I've always been an avid saver of scraps. Any movie I've ever seen in theaters, I have the ticket stubs. Any place I've ever been, I've got a postcard. I have saved cards from every occasion, flyers from special events, and mementos from pretty much every day that has meant something to me. That doesn't even include the hundreds, probably even thousands, of photographs!
So it's a good thing that I enjoy turning a simple piece of paper into a work of art, or I'd have shoe boxes lining my closet shelves of stuff that I just couldn't throw away. Slid between the safety of plastic sheet covers are tangible memories forever held at arm's length, to be reminisced at any point in time.
My obsession for scrapping started at some point in my teen years, where I started at the humblest of scrapping beginnings; simply cutting pictures and placing them in those old-style photo albums. You know the kind: where you peel the plastic away, put the picture on the sticky surface of the page and replace the plastic. When I was a senior in high school, I discovered shiny stickers and started saving tidbits of mementos to add to my photographs. I moved alot through my 20s and at some point along the way, I lost those old books of memories, but I never lost the knack for the scrap technique.
Shortly after our wedding, we moved into a new apartment and during the move, I discovered boxes of stuff that me & my husband had saved throughout the 8 years of our dating. After some contemplation, I decided that a scrapbook was in order to chronologically record our past. At first, it was fun, and secretive, since it was going to be a Christmas gift to him. I had 3 months to put together 8 years and when I first started, I thought it would be easy. It was the first real scrapbook I'd worked on in awhile, but I figured the craft store would have everything I needed.
The craft store did have everything I needed...in overwhelming abundance! I had no idea where to start. What kind of paper did I need? Should I buy in bulk or separately? Did I really need the little stamping sets, the fancy scissors and paper cutters? And what were all these embellishments?! That first trip to the store I discovered two things: I needed to have a game plan. I needed to have money and lots of it! Turns out that scrapbooking could be a very expensive hobby if you weren't shopping sales and clearance items!
After finishing the book, I thought I'd never scrap again. Time crunching a hobby turns it into work and I felt like it was hard to slow down and enjoy it when I knew I only had so much time to finish it. On the other hand, when forced to complete it on time, it forced me to sit down and do it, and in the end, it actually got done!
Fast forward to last night. As part of a local mom's group, I attend and host various meetups. Last night I hosted our 2nd monthly scrapping night. After 3 years of trying to finish Sean's 1st year scrapbook, I finally had a reason to avert my attention to it once a month and I'm proud to say that I've finally completed the project!
Somewhere between the 100-page book I made for my husband and the 1st year of my firstborn, I also worked on other projects, completing a travel book on a family trip to Tennessee and a couple of photobooks (which I found are great if you have more photos to paste than mementos).
This morning, as I finished the last 2 pages of Sean's book, my heart began to ache as I thought of how fast he's grown. And it seems that the quick flight of time applies to everyone. Eight years of dating, already on year #2 of our marriage and our youngest son is only a few months away from his 1st birthday...All that seems to have happened in the blink of an eye and I feel like I have a right to ask, 'where did the time go?'
So it's a good thing that I enjoy turning a simple piece of paper into a work of art, or I'd have shoe boxes lining my closet shelves of stuff that I just couldn't throw away. Slid between the safety of plastic sheet covers are tangible memories forever held at arm's length, to be reminisced at any point in time.
My obsession for scrapping started at some point in my teen years, where I started at the humblest of scrapping beginnings; simply cutting pictures and placing them in those old-style photo albums. You know the kind: where you peel the plastic away, put the picture on the sticky surface of the page and replace the plastic. When I was a senior in high school, I discovered shiny stickers and started saving tidbits of mementos to add to my photographs. I moved alot through my 20s and at some point along the way, I lost those old books of memories, but I never lost the knack for the scrap technique.
Shortly after our wedding, we moved into a new apartment and during the move, I discovered boxes of stuff that me & my husband had saved throughout the 8 years of our dating. After some contemplation, I decided that a scrapbook was in order to chronologically record our past. At first, it was fun, and secretive, since it was going to be a Christmas gift to him. I had 3 months to put together 8 years and when I first started, I thought it would be easy. It was the first real scrapbook I'd worked on in awhile, but I figured the craft store would have everything I needed.
The craft store did have everything I needed...in overwhelming abundance! I had no idea where to start. What kind of paper did I need? Should I buy in bulk or separately? Did I really need the little stamping sets, the fancy scissors and paper cutters? And what were all these embellishments?! That first trip to the store I discovered two things: I needed to have a game plan. I needed to have money and lots of it! Turns out that scrapbooking could be a very expensive hobby if you weren't shopping sales and clearance items!
After finishing the book, I thought I'd never scrap again. Time crunching a hobby turns it into work and I felt like it was hard to slow down and enjoy it when I knew I only had so much time to finish it. On the other hand, when forced to complete it on time, it forced me to sit down and do it, and in the end, it actually got done!
Fast forward to last night. As part of a local mom's group, I attend and host various meetups. Last night I hosted our 2nd monthly scrapping night. After 3 years of trying to finish Sean's 1st year scrapbook, I finally had a reason to avert my attention to it once a month and I'm proud to say that I've finally completed the project!
Somewhere between the 100-page book I made for my husband and the 1st year of my firstborn, I also worked on other projects, completing a travel book on a family trip to Tennessee and a couple of photobooks (which I found are great if you have more photos to paste than mementos).
This morning, as I finished the last 2 pages of Sean's book, my heart began to ache as I thought of how fast he's grown. And it seems that the quick flight of time applies to everyone. Eight years of dating, already on year #2 of our marriage and our youngest son is only a few months away from his 1st birthday...All that seems to have happened in the blink of an eye and I feel like I have a right to ask, 'where did the time go?'
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