Why I Love Scrapbooking

It’s a way to connect. With my oldest son and his family so far away, I don’t see them often at all. Scrapping pictures of them gives me a sense of being with them—but it also hurts. I miss the kids so much! And to not see them grow up is equally hard. But scrapping them gives me just enough of a touch of connection that keeps me going. When I scrap the people who live close by—well, that gets into number two….

Love. This is one way I show my love. I tell my family and friends how I feel about them—I love them enough to spend time and creativity on them.

Creative outlet. I need to create every day. Some days it’s stories. Some days it crafts. Scrapping, cross stitching, painting, taking pictures, cooking (not too often, though!) Anything that fits into the creative process feeds me. Scrapping feeds me on a lot of levels.

Friends. A group of us get together here every Tuesday and most of the time we scrap. (Sometimes we just talk and pray, it depends on our needs). It’s my social outlet, as well as creative. I love being able to come up with fun ways to help my friends display their photos. None of us scraps in the same style, and that’s great. We support each other anyway, and the variety inspires all of us.

 

Voice

Try writing a scene in a new voice. One way to do this is to pick up a book by an author you’re not familiar with (or one you’re very familiar with) and write in his voice. (this isn’t good for something going out for publication, but for an exercise). Write it over in your own voice, but strive to keep some of the flavor in the piece. You might surprise yourself.

 

Depend on Him

A lot of people in Southern California who are affected by the fires rely on God, are relying on Him right now. I worry about those who don’t have a relationship with Him. I know I couldn’t do anything without His help and His love, without knowing He is there for me and always will be.

Either scrap about a time you had no one but God to back you up, or put your character into a situation where he or she has no one but God.

 

Let’s Play a Game

I just posted on my main blog about my new game with my dog. Give your character a little game to play with a pet, one that will show up a facet of his or her personality that you want to highlight.

Or just scrap about a game you play with your pets. I should do that.

 

Discomfort

With all that bouncing (see the other blog) I think my brains got a little scrambled. For today, put your character into an uncomfortable situation—such as, a child asking for something the character wants to give, but is a little leery of. Let the dilemma play out. Don’t forget to makes things bad—and then worse. Just remember that readers don’t like it when you hurt animals or children. For a scrap page, describe your own dilemma.

 

Scents

I’m sitting at my dining room table with the scent of ripe plums filling my head. I know they’re sweet, and juicy (so much so that the clear fragrant juice runs down your arm and chin—best to eat it with a napkin handy). No matter how old I get, the scent always takes me back to childhood summers. I’m not big on remembering my childhood, but for some reason this is a happy scent (probably because it’s food, although new puppies have the same effect).

 Today’s prompt: add a scent you love to your project. Mention it on a scrapbook page, color it into your art, make it another, delicious layer in your character’s journey. And have fun.

 

Crazy people?

If you drove down my street around 8 or 9 this morning, you would have seen our neighbor out front with a heavy duty shop vac, vacuuming the dirt and grass in her front yard.

 You probably would have thought, oh, my heavens, some people are totally nuts, and she’s the ripest nut of all.

 What you might not know is, she actually had a reason (of course, I hear that shop vac going all the time, and while I don’t peek, so I don’t know what she’s cleaning, I wonder at how obsessive she is). But two nights ago some (crazier) people threw rocks at a car parked in front of her house (it wasn’t hers) and not only dented things up, they shattered a window or two. She was cleaning the glass out of her yard. I remember times when glass got broken when my kids were little, and getting on my knees to dig all those nasty slivers out to protect their tiny, tender feet.

 So give your character (or a supporting character, this does work well for the eccentric) some crazy action, and give him or her a reason. Just don’t make it obvious, and don’t let the other characters know—and let him or her try to deal with the hilarious fall out.

 

solutions

Sometimes we think we’ll never find the solution to our problems. We try one thing after another and nothing works. (memory, in my opinion, being the worst part of the problem, because how can you solve something if you can’t remember it?) So, give your character a problem that he just can’t solve and then let him try to get around it.

 

Forgotten

Your character has forgotten something. (Now where did that idea come from?) And he or she wakes in the middle of the night with the knowledge burning in his or her brain. It was essential—but forgotten. What does your character do? Write it on a notepad? Get up and try to take care of it at 2:49 in the morning? (again, I’m fishing for solutions here….)

 

Friday

Today’s prompt is courtesy of my 15-year-old’s dream

 She’s walking through the high school parking lot, looking for her dad. She sees license plate covers scattered on the ground. A man tells her, take whatever one you want. They’re all unique in their own way.”

 She looks at the covers. Each one is the same—the word VAMP across the top, a bat in bas relief at the bottom.

 “They’re kind of boring,” she says.

 “How’s that?”

 “They’re all the same.”

 “Oh. Okay, then I’ll let you go.” The man snaps his fingers and the covers disappear.

 And you take it from there.