SYW153 – My Way with Amy Alphin

Amy Alphin 0:00

Being a scrapbooker and a Memory Keeper has taught me to focus instead of on what's next of what's happening now, what's right in front of me in this moment that I want to remember.

Jennifer Wilson 0:12

Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a Memory Keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 153. In this episode, I'm interviewing Amy Alphin. For the My Way series. My Way is all about celebrating the unique ways Memory Keepers get things done. We're excited to have Amy as the February featured artist at Simple Scrapper.

Hey, Amy, welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Amy Alphin 0:48

Hi, thanks for having me.

Jennifer Wilson 0:50

I am looking forward to our conversation today. But can you introduce yourself a little bit to our audience?

Amy Alphin 0:56

Sure. My name is Amy Alphin. I live in Kirkland, Washington, which is just outside of Seattle. I am married to my husband Tom for 12 years. And we have a three year old son, Henry.

Jennifer Wilson 1:11

Oh, super fun.

Amy Alphin 1:14

Very busy.

Jennifer Wilson 1:15

Yes, I can imagine and maybe some shifts to your memory keeping you know, becoming a mom often changes things.

Amy Alphin 1:22

Oh, yeah. 100%.

Jennifer Wilson 1:24

So what's exciting you right now inside your hobby?

Amy Alphin 1:28

I'm really interested in playing with different sizes of album, I normally scrapbook in nine by 12. I've been doing that for the past couple of years. And this year, I've really started playing with the Citrus Twist Life Crafted size. And I am liking it for telling. It's funny, it's smaller stories, but larger stories within them. So like, I did one for our most recent trip to Mount Rainier National Park. And it's an album for the whole trip. But it's also broken down into the little stories that are inside of it. So I really like that size right now. I'm also experimenting with a new size for my December Daily album, I'm doing the 10 by 8. And I'm completely intimidated by it. I've never worked with the size before, but I'm excited about it too, because I love having giant photos in my albums. So I'm excited for the big photos there.

Jennifer Wilson 2:27

Yes, all of this, like outside of the page protector thing has me doing a lot of math. And I used to be like a big math nerd. But now I'm like, I've got multiple rulers and I'm like writing things down and try to figure out what dimensions things need to be it's yeah, it's crazy.

Amy Alphin 2:42

It's very true. You know, it's so interesting that you mentioned outside the page protector because I am like fighting against that trend. With my entire being. My son loves to go into my scrapbooks and look at them, which I want to encourage but I can't have anything outside the page protector or it like comes off and ends up becoming a toy. So I'm like, No, I'm not doing it. You can't make me. But we'll see. We'll see what happens. I'm signed up for Product Play. So I'm sure and things will end up being outside the page protectors anyway.

Jennifer Wilson 3:14

I totally understand that. We are getting some new kittens soon. And oh, boy, this is going to impact where things are. And so...

Amy Alphin 3:22

I'm sure.

Jennifer Wilson 3:25

So as always on the show, we love to talk about our memory keeping Bucket List. So these are stories that feel important, significant and meaningful to tell. So do you have a story on your Bucket List?

Amy Alphin 3:40

Yeah, I really loved thinking about this actually, because I'm actually working on a Bucket List Project right now. And I really want to pull in voices from outside my immediate family. That's something I've wanted to do for a really long time. And I've been thinking about different ways to do that. And one of the things that I've settled on is holiday memories. So between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I want to gather memories from my extended family. So my mom, my stepdad and my dad, my stepmom, my in laws, my sister, my sister in law, and just ask them questions about their own memories from Thanksgiving, and then it will eventually be Christmas. So I sent an email out actually, a week or so ago that had all these questions about Thanksgiving, like what were your favorite memories from childhood versus adulthood? Your favorite foods, who cooked all that stuff? And I'm really, at first I was like really intimidated by it like, oh, are people gonna want to do this? Are they gonna think it's stupid, whatever. And then I decided I didn't care because it was important to me. Because I wanted, I wanted to get their their voices in there. Every time I've included outside voices in my albums I love looking back on it. I did this digitally, instead of having their own handwriting, which would I would have preferred. But I did it digitally to make it easier for them. And also, because we don't live locally, all my family's on the east coast. So it was just mailing things back and forth. And all of that just seemed a little bit more than I was willing to take on. But, so I started with Thanksgiving, and I've gotten a few responses back. And it's been wonderful. Like I'm hearing memories that are both familiar that I've heard before in my own memory, and remember, but also hearing it from a different perspective, and hearing it in a different voice. But I'm also hearing things from, especially my parents and my in laws from their own childhood things that I didn't know. And that's really cool. That's what I really wanted to get out of this was to tell those generational stories that I wouldn't necessarily have been told as a child, or remember if I had been told. And so getting those recorded, and then eventually getting them into an album. It's really been powerful. It's really meaningful. And so this year, I'm tackling Thanksgiving. I might tackle Christmas, this year. We'll see, I may save that for a different time. But yeah, so that's something that I'm working on right now. That was a big Bucket List item that I've been thinking about for a while. And it's super exciting.

Jennifer Wilson 6:33

Oh, yeah, for sure. And I can think of so many different applications of where you could intentionally bring these additional voices and stories into your scrapbooking, particularly on those projects like December Daily and other holiday stories where you feel like you've told a lot of the same kind of stories. A way of expanding it. And yeah, that's so fun. I can think of some things that I want to do next year, maybe with like seasonal stories. So that's I'm very excited about that idea, too.

Amy Alphin 7:00

Yeah, me too. It's it's pretty cool. I, I got the idea a few years ago, my mom was actually here during December. And I, one of my themes that year in my album was tags, and I was like, Oh, you're gonna fill out a tag. And I love it because she actually filled it out in her handwriting. And that's really cool to to see.

Jennifer Wilson 7:19

Yes, yes, yes. So this is the My Way episode. But before we learn a little bit more about you, I want to give our listeners kind of a taste of what makes you tick as a scrapbooker. So right now we are in our Habits creative journey at Simple Scrapper. And so I'm curious what's been successful for you, and developing habits around scrapbooking.

Amy Alphin 7:39

This question made me laugh so much, because I am not great at habits. I mean, I'm a stay at home mom to a three year old. So my approach is sort of like, Oh, he's asleep, let's print about a bunch of photos and put them in some page protectors. But that's just the season I'm in right now. But in reality, they're definitely things that I've done to make my scrapbooking more streamlined and easier. And the biggest part of that has been home printing. That's been a game changer for me is having a high quality printer at home. I fought it for a long time because we have really limited space on our house. And they're expensive. But it has made a huge difference in streamlining my process. Another habit is a batch process my photos. So I have, I'll sit down and do several weeks or even a month at a time that I'll just process my photos. I use Photoshop Lightroom. And I'll just sit down one night and you know, put on the baking show and just process photos. And that way when I'm ready to tell a story, or I have a break in my day, during nap time or when he's at preschool, and I can print a whole bunch at a time and then tell the stories when I'm ready. So I have things sort of in the queue. So that when I'm, have time, I don't have to spend the creative time processing the printing and all that I could just get right to make pages.

Jennifer Wilson 9:11

Yeah, yes. There's nothing that like stifles creativity more than having to do something it's a little bit more like logical left brain and make hard decisions. So I totally support having really strong habits around photo management. Just because that means you probably don't have to have as, as awesome of habits around anything else, because it's more organic and intuitive from there. So I love that.

Amy Alphin 9:36

Yep, that makes sense.

Jennifer Wilson 9:38

All right. Now let's turn the dial back in your story a little bit and can you tell us how you started scrapbooking?

Amy Alphin 9:45

Yeah, I started scrapbooking with the December Daily project in 2016. I have a dear friend who's on the Ali Edwards creative team. And she encouraged me to start documenting our Decembers. And I was like well I don't have a kid, it's just us, like, this would be boring. But I did it anyway, because she kept telling me to do it. And then like, gave me a bunch of products. And I was like, Okay, well, I don't have any excuses anymore. And so I did December Daily that year, and I loved it. And so I realized how important it was to have our memories, even if they weren't big and grand. And my scrapping, scrapbooking was initially geared after I did that one project towards documenting big adventures. Like big trips to Europe, or multi day backpacking, they like big things that I thought were big and quote, quote, deserved to be documented. And then that has really shifted. And I think the big shift came from having my son, and then being in a pandemic for a couple of years now, and not having a lot of those big things. And having to focus more on the day to day, and having my child was very much Oh, wow, like you change all the time. And I want to make sure I have those milestones, but also the day to day, what were your favorite outfits? What's your favorite toy, that kind of thing? And since that, it has also been a shift to how do I then get myself in the story? So big, then focus on my kid and then what, what about me too, because my stories are also worth telling. And this is something I'm really, I've really been experimenting more this year. This is the first year that I have an album that's just for me. And it's not chronological. It's just stories that I want to tell about what's going on in my life or something that I'm doing better from a surgery recovery. Or I went for a run and it felt awesome were things that are just me. I think, as a stay at home mom, I have struggled, as I think a lot more a lot of moms do, to find my own identity and my own self after having a kid. And having my own album is one way that I'm addressing that.

Jennifer Wilson 12:27

I love this beautiful evolution. It's it's almost it's both stereotypical, but then deeply personal. No, I mean, like, I don't want to like trivialize it at all. Because it's just I think you've so beautifully described, what what happens as we grow and change as Memory Keepers. As we get more involved in the community and see how others are expressing themselves and empowering us to okay, but go a little bit deeper, okay. And then, you know, I think the the everyday life, I don't call it a movement. But that very much paved the way for us to then get more introspective about ourselves and just us and as you said, carving our own identities from within that every day. So I love that. Thank you.

Amy Alphin 13:15

Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 13:17

So you mentioned before that you're super curious about different sizes and formats. Can you talk a little bit more about how you typically creating these days and why those are working well for you?

Amy Alphin 13:29

Yeah, so I am very much a hybrid scrapbooker. I've learned a lot more about digital products in the past year or so among two digital creative teams. And that's really pushed me in that direction. But I still do a lot of handwritten journaling too. And a lot of work with physical product. I really like the hybrid approach for that. I have a couple different albums sizes that I work with pretty consistently. I do a monthly ish, Project Life in 9 by 12. And I really like that size because it allows for big photos and pocket pages. But not just the pocket page that is the 9 by 12 size, but I also put like 6 by 12 or 6 by 8 or whatever sizes I want to in there. And I like the flexibility with that. I use the Citrus Twist Life Crafted albums a lot. First for that personal album I was talking about and a couple travel albums. I also did an old school Traveler's Notebook this year I do about one of those a year. We recently took a road trip as a family down to Northern California. And I took just very limited supplies and a Traveler's Notebook with that, and that's been that was really fun to work with that size again, with no digital products. It's been a while, it's been a while since I've done a project that had no digital elements to it at all. So that was fun to sort of experiment with that again and experiment with a minimal palette of supplies. It was like my Tiny Attacher, some glue, some tags, some pens and a couple stamps. So that was kind of cool.

Jennifer Wilson 15:09

Now I'm still waiting for the day in which those tiny printers actually are good. And have like super high quality prints that are the size of my phone from a printer. You know, so...

Amy Alphin 15:20

Yes, so I have one of those tiny printers that's like the Canon IV, and it prints, they're fine. But they're not great.

Jennifer Wilson 15:31

Yeah.

Amy Alphin 15:32

But I think for the Traveler's Notebook, especially when you're doing scrapbooking on the road, it I'm able to let go of it a little. Yes, a little bit.

Jennifer Wilson 15:41

No, I get it. One of my favorite projects is I did exactly what you did. And I, I went to Michigan on a trip and I did everything kind of on the fly in the moment. And it's one of my most fun projects that was actually finished on the trip, which was great. And, you know, I just the the photo quality of those printers, it's just like, leaves something to be desired.

Amy Alphin 16:03

I know, I do love that they're sticky back. Like that's kind of nice. You just like plop them right in. But, but yeah, there. There's a lot to be desired for sure.

Jennifer Wilson 16:15

So you mentioned you're on two digital design teams. But whose products are you completely obsessed with right now? What are you buying? You know, what's, what's in your shopping cart?

Amy Alphin 16:26

Yeah, so I'm on Syncopation Designs and Sahin Designs on their creative teams and their stuff's awesome. What am I buying? I bought like the entire digital or sorry, December Daily product line from Ali Edwards. I love that project. And I can't resist their stuff. And I think the the kits this year are really cute. So that was the big purchase. I love the Citrus Twist albums. I just bought their fall color. Like I think it was called Pumpkin Spice which of course like I love pumpkin spice everything. So I'm like, Oh, you're going to call it pumpkin spice sure, it's mine. And I'm really loving the stuff that In a Creative Bubble is putting out there. Their designs are awesome. Yeah, so a lot of that stuff. I also really like I subscribe to Ali Edwards story by, Stories By The Month. That helps me a lot with my monthly Project Life. It's really story focused and helps me get those family type chronological stories told.

Jennifer Wilson 17:29

Yes, yes. I love that kind of really nice combination between let's still be story driven, but still respect that there is a chronology to our lives.

Amy Alphin 17:38

Yep.

Jennifer Wilson 17:39

Yeah. So we talked a little bit about your habits already, but when do you typically find the time and energy for scrapbooking?

Amy Alphin 17:48

You know, for me, it's nap time, when my son decides that he wants to nap. He's dropping his nap right now, which is just killing my whole worldview. And evenings after he goes to bed. Or on the weekends, if my husband has him out. I am not at the point where I can create while he's up. That's just the season we're in right now. He wants to then be involved and help quote, quote, which is not so helpful. I've gotten pretty efficient at doing things quickly. So that if there's you know, half an hour to an hour of downtime, I can quickly put things out that's the benefit of having the photos printed and processed and all that ahead of time, so that I can just go directly into putting the stuff on the page. I also have a pretty minimal style. I think that helps getting things done quickly. But the challenge with having a more minimal style is like I will sit there and obsess. Move this item a little bit to the left or to the right, up, down. Let me take five pictures of it and email my friends. Okay, here it goes. Yeah, commit.

Jennifer Wilson 18:59

Yes, I always say it takes me 30 minutes, like put together most of the design and then 30 minutes for the last embellishment.

Amy Alphin 19:05

It's true. 100% Yes.

Jennifer Wilson 19:09

You also reminded me of the time when my daughter was little and I would just take like a random piece like roll of washi tape that was my least favorite. And I just like give it to her because it can occupy her like at least 20, 30 minutes and she would unroll it and like wrap it around herself. And yeah, it's kind of crazy. So...

Amy Alphin 19:28

It's true.

Jennifer Wilson 19:30

So do you have any strategies that you use to stay motivated, particularly if you don't have you know, consistent time and energy for it? How do you stay kind of connected and in the game.

Amy Alphin 19:40

I have other hobbies too. I enjoy watercolor painting, knitting and quilting. Those are just the indoor hobbies. I do a lot of hiking and running outside. So and I also have really limited space in my house. I mostly just use my kitchen table for all of my crafting stuff. So I, I do things by the week. So this week is a quilting week because I'm finishing up a bunch of Christmas presents. So all of like my sewing machine is out and my quilting projects, and memory keeping is kind of put aside for this week. And so maybe next week, I will get that out. And then I'll have, oh I need to do some December Daily foundation pages. So I'll get that organized. And that will be out. And I'll do that for the week. And then I can put it away and do something else. And that way, when I come back to it, it's always fresh. December is a little bit weird, because you know it December Daily is out for the for most of the time. But usually I'm cycling between what is out, literally on my table in front of me. And that's what I'm working on for that week. But that helps keeps it fresh and keeps that motivation, so that when I come back to it, I'm more excited about it. And I'm ready to engage with it more.

Jennifer Wilson 21:00

Oh, I love that you've really kind of thought that through and have a system that works for you. I think that's something we really tried to emphasize on the podcast and inside of our Simple Scrapper community. Because you got to figure out what makes you like, almost distracted. Like, I find myself if I have something out of my table, as you said, I will get distracted from whatever I'm you know, supposed to be working on to go touch those things. And so that's that's a good sign that you know, you have a system that works well for you.

Amy Alphin 21:28

Yeah, we can pretend like that was intentional. Well, we'll go with that. It just has been what has evolved over the years, especially having such limited space. It's, it's necessary for me, but yeah, it has worked out. And as I've realized that that was happening. It's like, Oh, that's good. We should continue that. That works out. Let's do that.

Jennifer Wilson 21:53

So I'm curious, in your experiences. Have you discovered anything? Whether it's like a supply, technique, size or format that you've decided, nope, this is not for me. Like, I tried it, I'm done with it or don't even have any interest in trying it?

Amy Alphin 22:07

Yeah, sewing on my pages. I know. That's like having its moment right now. And everybody wants to sew on their scrapbooking pages. I'm just like, No, I don't want to do. It seems really fussy. And I think that's that's also part of the mixing my metaphors thing like my sewing is for my quilting or for my creating. And that's a different week. It can't be out at the same time. I don't have space.

Jennifer Wilson 22:34

All right, yeah. No, I had to find a place for pull up, put up my sewing machine. And it's like, taking half of my cutting table right now. And yeah.

Amy Alphin 22:41

Yeah, it's just like, I know people really like it. And I think it looks really pretty. I'm just like, yeah, that's not for me.

Jennifer Wilson 22:46

I get it, I get it. You have to make make choices. So something's gotta go.

Amy Alphin 22:53

Yeah, also, like a lot of people are doing work outside the page protector. And I talked about this before. I love the look. And I do it sometimes. But with Henry, you know, he just loves to get into it. And it just ends up getting torn off or replaced somewhere else. So it's, that's just not where I am right now.

Jennifer Wilson 23:15

Totally get it, yeah. So what are organizations? Since you are working in a smaller space? Do you have any favorite tips or solutions, things that really work well for you. And it could be about your supplies or photos, even your ideas or even just another org, something organized at your home that makes it so that you have scrapbooking space?

Amy Alphin 23:33

Yeah, this is the constant struggle for me. And it's something that I have worked on a lot over the years. And luckily, I have a husband who's really supportive of memory keeping and is fine with the fact that I have you know, some scrapbooking cabinets like in the living room, essentially. So yeah, I have three towers essentially, have drawers, and they're made by Really Useful Boxes. And they are literally they're scrapbooking drawers. They have two levels in each drawer. So there's like a tray that has various sized rectangles in it for little bits and bobs and ephemera and whatnot. And then underneath that tray is an open flat space. And that's where I keep like chipboard and paper because the drawers are 12 by 12.

Jennifer Wilson 24:24

Sounds awesome.

Amy Alphin 24:24

Yeah, they're great. Excuse me. And so I have, that's where the supplies are. And then my albums are in those IKEA square shelves. And for the organization of the stuff, that's the constant challenge, right? Because I want it all, I want to have all the things. They're all so pretty and I want them all, but I just don't have space for them in the house. So I'm really cognizant of what subscriptions I have, what products I actually use. That was a big, a big push of mine last year was okay, I have several subscriptions, but what am I actually using and what products do I just collect dust in the drawers. And so that was really important to me to identify those. And then figure out how I could do things more digitally. And that's been really great too, because if there's a product that I love, that I don't necessarily want to have room for in my house, having a digitally allows me to print at home. And that's fun, too. Like I learned how to print and cut with a silhouette. And that's some kind of crazy voodoo magic that I love. That's really cool. And having a really strong digital organization on my computer helps a ton with that. I need to be able to access things quickly, and find them when I want them. And so that's been really important. I come from a photography background, I was a photographer before I was a scrapbooker. And so I already had a pretty good workflow with my photos. But then it was like, Okay, well, how do I want to organize my scrapbooking supplies on the computer. And so I took it a similar method from there, you know, organizing, I organize by designer. And then within those it's usually, like, broken down by type. Like chipboard or ephemera, or journal cards, that kind of thing. And that's really helpful as well. And then being on creative teams added another layer to that. Well, how am I gonna organize that? You know, and so that's figuring all the workflow part out on the computer was mission critical, because the last thing I want to be doing when I'm trying to be creative is, where did I save that?

Jennifer Wilson 26:43

Yeah,

Amy Alphin 26:44

We're lucky we have a home server. So I don't have the space constraints that a lot of people do. But even like saving photos, like I like to have a backup. So I have like a Google Photos account as well. And there's a lot more tech management than I think I initially expected in my memory keeping. But spending the time initially to set it up, so I know where to find my stuff was totally helpful and worth the time. And if I ever get like, lazy and I'm like, oh, I'll just put this somewhere that I'm a regret it immediately because I'm like, I can't find it. Oh, no.

Jennifer Wilson 27:20

Oh, yeah. 100%. Yeah, I've tried to keep my desktop and my downloads folder clear all times, like, you know, it can stay there for five minutes while I'm using it, and then it's gotta go. And then recently, I let that slide, and it was totally overwhelming. And so I made it a mission during our last retreat to clean it all out, because I can't, I can't live that way. So it makes a huge difference to be able to know where your files are. And to have really good kind of file hygiene, if you will, to make sure that things go where they need to be.

Amy Alphin 27:52

Totally true. And you know, I always know if I'm, if I'm sliding, because I'll go to open up Photoshop, it'll be like your Scratch Disks are full. And I'm like, oh, no, I got to clean out my downloads. Yeah. Totally.

Jennifer Wilson 28:06

So we have this big question. This is a newer question to our My Way series, but I'm so fascinated by the responses. So where would you like your scrapbooking to be in 10 years?

Amy Alphin 28:17

I hope I'm still scrapbooking is my biggest answer to that. I, it's so important to my life and to how I document our family that I just want to make sure I'm still doing it is my big answer to that question. And I just hope I'm still learning, I hope I'm still engaging with whatever is new, then like that I don't get stagnant. That I don't just stick with whatever I'm doing now that maybe there's a new, a new product digitally to try like people are starting with Canva, I think it's called, now and I don't know anything about it. But I want to learn because that's another it's a new way to look at our our products and create with them. So yeah, I hope I'm still learning and engaging with the community and with whatever is new. And I hope that my family is more a part of that, like how I talked about including voices. I think that's something I really want to make sure that I am doing over the years so I can document those changes. So, yeah does that does that make sense?

Jennifer Wilson 29:38

I love it. Yeah. So okay, now looking back to wrap things up here. What has being a scrapbooker taught you?

Amy Alphin 29:48

It has taught me to really pay attention to what's happening in the present. I think I'm a person who gets very caught up in what's next. Like I'm, I'm a worrier. I'm an anxious person. And I'm always like, Okay, well, what's going to happen next? What are we going to do next? What's the next thing on the list? What's the next thing I have to check off. And being a scrapbooker, and a Memory Keeper has taught me to focus instead of on what's next, of what's happening now, what's right in front of me in this moment, that I want to remember. And that's so critical, because those are the little things that we forget. And it's the day to day, it's the the fact that my three year old still pronounces it lello instead of yellow, like that's gonna get lost in the shuffle of time, if I don't write it down, or if I don't document it. And I think that's the biggest piece is to look for the everyday story. Because when I go back and look at my albums, those are the stories that resonate with me most, are the day to day the what did life look like that day? Because even if it's hard or difficult, because there's really hard stories in my albums, it's like, that's what that looked like in that moment. So yeah, I think that's what it's taught me is to be more present in my life.

Jennifer Wilson 31:14

What a wonderful way to conclude this episode. Amy, thank you so much for sharing yourself with us.

Amy Alphin 31:19

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Jennifer Wilson 31:21

Yeah, can you share where we can find you online?

Amy Alphin 31:23

You can find me online, I'm on Instagram at Alphins Little Corner there's underscores there. And alphins_little_corner. I don't know if you're gonna get that.

Jennifer Wilson 31:35

We'll link it in the show notes.

Amy Alphin 31:40

And I'm on YouTube, you can search for Amy Alphin. And my my, my YouTubes will come up there. Still not great at YouTube, but I'm trying to learn.

Jennifer Wilson 31:52

Sounds great. So thank you so much.

Amy Alphin 31:55

Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. This has been fun.

Jennifer Wilson 31:58

Yeah. And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way. Are you ready to start implementing the great ideas you hear on the podcast? The Simple Scrapper membership offers a welcoming space to connect with fellow Memory Keepers and find that creative accountability you've been craving. Visit simple scrapper.com/membership to learn more and join our community. It's the best it's ever been.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai