Scrapbooking

I happen to one of the hundreds of thousands of people (mostly women) who have discovered scrapbooking.  Although I don’t do it as often as I’d like, I’m proud of the books I’ve put together and thoroughly enjoy working on the one I’m doing now.  A couple of years ago I put a scrapbook together of my daughter’s elementary school years and now I’m working on my son’s.  He’s now 17 so it’s fun creating pages of his birthday party when he turned 7 and his many team pictures from soccer, soft ball and hockey. 

Many scrapbook stores have crop nights where you can scrapbook until midnight.  I went to my first one last night and sat with several other women who were all putting together pages that showed off their kids in some way.  The woman sitting across from me was doing a page of her daughter when she lost her first tooth and she even had the tooth to add to the page! 

  A big part of scrapbooking is telling the stories that go along with the pictures. It’s call journaling.  So many pictures have a story to go with them.  Those stories become treasures when your kids grow up. I’ve also included art work and written pieces with their early printing. I’ve included a paragrah Marc wrote when he was 8 where he said that he was “pretty good at drawing but not so good at art…” Everything is done on acid free paper so the books will last forever. 

Scrapbooking has helped provide me with much needed balance.  It’s a complete departure from my work and allows me to be creative.  It can be quite addicting and while you’re doing it the time flies. I couldn’t believe it last night when the woman running the store told us it was 11:30!   If you’re looking for a way to preserve memories, I can’t think of a better way.