“I want to tell better stories.”
That has been a constant thread in my mind since late last year.
When I caught myself running from here. To there. Taking care of this. And that. Feeling run down. And used up.
Always with that voice in my head. I want to tell better stories.
At first it was just another thing. Another idea to try and find room for. So then, what is my first response? To dismiss the idea. Remember I am not like other storytellers in and around the internet. I’m not talented like them. I can’t write like them. I can’t be a better storyteller like them.
That whole comparison game stole the inspiration to tell better stories by lying to me that it won’t look like someone else. And it won’t be enough. Why the constant comparison games? oy vey.
Fast forward to the new year. And a lot of stress and challenging family life in between. I finally came up for air again after getting back from Creativation in late January. And still with that silly idea in my head: I want to tell better stories.
Here is what transpired from those months of that notion in my head. It eventually moved to my heart. And that was a good place for it to go. The next thing: I learned that just because it was in my head, and now my heart, that I did not have to act on it immediately. That took away the feel of failure. I just needed to think for a while. And then to observe. To listen. To feel.
And then it happened. The idea and the emotion took a day in my life and sat me down and started me writing free hand. It was an old cheap pen. And a raggedy old notebook. And that did not matter. I wrote. I wrote my heart. I wrote my observations. I wrote my feels.
This layout came from that writing sesh. It’s funny…in most of my memory keeping life I have claimed that my pages were inspired first by a photo. That just took a shift. As this page was inspired by the story. The story came first.
And here is that story as now found on this scrapbook page spread: what I wrote out in one place was copied to this place. And I am telling you...I could not be more thrilled with how that story is now here. And in place. Just as it needed to be.
Technically speaking, I used Paige Evans Pick Me Up Collection to give pretty and format to this story. Her free cut file called Flower Heart was the base of this scrapbook sketch. You can find right HERE.
Over the floral cut pattern I added die cuts from the Pick Me Up Ephemera.
Extra leaves were cut from the cut file and popped up over the first cut. These pieces were splattered with Blush and Gold Color Shine from my stash. The layout is simply adorned. Which leaves plenty of room for journaling in the middle of the cut heart. As well as leaving a lot of focus on the photo in which helped to spark this story.
I think we memory keepers can get anxious about our story telling. I think we think we need to have it perfected before we start. I think our minds, ever in story telling mode, are actually at work figuring the things out for us. Patience is required. Starting with simple things like the story can be key. And valuing the process will bring the joy back to our approach.
I hope for you a wonderful daily journey of telling your story.
supplies | Paige Evans Pick Me Up: Paper No. 16, Ephemera.
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