Everyday Memory Keeping :: Marcy Penner | Crate Paper

Some of our most favorite stories are those collected from everyday life. The small stuff. Stuff that doesn't take up a lot of space. The easiest way to record it all is pocket page scrapbooking. Here is Marcy Penner with her own tiny stories and a few Confetti collection ideas.

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I'm a huge fan of pocket page scrapbooking. It lends itself incredibly well to the idea of "Everyday Memory Keeping". I would go so far as to say that it is currently my favorite method of memory keeping. All those little pockets make great homes for small-sized stories.

When I start a spread, I lay everything out on my poster board template. I don't make myself fit in a whole week on a single spread. I record only the events I deem necessary. This spread has various screenshots from my everyday life:

- Some shows we caught up on

- A screenshot of a movie we watched

- Some photos of my desk

- My youngest's artwork

- My oldest son's Lego scene

There were a couple of days that I journaled on cards ahead of time, so I popped those in place as well.

When I know how many pockets I have empty, I start pulling out papers and embellishments to fill them up. For this spread, I gathered some Open Book floral embellishments, a pocket from Maggie Holmes' Confetti, and a 3" x 4" Kiss Kiss card. I place those where I think I'll use them, trim up some patterned paper and check for balance on my spread.

And then I can start putting it together...

I don't embellish a lot in my pockets. I like to keep things pretty flat and simple most of the time. But, I had a "sister craft day" to journal about and it was just screaming for some glam.

For this pocket, I pulled some flower and leaf die-cuts, a "VIP Guest" ticket, a tag to journal on, and a pocket to house it all.

I trimmed the height of the pocket down to a little more than 4" tall. I layered the flowers, leaves, and ticket, and then sewed them together. I knew I couldn't sew them down afterwards because I'd end up sewing through my tag IN the pocket. I glued them onto the pocket, added my journaling and tucked it inside.

I kept the card in a pocket on the right side of the page. This ensured easy access for pulling the tag in and out.

I love the little red card from Kiss Kiss that has a heart cut from it. I wanted to use it alongside a photo of my son's artwork, but the saying on the card didn't fit. So, I took a label sticker from Confetti, wrote a few words on it, and stuck it on top the text.

**As an aside...I find that my pockets are pretty random. My stories are random and my photos are from different events. I usually don't have any trouble creating pockets that are a little eclectic and mismatched.

On another card, I added "24/7" to a simple tag and then glued the tag onto a piece of ledger paper. I left lots of room for journaling beneath the title.

I used this "Notes" die-cut from Confetti to create a quick little topper for another card.

Once all my cards are done, I take one last peek and shift anything around if I think it's unbalanced.

I love how many little stories of our everyday lives I have on these two pages. Just little snippets & bits of everyday stuff.

But, to me, that's the important stuff.