Scraps Of Mind

How to Scrapbook Your Life Story – Part 1

Today we start a fantastic new series which will guide you through how to scrapbook your own life story. If you have tried creating a Book of Me then you will know that it is one of the hardest albums you can make. Kylie Moore from KylieM Designs will be guiding you through your own scrapbooking journey in this brilliant series of articles, and she has a free QuickPage to help you get started. See below for the link.

Kylie’s Journey

We all know how popular Book of Me’s are. In fact I signed up to an online course and did one myself a couple of years back. It was fantastic to scrap focusing on me, as normally, like many scrappers, the focus is on my children.

But lately I have looked at it, and yes it is a valuable memory keeper, but did it really document the history of my life? Well, not really. There were pages that documented the things I was grateful for in my life at the time; my favourite music, my favourite colour and the special people in my life. All wonderful markers of what my life was like at the time, but not really documenting my life and history.

I then put this aside. I am a busy person and I figured that it didn’t really matter. My children will love looking at my albums all the same! But in moving to Canberra and leaving our family behind I realised that I want to leave a more complete story of my life for my children, and hopefully my grandchildren. I have many photos of my father as a child, and as much as they are wonderful there is no story with them. I am managing to piece together some things, but it doesn’t go further back than my Dad.

So, being me, I dug my heels in and started researching. And I have found many wonderful resources, hints, ideas and clues about documenting a meaningful life story. With these resources, and my creativity I believe that I will be able to create something that will carry my history, and my family’s history long into the future. Well at least I am giving it a shot.

Here at Scraps of Mind, I have been given the wonderful opportunity to share what I have found and give you some hints on creating your life history in a scrapbooking format. The tasks I have for you all can be transferred to traditional scrapbooking, digital scrapbooking, hybrid, or just plain journal keeping. I will be sharing with you resources, digital elements and tools, and templates.

So, do you want to get started?

I know I do, so why don’t we hit the floor running? For the next couple of weeks we are going to look at the things your children will want to know about your life, the nitty gritty stuff, the stuff that happened in your day to day lives …

First up let’s talk about how you and your partner met. I know for some, if you have been divorced or separated, this is often hard to talk about especially if there is bitterness. But my parents divorced when I was six years old and I desperately wanted to know the good part of their lives. There must have been one sometime. Finally as an adult, my mother shared some of those good times with me. So even though the divorce that my parents went through wasn’t the best, she was able to recall and share those good memories. It helped piece together a bit of my life.

Click here for your free Life Story QuickPage

So if you are up to it … here are a few starters …

• What was your dating story? How/where did you meet?
• Did you ever argue as newly weds, what was it about?
• Did you struggle financially when you first starting your lives together?

And here are some references that I found useful

Family History Jumpstart by Michael Boyter of FamilyHistoryPublications.com

How to write your Life Story by Karen McDonald & Greg McLure

I hope to see you back next week!

Well I think you’ll agree that this series has got off to a flying start. Let us know how you’re going if you decide to join in this project. And share the news with your scrapbooking friends so that they can join in too. You can read more of Kylie’s work and check out her designs at KylieM Designs. And don’t forget to pick up the free QuickPage that she’s created especially for this series. Stay tuned for Part Two next week.