Today marks the first in a series of guest posts I've lined up for the blog. I think it's safe to say that you all know how strongly I believe in the power of telling your own story and learning to step past all the obstacles -- fear, reluctance, your inner critic, perfectionism, lack of time, misconceptions about writing -- that keep you from doing so. Naturally, I'm drawn to scrappers who have a knack for writing, who possess the ability to tell a story in a way that engages me and entertains me, that moves and motivates me, that leaves me wanting to do the same with my own stories. These scrappers do just that. They represent a variety of writing and scrapbooking styles, and they all have something interesting and important to share. Enjoy.
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I've been a fan of Moon for quite some time; I think I originally spotted her work in Simple Scrapbooks and then started stalking following her blog after that. Her clean designs and beautiful photos are serious eye candy, but for me, the real joy in checking out Moon's work is her sense of humor. It's evident on every page, in every story. And to me, it makes everything she writes just a little more real, because there's no sugar-coating. It's real life, baby. (And it's real funny, too).
"Whenever I think of writing, I think of high school and those awful things those teachers always made us do. What were they called again? Oh yeah. Outlines. Roman numerals. Capital letters, numbers, lower case letters and so on and so forth...
Those were gross.
Being a scrapbooker has made it possible for me to throw away all those rules and do what I want to do and do it the way I want to. (Like ending a sentence with a preposition). I'm sure English teachers everywhere are cringing right now as I type.
I got into scrapbooking after having my second child and quickly realized that I wanted to more than just take their pictures and I wanted to remember what they said and how they felt and how it made me feel and I scrap about them and for them and these children can make me happy beyond words, annoy the heck out of me, remind me of why I wanted to be a mother on some days and on other days, wish I could auction them off on Ebay. (Ooo look...a run on sentence.)
And to me that what journaling is: a translation of those feelings onto paper with a few photos and glue. That's it.
Take today as an example. I had to load all the kids in the car to pick up a homework paper that my middle child left at school. As I'm driving along, I look in my rear view mirror that is permanently locked onto the reflection of the back seat where my two year old sits and I see him licking the bottom of his shoe. He does it once (and I say nothing because you know, he's the third child) and I think that he surely won't do it again but he proves me wrong and does it a second time. At this point I tell my daughter to take his shoe away from him and when she does, he hurls the other one at her. Luckily, he misses her head by a few inches and we go on our merry little way.
That's a scrap page right there titled, "Oh the Wonderful Things Charlie Can Do: He can lick on his shoe and throw it too...".
The beauty of journaling on your page is just that. It's your point of view. It's your voice. You aren't going to be graded on it. It's not going to lower your GPA. No one's going to make you rewrite the whole thing. The important thing is putting those thoughts down somewhere so you can remember them, and if you're like me, throwing all those rules out of the window while you're at it."
Moon is my hero. Hands down, my favorite journaler, storyteller. Thank you for sharing your process Moon and thank you for doing this series Audrey. You are both amazing!!
Posted by: liz | February 17, 2010 at 10:32 AM
these are awesome!!!!!!!! awesome.
Posted by: ellen s | February 17, 2010 at 12:27 PM
loves me some moon!
Posted by: merideth baker | February 17, 2010 at 04:51 PM
moon is the best! makes me laugh every time.
me so lovey moon. mucher than anyone else. :)
Posted by: sansku :) | February 18, 2010 at 10:35 PM