Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Life Book Week 1: Getting Started

Here is a posting from the blog of my bff Vicki aka Victorian Rose of the famous Victorian Rose Designs exclusively at Heritage Scrap!!  She has started her third session of the very popular Life Books at Heritage Scrap.  Here are the details from her blog:

And now.... the moment we've all been waiting for!

Let's get those LIFE BOOKS started! (If you're not sure what a Life Book is, please go back and read the thread, "What is a Life Book".)

By now you should have:

1.) Chosen your subject (the person whose life you will be chronicling); and

2.) Either interviewed them or made arrangements to interview them, if they are living, or started gathering all of your information if they are not.

This week we are going to focus on two things: Writing the text of the Life Book and Scrapping the Cover.

ABOUT WRITING THE LIFE BOOK:

For me, the easiest thing to do is to type out the text of the Life Book in my word processing program. Of course, I know that some of you just prefer to write it week by week as you go along. Whatever works for you...

You may choose to write it in the first person (i.e. "I was born on April 16, 1932") or the third person (i.e. "Anna was born on April 16, 1832"). Either way will work, just make sure it is consistent throughout the book.

Once you have the text written, you can go back to it and copy and paste it as you layout your scrapbook.

Once you have it typed up, go back and separate it into sections. You may want to use the Life Book Schedule which contains the list of 26 topics we will be scrapping together to help you get your information organized. You will want to start with Birth and continue chronologically through the person's life.

Here is a sample of what your text might look like:

BIRTH (1st Person)

I was born February 12, 1809, the second child to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in southeast Hardin County, Kentucky. I was named, simply, Abraham Lincoln, and was not given a middle name. (Information from Wikipedia.)

CHILDHOOD (3rd Person)

When he was nine, his 34-year-old mother died of milk sickness. Soon after, his father married Sarah Bush Johnston, with whom he became very close and whom he called "Mother". But he became increasingly distant from his father. Lincoln regretted his father's lack of education, and did not like the hard labor associated with frontier life. Still, he willingly took on all chores expected of him as a male in the household, albeit young, tall and thin. As was the custom, Lincoln also dutifully fulfilled the obligation of a son to give his father all earnings from his work for third parties until age 21. In later years, he would also occasionally lend his father money. In 1830, fearing a milk-sickness outbreak, the family settled on public land in Macon County, Illinois. (Information from Wikipedia.)

That should give you some food for thought.

ABOUT SCRAPPING YOUR LIFE BOOK:

You will want to be thinking about what supplies you will use to make your Life Book. Of course, you are free to use any kits you would like, but it's nice to have some consistency throughout the book. Take a look in the Heritage Scrap Shoppe. We have several kits that would make an awesome Life Book and many of the Designers' Kits coordinate very well together. I also have several Quick Pages which can be used to make Life Book layouts quickly. All you have to do is add your photos and text. The rest is done for you. (Don't forget – if you use 50% or more of my products (Victorian Rose Designs) on your layouts, I'll throw in a posting bonus.) :)

This week, while you are working on writing your book, go ahead and Scrap the Cover. You can see some sample covers in the Life Book Gallery under Week 1: Cover that were made by Life Bookers in the last round.

And while you are at it, you might want to go ahead and do a dedication page if you will be presenting the Life Book to the subject when you are finished with it. I did a simple one for my Dad's cousin, Millie that looks like this.

Image



Once you have your cover done, please upload it to the Week 1: Cover Gallery, and post a link to it here in this thread. You have until just before the Chat next Monday (9 pm EST) to get them done. At the next chat, we will move on to the first chapter: Birth.


So, there you go! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them here in this forum, email me at vicki@pasterik.com, PM me, or Facebook me. Have fun!!

All Life Book Content Copyright 2010 Vicki Pasterik Victorian Rose Designs