All human communications are a form of storytelling about some aspect of the world. They are shaped by human personality and grounded in their historical contexts. This article considers commonalities and differences among three kinds of artful human communications that appeared to people as a special kind of storytelling: (1) preservice art teachers' electronic professional teaching portfolios; (2) family and friendship scrapbooks of people they have met in their community; and (3) artists' sketchbooks/journals. The authors first share insights from an evaluation of preservice art teachers' production of digital videos and electronic portfolios, productions that were intended by these students to document and showcase their best teaching practices. They then share findings from their inquiries about related creative and cumulative self-referencing forms of expression, including scrapbooks and sketchbooks/journals. Recurring themes are identified and speculations include discussion of the nature of these self-referencing repositories of experience; the value of telling one's story as a form of social bonding; the human need to collect, recontextualize, and confer meanings on objects as a means of seeking permanence in the world; the intentional shaping and embellishing of some objects to make them special; and the capacity to share such expressions in caring ways with others. Connections to art education conclude the paper. (Contains 4 figures and 1 endnote.)