I Scrap!

Yes, I confess.....I am a scrapbooker. One of many talents, er, hobbies :-) Although in the last couple of years I have had a love/hate relationship with this hobby.

When I started about it, about 10 years ago, it was simply all about displaying my photos in an organized manner and telling the stories. Hmmmm.....and then the obsessions started. I started looking at more magazines and collecting more stuff. And I became very self conscious. If a scrapbook page wasn't worthy of a gallery opening then it wasn't worthy to be viewed by anyone. Then there was the scrapbooking community....it was like a high school society where everyone wanted to emulate and be pals with the super cool, chosen ones.

I. Really. Started. To. Hate. It.

Yes, the love was gone. What happened? I got away from the reason I really started to do it. You know....display my photos and tell the story.

I have friends who would go on vacation and a week after they were back would have their photos in a scrapbook with captions and a few stickers.  They would sound almost apologetic for the simplicity of the album but it was that simplicity I loved!  They were perfect and I was secretly very jealous! 

So, there I was, with enough stuff to open my own scrapbook store. And I stopped.....temporarily.

(I think that was about the time I picked up a crochet hook for the first time in years!)

I retired and I thought I would be scrapbooking all the time....but I wasn't. And when I started again....I was realistic....realistic about what I was trying to accomplish and about what my style is. Things (and pages) became more simplistic. Most of my pages look like this.......

More photos and stories......less embellishments. 

But every now and then I'll slap (literally) a flower on a page.....

And there are times I'll just do what I feel like doing......

And....every now and then (pretty rare), I'll be in a really creative mood.  And when the mood strikes me I just go with it.....

Back in the day I would have lamented about the squares being perfectly straight and painting the chipboard the perfect color (I didn't paint it at all....I just plopped it on there!  That NEVER would have happened before!).  Oh....and there wouldn't be any doodling (even though I love doodling!) because I would have worried that it would not have been perfect (Yes.....I have A.D.D.).

The point is.....I stepped back and learned to quit trying so hard. 

Do I still purchase scrapbook stuff? Yes....I'm addicted to those little letter stickers from October Afternoon ( some habits die hard!) 

But I did cut back on magazines.  And also on scrapbook blogs....there are only a select few I look at. (See side bar)

I just learned to go with what I like....and keep it simple! 

Oh....I follow a simple rule.....I use the first piece of paper I pull out.....even if it doesn't match.  It keeps me sane!