like I've got this whole list that I keep going, you know? That's, that's what I work on. And so, yeah, each new project is exciting for me. And the products I use will kind of be dictated by what the project is. So it's, yeah, nothing in particular, but, but I'm always excited for the next story.

Jennifer Wilson: Where do you keep that list?

Kim Chaffin: Um, I have a, a notebook actually that I just, um, keep adding to, and when it gets filled up, I start a new one. So that I have kind of years and years of notebooks and I work through them as I make my pages then.

Jennifer Wilson: That's really cool.

Kim Chaffin: [00:23:00] I'm like that. I'm a paper person. I do most.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Kim Chaffin: Of my organizing of ideas on paper.

Jennifer Wilson: Very fun.

Are there any particular hybrid tips that you would share? Because I think, like, I see your pages and, and I have some Photoshop experience, and so I'm like, oh yeah, that'd be, I would love to create some things like this. And I know how to do it, but I also know how intimidating it is for someone who doesn't have as much experience or any with Photoshop, but wants to have that minimalist kind of clean look and feel that, that you create.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah. Um, well, the one thing I would say is that you don't have to use a lot at once. You know you can look, I look at magazine pages for ideas. You can look at things like that and that can give you design ideas. And then with a lot of the digital products, all you gotta do is print them. You don't really have to even know how to use Photoshop or any kind of photo editing software. 'Cause you don't, unless you want to change size and.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Kim Chaffin: [00:24:00] Color and things like that. But um, and the thing I would say too, in terms of hybrid is that you can, even though you're printing these things onto flat card stock and paper, you can have a lot of play with how they look in terms of physical products. Because, there's canvas you can print on canvas and make fabric embellishments. Or you can put like a layer of um, oh, like, like cardboard or something underneath the card stock to give it some dimension or pop dots or anything like that. So things can have dimension. You can even, like, there are like glossy you could paint, um, like Mod Podge or something glossy if you wanted to give it a little bit of shine.

So there's lots of ways that even though you're just printing on paper and, and using it that you can still make it look like, you know, other physical product. It doesn't have to look just flat.

Jennifer Wilson: I remember the first time I did something like that, this was, oh gosh, like [00:25:00] 2010, 2011 and I, my, my brain was just like, oh, wow. I didn't even realize. So I'd, it was a circle embellishment. And so I punched the circle out of the card stock, and then I punched the circle out of the cardboard. I adheared them together, and then I just like simple, clear embossed on top and I'm like, oh my gosh, I have a dimensional embellishment now.

This is amazing.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah. You, you do. Yeah. And it doesn't look that different in the end.

Jennifer Wilson: It looks like what's, you know, what you would buy at the store.

Kim Chaffin: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So, Kim, where would you like your scrapbooking to be 10 years from now?

Kim Chaffin: Well, so I've already been doing this for, for more than a couple of decades and, and I'm still, you know, not finding that my passion for it dwindles any. So I hope that that continues. Um, as far as style goes, it's really hard to say because 10 years ago I probably never could have envisioned the way I do things now.

So I don't know for that. I'm just kind of along for the ride. I just hope that I continue to have fun [00:26:00] with it and that that's what matters most to me.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. I love that. And what has being a scrapbooker taught you?

Kim Chaffin: I, I think the most important thing that being a scrapbooker has taught me is, um, to pay attention to be present in my life. I think that early on I noticed that, that when I was scrapbooking, that I paid more attention and focused on, um, being there with my kids and the stories that I wanted to tell about our life. Because I knew that I had a place where it was going to go, and so it made me pay more attention. And so I think scrapbooking has increased my presence, my being present. And that that's, I think, an important life lesson, whether you scrapbook or not.

Jennifer Wilson: I love that wonderful perspective. Kim. Thank you so much for spending time with me on the podcast. Can you share where our listeners can find you online and anything new or exciting you might have coming up later this year?

Kim Chaffin: Yeah, mostly with scrapbooking wise. I am on [00:27:00] Instagram @kimdocumentslife. I do a little bit, but under the same name on YouTube. I post videos once in a while, but I'm much more present on Instagram. As far as exciting this year, um, I am working on or creating on design teams for Paislee Press, Dunia Designs and Sahin Designs. Which I would say all three are excellent sources of digital supplies if you want to, to get into more hybrid scrapbooking.

And so yeah, I'll be be producing pages or creating pages for those designers monthly. So we can look for those on Instagram.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, wonderful. Yes, those are fabulous designers for sure. Again, thanks for spending time with me.

Kim Chaffin: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way. [00:28:00]