Online Scrapbooking Class :: True Stories - Journaling for Scrapbookers and Bloggers
For a long time, scrapbooking (and even the odd scrapbooking class) was something I did in my spare time, not my every day. The spare time when I was not in my more traditional classroom, teaching English to teenagers. The spare time I needed to kick back after being my most energetic and my most creative in finding ways to get those very teenagers to embrace things like reading and writing as useful and enjoyable rather than just required.
Now that scrapbooking is my every day, there is part of me that misses that very core of my curriculum and the excitement at seeing someone realise that perhaps writing has an unwarranted bad rap. Discovering that really, putting pen to paper can be an exercise in being in complete control of your world and saying things exactly how you want to say them and better yet – saying them in a way that anyone else could pick them up and understand you completely.
I’ve said it many times: to me, scrapbooking is pretty paper and true stories. I’ve taught plenty of classes about the pretty paper. This time, we’re going to focus on True Stories.
True Stories is an online class that starts on the 25th of October, but it can be completed at any time. It lasts three weeks, with fifteen full-colour PDF prompts delivered straight to your inbox, Mondays through Fridays. From the beginning, there is absolutely no way to ‘fall behind’ or ‘not finish’ because it’s not that kind of class. You can follow along by working on a prompt each day if you would like, but you can also keep the prompts as a reference for when they come in useful for your own scrapbooking, blogging or other story-telling needs.
True Stories covers fifteen different ways to approach your story and commit it to paper. You can use these prompts as a scrapbooker and see your journaling evolve to something that will be a treasure to read. You can use the prompts as a blogger to make your entries feel like honest, unique and compelling tales. Or you can just use them in general as a collection of ways to add a bit more excitement to your writing if you’re feeling like you’re in a rut of writing the same way on every project.
True Stories is a natural complement to all the classes I offer here at shimelle.com. If you loved Something from Almost Nothing, you’ll love that the prompts include scrapbook pages you can create with the supplies you already have on hand. If you loved Blogging for Scrapbookers, these topics will push your writing another step, and we all know that a successful blog can be just as much about the way something is said rather than just what is mentioned. If you love Journal your Christmas but would like to expand your written memories of the season, this will do just that. And if you have been working on scrapping your own story with a class like You Think You Know Me or My Freedom, then there is a lot of content here that would be a happy match to writing from your own memory (though it’s not a requirement of True Stories to just write about yourself). This natural complement is why it doesn’t matter when you take this class or if you use it in the order the prompts are delivered or instead choose to keep it all as one reference and dip into the materials whenever they are most useful for you.
True Stories includes my own notes, scrapbook pages and writing exercises in each prompt, but there are also many special guests. On the crafty side of things, a different scrapbooking star (or two!) will join us in each prompt to share their spin on storytelling — they will share a new layout with you as well as their thoughts on writing. On the writing side, I’ll be joined by Relly Annett-Baker (twitter | bio), who travels around the world teaching corporations and designers how to get the most from words. And she’s a scrapbooker! So she’s the perfect balance — she’s a technical expert with a love of this same hobby we all share. She’ll be sharing her own tips and exercises to bring it all together – and Relly has a wicked sense of humour too! I can’t wait to show you what all these great contributors have helped me build for you, and I just love the variety of backgrounds that we’ve all come from while coming together to share one love: scrapbooks that tell beautiful stories.
True Stories also includes a private forum for class participants to discuss and share their work, including a section for getting feedback on your writing if you would like to share your journaling with others, or the option to submit your writing for feedback privately if you would rather just have some tips from the course leaders rather than share with everyone in the class. Like all shimelle.com classes, True Stories includes permanent access to all the class materials so you can return to the prompts and discussions at absolutely any time.
Ready to sign up? You can sign up at any time and you can choose to pay in UK Pounds or US Dollars. If neither of those is your currency, you can choose whichever you prefer – you don’t need to do anything special to change the currency from your account.
You can pay by credit/debit card (click on the left of the payment screen) or Paypal account (log in on the right of the payment screen). The email address on your Paypal account is where your class materials will be sent by default, so please be sure this is a valid email address. If you would like your prompts sent to a different email address, you can enter this email in the ‘notes to seller’ field or you can send me an email (shimelle at gmail dot com) and let me know if you miss that step.
Class starts on the 25th of October but you can sign up at any time (even if you are reading this later than the 25th). Please be aware that your class registration is processed by an actual person (me!) and that means there will be a short wait before you receive your information. It’s never more than a day and usually much, much less, but I do try to make a habit of sleeping once per day, in general.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me or ask in the comments on this post.
I’m so excited to write with all of you — especially since you’ll never have homework deadlines which means I’ll never give any detentions!
xlovesx
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