Great show, as always!

For the Teresa Collins book, I just used the paper, two pieces back to back. I do that a lot. You’re right that it’s less sturdy.

If you want thicker pages you can cut cardstock to the size you want and then adhere your pattern paper to one side, crop it to fit cardstock, then adhere paper to the back side.

I really like the concept of the story and finding things to detail the story that are not necessarily photos of the story. Sometimes we need to look at the story as the main thing and the photos are the embellishments of the story. I have so many childhood stories and family stories to tell that the photos I have may not “go” specifically with the story, but they do enhance it. It’s the memory I’m trying to keep after all.

Like Mande, after doing Cathy Zielske’s Me: The Abridged Version class at BPC, I found finding things on the web to use that added to the story. Our lives ARE stories, not just pictures.

Like many leaving comments, I love, love, love all the Podcasts Izzy Video produces (PRT, PDS & Foolish Adventure and videos, Paperclipping- I am a subscriber too!!). I listen to them over and over again, in the car, at work, cleaning the house, making dinner, at the gym, etc. – you seem to be my constant companion! Each and every time I listen to them I seem to pick up some other tip or trick or witty comment I missed before! Its like I can be scrapbooking when I really can’t physically be devoting time to my favorite hobby. I feel that you are helping all of us to open our minds to various products, philosophies, projects, methods related to scrapbooking that we might not of explored otherwise and most of all for reminding us that there is no right or wrong way to practice our craft! I also celebrate that you are creating a wonderful network of support within Scrapbooking, example – various places to take classes (BPC, Jessica Sprague, Debbie Hodge, Renee Pearson, etc), inspiration, news sources (Northridge Media, Ella Publishing, Ali Edwards.com, Scrapbook Update, etc), this is exactly what this industry needs and what scrapbookers need – no one site or service can meet all scrapbookers needs and it is so refreshing to see all of you supporting each other and supporting the craft (NO US and THEM). I loved the Halloween Episode and the recent PDS episode on Christmas and my request is that PRT also do a Christmas Podcast to give us all great ideas for decorating and gift giving – so many talented panel members with different personalities; I am sure there are some stories in hand that can be shared around the holidays. I’d like some ideas to decorate, gift and enjoy the holiday season that would stop traffic! Hope you can make my Christmas Wish come True, Hey can you also get me a ipod with more GB, I’ve filled my current one up with Podcasts! Keep up the great work!

I found Cathy’s Zielske’s class Me: The Abridged Version to be really inspiring to bring out a lot of my stories that were waiting in the woodwork. I hadn’t told them before because I had no place for them and the more I wrote, the more came out. Stories about my university days, my elementary school, the dogs we had growing up, etc, found a place in this book. In a few years, I would like to do it again, and I’m sure I will find plenty to write about then too.

I want to add here that for my high school classes, we finally found a way to combine journaling with memory-keeping or self-introduction. Just in the last year, one of our teachers started a project with the students where they have to do one page a week and it has to include a certain amount of journaling. Each week, the teacher gives them a theme like “family”, “friends”, “hobbies”, “school life”, and so on. Next year, I will be teaching the same class, but we decided to try the Me:TAV method and go with letters of the alphabet. It will be slightly more challenging and the students will be expected to really fill up that journaling space, but we are all excited to see what they make!

When working on gathering our family members’ stories, we found that many were hesitant. But, by simply asking them questions (offering prompts), we were able to solicit wonderfully candid responses and soon found ourselves accompanying the interviewee on a wonderful trip down memory lane, often ducking in and out of side streets they might never have ventured down had we not given them a gently nudge in that direction. Many of those stories would never have been communicated, disappearing from this world when the interviewee did, never to be enjoyed by their future ancestors.

One tip I’ll share for “finding one’s voice” when writing is to think about your storytelling in much the way I recommend my business clients create marketing verbiage: who’s your customer (audience)? why do they care about what you have to share, what’s in it for them? If you can write to them and offer the information they would find interesting and/or important, you have accomplished so much. As an example, if you are writing to your teenager about the challenges they’re facing, you’ll likely find that they are more open to “hearing” you if you can offer information (maybe even suggestions – gasp!) through stories about your teen years – help them to see you as a once-awkward teen and they’ll likely find it easier to relate to you.

I always enjoy the roundtable discussions, picking up at least one or two ideas during every episode. Thanks!

And in case your wondering, here is the short version of my story. When I was a senior in high school, my parents took me to a car dealership to get “some parts for their car”. When we got there I said I wasn’t getting out because I didn’t want to fall in love with some car (haha). They made me, and as we were going in I see this gray 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse, stick shift, second hand with barely any miles, and I said how nice that car was, basically my dream car. It turned out that my parents had gone to the dealership before, saw it, and bought it. I can’t even describe the feeling I got when they told me it was mine. There was some instant crying for sure. I still have the car and will run it to the ground. I still love it!

So I guess that wasn’t short, but with a little alteration I think it will basically be my journaling. Wow, that was easy!! :)

Keisha

:)