Scrapbooks
I love keeping scrapbooks, but now I’ve been asked how I got started with it. Hmmm……
My first thought was of my best friend, Ginny, who became a Creative Memories consultant in 1994 and got me started paper-scrapping then. But really it started long before that. I remember that one of my favorite activities when I was a child was to “make books,” as I called it (and no, I don’t mean “making book”—that is, taking bets on horse races, ball games, etc. LOL). I remember a few of the books I made: an album of leaves, including real leaves that I pasted in then wrote about the trees they came from, and I actually appended a Foreword—I’d seen sections in real books called the Foreword and I thought my book on leaves ought to have one, too. What a quirky kid I was! I also made a book about sea creatures in which I sketched (very badly) pictures of the creatures and then identified how they defended or protected themselves. Not sure what got me started on that, but I vividly remember making its pages. I also still have a little photo album I made when I was a Brownie, with my black and white photos from my Kodak Brownie camera—Brownies from a Brownie. LOL It’s just those black-and-whites pasted on black paper pages with my childish handwriting in white pencil. But I’m so glad to still have it.
As I grew up, I continued to scrapbook provisionally. When the Chief and I were in the Navy, I kept every document, every photo, every certificate and citation we got, though many of them are still in folders and only a few have made into actual albums. I have done a nice career/retirement album for each of us, though.
Fast-forward again to 1994, when I retired from the Navy. My CM friend was waiting, with something to do with the time I suddenly had on my hands (though not for long, because I went back to school AND started teaching part-time a few months later). I became a scrapbooking machine, doing maybe a dozen albums in the next several months, but then I became too busy with finishing my MA degree to do much of anything else. My scrapbooks-in-progress languished, and I just did a page here and there or a few when I found time to go to a crop.
Fast-forward again to 2004. I was looking for a way to get my scrapping chops recharged, since I had lots of photos from a trip to Ireland. I picked up a scrapbooking magazine, which had a section on digital, gave some URLs for digi-scrapping sites, and some spectacular examples of digitally scrapped pages, and I felt my motivation rising! I found DSP, located the “free” software that had come with my computer (MS Digital Image Pro—but now I use PSE), signed up for a class, and the rest, as they say, is history.
With digital scrapping, either I’ve come full-circle or maybe I haven’t really moved at all—I’m still “making books”!
My first thought was of my best friend, Ginny, who became a Creative Memories consultant in 1994 and got me started paper-scrapping then. But really it started long before that. I remember that one of my favorite activities when I was a child was to “make books,” as I called it (and no, I don’t mean “making book”—that is, taking bets on horse races, ball games, etc. LOL). I remember a few of the books I made: an album of leaves, including real leaves that I pasted in then wrote about the trees they came from, and I actually appended a Foreword—I’d seen sections in real books called the Foreword and I thought my book on leaves ought to have one, too. What a quirky kid I was! I also made a book about sea creatures in which I sketched (very badly) pictures of the creatures and then identified how they defended or protected themselves. Not sure what got me started on that, but I vividly remember making its pages. I also still have a little photo album I made when I was a Brownie, with my black and white photos from my Kodak Brownie camera—Brownies from a Brownie. LOL It’s just those black-and-whites pasted on black paper pages with my childish handwriting in white pencil. But I’m so glad to still have it.
As I grew up, I continued to scrapbook provisionally. When the Chief and I were in the Navy, I kept every document, every photo, every certificate and citation we got, though many of them are still in folders and only a few have made into actual albums. I have done a nice career/retirement album for each of us, though.
Fast-forward again to 1994, when I retired from the Navy. My CM friend was waiting, with something to do with the time I suddenly had on my hands (though not for long, because I went back to school AND started teaching part-time a few months later). I became a scrapbooking machine, doing maybe a dozen albums in the next several months, but then I became too busy with finishing my MA degree to do much of anything else. My scrapbooks-in-progress languished, and I just did a page here and there or a few when I found time to go to a crop.
Fast-forward again to 2004. I was looking for a way to get my scrapping chops recharged, since I had lots of photos from a trip to Ireland. I picked up a scrapbooking magazine, which had a section on digital, gave some URLs for digi-scrapping sites, and some spectacular examples of digitally scrapped pages, and I felt my motivation rising! I found DSP, located the “free” software that had come with my computer (MS Digital Image Pro—but now I use PSE), signed up for a class, and the rest, as they say, is history.
With digital scrapping, either I’ve come full-circle or maybe I haven’t really moved at all—I’m still “making books”!
posted by Judyy at 8:11 AM
10 Comments:
What an interesting history you have had!!!
Good story. I wish I had kept a scrapbook growing up. I bet the ones you have made regarding your careers is really nice and you will enjoy for years. Thanks for sharing.
That was nice to read. Thanks. I enjoyed it. Just wanted to tell you though that your entry is not just duplicated, but triplicated! Yip you've somehow put it in three times!
I wish I'd been better at scrapbooking when I was younger... I have so little to remember the years by really. But then my DH would say "Don't have regrets, because if life hadn't happened the way it has, you wouldn't be here now. And if you're happy now, then why regret the past?"
He's a wise old Badger my DH :o)
what a great history! I wonder how many of of did "rough" scrapping- or making books *grins* when we were younger? I bet, lots of us.
Great post! What an interesting 'circle' you've journeyed 'round!
Fasinating. I love how you saved everything from the time you were in the Navy. I have been trying to get both my boys to do that, but....
Now Z writes books (one a day at least) which she makes up the stories and does all the illustrations.
It is great to see how events in our lives are tied together. The full circle may keep expanding!
Love your 'scrapbooking machine' description! LOL I hadn't really seen any of your pages before so I just took a little peek at your gallery - is that OK? :) You've done a lot of beautiful scrapwork!!
I think there's a book in there screaming to get out!
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