I am feeling my way through Project Life and find that most of my story is on my blog right now.  It is a public blog, so it may not always be deep.  The key for me right now is how quickly I can share it with others.  I still think back to the first PRT episode where Stacy Julian said that “It all counts.”  

Someone submitted a question about using QR codes in scrapbooking.  Nancy mentioned that she thought that they wouldn’t be relevant 50 years from now because technology changes so quickly, and they were quickly dismissed as a solution for incorporating video into our memory keeping.  I couldn’t disagree more. 

I have to say that I use QR codes all the time.  They are a great way to include your child’s baseball game highlights,  funny moments, or roller coaster rides in your scrapbook pages. There are many free websites that will create a QR code from a URL and you just link up your You Tube video and print them out (just like Izzy suggested!).  (Here’s my favorite: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/) Project Life pockets are perfect for this sort of thing! 

If the technology moves on, we have a bit of ephemera showing what was current technology “way back when!”  My kids love to look through the scrapbooks and use their iPod Touch to view the videos.  Now, my scrap pages are interactive in a whole new way.  It may just be “current technology” for now, but not all of us scrap for longevity.  I hope my books become heirlooms, but I make them for me.  I think there are several of us who scrap for that reason. 

Thanks for listening! Non-schmoe? Non schmoo? Either way, I’m a happy supporter of Paperclipping!

First of all belated HAPPY ONE HUNDRED. Discovered your show at almost half way and love, love, love it. Though it’s a little late to comment for the next show, I wanted to mention another idea, how to add journaling similar to the way Karen uses her stamp. From “the” stamping’ company ;-)) there are several wheels offered, f. ex. one, called dotted lines. Unfortunatly this one retired. But for folk interested, probably you can find it on ebay or from a friend, who doesn’t need it any longer. Take a blank sheet of paper on each side and a ruler for adjusting and you get journaling lines in a length needed  :-)

Non schmoe greetings from Germany  :-)
Nad!ne.

I’d like to add a few thoughts to the discussion. For me, scrapbooking began almost exclusively as a way to display my photos, rather than being tucked away in those boxes or in regular photo albums. I’m a creative person, so the artistic side of creating pages and mini-books appealed to me. In the beginning, the photos were the motivation behind creating layouts. I didn’t do a lot of journaling. I let the photos tell most of the story with a few missing details handwritten on the page.

As I delved more deeply into the art of scrapbooking, I took classes at Big Picture, from Ali Edwards and Karen Grunberg, that encouraged me to focus more on the story behind the actual scenes depicted in the photos. I wanted to include not only the pieces of the story not included in the photos, but also the way I felt about that story or how the story figured into the grander tale of my life. More and more, story became the motivation behind my scrapbook pages, though there are still occasions that a photo inspires me, as well.

Every once in awhile, I will see a product that motivates me to create a scrapbook page, with the photo and story coming later. It doesn’t happen a lot, especially not anymore, but it does happen, and whatever instigation gets me to create a platform to preserve memories is all good.

I also wanted to comment on the issue of journaling. I’ve been a journal writer since I was fourteen, so for me, it definitely comes easier than it does to people for which writing is not as big a part of their everyday life. Still, I struggle sometimes with what words to use, especially in my fiction or memoir pieces. I learned awhile back that determining the audience really helps when writing, whether it’s a story, an article, or a scrapbook page. When I write journaling for the pages I will (hopefully) will be reminiscing over when I’m 82, my tone and word choice are totally different than when I write a bit of journaling on a page that will go into my niece Olivia’s book, which I plan to give to her eventually.

Determining the audience may help remove the block. It has for me.

Thank you so much for always giving us interesting things to think about on the Roundtable.

That photos is awesome — you honed in on the tea pot and cup and I wouldn’t have thought to do that. Also, I really want that tea pot! :)