Simple Studio

Halloween 1978-2008

Did everyone have a good Halloween? Take lots of pictures? Eat lots of candy? Hope so : )

I tried and tried to find my C-3PO costume photo from when I was 7 or 8, but its location is eluding me. I am a woman on a mission to find it, despite the fact that my hosting week is up here today. I did find a fun picture from Halloween 30 years ago, when apparently I was Princess of the Prairie with a lovely homemade aluminum foil crown. Those are the best kind, yes?

It's hard to believe 30 years have passed.

Happy Halloween from the Dillow house! I thoroughly enjoyed my week here, and look forward to what our next guest hostess has in store. I bet she won't botch her Friday tutorial ; )

My Sorry Attempt at a Friday Tutorial

I'm going to come clean right away: the tutorial I was going to post this afternoon ended up being a miserable failure. Those of you who are long-time followers of the Simple Studio blog may remember that last year when I hosted in November 2007, one of the highlights of the month was a glitter accident involving my darling Gracie:

So really, you'd think I'd be smart enough to stay away from glitter here in the Simple Studio, right?

This would be my disastrous attempt to showcase how you can use acrylic stamps and glue stick to decorate little mini-pumpkins, and how easily that cool idea translates to little tags and other embellishments for your Halloween pages. When the glue stick didn't work, I got the great idea that maybe the thin strips of glue dot stuff (glue strips?) would work better. And then! And then I got out the embossing stamp pad! Because surely you can emboss a pumpkin! Next? Rub-ons. (They don't work very well either). Oh my goodness. What resulted was a whole lot of glitter and embossing powder on the floor and in my eyelashes, glue strips stuck to all my fingers, and the realization that I am not that great at Halloween tutorials. Perhaps you'd like to refer to Cheryl's incredibly detailed and awesome tutorial from last week instead? *sigh*

Note to self: Step away from the glitter, E. Step away.

OK. So as not to leave you without anything at all to look at this afternoon (though I do plan to be back with a few Halloween photos just for fun later on) I thought I would share a Halloween page I did a few years ago that is one of my all-time favorites. I think I might say that a lot, that a page is my all-time favorite. Hmm. But this one really is, not only because I love how it turned out, but it is the evidence that once I SEWED A HALLOWEEN COSTUME. Oh yes I did. Martha cast a spell on me and I made butterfly wings straight out of Martha Stewart Kids (oh, how I miss that magazine).

I've always loved this page, and even though purple is not my favorite color in the world, I can't imagine having used anything else. I like that there is some variety in my Halloween repertoire–a break from black and orange—and I like that I was able to incorporate some of the pattern in the page. (I photocopied some of the directions onto kraft cardstock to match, and chalked the edges with purple chalk. I also stamped a butterfly on top of the written instructions if you look closely). I used some scraps from the wings to replicate the wing design in the right-hand corner. (I sewed first, then just adhered them to the page). I like that you can actually see the wings in case they don't survive for years and years. Luckily I saved some of those scraps, because guess who is a butterfly this year?

Happy Halloween!

Oooooh, Look at This

Raise your hand if you've ever plunked yourself down in front of the computer to check if a transaction has cleared in your bank account only to look up and find that not only are you lost in the world of How About Orange or some other beautiful craft or scrapbooking blog, but 67 minutes have passed and your left leg is a little stiff. Surely I'm not the only one, right?

I've said this before but I'm going to say it again here today: it's OK to lose 67 minutes once in a while to the pursuit of looking at beautiful, inspiring things creative people have made with their own hands. It's a way for creativity to percolate. While you're filing away all those lovely projects in your brain, your own personal experiences and creative strengths are going to work on them—mixing and mulling them around until you are startled by the force of an idea that comes to you in the shower six months later. That kind of idea—the one that pops in your brain from nowhere—is the kind that compels us to keep at our hobby with fresh eyes and fresh motivation. And if that isn't ever a rationalization for playing on the internet, I don't know what is. : )

Here are some of those beautiful, inspiring things off the beaten path that have me saying "Oooooh, look at this!"

1.

posted with permission from the artist

Illustrator Heather B. Warriner's blog Piggyback and her fantastic "alphabet series." She is currently working on illustrating an "autumn alphabet." Can you imagine the possibilities for a scrapbooking project based on this idea? Or a photo-a-day project? It's already got my wheels turning for 2009.

2. UK blog Print & Pattern. Goodness gracious there's a lot to see here. Beautiful colors, clean designs, fun patterns, links to so many like-minded sites that your head will spin...

3. All the beautiful fabric at Denyse Schmidt Quilts. I'm not a quilter (yet, though one day I hope to be) but I love looking at colorful fabric. I tend to be a patterned paper-hoarder who is sometimes afraid to use too much all at once, but looking at quilt fabric and quilts always gets me excited to play with color in my own designs.

4. The Book Design Review may or may not be useful to you in your scrapbooking endeavors, but it sure is cool. I love the idea of designing book covers for maximum impact with a simple design, since that's almost always my goal in scrapbooking.

5. This isn't a design/color link, but I am of the belief that every scrapbooker out there should be familiar with StoryCorps. You can also get involved in the mission of StoryCorps. What do you say?

6. Sometimes I like to simply be in awe of other people's creativity in an area I do not dabble in at all, if that makes sense. If you have a few minutes for this type of awe-inspiring activity, check out Jennifer Maestre Sculpture. We all can appreciate her medium, but be prepared to have your socks knocked off by it.

and finally,

7. Here is my newest purchase that is awaiting use: Basic Grey's Urban Prairie papers. I love them!

What's inspiring you today?

I Did My Page For the Tuesday Challenge Tonight!

Have you done yours yet? : )

materials patterned paper, chipboard letter (Little Yellow Bicycle) • rub-ons (Luxe Designs) • die-cut stickers (Making Memories) • 11 x 8.5 page • note: my mom doesn't have any pictures of herself in costume, so I just used a picture from the same general time period of when she would have been trick-or-treating. Also, I printed this photo at home from a scan I have on my hard drive; I could tell the edges of the original were deckled, so I pulled out my old Deckle Paper Edgers to replicate it. My Paper Edgers cried tears of joy, I think.

The Wednesday Word

It's that time in the Simple Studio where we talk about words. Not just any words, mind you, but the words that matter most: the ones that you put on the pages you carefully create for future reference. We're going to take a little time today to analyze your Personal Word Style (I just made that up) so when it comes time to preserve a memory, the words you choose to use in your journaling work with your design, your photos, and your emotions instead of fighting them. And there's nothing worse than fighting words to wear a girl down, right? Right.

Here's a little background on this exercise: I was looking through my albums trying to think up something journaling-related to talk about today, and I got distracted because I stopped to read my pages. Do you take time to do this from time to time? If not, today is a great day to start. It's so much fun to go back and relive those stories you captured about the time you went to a certain place, or how you felt about a certain milestone, or a list of what you did over the course of a week four years ago. And really, that's kind of the point, right? As much fun as it is to choose your all-time favorite patterned paper and an assortment of pretty things to go with it, it's the end result that matters most.

As I flipped through page after page, I realized that I make a lot of different kinds of pages, and they are made different by how I choose to journal. I've never really understood the debate between being an "events" scrapbooker vs. a "moments" scrapbooker, because I've always had fun doing both. But spending the time to look at my pages as a whole, I realized that I'm also a "story" scrapbooker, an "observations" scrapbooker, a "symbol" scrapbooker, and a "list" scrapbooker. Let me explain:

this layout originally appeared in Designing Scrapbooks 2

This is a great example of an "observations" layout. I took two similar photos from completely different eras and journaled one whole line about their connection to each other, and you know what? I think if I had gone on and on (as I am wont to do) the impact wouldn't be as great for me. It's simple and to the point.

sorry for the shoddy photograph of this one... I still haven't mastered scanning a 12x12 page. Well, "still" makes it sound like I'm actively trying to master that skill. I should say more accurately, I gave up trying to master scanning a 12x12 page about five years ago.

This is also an "observations" page, and I do this kind of page a lot—a collection of facts and observations about someone or something. It's more than a line, but I had more to say. The style still fits well with a random favorite photograph. This page could also have been turned into a "story" page, about the time we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and Gracie held court in the backyard. I just had a different story to tell the day I made it, I guess.

I also have a large quantity of "story" pages: these originate from things I remember most about a person, a time in my life, an experience... I think of them as things I am afraid I'll lose if I don't catch the story and permanently attach it to a page in one of my albums. Here is an oldie example of one of my "story" pages, and one that is a favorite to this day:

Hard to believe, but yes, Maddie's imaginary friend was Miss Viola Swamp. I know someday she'll be so excited that is public knowledge. But oh, I'm so glad I have this story saved. It's a family favorite!

Sometimes a story page is inspired by coming across something that triggers a random memory, rather than from an active, running list of stories I want to be sure I tell:

I think of these more random "story" pages as the ubiquitous "all about me" pages we're all supposed to be working on... because the times I am hit by a random memory, it's usually a random memory related to me.

As I continued to look through my albums, I also noted how much I love the "visual symbol" layout—the one that doesn't exactly tell a story in words-only, but uses little snippets of other things too: ephemera, stamps, colors, etc. It is a form of journaling, though it is most definitely a personal one: sometimes I choose to use things and don't explain why. What I choose makes perfect sense to me, but 100 years from now whoever is looking at my books will miss some of that symbolism. Guess what? That's OK. Scrapbooking is also a way to process and savor life as it is right now, and sometimes you can be the sole audience member that gets 100% of the meaning. Here's an example:

I know, I know, sometimes I am guilty of overusing the whole tag design, but I don't care. I just love tags. And every single thing I included means something to me. I didn't necessarily feel the need to explain each thing, and that's OK.

The last type of journaling I find myself doing quite a bit in my albums is the quick "list" style:

This took me less than a half hour to make based on one of the quizzes from the special issue Scrapbook Shortcuts with Quizzes & Questions. I love having this quick snapshot of my life when I was pregnant with Bridget—and journaling in a list was about all I felt like doing a good part of that time.

So here's the point of all this: knowing what your go-to journaling strategies are is a pretty useful tool. When you think in terms of what it is you want to say about a certain photo or memory first, putting all the pieces together is much easier. Knowing your style—your Personal Word Style, if I may—when it comes to journaling prevents you from reinventing the wheel each time you begin to journal. And knowing that another style might save you from a journaling rut is pretty cool, too.

Happy Wednesday!

The Key to Time Travel (and the Tuesday Challenge)

In the November/December issue of Simple Scrapbooks, I wrote a feature titled "Heritage Helpers." It's an article designed to lower your stress when it comes to facing the enormous task of preserving treasured family photos, documents, albums, newspaper clippings... you name it. There are literally hundreds of books/magazines/websites out there that provide thousands of wonderful ideas and strategies for scrapbooking your family's history.

T H O U S A N D S.

Hundreds of thousands, actually. It's enough to make any scrapbooker panic—especially one who still believes that The Land of Caught Up actually exists. (It doesn't. It never did. It never will. The sooner you accept that truth, the happier you'll be. Really!)

If you missed them the first time, I'd like to review the three simple truths I outlined in that feature:

1.) Photos are enjoyed more out of boxes than in them.
2.) You don't have to be finished to begin.
3.) It's OK to have fun with old photos.

And, I'd like to add two more today, exclusively for the Simple Studio:

4.) Even though their pictures are sepia, black and white, or an odd shade of 1970s, our ancestors actually lived in full technicolor glory.
5.) People are people. In 1889, in 1907, in 1956, in 2008. They all had to answer the "what's for dinner" question, I promise.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: don't get so tangled up in worrying about the right or wrong way to preserve your family's history that you end up forgetting that scrapbooking should be fun. It should be guilt-free. It should be about the story if you have it, and if you don't—it should be about the important detail you do have, even if that's just a name and a date. Here's an example (you can click to make it larger):

page from the album "34" which originally appeared in The Scrapbooker's Almanac

I fell in love with this photo the minute my dad sent it to me—just one look at the expressions on those children's faces made me wish I could ask my great-grandmother Grace Mabel a thousand questions about what her life was like raising a big family. I know almost nothing about her save for a handful of small details, but those small details are important to me. This photo helps remind me that someday, someone is going to wish they knew about what my life was like all those years ago (and hopefully through my scrapbooks, they'll know!)

As far as the simple truths? Let me explain how they worked for just one photo:

1. This photo has been enjoyed at least 20 times by me and my immediate family since I made this album, as well as whoever might have taken the time to study it more in The Scrapbooker's Almanac.

2. Do I have any of my children's baby albums finished yet? No. Can I take the time to scrapbook a family photo from a branch of the family I never even knew? Yes.

3. I had a great fun imagining life without the benefit of modern conveniences like dishwashers and washing machines.

4. How I wish I knew what those clothes looked like. I bet those whites weren't all that white. And was my great-grandfather's pocket watch silver or gold?

5. Oh, Grace Mabel Folsom Willis. When I make dinner tonight for just a family of five, I will imagine what the interior of your kitchen looked like as you struggled to put food on the table for all. those. monkeys.

Mission accomplished: my life is so much richer because I took those five simple truths to heart. It's almost like I was there for a minute, standing off to the side as this photo was taken, Grace holding onto that baby with a smile on her face, willing those boys to stay put and look at the camera. And now, any new detail I learn about my great-grandparents lives will mean so much more to me. With the power of patterned paper and chipboard, I created this connection to them that I can share with their great-great grandchildren. Simple. And worthwhile. And absolutely not scary at all.

So here is the challenge of the week:

Create a heritage page for a family member using this heritage quiz as a starting point. Then interview a family member and make a page about him/her using some of their answers. For examples, see page 62 of the issue.

Scrapbooker Sheredian Vickers (and contributor to the "Heritage Helpers" feature) created this quiz as a way to collect information about family members as she pursues her own family heritage project, and she is happy to share it with Simple Scrapbooks readers:

Download LF-FamilyHistory.Form.doc

If you're feeling up to a little additional challenge (and living in a location that celebrates the holiday), why not collect a Halloween memory or two from an older relative in the "write anything else" section?

Post your layouts in the Simple group gallery by Sunday, November 2 for your chance to win a Halloween prize pack from Little Yellow Bicycle! Be sure to title the file (not the layout) “Heritage Helpers” so we can find the contest entries. (Note the quote marks are important).

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

And finally, the winner of last week's challenge:

JWinks! You can see her project by clicking.... here.

Morning, Glories!

Welcome to a new week here at the Simple Studio! I'm Elizabeth Dillow, and I'm excited to be this week's guest blogger, where I'll be sharing all sorts of things—photos, stories, tips, my favorite things online... plus it's Halloween week so you can bet there will be a treat involved at some point. And maybe a photo or two of a cute baby in costume. I can't resist photos of cute babies in costume, can you?

Hey! That's not just a photo of a cute baby in a costume, it's a photo of a cute baby in a costume from last year. Which means it's a gratuitous photo of a cute baby in a costume. But she's mine, and I get to share this week : )

So I thought it would be fun to play a little introduction game on my first day. It's called Before/Now, and I made it up last night. Sound fun?

1. Before I had three little girls, I was a high school history/geography/speech and debate teacher and coach. Now I stay home with three little girls and work hard to instill a love of learning, art, music, reading, and sports in them. And I do a lot of laundry.

2. Before September 2007, I drank regular old Dr Pepper. Now I drink Diet Dr Pepper. But I'm finally used to it. Did you know there is no period after Dr in Dr Pepper? There isn't.

3. Before I was a scrapbooker, I took a huge amount of photos and found solace in paper stores. Now I take a huge amount of photos and find solace in paper stores. Not much has changed there, actually.

4. OK, OK, here is a better one: before I was a scrapbooker, I didn't pay nearly as close attention to the details of my life as I do now. Now I keep a notebook to write down things my children say, I keep a blog to help me process being a mama, and I use my camera in far more complex ways than I ever did before.

5. Before I decided I wanted to be a teacher, I wanted to a.) own my own giftwrapping store and b.) work for a magazine. Now I'm a contributing editor for the magazine that literally changed my life. Funny how life turns out, eh?

Be sure to check in tomorrow for this week's Tuesday challenge! And here's a little optional homework for you: see if you can dig up an old photo or two of yourself from Halloween past. I know I have a few floating around somewhere (please tell me I'm not the only one who had a C-3PO rain poncho and mask).

Happy Monday!

step away from the keyboard...(aka Friday Fun Tutorial)

is what I keep looking over my shoulder and expecting to hear from the "Simple Scrapbooks Committee Appointed to Making Sure our Guest Bloggers Don't Barrage Their Fine Readers with Copious Amounts of Blogging Stuff"

In other words, this is my last post for the week and I'm going out with a doozy!

I hope you don't mind :)

I made this a few weeks ago before our Thanksgiving - I thought it would make a nice little hostess gift to thank whoever it was that wanted to feed me and my family turkey. 

Turns out I am enjoying those little cards immensely. 

I decided to make a Christmas version in hopes that if it turned out cute enough any friends or family that came over and saw it would covet it badly enough to get me a free ride for Christmas dinner.

So here is the how to:

Here is my list of materials:

• 2 pieces of double sided patterned paper (I used the Heidi Grace winter line - it's gorgeous!)

• threading water punch (I am going through a romance with this tool, not unlike the fling I had with my Bind-It-All last year)
• 2 inch scalloped circle from EK Success (I'm kind of having a tiny affair on the threading water punch with this bad boy)
• 1.5 inch circle punch from EK Success
• acrylic stamps from Inkadinkadoooooooooo (I am always tempted to add ooooo's onto this name when I say it, unfortunately for you I often hold myself back when speaking and let it all hang out when typing)
• cardstock
• little blingy snowflakes and gems from Hero Arts

Box Instructions:

Take medium blue cardstock which has been cut into a 7 1/2" square and score 2 inches in on all four sides.

Using scissors, make vertical cuts (following the scored line) on all four sides to create a flap in each corner of the 7 1/2" square cardstock piece. Add adhesive to the top side of each “flap” and assemble box.

Take white cardstock which has been cut into a 5 3/4” square and score 1 inch in on all four sides. Adhere 4 3/4x 4 3/4 inch square of patterned paper in centre of white cardstock (I sanded all the edges of any patterned paper I used in this projects - an emery board works great!)

DON’T CUT IT YET or you will be forced to redo this. Don’t ask me how I know ;)

Take 1x6” inch piece of light blue paper  and adhere lightly across the center of the lid - trim ends.

Using the threading water scallop punch, punch scallops all the way around the white piece.  I then added a piece of 3/4 inch organza ribbon (which I didn’t get a picture of) to finish it nicely, I laid it across the piece of light blue paper, marked it with a pencil and then at the crease on either side cut a small slit to poke the ribbon through - flip the lid over and tape the ends down.

Assemble top decoration, including tag and pop dot to the top of the box.

Then repeat the cutting and folding as we did on the bottom piece. 

 

 

 

Cards:

3 1/4 x 6 1/2 pieces of cardstock in 3 shades of blue

Score in center and cut coordinating paper for the front and inside embellishment - sand all these pieces. 

Punch scallops out of white cardstock and 1.5" circles out of the different blues (2 of each) and stamp/embellish them.

Assemble punched pieces and pop dot scalloped/stamped circles to the front over decorative strip on each card.

Add sanded decorative strip to 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 pieces of cardstock and stamp and emboss with “thanks” if so desired.

BONUS TUTORIAL:

Hahaaaa - you thought I was done, didn't you?

I had a couple of people email/ask how I did the embroidery hoop project I posted on Monday so last night I made a quick one and took pics of the process so I could share them here.  This really is a project you can get done in WAY less than an hour - and I think this size would make a really cute tree ornament.

This one is a smaller than the first one I posted - I think the hoop is a 5" one - but you can do any size that will fit within a 12x12 piece of paper.

Stuff I used:

• My Mind's Eye patterned paper - their new Christmas line is so cute!  And totally my "go to" colours
• circle cutter
• embroidery hoop
• ribbon
• MME die cut sheet
• Stampin' Up slot punch
• pop dots

Figure out which circle is just slightly - about 3/8 of an inch - larger than the INSIDE of your hoop and cut out of patterned paper.

Use the inside of the hoop to mark with a pencil a circle on the back of your patterned paper circle.

Use your scissors to fringe the entire way around the circle - only up to the circle you've marked.  This will allow the paper to bend back without ripping or bending when you put the hoop together.

Tie ribbon around the ugly part of the hoop at the top.  You know, the metal part that squeezes it together. 

Figure out what embellishments/photos you want to use and adhere to the front.  I usually use a stronger tape for home decor items because regular tape seems to not hold up under gravity.

I hope you enjoy these - I've had a great time here this week!

Brown paper packages, tied up with string...

Here are a few of my favourite things!  (aside from the Sound of Music with Julie Andrews which is only my FAVOURITE MOVIE EVER and the boys that live in my house are just going to have to suck it up and watch it - yes, again - this Christmas.  Oh and yes, there will be singing.  Plenty of loud singing.)

From the gallery:

This layout is by Autumnb - I love what she did with the stitching template!  What a great way to dress up cardstock and bring focus to part of the photo!  Also, that colour scheme just plan rocks. 

The next one is by Jodi (JWinks).  Everything about this layout makes my heart go pitter-patter.  The simplicity, the fresh colour scheme with the pop of red, the gorgeous photo.  Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!

This layout is by Nicole (neshelmen).  I'm not even going to rave about this one because, well, the proof is in the pudding (I'm off to google that saying to see if I'm using it correctly, it's been rolling around my mind lately and I couldn't help myself). 

Seriously though, how cool?! Loving every last bit of this one!

Check out the Simple Gallery for more great inspiration!

And if you don't already know this - the way to get your uploaded projects to show up at the beginning of the gallery is to put quotations around your title " ".

Inspiring Manufacturer Sites

One of my favourite manufacturer blogs is the Making Memories one.  They update constantly and the projects are the bomb! (I'm adding "the bomb" as a phrase that I should probably never use again, sorry about that - at least I resisted typing "da bomb" right? Small favours people, small favours...)

 

http://makingmemories.typepad.com/makingmemories/home_decor

Check out this TOTAL AWESOMENESS all wrapped up in one little project. 

I am SO lifting this:

Thank you Laura, for your crafty awesomeness.

American Crafts is another one that inpsires me - I love their funky contemporary flair, this is from their 2008 Christmas line:

And here is a link to projects on their website using this fun line:

American Crafts

Another on of my favourites is Crate Paper - this line feels very Autumnal ;) to me!  And the name kind of works for me too! 

Here's a link to the entire line of Lemon Grass:

Crate Paper Lemon Grass

I especially like the scalloped papers.

Inspiring Stuff from Simple

Check out, if you haven't already, Elizabeth's FUN article on the website - Christmas is coming probably a little faster than most of us realize!

I just finished reading Candice's article about using stitching on your pages on page 30 of the Dec/Jan issue.  As always, her samples are beyond adorable and she's outlined some great ideas!

Also,  check out the ultimate tool giveaway on page 14 of the Nov/Dec issue (free stuff inspires me greatly ;)

I hope some or all of these inspire you in some way! 

Have a great Thursday!

6 Easy approaches to Journaling

Journaling seems to be a hard to approach element for many scrapbookers.

 

To me, next to the photos, it is the most important part of our scrapbooks.

 

Here are a few of my favourite approaches and some examples to making journaling and easy and fun part of creating your page.

 

1.  bullet journaling (see - I am even doing this post in bullets)  I like to set apart the bullets by using brads or some other small embellishment beside each one.  A great way to figure out where to put the embellishment is to actually turn on the bullet feature in whatever program you're using and then use the printed bullets as a guide.

 

2.  using your blog or personal journal entries (I use this one frequently, I am all about laziness saving time, what could be faster than copy and paste?). This story was taken, almost verbatim, from my personal blog.

 

3.  jotting things down on your calendar and build on your point form notes (this one I am not so good at - as organized as my house and surroundings might be - I am in desperate need of a class called Learning How to Keep Using that Calendar You Keep Buying Every Year 101 - but I bet it would work if you were good at keeping a calendar ;)

 

4.  write a letter directly to the person you are creating a page about (I've used this method quite a few times, silly little tongue in cheek letters to the husband, more heartfelt letters to my boys, and I did a page for Simple that I copied and pasted some emails between my mom and my youngest son)

 

 

5.  q & a - we had  a whole segment on this approach in the Play issue (which is one of my favourite idea books ever!  There are some excellent q&a ideas in this book).  I did this page for that issue and it turned out to be one of my most favourite pages I've ever done.  I never would have thought to ask my dad about stuff like this and the answers touched my heart.

 

6.  use direct quotes or dialogue from conversation from the people you are journaling about (those of you with kids, or husbands who *think* they are HILARIOUS will appreciate this method)

 

 

 

Lastly, have FUN with your journaling.  Let your sense of humour shine through - make sure you document those funny things the people dear to you do and say.


And remember - you don't have to write a novel (it won't fit on the page, trust me), sometimes a single sentence can sum up the entire memory.