This is a post I have been trying to write for a while and today it is finally going to happen - regardless of how embarrassing as it may end up. :)
I want to take a walk down scrapbooking memory lane, looking at 10 milestones in my history as a scrapbooker. It is a major part of my life but, ironically, not one I have recorded particularly well. :)
Beware, embarrassing layouts lay ahead.
1. I'm going to claim that my beginnings as a scrapbooker began in early 2003. I was preparing to head off on a 12 month trip to Europe and remember a conversation with my friend Nicole about how I was going to combine the journaling and photos into an album when I returned. Thinking about the album before the trip - and carrying a year's worth of memorabilia with me on my travels - definitely qualifies me as a scrapbooker in my mind. :)
When I returned home in February 2004 I did begin that album - well, albums.
Somewhat less than successfully though. 12 months of travel photos was an overwhelming task and most of my pages look like this:
Photos are stuck down - with cropping, matting and unusual cutting - and there are some post-it notes reminding me of place names but there is no journaling. The main reason - I ran out of time before my next trip.
This album did get finished (see, there's journaling!) and I even completed a section at the end on my 22nd birthday. (I was overseas for my 21st so this birthday was a big one for me.)
Then it was my Honours years at university and not much of anything happened until I celebrated graduation with another trip.
(At this point you may realise that I still haven't finished milestone 1 and fear that this will be a 100 photo beyond-epic long post. I promise, I'll get quicker!)
These years - 2004 into 2006 - I was just travel scrapping, with one significant birthday added to the end of an album. I was starting to use scrapbooking product, although only purchased at a local craft store, and I had a set of circle and oval cutters I bought at the one and only Creative Memories party I ever went to. :)
2. Then I discovered the scrapbooking industry.
When I started those Europe albums I was just planning on combining photos and words in an album. I'd never really heard of scrapbooking. Now I was discovering there were shops filled with pretty paper and letter stickers just for that purpose. I bought my first issues of Creating Keepsakes and Simple Scrapbooks magazines and I was hooked. :)
I went back and completed a few pages from my Europe albums (I think I got as far as completing 24 days out of 360 day trip) before I got bored/overwhelmed and moved onto a new, non-travel album.
3. In 2007 (maybe 2008) I moved from scrapbooking on the dining room table to a desk where I had a permanent space. Now suddenly it was less of a hassle to scrapbook - no pulling out everything before I could even begin - and scrapbooking became something that I did regularly, not just every so often. And of course, with space my supplies grew. (And have kept growing ever since!)
4. When I decided my next album was going to have page protectors I was no longer tied to scrapping chronologically. Suddenly, instead of working a few years back, I was scrapping recent events.
I began taking photos with a scrapbook layout in mind. A photo of dirty feet? Yep, wouldn't have photographed that before I was a scrapbooker. :)
I created some layouts about more everyday occurrences, not just big events. This one was made November 2008.
5. By the end of 2008 I was working in an office with some quiet time. As a result, I spent more time on the internet. I discovered scrapbooking blogs - Ali Edwards and Cathy Zielske were initial favourites - and joined the Two Peas community.
Instead of being limited to Creating Keepsakes magazine and Becky Higgins sketches, I was finding inspiration (and scraplifiting) all sorts of different layouts.
6. In April 2009 I decided to complete Scrap Your Day, a project by Shimelle where you record the same day each month for a year.
This was my first scrapbooking project and also the first time I had purposefully recorded normal, everyday moments and scenes. When the last of day of this 12 month project fell the week Ali Edwards was running Week in the Life, I felt destined to participate. :) You can see some of my 2010 WITL album here.
7. For my birthday in 2009 my parents gave me a copy of Photoshop Elements. Upgrading from Picasa, I had much greater control over editing and resizing photos. I could create collages, play with digital elements and even created a few digital layouts.
8. In July 2010 I began this blog and, right away, the layouts I wanted to scrapbook changed. Stories that I would have previously wanted to scrapbook, like this trip on the tramcar restaurant, are recorded here and that feels like enough. There are some events that I have both blogged and scrapped about but there isn't that many.
Although I absolutely don't believe in being 'behind' in scrapping - any story recorded is a bonus, not an obligation - it is nice not having an ever-growing list of layouts I would like to get done. It also gives me to time complete some more 'random' scrapbooking layouts and projects, such as my Learn Something New album.
9. I don't think a list of scrapbooking influences would be complete without mentioning photography. Since getting a new camera in October last year (my first DSLR) my interest in photography (and my skills) has grown immensely.
Good photographs make me what to scrap more and scrapping makes me want to improve my photographs. :)
10. Lastly, there is my current scrapping obsession - mini-books. Before the middle of this year I have never made one - never really seen the point. (My 2010 December Daily is a 30 page 8 x 8 inch album and really, none too mini.) That changed soon enough though, with my Scrapbook on the Road album (still unfinished by the way). Then there was the Hen's Party mini, my Learn Something New mini, I've chosen 6 x 8.5 inch as my December Daily album for this year and have plans for a Year of Weekends mini starting in January. :)
So there you have it - 10 milestones from a walk down scrapbooking memory lane. Congratulations to anyone who made it this far! Please don't hold my older layouts against me. :)
