Page a Day in May for Nat'l Scrapbooking Month

Since May is National Scrapbooking Month, I wanted to share my Page a Day in May idea with you.  I want to challenge myself to make a scrapbook page each day during the month of May.  I decided to share the concept with you now, in case you're interested in playing along...because if you're like me, you'll need a little prep time to make sure you get your pictures gathered, and develop (heh heh) an idea of what you want to accomplish.  Here are some suggestions to get your scrap-brain churning:

Start Recent and Work Backwards
This is self-explanatory, start with your most recent photos and work backwards.  Sometimes it's easier to get started this way instead of hunting for baby pictures from 20 years ago.  A variation of this theme is just to work with whatever is most accessible.  If your wedding pictures are at the top of your shoebox, work with those.  If you have a disc of Easter pictures sitting next to your computer, use those.

Work with a Theme
Maybe you want to create a birthday book for your kid(s)...one that just shows them on every birthday up until they moved out.  The same type of theme works for school years, just get out those pics from each grade.  Other quick and easy themes are family vacations, weddings, anniversaries, holidays, memorial books, high school reunions, a "friends" album, a grandkids album, and don't forget that you can make a ME album. 

Work with Borrowed Creativity
Seriously, purchase My Digital Studio and use the Designer Templates provided with the software!  There are several albums with pages already completed.  For your "page a day", just insert a picture and some journaling, and you are DONE.  Same thing goes for any of the Simply Scrappin' Kits Stampin' Up! offers--there are page ideas included right on the package.  Look at someone else's page and use their layout for inspiration...or just copy it exactly and put your own pictures in there!

Use What You've Got First!
Listen, if you want to buy the entire catalog of Stampin' Up! merchandise from me, I'm not going to complain...lol!  But if you have a closet or drawer full of stuff you "meant" to use for scrapbooking, then by all means, pull that out and use it FIRST.  Sometimes your inspiration for a page or an album can start with your supplies.  I know people who buy the supplies they love, and then go home and stage pictures that will coordinate with those supplies!  No, not me, I'm not that organizationally evolved yet.

NOTE: If you bought your supplies ten years ago and they just aren't your style anymore, then at least set them aside to sell or give away, before you do anything else.  Don't just pull them out, gag and cringe, and chuck those supplies back in the closet!  Why?  Because every time you take out your scrapbooking supplies after that, you will have unsavory thoughts, and that can sabotage your creativity.  Make sure you love what you see, and that you are excited to use your supplies.  Oh, and USE the things you're excited about, don't just keep storing/hoarding them (note to self).

Remember, you don't have to make a page that will go in an album, you can frame a page and hang it on the wall.  There are also lots of fun mini-album ideas that can be done with basically a page or two of card stock.  I'll try to feature some of these ideas throughout the month of May on my blog.  If you do a mini-album comprised of more than one page, do your assembly one day and then put in the photos, journaling, and embellishments the second day, and that can technically be "a page a day".  If you don't have time til the weekend, get your supplies gathered and set aside during the week and sketch out your page ideas, then do 7 pages on Sunday.  (This can be a great family activity, and a fun introduction to genealogy!)  However you do it, be sure to capture the Who, When, Where, Why, and What on each page, layout, or compilation (if you frame it, you may want to put the info on the back).  The subject matter is obvious to you now, but will it be to anyone else 20 years from now?

And, you don't have to scrapbook every picture you have.  Just pick the ones you really like looking at, and put them somewhere you can enjoy them!  On the other hand, you don't have to have any photos of people on your scrapbook page.  You can scrapbook your pets, you could create an alphabet book for your toddler with pictures of different animals, or you could just fill out a nostalgia page (just capture some of your personal memories from different times in your life), or a descriptive page (talk about the subject of your page and use words and journaling to create an image, literally and/or figuratively).  Or, if you love cooking, do a Page a Day Cookbook for May, and take pictures of the finished dish for each recipe.  Have fun with it!

On a closing note, sometimes we get so busy recording others' memories that we forget to record our own.  I suggest that if you are creating an album, take a page at the beginning or end to write a little about yourself, and your thoughts surrounding the album, and why you made it.  Be sure to date it.  How many times have we seen a cute or cool album and wondered whose thoughts and creativity were all over those pages?  Think of it as a provenance for a masterpiece...it increases the value exponentially for the owner!

Anyway, I hope that gets your mind moving, and I hope you will join me for my Page a Day in May challenge.

~Kimberley Morris
Stampin' Up! Independent Demonstrator since 1994
Colorado Springs, CO
procrastistamper@gmail.com
http://kimberley.stampinup.net (SHOP ONLINE)
BECOME A DEMONSTRATOR