Normally, I prefer to put a layout a week so I can stretch the content over weeks and so I don’t overwhelm you with tons of photos. But I wanted to say something today as a follow up to the scrappy related thoughts I put on my diary entries on April 8 and April 9.

I wrote this up at A Million Memories yesterday. It repeats some of what I wrote in the last two days, so apologies for that but I wanted to keep it intact so here it goes.

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Hi everyone.

I got this kit just a few days ago and it is absolutely stunning and even though I had planned to take my time and do a layout a day or so, it turned out I couldn’t resist tearing into it. Most of you already know that I am a simple scrapper and don’t put so much on my pages. I tend to journal a lot and I still spend a ton of time on each page but this time I had several goals. And I wanted to share with you some scrappy stuff I’ve been thinking about lately.

I write in my blog 2-3 times a day. One of the entries every day is a Daily Diary where I share photos I’ve taken, photos of my kids, what we did that day, etc. I also have 3 other sections. One for 3 things I’m grateful for that day, one for 2 things David’s (my son) grateful for that day and one section called “Note to Self” which is where I write about things I am thinking of, things I am being mindful of. I’ve been making an effort to be more mindful of my thoughts, actions, feelings in 2010 so this is the section where I practice that daily.

In yesterday’s diary entry, here’s what I wrote:

I was listening to Paperclipping Roundtable podcast yesterday and I heard a few pithy comments that I was still thinking of today, especially as I scrapbooked. The two guests were a listener, Heather Lord and Stephanie Howell, and they both said something that stuck with me. Stephanie said how years from now when her girls look at her layouts, they will not complain about how it doesn’t have the visual triangle and while I laughed, it’s so true. When I was looking through the layouts with David yesterday, he couldn’t care whether the photos were perfect or laid on the paper perfectly. He just loved that they were there. He wanted to hear the stories. The rest didn’t matter. He won’t care that the paper I used was six months old. He won’t even care if the greens or blues match honestly. He will only focus on the photos and the stories, I am sure of it. This is important to remember for me as I struggle to put my layouts together, especially when I focus so hard on the embellishments and where each should go.

Heather also said something pithy. She said her phrase of the year is “It’s better finished than perfect.” (I apologize, I am paraphrasing, since I am writing from memory.) But it’s so true! Years from now, the only layouts I will have are the ones I finished. The stories I did tell. Even without photos. Even with crappy photos. Or even with just photos. (As much as I like telling the story I think it’s still better to have a layout with photos that tell a story than no layout at all.) Maybe it was at some point, but scrapbooking is not art for me anymore. For art, I do the art journaling, the tags, etc. Scrapbooking is for telling my stories. It’s for keeping our memories. So a layout done, however imperfect, is MUCH better than a layout that is never done. So this is a good mantra for me. Something I need to remember as I get frustrated with how far from perfect my page looks. Better done than perfect! (Btw, as a commenter kindly reminded me, Heather’s phrase was “Done is better than perfect.”)

The reason I wanted to copy this here is to remind all of you who pile up the kits and don’t use them that the only memories you end up preserving are the layouts you complete. So tear into those beautiful kits and get to work. They don’t have to be perfect. They are there for you to remember.

I’ve been working on my son Nathaniel’s baby book for the last year. He will turn one in two weeks (holy cow!) and the way I designed his book is that I preserve each week. A two-page spread in my binder has six photos on one side and a layout on the other. Together, they represent a week’s worth of photos of my son. (I’ve taken photos of him everyday he’s been alive.) So this means I will have 52 layouts of him when he hits his birthday. (Actually a few more cause I’ve done a few extras here and there.) Anyhow, so I’ve been doing these layouts with every kit for the last few months. Over this time, I had certain photos I skipped for several reasons. Either there was no story, or the colors in the photo bugged me and didn’t inspire me, or who knows. This month, I pulled all of those photos and decided I was going to scrap every single one of them and I also pulled the 4 recent photos I hadn’t scrapped and I got down to business.

To add to the crazy combination of photos (most of which I was finding uninspiring), I didn’t feel like journaling this time around. (very rare for me!) I didn’t want to sit at the computer and measure things and write words and etc. I wanted to do it all by hand (and I HATE my handwriting and can’t write straight to save my life) So here I was without the two things that inspire me the most when I scrap: photos and words.

But I was determined to make it work. I reminded myself that the only stories that get told are the ones I scrap. So with my photos in hand, I got down to business.

And I did ten layouts. TEN. And I have enough leftover to probably do at least 4 more. (Yes, I am a simple scrapper, which helps.) You will notice that the layouts are very different which shows the versatility of this kit. They cover Halloween, Easter, Christmas. 8.5×11, 12×12, 17×11, 24×12. Lots of photos and single photos. Lots of journaling and almost no journaling. They are all imperfect. I genuinely did the best I could with each but I kept the mantra in mind that “done is better than perfect.”

I’m only telling all this because I really hope that it will encourage you to sit and scrap your stories. Your life. Even if you don’t share it with us. Open that beautiful kit and create some pages with it. I hope you will.

Here are mine:

(This is a direct lift of Suzy Plantamura’s magnificent layout. )

(inspired by this beautiful layout)

And I wanted to leave you with a gratitude entry I put on my blog for April 8 (the day I got my kit and did the first layout.)

I made a layout about Nathaniel’s first Christmas today. David liked it so much that he got upset when he found out it was going in Nathaniel’s album. (which I am working feverishly to complete). I explained to him that this was Nathaniel’s first. He said he didn’t have a page for his first Christmas (of course he does; he’s the whole reason I started this madness.) so out came his baby album where we looked at his first Christmas which then led into looking at four years of layouts. David’s whole childhood right there in front of our eyes. He begged to stay up extra minutes just to look at the pages. (He had asked to stay up late and play legos but he said he much preferred looking at the layouts.) I am so grateful that I have this hobby. I didn’t care one bit about which page wasn’t perfect, I drank in all of our memories. He asked me to read all of the journaling and I enjoyed our hour together so much. I am so so grateful for these moments with my son. Maybe one day he will grow up and not care about these pages but for now he loves them and I love them deeply and I am so grateful for them. Each time I am caught up in the craziness of it all, I just have to remember tonight and remember that, for me, it’s not the product, it’s not the team I am on or the comments I got. It’s that these are my stories. Our stories. And we will get to live them again and again. Forever.

I hope this inspires you to sit down and create at least one layout today.