It's the 25th!
Happy 25th of October to you! This month’s album prompt is available for download here.
I’d love to see what you snap and create this month—I’m excited to see how Halloween decorations show up in photos here and there as well as the changing leaves and other autumn wonders. Or spring for some of us! If you upload your photos or pages, leave me a link in the comments!
And while I’m talking about autumn…we’re off to the beach! It certainly doesn’t feel like reality.
ETA: There have been a few questions about the opening and closing pages to this album. You can create them at any time but I am going to finish mine at the end so I can highlight some of my favourite photos of the whole year in one place as well as have some perspective of looking back at the whole year at once. But if you have an idea and are itching to create those pages, by all means don’t let me stop you!!
For more Scrap your Day information, check out:
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Photo Fact Sheet #01
April Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #02
May Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #03
June Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #04
July Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #05
August Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #06
September Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #07
October Album Prompt
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Previous post: Your October reminder
25 October 2008, 06:13
Thanks Shimelle for taking time out of your honeymoon to continue to inspire us! I hope you are both having a wonderful time. x
25 October 2008, 18:23
I have been to the beach too today – but I bet you didn’t have to wear a scarf and woolly hat!!
8 November 2008, 22:02
I just wanted to write you a note and tell you about my SYD experience thus far.
I found out about the project thru another blogger posting your photo reminders, so I came here and read about it, a bit after Apr 25. At that time, I had not scrapped in 2-3 yrs and I wondered if I ever would. I was uninspired, my stuff was all in storage, and I didn’t want to drag it all out and “make a mess.” But the project seemed very simple, like I could do it on my coffee table with just a few supplies, and I liked the idea of taking all these snapshots on a certain day and documenting my life. Just as a side note, I have never ever taken an online class for scrapbooking, and I have never, ever been drawn to making “alternative” kinds of projects (I like the standard 12×12 event type scrapping). So this was odd for me.
So I just took all my April pics the next day. Then I took more pics in May. I did not sign up for reminders or download any of the PDFs, figuring I could get them later (not realizing there were photo worksheets that worked with the LO ideas—oops!).
On another side note, I lost my job in Jan and have been unemployed this entire year. I also had an accident and a bad break, so when I started taking pictures, I had just gotten my cast off and was in phys therapy a lot. Also, I am single and live alone, so I I really didn’t think I’d have much to document, just walking the dog every day, watching TV, my messy house, the occasional job interview.
Since I had not created an album to contain the pics, I continued to take 30-50 shots per month, not realizing that was far too many.
My other issue is, when I take a picture I fill the whole frame. “Detail” shots are not my thing. When I scrap I like to keep as much of the large picture as possible, bc backgrounds and setting are important to me.
Anyway, along about July I discovered Stacy Julian’s Library of Memories system. I am assuming you are familiar with Stacy and her work (in case I am wrong, here is a LOM explanation on my blog: http://meadowwalk.blogspot.com/2008/08/library-of-memories-scrapbooking.html.
I read her book and I was super excited. I spent the next 2 months working on setting it up. I got Storage Binders and Category Drawers. I set up a scrapbooking area. I consolidated and reorganized the few papers and embellishments I had laying around th ehouse in various storage areas. I finally took my camera to the drugstore and printed out almost all of the pictures I had been taking (it was a new camera and I have yet to find the camera cord that came with it, so all my shots just sat on the camera for months). I did this bc, thanks to LOM, I had a place to put all the pictures I had taken. And I knew that even if I didn’t use them for this project, I would want to have the prints of my daily life on hand for future projects.
So that was July, Aug and most of Sept. I kept taking the pictures on the 25th. I finally downloaded the PDFs and then realized I should take your photo advice on the day.
Ok so here is the point—sorry this is long but it’s been a JOURNEY…
Bc of LOM I have actually been able to start scrapbooking again, and I love it. I have a place to put my prints, my layouts, and my leftover shots after I’ve made a page. I am inspired. I am telling stories, not just documenting events. Yesterday I had caught up on a few projects I’ve been meaning to do, but I was awake and bored and jonesing for something more to work on. I realized my “Storage Binders” were very full, and it was due to all the SYD shots I’ve been taking and printing. I realized if I sat down and started scrapbooking these, then I would empty out a lot of space in these binders.
So keep in mind…this is 6 months of photos to scrap here, I had not made any backgrounds, and I did not have an album to use on hand. It was about midnight when I started. I began by trying to create all the backgrounds at once, and I found I didn’t even have enough of one color of cardstock to make all consistent. So now it’s half sage green and half cream. Oh well! I went looking thru my papers and decided this was a chance to use all those lovely Basic Grey papers that look so cool but that colorwise go with NOTHING.
The first spread I did was actually June, for some reason. It was like pulling teeth. As I mentioned, I like to fill the whole frame when I shoot, and if the picture isn’t composed well I tend to not print it out. So I had at least 25-30 shots per month, but cropping them as extensively as the sketches require was REALLY difficult for me. I struggled with it quite a bit. It probably took me 2 hours to get the first spread done. That was such a creative challenge for me!
In addition, I created the photo pockets and “hid” additional photos inside also something I never do (if I like a photo I want it seen on the main LO—if I don’t like it enough to show it, I don’t scrap it). I covered the backs of them with cardstock and wrote some journaling. Of course I had FAR MORE awesome photos I’d taken and paid to print than I could ever ever use. Picking which ones to use here was sooooo hard! I journaled by hand—also something I don’t usually do. I picked up my scrapbooking pen and I just wrote. I didn’t use my most illegible scrawl, but I also didn’t sit and use my “fancy” handwriting. This is what my handwriting looks like, right now. And I just wrote about what I thought when I looked at these late June photos. How I bought my condo in July, when my neighborhood has a big 4th of July fest every year, and how every June when I see the fencing and signs for the festival go up, it reminds me of the passage of time.
Once I did it, I loved it. Imperfections and all. Boring pictures of random “FIRE LANE PARKING ZONE” signs and all.
At this point it was 2:30 am and I was on a roll. I continued on. I made page after page. I scrapbooked my goddaughter’s dance recital from April, and I wrote about how I’ve been going to her dance recitals since she was 4, and how she has grown up before my eyes, and how much I miss my baby, but how proud I am of her. I have taken pictures of her dance recital every year for 8 years and have yet to scrapbook ONE of those pictures. I scrapbooked the annual camping trip I take with my brother and his son and their friends every July, and I wrote about our annual traditions. Again, have been taking these photos for YEARS and had yet to document these trips, which are so important to me. I had at least one month where nothing, I mean nothing, happened, and all I had were photos of the errands I ran. Pictures of the grocery store and the post office and doing my laundry at the laundromat. I had a month where I was downtown on job interview on the day and I walked around taking pictures of my beautiful city (Chicago in the USA), and pictures of the EL of all things, which I have never done before, even though riding the El is a big part of any true Chicagoan’s life. And I scrapbooked some of these shots and wrote about how much I love this city and why. Again, never ever done that, even though I have a zillion pics I have taken of my hometown.
Finally, I turned 40 last month. I did not include photos of the day in this album, since it was on the 14th. But I did write about it in here. I wrote about the birthday trip my best friend and I took, and the family dinner my mom hosted, and all the other celebrations that took place. I wrote it next to pictures of fall leaves and my shoes—for some reason I take lots of pictures of shoes and of peoples’ feet and walking, it’s a theme with me—and my godchildren goofing off and showing their personalities and some of the Halloween decor I have up.
So that is as far as I got, and it took my until about 5 am. SIX MONTHS of pictures. And I wanted to write you this long EPIC bc I wanted you to know that while 2008 has been among the very worst years of my life thus far, when I looked at this album, after doing the Oct page, I just about started to cry. I guess some people could look at my life as sad and pathetic (I actually had someone do this to me at a party last week—long story), being 40 yrs old now, unemployed for almost a year, no kids or husband to “give my life some kind of meaning”, days upon days with nothing to do but look for jobs and walk the dog and watch TV.
But instead, I look at this album, and I feel loved. I look and I see the beauty that resides in my life. I see that I love and that I am loved. I see my friends. I see my family. I see children that light up and run to give me a kiss when I come over. I see adventures and road trips and yearly traditions. I see growth. I see beauty.
So the point of this looooong post is just to say:
THANK YOU.
(and also now I am totally jonesing, bc I did 6 months in a row and now I have to wait to do the rest!!!!)