A few weeks ago, I was sitting down looking through my albums. They’re disorganized. They’re out of order. There are photography tags and shipping labels on the page protectors. Not user friendly at all. As I was flipping through the pages, I realized that I have spent a lot of time on the pages that are there. And I’m proud of them, don’t get me wrong. But there are so many other stories I have to tell, and want to tell. So many stories for which I didn’t have a picture, or the picture wasn’t good enough, or I ran out of time and went on to something else, or whatever other reason kept me from telling it.

I actually asked myself as I looked through my albums, “If I disappear tomorrow, and this is all there is, is that enough?” And I’ve been haunted by the answer to that question.

This experience was part of a process I’ve been going through this summer, while I’ve been working on other projects, traveling and teaching (photo editing, digital scrapbooking, etc). I’ve been realizing that for me, there needs to be a way to capture little stories that can either be made into scrapbook pages, or not. There needs to be a way to fill in those gaps for which there might not be a full-blown 2-page spread that took me 4 hours. But that is a story worth telling nonetheless.

For example, I’ve never told the story of how my beautiful bridesmaid and her fiance and my wedding photographer all gathered together at my wedding reception, produced guitars and a bongo drum, literally out of nowhere, and played us a set of love songs. A story worth telling? You better believe it. And this might otherwise go unscrapped, because of course I have no photos of it.

We all have stories like that. Everyone. And I’m here to tell you that what you have to say matters, whether it makes it onto a scrapbook page or not. Whether you took a picture of it or not.

So I began devising a system. For capturing the stuff that lives in between the Big Events that we tend to scrap more often. For recording the little things that make life rich and fulfilling and unique. I am really excited about it. I hope that this new system will give me a lot of freedom to spend time on the projects I want to spend time on, without stressing that stories are going untold otherwise. AND, most importantly, that it will gives me Stories in Hand when I am ready to pick a new project to work on.

So are you ready to gather some stories, so you can have them in hand?

In class, we will learn:

• Techniques for capturing memories from our own lives and from others
• Dozens of prompts for stories you might have forgotten
• A cool system for capturing the stories happening in your life right now, AND for listing the stories you have yet to tell
  
• Printable goodies that will make your “capture” system work, AND keep it cute! (you know we gotta keep it cute - there’s nothing in life that’s not better with a great design)
• “Next steps” video tutorials for turning your stories into pages
  
• Technologies you can use to help you gather your stories together with photos, video, your blog, or any other media you have that gives a peek into your life

Oh yeah, by the way, this class is COMPLETELY FREE.

All you need to do to register is follow the links that will appear here, on the home page at JessicaSprague.com, and in the email I’ll send to everyone on my newsletter list on October 20, and type in the code we’ll give you. You’ll be added to the class group and have FREE unlimited access to the class materials. Everyone who is interested will be IN. There is no class limit.

So, why? Why THIS class? And WHY FREE?

Partly it’s because I feel strongly about the concept here. I think starting from stories is a unique approach that is independent of the actual means we use to capture them (for example, I have a good friend who is WAY into video - you’ll be meeting him in a few months - and he has captured all his stories on film and DVD. Amazing.). I think that’s a powerful way to connect with other people and begin capturing, collecting, and sharing stories.

“There was this one time when I …” Doesn’t that sound awesome? I can’t wait! I LOVE stories. And I am anxious to work right alongside everyone in class to list and catalog some of my own stories that would otherwise have gone untold.

And the other part is this. I want you to see what the JessicaSprague.com learning experience is like. There’s never been a better opportunity to check out what the videos are like, to participate in a private class message board, and to have access to top-of-the-line class materials than the Stories in Hand class.

So consider this my invitation to you.

Come on in, and tell some stories. Make a cute project. Change your life.

Registration begins at midnight eastern on Monday, October 20. Links will go live, codes will go out, and you can register yourself for FREE!"

So I have registered as of first thing this morning. The more I scrap the more I realize I'm not an event scrapper but scrap more to tell my story- like a visual journal. This class is just perfect for me. And even better - It starts on my birthday :) I hope to see some of you there!