... Big Picture Scrapbooking ...

One day Trey came home from pre-school with a paper bag full of thankfulness—each item represented something that mothers do. He told me, I could keep everything, but his teacher said he was supposed to eat the chocolate kiss!

If you're like me, when something like this happens you grab your camera and take a photo, but what do you do with the stuff? Where do you store it until you're ready to create a page? How do you manage the all of incoming stuff when you already have a lifetime of it stashed away?

Welcome to lesson 7, which is all about memorabilia. For the purposes of LOM, I'm defining memorabilia anything that triggers a memory, that is not a photograph. Memorabilia can go a long way in helping us preserve and share authentic stories.

But, seriously Stacy you have no idea how much stuff I have. Where do I start?

As you read and listen this week, pay attention to the thoughts and feelings you have. Is there a box, marked "high school" at the top of the closet that you'd really like to open and revisit? Are you more drawn to rifling through the shoebox of cards and letters your grandmother kept and gave to you? What about that big manila envelope you brought back from Washington, D.C. four years ago—maybe you should start there?

Guess what? You can start anywhere you want to start. Start with any pile or box of memorabilia that feels interesting and know that in 15 minutes you can begin to sift, sort, purge and prioritize your way to a more accessible organization and the ability to incorporate more of these wonderful bits and pieces of life onto your layouts and into your story. Start, by printing and reading the handout and then listen to the series of short audio messages.

The goal with memorabilia isn't just to use it, but to learn from it—memories and insights that emerge as you sift, sort, purge and prioritize will help you become a better storyteller; and sharing and displaying memorabilia is easier than you might think. Spending more time with memorabilia you've saved yields the same magical results as spending more time with photos you've taken.

But … before you do anything else this week, please pat yourself on the back and feel really good about where you are right now. If you don't want to worry about memorabilia this week, then don't. Print this week's lesson to refer back to in the future and then focus on something that will bring you a stronger sense of accomplishment right now.

Note to Alumni: I have spent the last year thinking about and refining my approach to memorabilia. While most of what you read and hear will sound familiar, there are some significant changes from instruction given in past years!

Audio: Toss and Go