Just Press Play :: November 2012

Welcome to the Just Press Play monthly story challenge for November!!  Just Press Play is a monthly challenge that is story-and-prompt centric.   My hope is to encourage you to Just.Press.Play.  Just start, just begin.  Dive in to telling your story one page, one journal prompt, at a time and have a lot of fun in the process.

It goes like this: I post a prompt.  You get your story on, creating and sharing your page or project inspired by the journaling nudge.    One winner will receive a $10 gift certificate to my store!

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As we step ever nearer the holiday season, we find ourselves busier and our days fuller and faster, all the while trying to focus on the things we love most about this time of year.  It’s a good time to be deliberate about gratefulness.  The ritual and tradition for me this time of year is giving thanks, daily.  Intentionally.   And one of my most favorite ways to home in on gratefulness and stay connected with a thankful heart, is to include my family in the endeavor.

This month’s story prompt encourages us to ask our loved ones what THEY are thankful for, and document it.

As ever, there are many possibilities for story here:

You can conduct an actual Q&A and document it  (be sure to include actual quotes and snippets).

You can share the gratitudes in list format.

You can focus on one or two or a few specific gratitudes and document them in detail.

You can create a kind of portrait of family thanks.  Get your family and friends involved and take note of the things they love and give thanks for this year.

Here’s a peek at one of my past Get-My-Family-In-On-The-Fun pages when I first documented my daughter’s perspective of thankfulness.  That year we wrote down something we were thankful for every day in the month of November (the month of thanks).  Each day I asked my daughter to share what she was thankful for and I recorded her answers.  Then, I let her help me select the elements to use to paint the portrait of her thanks, in scrapping.  It was so fun!  And it remains one of our favorite pages.

journaling reads: This year I am thankful for snuggles in bed, mommy and daddy, hugs, playing, church friends. Church and bible books and singing. The park, slides, and coloring, dancing, and playing with daddy. Food. The beach. Sunshine and butterflies. Flowers. Animals (giraffes and hippos and sea turtles and horses).

Stretch Your Story tip: pages like these can be a fun and easy way to include loved ones in the scrapbooking and storytelling process.  You can even have them choose products (or create products) with you as you craft the page.  Or you can include some of their own handwriting or artwork or notes on the page itself (scanning or photographing if you are scrapping digitally).  These little touches add a bit of authenticity and a lot of fun to the process of documenting.

This year I chose to focus on a single Bugga thankfulness.  I chose to document an actual conversation that revealed her Gratitude of the Day and shared a glimpse of her personality as it is today, too.

journaling reads: november 2012. Bugga: “I am thankful for all the food and love and everything everybody’s Dad has given us.” Me: “Everybody’s Dad?” Bugga: “Yes. God. Everybody’s Dad.” Me: “Oh dear heart, I see. I love that.”

This kind of prompt is conducive to sharing and documenting quotes and conversations.  I love how Laura did that here, making use of talk bubbles as she captures the thanks of her girls.  And her use of color and creative cropping creates a fabulously fun energy for the page.

Stacy documented a specific gratitude, and one that simultaneously documents current events, shared by her son and using his own words in her journaling.  Her product choice marries perfectly with the “theme” of the story

And Nicole shared her son’s thankfulness by sharing his favorites as he expressed them in artwork.  This is one of my absolute favorite ways to include bits of authentic story in your scrapping: sharing one of a kind glimpses of moments/personalities in time.

I hope that these pages have planted seeds for your own storytelling and I so hope you’ll enjoy exploring this challenge!  I look forward to seeing your pages!!

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To join in the challenge this month, simply create a layout or project or post following the posted prompt. Then, upload to the Plant Your Story gallery and comment here with a link to your posted page. You have until the Friday 30 November at midnight EST, to complete the challenge. I will randomly select one winner to receive a $10 gift certificate to my store!!