Scrapbooking

A lot of ladies have mentioned that they have tried scrapbooking or are interested in it but don’t seem to have a knack for it or don’t know what to do. Let me make this clear and I truly mean it – there really is no right or wrong way to do it. It’s really as simple as that. If the page turns out pretty – that’s really a bonus.

The most important thing about a scrapbook, in my opinion, is getting the pictures and the journaling down. That way, I and others can look back on them years later and remember the moment or event. I’m ashamed to say but I don’t remember how old my daughter was when she lost her first tooth. I remember our reaction and what we did but I don’t remember how old she was. If I had been into scrapbooking back then, I like to think I would have made a page and recorded the date it occured.

This is why people scrapbook – to capture a moment in time. The layout to the left is one I did of my Great Grandparents. This is the picture from their wedding day. I never met my Great Grandfather but I knew Grandmother. About 3 months before she died my daughter and nephew interviewed her. She was born in 1903 and told them about remembering when the Titanic sank, she was born the same year the Wright Brothers flew the first plane, she told them about riding a horse to school, about smuggling booze through the woods from Canada with her brothers during prohibition, etc. I’ve recorded the interview on the page to the left of the picture. How neat will it be for my grandchildren to read about their Great, Great, Great Grandmother’s exploits? Stories I wouldn’t have if I didn’t scrapbook.

This page I did of my Grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary. The page on the left has all their children, Grandchildren, and Great Grandchildren on the stage singing a song my Aunt wrote for them. The little card to the left of the pictures are the lyrics to the song. Again, I’d never remember what the song said if I hadn’t scrapbooked this.

And this is a layout I did for my daughter telling her how I feel about her. I think it’s pretty but it’s not the reason I did the layout. I did it so my daughter can look back later and know how I felt about her at that moment (she was going to her first high school dance.)

I caught this picture of my daughter being silly sticking her tongue out at me. I did a layout of it so I could remember how sweet she was when she became an angst ridden teenager…

The main reason people scrapbook is to preserve memories. Yes, it’s great to do it for generations to come but it’s also good just to do it for yourself. I saw one layout this lady did talking about how painful her divorce was. Her journaling told about her emotional journey and how she was a better person when she came out the other side. It was therapeutic for her to write about this very emotional experience.

Now, some of the pages are just for fun, like these:
This is me in kindergarden; aren’t I a doll?

My Nephew/Godson:

This is the Thunder Mountain Railroad ride at Walt Disney World.

So, stop worrying about your pages being perfect or pretty or “just not looking right”. That’s not what scrapbooking is about. They don’t have to be perfect – just get the pictures in an album and write some crap about them. At least then if you get struck by lightning and become “Ms. Crafty of the Universe” you’ll be able to scrapbook them pretty eventually.