Guest Post | Make Everyday A Scrapbooking Adventure | Shimelle Laine

I’m going to start this entire post with a bit of a risky statement: I love grammar. It’s a risk for two reasons. First, you may have just written off the rest of this entire post because it’s going to be roughly as exciting as a junior high English lesson. And second, if I make a single grammar mistake in this post, I’m going to look like a total idiot. But I’m going to go with it anyway: I love grammar.

I love grammar because something really small can make a big difference. Like how including or excluding a space between two words can totally change their meanings. For example, everyday means ordinary, commonplace and nothing special. Add that space and every day means the days themselves, like each and every day. So the big question: do we let every day be everyday?

Ali’s Week in the Life project is all about finding something far more exciting than everyday in every day of your week. I love this project and have documented a week each year since 2006. It makes you look at each day that week in detail and long after that particular week, you may find you want to include more of your day to day life in your scrapbooks. But, you know, without it feeling ordinary, commonplace or everyday at all.

There are so many ways you can make every day much more than everyday, but all I can really focus on is the scrapbooking aspect. I don’t just love grammar. I also love scrapbooking, and specifically how it can give back to your life. I love how scrapbooking can make every day a bit of an adventure. Not the type of adventure that requires sunscreen and bug spray and rock-climbing equipment, but the kind that puts a little something exciting in each and every day. So I turned on the camera at the table where I scrapbook and tried to put that into words and concrete ideas to share with you.

And I probably made some grammatical errors along the way.

Whether you’re scrapbooking your day to day life specifically for Week in the Life or for more general pages in your albums, I hope the scrapbooking adventure is something that’s still alive for you. There are plenty more ways to keep the fun in this hobby and I’d love for you to share your favourites. But more than anything, I’d love for each of us to remember that this hobby that we enjoy also gives a lot back to us, to our families and our friends. I’d love for us to be proud to say we are scrapbookers.

Even though spellcheck doesn’t want to accept scrapbookers as grammatically correct.

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Shimelle Laine was the first instructor to bring online classes to the scrapbooking community, and teaches a variety of classes throughout the year at her website, shimelle.com.  She is a Garden Girl at Two Peas in a Bucket, designs for Jenni Bowlin Studio and served as an editor for the UK’s Scrapbook Inspirations books and magazines. You can read more of her work on her blog, Pretty Paper. True Stories.

Shimelle’s latest class, Explore, focuses on making every day a scrapbooking adventure. It starts Monday the 18th of July, but you can join at any time, and it’s designed so you can use it right alongside Week in the Life, should you wish. Sign up here.