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Stacy Julian: Why Stories Are Important

So we are very, very excited for our next next segment. Here we have an industry expert who has been with close to my heart who has not been nickel smart. But who has we just started? She started with close that's. What simple about stacy julian. So the the stacey julian is here in studio with us. And stacy has her humble beginnings of this whole thing for her. Started with dots, dozens of terrific stamps. She was a dots demonstrator back in the day and actually worked with stacy for many conventions. We did some really fun things together. Stacy has written books here. I've got her real bio she's written a couple books in two thousand five. She also started big picture scrapbooking. She teaches scrapbooking and classes and how to tell your story. And so, without any further idea, we should welcome stacy. Julian e you're welcome guys. Their dream. I am loving this and really the most important thing that we need to do right now is just have cameraman come really close onto my face beca...

use I am looking so good, it's all about having your makeup done professionally. I just want to say that I am very, very happy to be here, and, like monica mentioned, I started as a dots demonstrator twenty two years ago and really it is the place where I found my creative confidence, so I love that we're doing this class together and that they've invited me to come and share some some things with you it's been really fun I've been sitting back in the back, the studio kind of watching the twitter feed in the instagram under that hashtag and all kinds of people watching and participating and sharing the stories that they want to scrap book and so there is no shortage of memories and and I really believe that sharing stories is an and next to two nourishment and shelter and companionship storytelling sharing stories is right up there it is so integral to just us as humans it's how we connect it's how we remember so that's why I am a storytelling expert, if you will and that's what I want to share with you today here a creative life I think what I want to do most is just share with you guys here in studio and then out there some of the things that I've learned over the last twenty plus years as I've been in this industry, the first thing that I would share with you my number one and actually have five I'm not going to commit that they're my top five, but they're five really important things that I wanted to think about you're going to spend the next couple days here learning techniques right and learning how to find your creative confidence with artistic expression but what we're really about is sharing our stories right? Whether that's in a card whether you're connecting to someone and you're sending them a card or whether you're making a scrapbook page so I want to talk to about story telling some of the expectations you can let go of and some of the things I really, really wanted to focus on, okay? So number one already and I know that this is gonna have meaning kind of for those out there because I've read some of the tweets you need to forget catching up, okay? So just collectively can we just breathe in our nose and out of mouth like this? Okay, there was a cute lady on twitter and I think her name is melissa. When we asked her what's the story that you want to share, she popped in and she said, my kids are nine and six and I've got to tell the story of the day they were born and I don't know there are so many women that come to scrapbooking or they either avoid it I meet people that you know, when I tell them and scrappy there like they stick their hand out like this, people don't talk to me because we have this automatic guilt right inside of us and like melissa on twitter said I've got these kids that are nine and six and I need to go back and tell their baby stories well I'm going to give you permission that no you don't all right but I just need somebody people to say you know, my child seventeen and he doesn't have a baby book guess what? It's o k it's okay to not have a baby book forty two seventeen year old there's really one story that you're most qualified to tell and that is your story and you don't have to do it in any order you can start anywhere you can stop when you're bored you can pick up somewhere else the important thing is that you are sharing bits and pieces of your story and that you're sharing that story with the people that you love most so they know they know who you are because it makes sense I actually have a page where just to help me get over that baby book guilt I took a picture I have five children I have four biological sons and one adopted daughter she's from korea she's beautiful I took a baby picture of all five kids and I stuck it on one scrap of page and I put their name their full name I put the day they were born and how much they weighed I'm done no more baby book ill I have my babies. There they are, they were all born. Does that make sense? That's the kind of relief that I want to share with you and with anyone who approaches this idea of telling your story is forget catching up, okay, but one of the points is to record the details. Okay, now, when I say that it's coming from experience, where I have seen so many people, scrapbooking and we get really hung up on, I have all these pictures, right? And so I'm gonna get many pitches as I can on the page, and I'm going to say something like fun was had by all right, not descriptive enough, okay? Pictures, illicit memories for us, but one generation from now, and the pictures aren't going to say anything unless you say something. Okay, so it is about recording the details so every now and then, not on every single page, because sometimes it's fun to just be creative and, you know, make a pretty page, but every now and then, I want you to stop and even then even just take one photo. It doesn't have to be a lot of photos, and I want you to sit down to your computer or handwrite it and describe everything that happened in that moment, does that make sense and then include those really important details. Maybe like your address where you lived or the car that you were driving in. Or exactly what someone said, I have a funny story that I was going to share when we moved into the health that I live in now. We were the first house on the street, so we had a mice problem. I apologize to the mice, but we had basically taken there, you know, their habitat. But anyway, woke up one sunday morning and I had made something that we do in our family on saturday night. I had made something called the banana shake in the blender, okay? You just anyway, so I got up the next morning. Of course I don't clean my kitchen. That's too tired. I got the next morning, and I'm kind of moving around for public five or ten minutes and all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye, I see movement. And so I kind of turn around and in my blender is a cute little brownish grace mouth. Ok, he was swimming in my leftover banana shake. Ok, now I'm ok with rodents, spiders, a whole different story, but rodent time, okay, but so I grabbed my husband I said go upstairs and wake up the kids and I brought him all downstairs and I took the you know, the blender was checking it out this mouse somehow managed to get into our house climb up my blander jump in income makes sense and he was swimming there so I mean it's not a huge earth shattering story but it's a funny story that's a story that we reminisce a lot around the dinner table and so I I was sat down and just typed up every detail that could really quick forget catching up okay? We're already reviewing just start start anywhere stop when you're bored and pick up somewhere else the important thing is to just start in to do it I probably and there's my page that I told you about of all five little babies baby book guilt done over okay now if you have a brand new baby and you want to make a baby book fantastic but if you if you beyond that stage please don't let that kind of guilt or expectation hold you back from diving in and having fun point number two had better get it out of order all of a sudden I remember point number two is oh yes, some stories that we're going to tell take time okay, so what I wanted to do just like you're learning techniques and skills with stamping it's. A skill or a technique, if you will tow, learn how to respond to the triggers thie inspiration, if you will, that trigger stories in your in your in your mind, in your memory. Our brains are amazing, right? They have little cardboard boxes for every experience you've ever had, and all of those things are tucked in and they're neatly put away. They come out when when we see something, memory is very sensory. Does that make sense? You see something, you smell, something, you return to a place you've been before, and almost immediately your brain retrieves and earlier experience. I really want you to think about that. Think about when you're driving down the street, you see a bull, a bull board that the cold billboards on the freeway, ok? And you see something in just a color combination, anything khun send you back to another place. You've heard a song, and all of a sudden you're back in junior high, right? So pay attention to win those memories or triggered and get really good at just starting to drop them down you can use your smartphone you can just use a notebook in your purse but keep track of stories I have a funny story that took several years to tell I call it the stacy julie story that's because my last name is julian so the second time that someone sees me they almost always if they forgotten stacy they call me julie makes sense right? So that's that's and I have and I have a family friend and all their kids in the first time that I spent time with them and extended period of time after I left one of their little children said you know how come she has two first names so they call me stacy julie I have also actually here I'm from seattle so it's really fun to be back at creative life but that years and years ago my mom signed us up and took us to this sound of music sing along I don't if you've ever been to one but they play the classic move knew the sound of music you seeing the words out lied with the entire audience right? Well we dressed up and guess who won the contest for maria me I totally looked like julie andrews like I want to dress myself up and I had my little guitar case so I won that contest but the funny thing is I've actually been miss taken a couple of times for julie andrews not now and probably into old my hair's too long but I was boarding an airplane once and the ticket guy said as they approach he said huge julie andrews and I'm like no, I should sing for you and then you will have that completely confirmed but this story stacey julie has all these bits and pieces and it took a couple of years to gather that and tell that but that's a really fun aspect of who I am and those are the kind of story they want you to think about time so it's not always just go to the birthday party, take fifteen pictures put him on a page that makes sense sometimes it's still stories that develop over time there really exciting so number three is record the details we talked about that but at least some of the time or write down exactly what happened and here's the page with the mouse in the blender okay? The interesting thing is if you look at that photo that's actually that's another mouse incident so I didn't even use the same photo with the story I didn't have a picture of that story that makes sense it's more important for you to record the details and tell the story that it is to have the exact right photo we have a lot of photo guilt I think I have something like thirty eight thousand photos on my computer anybody understand? Right? Okay, so I want to let go of the guilt or the idea that you're supposed to scrapbook or use all of those photos for storytelling and rather think of them as possible illustrations some of the times start with the story first and then just go find a photo okay no one's going to say that's not exact photo that you haven't won with you know no one cares they want you to tell their stories all right? Point number four focus on people and I don't think I can emphasize this enough people matter most okay, we love events we love you know birthday parties and cruises and ball games and all these things that we take thousands of pictures of but it's the people that we experience those things with that matter so I really want you to focus on telling your people stories who are these people? Why do they matter? How did you meet them? You know, I like to do a page I've done this a couple of times but noticed there's there's what one little photo of me clipped up there but I started this this happens to be wrapping paper I love that makes me happy and I slept on that page and I made a little pocket and then I wrote a letter this is at the beginning of a year I wrote a letter to all the members of my family I just told him how I felt about him and you know help them remember some of the things that was that was currently going on in our life people centered pages ok every now and then because that's that's going to be something that will be very special over the years find my final point point number five is not all photos are created equal isn't that good to know so all thirty seven thousand or whatever number you have when you open up your photo program they're not created equal it's kind of like why rubies are more precious than sand you know why that is rubies are rare right they're not laying around they're not covering thie beach sand is everywhere so my thirty seven thousand photos their sand the thing that makes them beautiful and rare like a ruby is the story it is it's the experience that I attached with them sometimes and I know that this is true for you you do have some photos that are very very rare ok so for example I only have one photo and it's not even a good one you guys I have one photo of me in college wearing that university of washington sweatshirt well guess what peter gave it to me on the night he broke up with me peter, we blew it. But I'll tell you what. I was wearing that sweatshirt in the physics lab in college when this really cute boy named jeff walked up and his opening line was, is that w for washington or wisconsin? And I said it's for washington, and we've been married twenty five years. Ok, so that's a rare photo that's, a story that needs to be recorded. Those are the kind of things I want you to pay attention to. Now. What I want to do with he's the next few minutes. And I want to engage kind of the online tony it's as well as our studio audience is just with visuals. I want to help trigger some stories in you. Okay, I want you to see how easy it is to access those cardboard boxes that we have enough for a brain to open them up and to remember. So I'm going to just show you some felt some images, and I want you to actually put everything down for just thirty seconds, okay? And I want you to just the who do you think of? Where are you? Who are you with? Do you? You know, anything like that, and if you have something pastor mike naomi's right there, she's ready? Naomi what's your popcorn memory my popcorn memory is my kids when they were little there like in their thirties now but when it would storm and be thunder and lightning which doesn't happen a lot here we would make popcorn and hot chocolate and sit and watch the lightning uh that's so cool that to this day they pop pop when one starts to get stronger they're like time for popcorn right? That's yeah that's a connection that you have in your family and that's that's awesome it's perfect and can if anybody shares a memory I don't know if we even have time for them to respond but let me know if they do how about a piano keyboard? Oh, look how fat she opened that cardboard box what you got there when I was growing up we had piano that we bought from a relative and one of my older brothers is a musician and he taught me how to play piano so that's a connection that you share with that older brother do you have a picture of him or you at the piano way have pictures of the piano because it was the backdrop for a lot of family pictures. Okay? And I have pictures of my brother. Okay? Did you hear what she just said? What's your first name? Alison alison, listen to what alison just said also said I don't have right the exact photo but I have pictures of me together with my brother and I have pictures of the piano in the background so that's exactly what I'm talking about is triggering a story right and then going in finding pictures that would work did you have something kind of well, I have there's a little bit of a delay so I have back to the popcorn okay, so we have movie time with the girls that's what? It reminds me up and I know for myself I remember my mom had this like crazy old popcorn maker that I haven't thought about in years and years and years and then I just shooting out the butter in there oh yeah it's amazing it is it is amazing. All right, let's, try it again. Oh, I should get some audible owes hashtag you puppy right? Any dog memories? Anybody okay? We'll go to the next one. How about this computer keyboard or just a computer? What does it remind you? I think that's alicia in the back she's going to grab a microphone taking classes at big pictures she's not a plant, I promise. Does that's taking a couple of class s is and that's what the computer reminds me yeah, an awesome classes of here that's awesome, thank you so much okay oh that's the anyone, anybody have taco memories amy doesn't front I don't cook my husband does the cooking a lucky the one thing that I can make is talk s o my entire family mocks me about the fact that all I can make his tacos but I love talking about how many of you to talk about today? I'm starting to talk to judy now I love it to them I don't have to think what's for dinner it's tacos that's awesome that school and why not tell that story? Because I think you never know if you have a grand daughter or someone it's like I don't cook what's wrong with me and then she can look up a go hey, you need a gramma embraced tacos, okay ten issues they could be converse that could be something else terror so my mom used to collect tennis shoes and she would go to pay less when they came out with all the new designs and she would get all the new designs. Really? She had a whole shelf in her closet with shoe boxes labeled which designs the shoes did you? Is that crazy? That seriously, your mind just brought that right there the forefront with one picture I wish I wish the camera could show the skills how fast their hands go up it takes like micro microseconds. After I showed a picture, how about this one? Right for those watching online there's probably some younger folk there like what is that I know super sad nam he's got one again back to my kids when they were little we didn't have dvds and all that stuff in the car but we had cassettes and so I would record music for them stick it in the car and we would sing and you stay long I did the same thing yeah growing up with my mom and dad and it was my kids and you don't do that anymore because they like put in the movie but but now I my daughter was driving cross country with her now husband and they were listening to like classic rock and they were seeing in the boston and stuff my daughter singing along and her husband says how do you know this song? Because that's what my mom used to play in the car you know on the fence that's awesome it's so interesting okay, how about a quilt? Maybe have a quote memory jetty so I have never been a quilter but whenever I see a quilt I remember my great grandmother and my grandmother because they were quilters and so when they passed away I actually got a couple of their quilts one so any time I see a quilt my first memories of them is of them that's beautiful and those quilters personal treasures right on that that's another way that you can trigger memories right is objects and things, especially those that you treasure and why not take a picture of it and tell that story so that the net you know, the next generation down knows what those things represent you otherwise they're just things they're just object. So again, it's the story that makes something rare and beautiful to be treasured. Okay, how about a garden? Anybody have garden memories? Or does that cause you to think of someone? Naomi, what you got? I used to be a gardener, but now you're stamper, but now I'm still, you know, my kids were little I race the garden and everything there, they could eat miss one section and so I pumpkins and sunflowers and how much fun my kids had out there picking and eating all the things that really is something about getting your hands in the dirt and why, you know, grow gardens are like children and animals if you ignore them, they throw a tantrum. And so what just became a little too much on their decided I'm just like a pot gardner now and not the big the big baby. Yeah, I was watching again the twitter feed and there was a guy I won't remember her name, but when, when asked what memories she wanted to record, she she posted a beautiful picture looked like some kind of cabbage to me, but she said, this is my first foray into vegetable gardening and I want to record the pictures of these beautiful vegetables that I grew this summer, so it isn't just children isn't just places we travel tio it's anything that you love and do with your time that's right that's where memories grow from in anything and everything that you love should be recorded and can be recorded okay, this is another one of those people gonna go what's that because we all carry smartphone russian say we all but a lot of us carry smartphones and so it seems like the wristwatch is almost becoming obsolete it's interesting, so we'll fast forward through just a couple but I think you're getting the idea right and you can shoot your hands up. I won't call you about this. So this is what I want you to just really tune into is this idea that things are triggered for us all day long all day long cardboard boxes in our brain are open and it's really easy to ignore that and I want you to ignore that there's a there's a a vast difference between scrapbooking, your pictures feeling obligated to those pictures or having expectations that you've got to do something with even a portion of them it is a difference between scrapbooking pictures and scrapbooking memories so some of the time I want you to allow yourself to be triggered I mean triggered these stories start with the story okay, let go of the expectation and the guilt find yourself some pictures and then take all of these techniques and skills that we're learning here in this workshop with close to my heart and employ those you know what I mean? But start with the story first because that's that's what gives everything else we do value for the long run. All right, this is a picture that I just whenever I see postage dance I'm going to tell you just my quick quickly my close to my heart story I was living in chicago my husband was actually going to medical school so this is twenty two years ago and I came home to visit my parents right here in seattle and my good friend from high school inviting me to a stamp party and I was like, no I have no desire to learn more about postage stamps or collect them or anything she said no silly it's not posted stances rubber stands on I went to her sister's friend's house and they have these they had all gathered together know what formal no one stood up and, you know, introduced yourself or even talked about the company they just started passing things around the table and around the table came this basket with these stamps, there was four five and I picked one that I thought was cute and then the next basket had this rainbow ink pad. I don't know if you were watching when room when they called brand and she showed her first cart rainbow ink pad and I took this and I inked it up. The next basket came in and I had this paper that was lossy shiny paper, I'd never seen anything like that, they put it down and I stand the image and it was like, oh, right, mother ship called me home, I was going to be a nurse, you know? Seriously, I wass and now I'm a rubber stamper storyteller scrap occur so completely changed the course of my life gave me a new direction helped me find creative confidence. So that's, what I owe to jeanette into close to my heart really is a wonderful career in in scrap booking and memory keeping and telling people, empowering them to tell their stories. So I'll just leave you with one quote unquote myself. How weird is that ready? I would rather have stories without photos, then photos without stories, so I really wanted to think about the import of starting sometimes with the stories that are going to be gone in one generation if you don't record them and then he will tow learn how to stash of thousands and thousands of pictures. And you some of them, some of the time to illustrate the story. So do something with some of your photos, okay? But find that creativity inside of you in all of us and all of you, ok, find it and do something with it, all right? You promise you'll do it, okay? Hashtag stacy looks really good with her makeup. Thank you. Wait a selfie with that. I'm grabbing my remote alright with the remote and yeah, I just want to say thank you. And I can totally relate to your postage stamps story because I actually thought that's what jeanette designed when she said I design stamps. I'm like, well, somebody has to design and of course I fell in love and I got called home to the mothership to yeah, thank you for sharing that. And I just wanted to make sure everyone at home knows where to follow you and how they can find out more information about thank you so much. So I have a website it stacy, julian, dot com and then I am on instagram and twitter and everything else and usually it's just stacy julian so, thanks been so fun to be here, you guys.