Scrapbooking is a Community

I remember the first time I was introduced to the hobby of scrapbooking. I was 17, and a friend of mine had invited me to come to a Creative Memories party. I brought along my required five pictures, and my mom, wondering how I was going to survive a couple hours with a bunch of mother/daughter duos, and a few pictures. My mom and I left that party with $150 of product, most of which did not see the light of day for a good five years. It was not until the birth of my first child, a boy I named Jacob, that I attended yet another scrapbooking party. This party showcased the most beautiful layouts of baby pictures I had ever seen! I could not believe the art these other mothers were producing with colored paper, a baby pin, and their kid's picture. I decided then and there that I wanted, no, needed, to create the same types of albums of my child.

Shortly after this party I began to attend different scrapbooking events, such as all day crops, embossing work shops, stamping demonstrations, demos online, scrapbooking chat rooms and galleries, and card making classes. I even went on scrapbooking retreats...yup, a whole weekend full of scrapbooking! And I am not even going to mention all of the money I have spent on my albums, paper, glue sticks and adhesive dots, lettering, rub-ones, stickers, and embellishments. I could stop buying scrapbooking product for a whole year and not run out of product!

I have joined a "kit of the month" club, which sends me a new package of paper, ribbon, lettering, and embellishments every month, and I subscribe to two different scrapbooking magazines. I guess you could say I am a bit obsessive about scrapbooking!

I have friends that tease me about how long it takes me to complete an entire layout, and other friends who claim that the only way to scrapbook is to digi-scrapbook...paper scrapbooking is "old-school" now. Yet, we all share a desire to be creative and artsy. We all take WAY too many photos, we like our pictures to be organized, and most of all, we all love our families. Because of these reasons we continue to plan our retreats and monthly crop marathons. We value our friendships with each other, and find ourselves sharing and trading, more that just a sticker or a pair of scissors, we end up sharing and trading babysitting duties, clothes, and receipts, just to name a few.

I have often wondered, as I pick up a new stack of photos and begin to create my new layout...why bother? I mean, why do I make time for this silly hobby anyways?

Why? Because I LOVE it!!! I love the other women, all of us coming from different walks of life, yet all able to laugh, tell our stories, and share a meal and scrapbook together. We all share this deep desire to create and protect our cherished keepsakes. We want to showcase our life story, sharing with future generations our successes as well as our failures. We want the ability to freeze time, and since we are unable to, we settle for the next best thing...recording the simple and BIG moments in our lives. At least, that is why I scrapbook.

I scrapbook because sometimes I have a hard time taking my eyes off of my children. Their beauty astonishes me! I often wish I could freeze time, have my children stayed their current ages for the rest of eternity. I just love all the cute and funny new things they are learning. Experiencing life through their innocent eyes is simply amazing; words cannot describe the sheer joy my children bring me daily. I don't want to forget these fleeting moments. So, I journal, and I paste and glue pretty paper with my pictures, as my way of telling and sharing my family story with others.