When I was at the CK Convention in Seattle last month with my friend Lisa, we took a class called Photo Freedom based on the book by the same title authored by Stacy Julian. For those who haven’t heard of her, I’ll summarize her message for you. Basically, she’s an anti-chronologist when it comes to scrapbooking. Now, there’s obviously a whole lot more to her method than that, but for those of us die-hard Creative Memories scrapbookers that’s the jist of it. I will review the book in detail at a later date. For now, I’m just reviewing the class we took in Seattle.

The first thing I noticed when entering this classroom was the atmosphere which exuded FUN as soon as you neared the room. There was upbeat music, wonderful handouts from friendly workshop assistants, and a very warm personal welcome from Stacy Julian herself. She is a wonderfully energetic, cheerful, and positively encouraging instructor. Here are Lisa (on the left) and I with Stacy Julian (in the middle).

Lisa and I have both read her Photo Freedom and Big Picture books so I was a little reluctant to spend $$ to take the class since I felt like I already knew what she was going to say. I’m already sold on her ideas because they are very similar to what I was hoping to do ten years ago when I basically quit scrapbooking. And, I had to miss out on another project class to attend her talk. All of Stacy’s materials (book, class, lecture) encourage you to have a friend read, attend, or participate with you so you’ll have someone to discuss ideas with and motivate you to keep going. So, I couldn’t let my friend Lisa hanging. She needed me! Seriously, those who know us will know that she is the one who keeps me going not the other way around.

Stacy started the class out with three basic statements which she says apply to everyone:

1. I have more pictures than I can scrapbook in a lifetime.

2. Chronology is uninspired and outdated.

3. I have exactly enough time to scrapbook my most important memories.

Of course, she elaborated on each of the above statements and if anyone wants to open up a discussion about any of them, leave a comment and I’ll join in. Otherwise, I’ll just keep this blog entry at a review of the class for now.

Stacy did a great job of debunking the above myths with a story which I don’t remember well enough to relate in its entirety here. The parts I do remember are that we are most aware of life when it is threatened or taken and we are most aware of light when it is absent. What I don’t specifically remember is how she related scrapbooking to light, but it was something along the lines of colors being reflected, etc., followed by the statement that as scrapbookers our main goal is to have our life (and the lives of our loved ones) shine through the prism of scrapbooks.

She had some diagrams she showed which will be hard to explain here, but I’ll give it a shot. Think of a number line with life being on the far left and perspective being on the far right. Everything between those two points on the number line including awareness and capturing moments to assembling a scrapbook page are our “flow” or the creative process. I’m kind of a number line person so starting at the beginning, working in a logical (chronological) sequence, and waiting to enjoy it when you’re done are definitely things I can totally relate to and the number line fits me to a tee. However, I’ve gotten so far behind that I find I don’t really enjoy very many parts of the process anymore (other than the photography part). Bear with me a moment.

AHHHH… (sigh of relief) ….. then she explained a circular workflow (think Venn diagram here -) where “flow” is in the middle of the circle(s) with all the other parts of the process circling around and overlapping other parts around the outside of “flow.” All of the points from the number line plus inspiration which can help each of the parts of the process if we don’t get stuck having to do one thing before another like on a number line. The whole explanation reminded me of the difference between a traditional business organizational flow chart and an org board for anyone who even knows what I’m talking about (LOL). …. but I digress. Back to scrapbooking – staying focused is one of my issues you’ll see below.

During the class Stacy challenged us to take a few minutes to ponder the three things that hinder us from scrapbooking not including taking time to scrapbook because as she said right from the start of the class, we all have exactly enough time to record the memories that are most important to us. Technically speaking, she suggests that each of us scrapbook more than we think – most likely every day or at least weekly. And, I have to agree. I hadn’t previously considered photography, purchasing supplies, reading scrapbooking magazines, etc., as “scrapbooking” but according to Stacy it is and that suits me just fine! I no longer have to feel guilty about not “scrapbooking” because I take several pictures everyday (LOL). Previously, I thought of scrapbooking as only being the part of the process when you actually adhere a photo to a page and journal about said photo. FYI, I’ve always maintained that blogging IS scrapbooking in my mind. I’m recording memories with photos and that’s what it’s all about. She didn’t specifically mention blogging, but I thought I’d just throw that out there again.

So, the three things I wrote down as my main hindrances to scrapbooking are:

1. Wacky Workflow – I need a better system and routine for organizing my digital photos.

2. Too many supplies and a messy scrapbooking room.