Documenting to Heal: The Climb

A few months ago, we took a family trip to the Smoky Mountain National Park. My parents and brother drove down from Kentucky, and we drove up from Texas to spend five days together in a beautiful chalet overlooking Mount LeConte. A few weeks later, the beautiful house that we stayed in, and the forest surrounding it, burned in a devastating fire. 

Even though we don't own the house that burned, I loved it, and had a very hard time after hearing the news. So, after cleaning my house thoroughly, (because that's what I do when I'm upset) I decided to start scrapbooking the trip. Along with the creative process I enjoy, scrapbooking can be quite cathartic when it comes to dealing with loss.

I purchased the Studio Calico Lost River scrapbook kit and documenter kits because I knew they would be perfect for documenting this trip to the mountains, and wow, were they spot on. The colors and patterns will work perfectly with so many of my photos, and I know that I will kill these kits!

3" x 4" pocket page cards are perfect for using as embellishment, too, as I did here with the "love this place" card. I paired it with the lovely vellum circles from both the scrapbook and documenter kits.

My simple title was accented with another embellishment cluster below. I loved the rubber pennants in the scrapbook kit- they were my favorite embellishment from the kit offerings.

The journaling tag I chose includes all of the colors from the layout, as well as my photo, and on it I included my typed journaling, sliding it in to a kraft envelope which was tucked behind my photo. I wanted to add a bit of color and pattern to the envelope, so I carefully trimmed a 3" x 4" tag from the documenter kit and added it to the envelope flap. The closed envelope creates an arrow which leads your eye to the photo.

Thanks for stopping by. What hard times in your life have you worked through on a scrapbook page? I'd love to hear if this works for you too!