I pinched this idea off a new bloggy friend of mine who you can find here. I want to have a record of how I feel about scrapbooking & intend to update it every 6 months at least. It is a pretty long Q & A so I have decided to split it up into 3 or 4 posts until I get through it all. I won't post them consecutively (would hate to bore the living daylights out of you ;-D) so don't worry, I will ensure a decent spattering of layouts & photos in between to keep things interesting!
Why do you scrapbook?
I scrapbook for various reasons. 1) When I first discovered scrapbooking over 6 years ago I was instantly drawn to it, having been a creative person all my life. Like most other people, I had shoeboxes full of photographs & a few horrid photo albums {remember the ones where you peeled off the cellophane & adhered the photos to the sticky page??? Eeeuuuw...and eventually they would start to fall off???!!! SO not a good look...} I was at a stage in my life when I knew that moving countries was something that was definitely going to be happening within the next few years & I wanted 2) to sort out my possessions & create some order with regard to my memories. So initially it was to sort out the photos I had already taken & display them all chronologically & attractively.
3) As the years have gone by, however, I have learnt more & more about scrapbooking & come to see that it is so much more meaningful than that & now I often take photos with a specific layout in mind & believe that it is important to scrapbook more than just important events. I consider my scrapbooks a visual diary of my (& my family's) life & hope that my children will treasure their albums forever & pass them down to future generations. 4) This thought makes me feel that what I am doing is more than just "playing around" with pretty papers, but also creating a legacy & documenting a period in history from a specific viewpoint.
I scrapbook because it is a fantastic creative outlet for me that 5) I also feel is useful & not just frivolous. Of course I also love that I get to work with 6) beautiful papers & embellishments, 7) constantly learn more & more about photography, photo-editing & photo-printing, 8) how to express myself better verbally{through journaling} but most of all I love this hobby because 9) almost everything {bar altered art projects & mini-albums} gets stored within the confines of my uniform 12 x 12 albums {This appeals to the organised part of me} within my album shelves & 10) this means that if it is necessary for me to move countries again I can take all my hard work with me. Before I scrapbooked I poured most of my creative energy into my house & garden {in Zimbabwe} & then had to abandon it due to the political & economic demise of my country, so much of my work remains there in the mosaiced floors, garden design, etc, & of course this is a source of great sadness to me.
So there are at least 10 good reasons why I scrapbook, and while my style, etc may change, I doubt these reasons ever will.
How & when did you discover scrapbooking?
I discovered scrapbooking quite by chance in 2003 when my daughter was invited to a holiday scrapbooking workshop with a friend of hers when we were still living in Zimbabwe. I remember she needed to take quite a bit of money with her & not being very happy about that LOL! Then I will never forget laying eyes on the first layout she created with her school camp photos. I just couldn't stop staring at it & my mind started spinning. I could see so much potential before me & then & there got all the details of the scrapbooking teacher & got to her store within the week & signed us both up for weekly lessons. I didn't have the time at that stage in my life to devote any more than an afternoon a week {& some finishing off time if necessary} to my newfound craft but I knew right from the beginning that scrapbooking was going to become a major player in my life.
Here is an easy peasy layout I created last week when I was still busy on my scalloped cardstock spree ;-D Wow how Chelsea has changed in 2 years! I am so grateful for photographs like this to remind me what a sweet little cherub face she used to have. I bought the Bazzill scalloped cardstock just AS IS - with holes pre-punched. I finally tired of my Threading Water punch & decided to use up some of my vast ribbon stash instead, aswell as some of my Fiesta Felt flowers, a couple of Prima basics, some local bling & a K & Co. die-cut butterfly. The sentiment stickers are Making Memories {Noteworthy perhaps?} & the alpha stickers are local Natstat "thickers".
So I managed to make quite a dent in my older stash with this last week's spree & am looking forward to my Cocoa Daisy kit arriving shortly...I hope...still waiting... {sent out late last month because the product in it was piping hot - straight from CHA in July - woo hoo!!!} Hopefully any day now...
10 comments:
I like that very simple layout - some layouts and photos just need a simple touch.
Yep, me liking it very much too. So what new CHA stuff are you getting!!! LOL. I got my hands on some of the new BG yesterday.
Can't wait to read more of your q&a! And the layout is lovely. I love the flower and ribbon details; they look so professional!
hi helen this my first time to your blog. love your layout might just scraplift it.
mariam
Beautiful layout, everything is just perfect!
Hello :-)
Nice LO - I grinned at your comment about being tired of your threading water punch so used ribbon instead LOL :-)
Rachel
Great l/o & really good q & a.
Aaah thank you folks...yes sometimes we just need a few "pretties" & we're done! No need to overcomplicate things...Glad you enjoyed the Q & A - I always love to read & answer those things but notice that I receive the least comments on those posts - think they are too much of a long-haul read ;-D
I love simple layouts the most, and WOW, that blue is gorgeous!
Helen, please can you check your spam? The other day I left a loooooong comment on your post about cleaning up your blog and sidebar and it's not there (:
I'm wondering if I used our family email addy, rather than the one I usually do, which is the one attached to my blog.
Lovely layout. I certainly enjoy reading your posts, long or short as I find that it helps me get to know you a bit more, which I find very interesting.
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