From the Desk of Nettio Designs Issue No. 1

In last week’s intro post, A New Year, A New Nettio Designs, I shared a bit about my focus for Nettio Designs in 2013: creatively capture your life adventures – cultivate a life full of adventures big and small and capture them in a way that screams you.

This week I want to dive into the details of what it means to “creatively capture your life adventures,” by breaking it down into four parts and sharing why I chose these specific words and how they all tie into memory keeping.

1) Creatively

When I look at the big picture world of scrapbooking, I see two ends of a broad spectrum:

1) Scrapbookers who’s main focus is to stay “caught up,” and scrapbook every (or a majority of) their photos and stories in a way that’s fast and efficient.

and

2) Scrapbookers who love the creative process and relish in the visual and artistic side of scrapbooking, with little emphasis on storytelling.

Most of us likely fall somewhere in between those two. I know I do.

For the purpose of these emails and my overall vision, I’ll be leaning more heavily towards the creative side of scrapbooking because that’s what I’m all about.

As much as I’m all for working smarter not harder whenever possible, my goal with scrapbooking has never been to scrapbook every photo or make my scrap process as fast as possible. If you’re here because you’re secretly hoping I’ll share my secret for how I create creative layered digital pages in 30 minutes or less, I’m afraid you’re going to be very disappointed, haha.

This why I chose the phrase creatively capture your life adventures and not just capture your life adventures.

Because I see the creative design process of memory keeping as being as integral a part of the process as storytelling. It’s one of the things I love most about this hobby. Challenging myself to find new and different ways to tell my story in a way that says “me.” And odds are if you’re reading this email right now, there’s probably a part of you that’s passionate about creativity too. Otherwise wouldn’t we all just be sticking our photos in a photo album or shoebox and calling it a day?

I’ll be talking in more detail about creativity in next week’s email, but here are a few questions I want to explore:

• What does it really mean to be creative?
• Are there things we can do to make ourselves more creative?
• What about using tools like technology or templates – how can we use those in a way that enhances our creativity instead of using them as a crutch?

2) Capture

By definition, the word “capture” means multiple things: to take captive by force, to gain possession or control or to succeed in preserving in lasting form. That last one sounds a whole lot like memory keeping, doesn’t it?

When I think of the word capture with regards to scrapbooking, I think of stopping a moment in time and saving a piece of that moment for tomorrow.

It’s not about digital vs hybrid or paper scrapbooking. In fact, it doesn’t have to be tied to just scrapbooking at all.

When we write a handwritten note or post a Facebook status update or Instagram photo, we capture our life adventures.

At it’s core, to capture your life adventures means preserving your stories through words and photos and curating those moments into a larger overall picture of your life.

Here are a few capture-related questions I’d like to explore:

• How can we best use technology to capture our life adventures?
• How can we make sure we’re capturing what’s most important to us?
• And how do we do it in a way that’s not overwhelming?

3) Your

There’s a reason when I came up with this idea to creatively capture your life adventures that I used the word your. Not “your family’s”, not “our”, but YOUR. And here’s is why:

Because one of my hard-core beliefs when it comes to memory keeping is that the #1 most important story you can possible tell is your own.

I know there are some of you cringe at the thought of All About Me scrapbooking or even worse, scrapbooking photos of yourself, because it feels so far outside your comfort zone.

But here’s the thing: Your family, your children and your spouse will all have their own memories of your life together. But unless you take the time to share your thoughts, your likes or your dislikes, what they won’t have is the story of you.

When I look through my grandmother’s scrapbooks, my favorite moments are the handwritten notes and stories that share a glimpse into her personality – like the fact she thought my grandfather was “wolfish,” a.k.a a “player” back in the day when they first met. Those are the moments that make me smile because they bring me closer to her. And that’s what I want from my own scrapbooks. I want my stories captured in a creative way where my personality shines through.

Some of the questions I’ll be asking with regards to telling your personal story are:

• How can we tell our personal stories in a creative way that captures our individual personalities?
• How can we find a balance between telling our own stories and the stories of the ones we love?

4) Life Adventures

When most people first hear the word “adventure” I think they picture traveling around the world with all their belongings in a backpack or skydiving out of airplane.

But I see adventure less as an action and more as a frame of mind. Being open to adventure means having an overall attitude of openness, discovery and growth, with a willingness to embrace whatever life throws at you.

To creatively capture your life adventures, you need to be willing to push outside your comfort zone both creatively and in life (are you sensing a theme here yet?), seek out new adventures and experiences and use your scrapbooks and memory keeping as a way to document your journey. It’s about finding adventure in the every day and celebrating all adventures both big & small, good and bad.

Looking back, it’s no surprise to me that I discovered digital scrapbooking during our first month of living in Seoul, South Korea. It was by far one of the biggest life adventures I’ve ever been on and looking at my world thru a scrapbooker’s lens allowed me to process and see my experience in a different way than I probably would have otherwise.

With regards to life adventures, here are a few questions I want to explore:

• How can we use our scrapbooks as a way to not only document but enhance our life journey?
• How can we cultivate a life full of adventures big and small?
• And how can find the adventure in the everyday?

Now It’s Your Turn

So there you have it: the 4 key pieces of what it means to creatively capture your life adventures. I hope it made you extra excited to go on this journey into creativity, scrapbooking and adventures with me.

And if you are, FANTASTIC!…Because here’s your first homework assignment.

“Say whaaaa….., homework?”

Yes, homework! You didn’t think I’d let you off that easy did you? As the old Chinese proverb says, “a journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.” Consider this your first step on your journey to cultivate the life you want and capture it in a way that screams you..

So here’s your first homework assignment: 

When you hear (or read, really) the phrase, “creatively capture your life adventures,” what does that mean to you? What about it excites you? Is there anything that makes you a little bit nervous or feels outside your comfort zone?

I’d love to hear from you so please share your thoughts in the comments below!

This post was originally posted as part of my From The Desk of Nettio Designs weekly email. Want to get in on the action? Sign up for Nettio Designs emails here.

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