From 2008 to today, the idea of a book about scrapbook journaling was born, pondered, procrastinated, and then finally produced.
Back in 2008 I starting teaching classes at Creating Keepsakes conventions around the US. When you teach a class for CK, you are not teaching classes with your own material. You are teaching a class that CK has put together. I remember being a little nervous about that. What if I didn’t like what I was teaching? What if it was a really bad class and the hundreds of people taking it, thought it was my material? And then, there was that whole public speaking thing that made it even more scary. But, I lucked out. One of the classes I would be teaching was about journaling. For as long as I can remember, writing has been something I have always loved to do.
I remember the first time I saw the material for the journaling class. I skimmed through everything and while I thought it was good, I also felt it was really lacking. (In their defense, it’s only an hour class so it’s hard to have a ton of information included.) I immediately started adding my own ideas and personal experiences to my teaching notes. I found myself still nervous due to this being a class that required me to do a lot of speaking, but I was also really excited about the topic of journaling. It ended up being a huge success, the class and my teaching got a lot of great reviews, and CK ended up asking if they could add my ideas to their class.
This is where the idea for Writing to Remember was born.
Ten years ago, a little spark ignited and I knew I wanted to put together a class or book about journaling. I had so many ideas that they were practically bursting out of me. Unfortunately, life got in the way and honestly, I had so many ideas that it was overwhelming. I wasn’t sure where to start and how to break it all down. So, I did what any normal person would do, I kept putting it off.
And putting it off.
And putting it off.
Funny thing is, it was actually doing two years of BJJ, that made me get in there and finally get started. In jiu-jitsu you learn that things are hard. Really hard. And, you might get overwhelmed from time to time, but as long as you keep moving forward and taking steps towards your goals, no matter how small those steps are, you can accomplish anything. I knew it was going to be a big project, but the key to starting it was simple, just start. Just start somewhere. Start writing, start planning, start organizing. Just start.
So that’s exactly what I did.
It didn’t take long to see that it was going to be even bigger than I had originally planned. While it was a huge project, and there were definitely times that I felt super overwhelmed, the excitement of what it was developing into was what pushed me through. I could not wait to share all of these ideas with the scrapbookers of the world. One of the things I have loved the most about my place in the scrapbooking industry is that I have had so many amazing opportunities and great platforms to share what I love with others. Most of my career it’s been my layouts and my sketches. Today, it finally gets to be one of my lifelong loves, writing.
Our pictures tend to get all the glory when it comes to scrapbooking, but, to me, the journaling is just as important and enjoyable. Journaling brings a voice to your layouts and gives you an opportunity to tell a story that isn’t always obvious from the pictures alone. The best part is it gives you a chance to express your own personal thoughts and feelings about the people you love. When it comes to journaling and its importance, I always think of the loved ones of my life that are no longer here and how treasured it would be to have some documentation of their voice, their thoughts, their feelings.
Write to remember, write to share, write to express, write to heal…my greatest hope is that you read this book and just want to write, for whatever reason you might have.
You can purchase Writing to Remember by clicking here.
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