Why I Love to scrapbook

Over the years, manufacturers have come up with some amazing products for scrapbooking. From specialty cutters to stamps and varnishes, fabrics and embellishments, the scrapbook industry has grown leaps and bounds. Now with the internet at our fingertips, sharing techniques, tips and tricks is only a few clicks away. It amazes me the options we have to be creative… all in the name of love for our friends and family.

15 years ago when my first son was born, Creative Memories was just starting to really come into the scene and hardly any one I knew actually did any kind of scrapbooking at all. Back then the focus (at least for me) was just working on saving the memories with pictures in a photo album of some kind. Once I was introduced to the idea of creating a scrapbook I would try to add a page theme to add some extra interest, but nothing extraordinarily fancy. I wanted to remember the moment, but I didn’t do much in the way of journaling, so I tried to recreate the same feeling with the look of the pages I put together.

My son used to love playing with his farm animals, so to keep that memory, I created a little barn scene using a photo I had of him playing with his farm playset. In this example, I used solid colored paper, specialty scissors, a black marker and some farm animal stickers.

Scrapbooking is whatever you make it to be. It’s all about adding your own personality and experiences into your layouts. Some people create bright cheerful layouts full of color and excitement while others prefer the subtle colors of a vintage look creating more of a mood setting of romance or deep thought. The pages you create can have unlimited possibilities in how they look as well as the options you choose for supplies to use and how to use them. You can create something very complex, or very simple – it’s up to you!

Before all of the fabulous options of dies and embossing and stamping techniques were available, I would add special interest by using my drawing skills and stickers (I’ve collected stickers since I was 9, it’s about time I used them for something, right?). In this example I used color pencils to draw a basket, stickers and craft paper to create a egg shapes to create a  cute Easter basket theme full of family memories (note the year… 1996!).

Scrapbooking is all about preserving memories. Whatever is important to you in capturing those moments, include those thoughts into your page layouts. Write notes, poems or jot down funny quirks about the day. Include colors that remind you of the event.

Here are 3 more layout examples I created using digital scrapbooking. There are a number of ways you can incorporate digital scrapbooking into your projects. I like to play with layout ideas on the computer but then recreate the same layout in actual tangible scrapbook supplies – real paper, stamps, stickers, glue and more. Later I will show you how to create these layouts with your own printer, paper and other supplies.

Scrapbooking to preserve memories to enjoy later as well as to pass on to future generations is a fantastically satisfying activity. There are no limits on creativity. The techniques and supplies available for you to choose from are endless. Regardless of your skill level or budget, you too can create beautiful pages that will keep your precious memories alive for years to come.

What do you like most about scrapbooking?