I made this art journal page in response to a prompt in Shimelle's class "True Stories" about capturing your own private language - you know those pet phrases unique to your world that might be forgotten months or years from now, if not jotted down and explained. It's just a little thing, but as I wrote above, "I find it so sweet when Clara signs off her texts in agreement, 'Kk'."
Shimelle's class was all about capturing stories before they get lost and about recording them in ways that are more meaningful that simply "who, what, when and where." Fifteen emails over three weeks covered a variety of interesting ways to tell stories (including prompts such as writing a letter, journaling in the form of a play, and using numbers as a starting point). Each email actually included several prompts for how to approach the day's lesson, so it was easy to find something as a jumping off point. Shimelle featured a layout of her own and one from a guest artist each day showing how they used the daily lesson. There were also several sketches that could be used for scrapbook pages. In a very cool twist, every day Shimelle featured a lesson from a writing expert who shared interesting insights into improving your writing, related to the day's lessons. These insights were fresh and interesting and very different from the sorts of things usually discussed in scrapbook classes. Although I used the class as a way to create art journal pages, I know I will also be able to use the prompts for scrapbook pages and blog posts. As a final bonus, Shimelle emailed a booklet of 52 more prompts with lots of samples to keep your journaling all year long! Overall, it was a wonderful class which offered fresh approaches to journaling, either in the format to be used or the subjects to be covered. Priced at only $15, it's an Easy A!
