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Welcome
to Library of Memories 2010!
If you
are half as excited as I am to be here, we are in good shape.
I cannot believe how photography and scrapbooking have matured
and evolved since the first session of LOM back in 2006.
This session is especially important for two reasons:
- You
are here.
- As
previously mentioned, I have made some pretty BIG changes
to my LOM curriculum.
Obviously,
if this is your first time taking Library of Memories,
changes to the curriculum will not matter to you. If you
are returning for a refresh experience, please see my note
at the bottom of this welcome letter.
Please let me know if you have not yet received your
welcome packet in the mail.
Email admin@bigpicturescrapbooking.com
and put LOM packet in the subject line.
Meet
the LOM Team.
The first thing you need to know is that seven alumni experts
join me in this session. I'm so tickled to bring you the
wisdom of LOM Trainers: Kayla Lamoreaux, April Peebles,
Monica McNeill and Tamara Morrison. These women have been
coaches for two years and have earned their very own LOM
blog, where they will post personal adaptations and insights
each week as we progress through our curriculum. Please
also welcome, three new coaches: Margie Scarpignato, Molly
McCarthy and Tracy Bzowy who will join our trainers in responding
to your questions on the Get Coaching forum. You will need
plenty of support and encouragement as you progress through
this course and I'm happy to say you'll have it!
What's
New for 2010
Our Classroom
I hope you'll take a few minutes right off the bat to familiarize
yourself with our classroom. The navigation menu is featured
on the library albums along the top of our classroom. Click
on the little tags and go exploring. To find archived lesson
materials you can either click on the "Archives"
tag or scroll all the way down in this home screen and click
on the lesson number you are looking for. There are ten
lessons total and each is outlined in our course syllabus.
If you
haven't already, please print a copy of our syllabus
and write chat dates and times on your calendar. I have
attempted to make an overwhelming amount of material less
overwhelming by breaking it down into ten lessons spread
out over thirteen weeks. I will follow the schedule outlined
in the syllabus as closely as I can. Major topics within
each lesson are bulleted according to where they can be
found (i.e. in a welcome note, handout, audio message, etc.).
Our
classroom will refresh each Thursday. At minimum, there
will be a new welcome note from me. I encourage you to access
our classroom anytime, day or night. Take advantage of helpful
discussions on our very active forums and allow yourself
time to browse the gallery. Be careful though not to become
so engaged in our classroom community that you neglect your
weekly assignments. The best way to learn this system is
to apply it. Make an appointment with yourself every week
to work on your LOM assignments and DO NOT break these appointments.
The task of organizing and scrapbooking years of photos
is a daunting one, but you can do it - in fact, there is
no time like the present, so dive in!
Pre-class
Materials
Hopefully you've had time to begin preparing prints and
digital images as outlined in the pre-classroom
materials. Continue to sort, purge and prepare your
pictures while you are working on lesson one, this week.
Lesson
One: How Are You Currently Scrapbooking?
Begin by printing the Personal Page Assessment download
and spontaneously answer the first two questions.
Next,
listen to my audio message, The problem with "caught
up." This week, we are going to take a look back,
before forging onward - you need to understand your current
approach to making pages before you can alter or change
directions.
Someone
once said, "If you don't know where you are going,
you might just end up there!" There is a vast difference
between scrapbooking pictures and scrapbooking memories
- one can actually be quite efficient with the first and
completely ineffective with the second. The Library of
Memories system will help you find and use your pictures
to scrapbook memories. The freedom you discover in this
course will bring you a wonderful sense of satisfaction
that relieves loads of guilt and anxiety.
Our
handout this week walks you through an assignment that uses
the cool sticky notes that came in your welcome packet.
This assignment is NOT busy-work. Remember that you have
signed the Scrapstrong pledge and agreed to follow-through
on ALL assignments I give you! I know you will unearth
interesting trends in your scrapbooking habits by taking
the time to do the sticky-note assignment.
Backwards,
Forwards or Both?
It's human nature to ask questions about the future, especially
when it feels uncertain. If you've been scrapbooking a while,
you may have wondered about the logistics of potentially
switching to a new "system."
In other
words, should you adapt to Library of Memories just
moving forward or should you try and retrofit it as well?
The answer: it's completely up to you.
I realize
this is a rather lame answer if you were hoping for more,
so here are some thoughts and personal opinions on this
popular query …
- If
you have several incomplete annual albums and the pages
would be relatively easy to rearrange, I would eventually
move these layouts into library albums. The gaps in your
story will disappear and your burden will be immediately
lighter.
- If
you have several completed albums, especially if they
are of the strap-hinge variety -- I would call it good
and move forward.
- If
you have a combination of the above, for example completed
albums through 2005, incomplete albums for 2006 through
2009 and several piles of random layouts completed last
year, I would incorporate everything since your last complete
album into your new library. These older albums and layouts
will become very special to you as time goes by - as they
will be visual reminders of where you've been and what
you are able to focus on now with a more liberating method
of memory keeping.
-
If you feel at all unsettled about changing directions,
I would create a layout featuring you and your adorable
clipboard that tells the world (or at least your family)
that you are taking a new approach with your scrapbooks
starting NOW! Place this page at the end of the last album
you were working on and consider it closure.
Whatever
you are feeling, please know that you don't need to decide
right now and that you can change your mind at any time!
We won't be moving layouts around for several weeks.
Have
a wonderful week!
I encourage you to post a photo of yourself (labeled with
your first name and location) to our "Getting Started"
gallery. Feel free to post a photo of your clipboard there
as well.
I especially look forward to seeing your least-common layouts
posted to our "Lesson One" gallery.
Get
busy and I'll see you on the message boards!
*A
note to LOM alumni
I have always allowed my personal Library of Memories
system to evolve and while there have been minor tweaks
here and there over the last five years, this year marks
significant changes to both my personal system and the recommendations
I am sharing with you in class. If you are an alum student
you will want to save and/or print all the materials in
this session. The basic concepts and principles have not
changed, but content has been reorganized so it flows better
and can be referenced with greater ease. Changes reflect
both survey feedback and better use of new digital tools
and technology. I'm so glad you are back!
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Audio:
The problem with "caught up"
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Audio:
What I learned from Peter Jennings
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Lesson
1 Assignments
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