Since last Tuesday, the evening of my scrapbooking class at Michael's Arts and Crafts, I've been working to first, get all my yardstick (paper) out of filing cabinet drawers, next, out of hanging file holders, and third, upstairs to my cleared off dining room table.
The most important thing I learned from last week's class is to clear either the dining room table on the main floor or my desk made of a door perched on elf storage or a two drawer filing cabinet in the basement. The desk in the basement has too much stuff on it, so I brought it all upstairs a little at a time. Carol, my teacher, took me to the storage section of Michaels and made some suggestions about what to use. Luckily, I'd quit buying things that didn't work and concentrated on getting everything, more or less, in one place.
The last time I really scrapped was in 2003. Journaling wasn't a big aspect of making scrapbooks, then, or at least not the one's I saw. Not much more than the four or five w's were included on a page. There were all kinds of embellishments and so many different things on pages that I simply would not begin to make that kind. My knowledge of all the new materials that began to hit the market in 2003 and 2004, the money it would have cost to purchase them, the color theory and skills were simply out of my grasp although I liked the artistic things that began showing up in Scrapbook and card making magazines.
So, I did what I always do, I switched back to my painting and began doing color exercises with oils which I found I didn't like (bought too many), acrylics I had, and began learning something about mixing colors, and what contrasting, analogous, and monochromatic color schemes are.
Cardmakers weren't too interesting in design; they have a different mind set for doing cards, and it just didn't work for me. I'm one of those people who want to do a card once, and give it to someone else to reproduce it. I think it's why I like scrapbooking so much better.
Over the last six years, I've made a short film, done a lot of photography, and began gathering all the photos I have in the house into the basement, purchased water tight holders for negatives and slides, all of which have information on each page that explains what the photos are.
I began a Heritage album with copies of photos that go back as far as 1867, I believe, but had to give it up since the organization of photos wasn't even started.
Then, came the organizing of my photos, family history pictures I picked up at my brother's home in 2009, bought storage containers for all and began sorting them into decades, then months, etc. I emptied all the 5 x 7" photos from their acid booklets from Walmart and put as much as sI could get into acid free storage boxes from Michaels. All of this cost a great deal of money, so it was done a little at a time and not all at once. I get bored if I have to keep working on the same thing.
I learned a great deal from making my little film about collecting, sorting, purging and organizing photos using the internet and Iphoto on my Mac Mini computer. I used what I learned there to do my own photos. I've been driven by the fact that the 80 and 100 year old photos were beginning to deteriorate from being in the acid environment. My goal was to get everything into acid free storage, which I did.
I made sure the cardstock I had was moved to the basement where there is little sunlight. I'd lost paper from fading in the 90's and was determined not to have that happen to the expensive papers I bought. The biggest mistake was purchasing papers I loved but didn't really have any specific layouts in mind for them. Much of it was purchased in 2001-2003 and the best thing I did was buy it in sets of three papers of the same colors. That way I can make a 2 page layout pretty well, I found out last week.
So, the photos are done, then done some more, then more and I'm still finding photos and copies of them mixed in with acid memorabilia from the years 1960-2010. I got rid of whatever made me sad or angry and kept what made me laugh, smile or feel good or was a good learning experience.
All of this coincided with my work in therapy where I organized my journals into chronological order and began painstakingly figuring out where everything began, who or what happened. Clearing clutter, organizing, and purging was and is a result of this work.
Three months ago, I saw an ad for a Scrapbooking class Michaels was having on Scrapbooking. It was four weeks long and looked really good. I kept the brochure tacked up in my computer area and called periodically. Sure enough, once Michael's moved to a new location across the street, got up and running, they offered the classes on two nights.
They are fantastic for me and absolutely perfect. Just like the writing class I took this year at Lighthouse Writers on writing memoirs. Right time, right people, right teachers and right classmates. Right size and location. There's actually a book that accompanies the class for only 10 dollars. When I opened it and read through it, it's about using fine art knowledge to design scrapbook pages; art caught up with the scrapbooking world for me! Talk about exciting! Nothing I've done lately gets me as excited as my next class. I've got a teacher who knows her stuff, and uses it, is more helpful than I could ever have imagined. What I learn and can use each time I go is exactly what I need. It helps that we got into this at the beginning. There's only two people in my class and the teacher so there's lots of time for personal attention, which I need for a bit.
That leads me back, full circle to organizing the paper I have. After five days of work, they are all arranged in order, prints and solids, which I didn't. It was good to know about papers. Now, I can figure out what to sell on e-bay and what to keep.
It's really interesting to realize that everything is connected. Like the body, one thing contributes to another part's healing or growth. This class is bringing everything together for me that I have been working so hard to bring together for so long. I'm able to experiment, enjoy, and have fun, now, when I couldn't when I came this way before. It's happening in keeping my home clean, my kitchen counters cleared, my refrigerator shiny and pretty. I'm cooking and experimenting more, getting out with people more, and learning so much about the world, and them, and me.
I love the creative process and how it works. Even though on the surface it would seem nothing is happening, it is indeed true, "there is never a time when nothing is happening." And, it would seem that everything is done in baby steps or as my friend Gary would say, "One bite at a time."
Mission accomplished! Job well done. Now, with much rubbing my hands together in glee, I can use it all. Really use it.
Have a great week folks.
Love you,
Lyn
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