Scrapbook Saturday

My Scrapbooking Story

The year was 1996. Butch and I were getting ready to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Jack and Connie and David and Linda were also celebrating 25 years. We decided to celebrate together at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. Since it was January and the trip wasn’t until July, we girls decided to start saving our change. When the time came for the trip, we’d spend that money on jewelry. It wasn’t meant to be a competition, but it turned out to be. Linda started it by asking for all of her change in quarters! Anyway, we had a lot of fun with that. 

Over Memorial weekend, Butch and I went to St. Louis. That’s when I learned about this new “thing” called scrapbooking. I saw Bridget’s album and thought, “OMGosh! The girls would love this!” Chris, hooked me up with Mary, Bridget’s Creative Memories consultant. She invited me over to her house where she had a mini shop set up. I wanted everything and was trying to justify the purchase. That’s when it hit me! I don’t need more jewelry! So, I spent the money I’d been saving on scrapbook supplies—-$550 to be exact!!

Bridget and Marci came down later in the summer to get the girls started—teaching them how to use the tools. I joined in and played along. I was HOOKED! Truly, it was an unintentional consequence! I was too busy with my own life and hobbies. The rest is history. I moved my organization business from cleaning out closets to setting up craft rooms and teaching all sorts of classes from organizing photos to storytelling. I never looked back. It’s been 28 years now and I’ve never grown tired of it. I’m a storyteller at heart and still have many to tell!

So, I've decided to change the way I scrapbook. I'm ready for a change. I’m doing a “Month in the Life Approach.” I’ll do a double-page spread for each month and all of the activities within that month. I’ll be working with pages that have inserts.

Since I've never done pocket pages before, I needed to do a little shopping. I got a variety of configurations and will stick with my normal 12x12 format. I plan to do a double page per month to hit the highlights and therefore not feel compelled to do individual layouts for everything. Since I already edit my photos at the end of every month, decide what to print and stories to tell, I think this will be a natural progression. I'm a pretty fast scrapbooker, so I'll approach it like this: 1. Edit and print photos. 2. Decide format for journaling, consult notes and print. 3. Select materials (using one Ali Edwards kit which contains pocket cards). 4. Decide any special techniques. 5. Put layout together. 5 easy steps in 5 sessions.

Here is the title page:

January

February 

And just like that, I'm caught up. I think I'm going to love scrapbooking like this.