Layout a Day - Telling Your Stories in May

When I first got involved with scrapbooking, my plans were to get all of our family photos into albums.  Well, this is a lofty goal but not necessarily achievable, or even desirable.  We have so many photos - even more than "normal" people because for many years we got free film and developing as a benefit when my husband worked for Kodak.  During those years double and even triple photos were commonplace so I know there aren't quite as many as it seems at first glance but there are simply too many photos!

I do have a lot of our early photos in slide-in albums and I think it is interesting that pocket page albums have become so popular in the past few years.  Then there are the boxes and boxes of mostly chronologically arranged photos that cover a period of about ten years.  Some of these have been traditionally scrapbooked and others have been scanned for digital projects, however, there are a lot of stories waiting to be told from those photos.

I enjoy traditional pages but I just don't seem to get many pages finished.  When I discovered digital photography and digital scrapping, I realized that this was a way that I could get at least some of these photos and their stories recorded for our family.  It is a matter of personal preference - I find that working on the computer, with the ability to edit and enhance our photos and quickly put together pages works for me - but I need the motivation to do it!

When I started doing the Layout a Day (LOAD) challenges, I found out that having a goal of creating a page a day was achievable.  Having a prompt to get you started makes each page a little more interesting (but there are some days when I "go rogue" if the prompt doesn't grab me).  The Flickr group where participants post their pages is also a great motivator.  Posting each page in a timely fashion creates a great feeling of accomplishment - and the stories get told.  I do digital pages but many of the participants are making traditional paper pages - whatever suits your style.

Like many things in life, the more you do it, the better you get at it, the better you get at it, the more you like it and the more you like it the more you do it!  (I think I first heard something similar to this in a talk about kids learning to read...).

I have taken a fairly random approach to the pages I make for LOAD - so I was excited to hear that the next session is really going to focus on preserving some of the memories and stories that we have to share about our lives.  I wish I knew more about some of the details of my parent's lives - not just the facts about where they lived and when, but the way they handled living through the Depression and World War II, the challenges of running a farm and other things that were not talked about a lot.

Now that April is here, the next session of LOAD is fast approaching.  LOAD 514 - Past Perfect2 will run for the entire month of May.  If you stick with it, at the end of the month you will have 31 pages (and 31 stories) completed.

If you have never participated in LOAD, here is a brief summary of what it involves:

-31 daily prompts on the topic of Past Perfect 2: Yesterday’s Memories, Today’s Pages
-31 daily videos
-Private message board
-Private gallery
-Interviews with cool scrappy folk (guest stars will be announced soon!)
-PRIZES
-Inspiration, fun, and companionship galore!

There is a fee to participate but it is very reasonable, especially if you sign up during the Early Bird Registration period (now until April 10th).  The fee for the full month of inspiration and motivation is $50 - this is reduced to just $35 if you sign up by April 10th.

Lain Ehmann is the organizer and driving force behind the Layout a Day events.  If you click HERE you will go to the information page and there is a short video where she will explain how she chose this theme and how the challenge works.

I have enjoyed participating in several LOAD events and I am always pleased with the pages and the stories that I have completed by the end of the month.  While there is a challenge to keep up on a daily basis, if life gets crazy you can always come back to the prompts and do your pages when time allows.  For two sessions I kept up every single day and two other times I didn't quite manage to do it - but I still accomplished some of my goal.

If you have any questions about LOAD, please leave a comment or send me a note.  I hope you will consider joining the fun in May - remember, you must register by April 10th to get the Early Bird price of just $35.

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