Hello Story or My Introduction To Scrapbooking

I'm in the third week of Ali Edwards Hello Story - a 12 week scrapbooking class - and I'm loving it. 

Total noob here. This is my first scrapbook 12x12 page... EVER. It's a timeline of important events in my life. It's actually missing a photo still - I'll add that once it's printed.

But excuse me while I take a moment to jump up & down with excitement that I was able to create this page. It felt so creative and engaging to make something. I was totally in flow and was racing against the clock to finish it before a dinner date.

I was surprised by how much color I wanted. And that I added the water-color background not having a freakin' clue what I was doing. When I thought to use feathers as a symbol for my own trust / lifeline, my heart jumped. And I am so so so proud of myself for cutting those colored paper feathers from a patterned paper - and not feeling frustrated that I didn't have the "perfect" embellishments.

I loved getting paint on my hands, following where the layout went,  telling my story and improvising. 

I've been working on Project Life since January but I'm still not sure about it. While I'm printing WAY more photos than I ever have, it seems like an awful lot of paper to be accumulating as the years go on. I'm committed to documenting 2013 via the 2-page weekly spread, but I may rethink this for next year. 

And the Hello Story class is so inspiring. Ali does a really great job of offering scrapbooking as a vehicle to dig deeper into your life story. She says "scrapbooking is an opportunity to tell stories that give perspective to our overall life experience". 

This is why I journal, take photos, keep this blog... I want perspective, understanding, deeper meaning made out of my life experiences. And I want to read / hear others' stories too.

So, there's magic here. As I wrote yesterday, trying my best to keep the supplies low and the production high. But I think I'm on to something.