I took a hiatus from scrapbooking in recent years.  In that time, I focused quite a bit on photography.  One of the books I read in that time was David DuChemin’s Within The Frame- a book very much about capturing your vision through your photography.  As 2010 rolled around, I was itching to start scrapbooking again.  I found that what I’d learned in photography also influenced my scrapbooking.  Between the scrapbooking break, reading Within the Frame, and sharing my scrapbooking thoughts in several classes to take, I was in the perfect storm to think about my scrapbooking and what I wanted it to now be.

David DuChemin refers to it as your vision and I think in the past year it’s really begun to solidify for me- at least in terms of scrapbooking.  I spent a lot of time thinking about it earlier this year. . . in part because of David’s book Within the Frame.  While he’s technically talking about photography, it certainly applies to scrapbooking as well.

Is my perspective uncommon?  I doubt it- at least in the concept of what I do.  Is it unique?  certainly not.  I think those words can get us hung up, thinking we have to be unique, uncommon, or different.   In fact, I think another thing that I benefited from in terms of time away from scrapbooking is the apparent shift to the everyday perspective in scrapbooking over that time I had the break.  In the years before I quit and even after I really quit scrapbooking, Ali Edwards and Cathy Z had quite an influence on the way I thought about scrapbooking.

 My Vision, My Perspective

Simply put, my vision in scrapbooking is my ordingary everyday life.  Here’s a few things you’ll find about my vision when scrapbooking:

Common, Everyday stuff and moments

I really am drawn more to the every day things than special events.

I don’t do “Birthday” layouts or Trip layouts- though I scrapbook pics from those types of things- but it’s the moments and the stories. Like this moment from a trip we took to Kansas City- where my husband set of the alarm on this artwork.

My favorite layouts are ones that really capture something that happens nearly every day. 

My layouts also often reflect history- then and now kinds of things.

Story Driven

Everything I do is driven by the story I want to tell.  I’m going to use my pictures and my words to tell that story.  I don’t think you’ll see me create any more layouts without journaling- there’s a story to tell that goes along with the pics.  There’s a why to go along with the rest of those w’s.

My side of the story

This is something that I really feel is important. . . I can’t tell my nephew’s story.   I can’t tell my husband’s story.  I can only tell my story and how their lives played out in my eyes.  It’s my story I’m telling. . . even if it’s about my nephew at the zoo or my husband on the treadmill. . . . Don’t get me wrong it’s easy to get that mixed up and scrapbook a page about what my nephew did. . . but that’s not what I want. . . . it’s not authentic to me. . . . THIS Story is what makes my vision unique- because only I can have my story to tell. . . so while what I do is not particularly unique, the story I tell, of course, is.

I.e. I can’t say how my brother felt in this story other than what he told me, but I can sure tell what I saw and felt LOL!

My Voice, My Style

Now my pages as David would say are my voice- just like my photographs.  And they’re used to share my vision.  It’s also where I think the ways we refer to style tend to come into play.  For example:

My pages tend to be simple, linear, and more graphic

Mostly paper, pictures, and journaling

Embellishments help to share the vision of the page

So you’re not going to find flowers on every page- perhaps if the layouts about spring or flowers yes. . . . but not one about bedtime routines or the deer lease.  I don’t want my embellishments to cause a disconnect from the story.  Most often the embellishments are either some type of anchor, something to draw the eye across the page, or something I can add info like a date or place to.

Supplies Support the Story

I try to choose paper and embellishments etc that help tell the story- i.e. if it’s about downtown I might use grungy stuff.  I try to take my color cues from the pics and the story. . . the vision for the layout.  Or in this case, the story of a crime story made great use for case files.