Wow, I guess I hit a "hot button"...

I've had quite a response from yesterday's blog post!  Lots of emails, comments and FB messages...

I guess I have always been the type of person who is an open book and says what I'm thinking.  If you've followed my blog long enough, you get that.  :)

I want to make it clear that I still LOVE Scrapbooking, in all it's forms!  I even said that yesterday...  I just can't do Scrapbooking anymore that's the time consuming, fussy, 1 page, 1 photo, expensive layouts anymore.  

(Here's the infamous layout that made it abundantly clear to me that I need to change)

 

I mean I do love the layout, it just took too much time!  My darling Isabella is on a park chair in Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, France!!  It's a beautiful picture, I blew it up to 5x7 and picked the color scheme, the embellishments, everything I LOVED and put my HEART into this layout.  There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with that!  It's just NOT for ME anymore.  I want to tell the story in a BEAUTIFUL way, but I need to find a way to do that that takes LESS TIME and LESS MONEY.

It's just too expensive to do this with EVERY 1 PAGE layout!

I "fusssed" with this 1 PAGE layout, with 1 PHOTO for HOURS!!  

So, I'm still going to RECORD MY MEMORIES, I just don't know exactly how I will do it.  I do know that I can't continue doing it like the layout above.  

Some of you asked me about "Project Life" and this may be the direction I'm headed but I'm not sure yet.  I will tell you that I EMAILED them over at PL and told them how I'm feeling and if PL would be the right choice.  I asked them how to order, where to order, will it be around years from now, and why does it look like it's sold out online just about everywhere.  

I will let you know what they tell me and I'll keep you all up-to-date on what this new journey for me will look like.  If I had my DREAM, it would be to come up with something we could ALL do together that would solve this dilemma.  I'm actually thinking of teaching a class at my home soon that will be a WHOLE YEAR in one night!  It's a challenge for sure and I'm not sure how I'm going to pull this off, but I want to do this so bad!  I have YEARS of photos that I haven't had time to scrapbook.  It would be nice to come up with a system that I could teach that would bring us up to spead on our photos and be fun, creative, tell our story and is BEAUTIFUL.

So stay with me.  I think I've said "out loud" what a lot of us are thinking and it's a good thing to communicate this!  Now lets try to figure out how to change this, make it work for us and keep us all creating and recording our memories!

And THANK YOU for all your comments and emails!  I love this forum to voice things and hear back from YOU and work on making things better for all of us!!

Hugs to all,

Laura

 

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BTW, I had one comment about my Bellagio Event in Italy and I wanted to let all of you know what I wrote back and said because I don't want anyone to be confused with why I would still do a "Scrapbook Event" if I dont' want to "scrapbook" anymore...

So here's my response:  

"I will always be creative and look for outlets to do that! I'm very passionate about being creative and sharing our "Story" in unique ways.  The teachers for my event know that and we have some wonderful classes on journaling, jewelry, altered art and a travel album we will start first on and that will be used as a keepsake for that trip!  

So I'm not giving up my passion for recording our lives, Im looking for a way to do that in a simpler, more cost effective and time saving way..."  Laura

I hope that makes sense.  I KNOW Italy is not a "cost effective" place to have a retreat though and I'm aware that it's not for everyone.  It's just been a DREAM of mine for a few years and maybe it will be fullfilled this year!!  I STILL plan to TEACH and I am STILL passionate about recording our memories and in fact have been asked to teach all over the U.S. by different people and may just start doing that this year!  After I figure out the direction I want to go in...

Comments

[Sharyn]

Laura! I hear you honey. I am on the same track - just need to get over the guilt of all that money spent already and yet the desire the change tac and record those memories rather than playing (though I do love that creativity) is so strong. it is really about time and purpose I guess.

[Louise Johnson]

Every once in awhile I will do a "fussy" overkill layout but I tend to make simple ones with beautiful product (maybe a little less of it) that is easier for me. I still love to look at what others do & dream someday I could have that talent too but without written directions sometime I'm just a simple kind of person. Like they say different strokes for different folks....it's all good as long as we get it done!

[Jackie]

Hi Laura. I just left a comment on yesterday's post. I am doing PL but was not able to get the official PL supplies that I wanted due to them being sold out... So I improvised. I have so much scrap booking supplies and paper I am just cutting it up and using it with pocket page protectors that I already have. I will purchase the PL pages when they are in but I am not stressing over it and for once I am not worried about the whole album matching. Also, I suggest you get yourself a copy of Stacy Julian's books Big Picture Scrap booking and Photo Freedom. They are a excellent resource for a simple system scrap booking your family memories.

[Laura C Michigan]

Laura - I hope you didn't take offense at my Bellagio post. It was not meant to offend. I admit that I would LOVE to go to Bellagio to your event but it's not in my budget. I was just curious how that fit into your new simple scrapping ideas. I too say what I think out loud a lot too. Gets me in trouble because people "don't know me from Adam". I'll be riding along on your blog on your journey and watching! You do beautiful work.

[Noelle Daughrity]

Love your honesty Laura! Sometimes it's so depressing seeing those beautiful layouts in galleries and knowing I can't afford all of those embellishments to make something similar. Especially in these difficult economic times our country is going through. Now we just had CHA with all of the new stuff, and in a few short months there will be another CHA and everything you just bought will be old news. Sorry for the long post, but I really {appreciate}someone adressing this topic :)

[grace]

You are sooooooooooooooo right I can pay so much on 1 page!! hahahaha like I am going to hang it in a museum. hahaha I will just miss your gorgeous pages but I am sure you will come up with more gorgeous stuff! Grace xoox

[Diana Saldivar]

It makes perfect sense to do either PL or layouts. A few of my friends started PL and they love it, for me that is still scrapbooking because you are still saving keepsakes and preserving memories. I'm sure once in a while you'll make a Mini album because you are very talented and always make gorgeous mini's.
PL is here to stay and will continue to grow stronger with more designs, and I am looking forward to see the amazing pages you'll make. =Di

[Jo-Elaine]

Laura, let me say first "I love your work." This past year I've been telling myself to "get back to basics." The products out there are beautiful, but are not needed to tell the story. Remember Simple Scrapbooking? That's what I found I need to focus on. If time and money permits, then I can play with all the new products but they are not necessities. Children get the most fun from the most basic of toys. The new toys are used for a short while. Then they return to the old. The same applies to scrapbooking supplies. Thanks for your honesty on this topic.