Why scrapbooking is my favorite craft
By:susan f.
When I began scrapbooking about a year ago, I didn't realize how important a part of mine and my family's lives it would become. I had never heard of scrapbooking as a craft,and had never been to a "crop";I just wanted to make a compilation of awards and memorabilia of my daughter's accomplishments.
I began to find out a little bit here and there about all the acid- and lignen-free products, and how important that is for preservation.I am completely self-taught at this art and have only been to one Creative Memories class,and that was for absolute beginners.I've learned as I go, and am thrilled with all the new products that keep coming out,and still learn more with each new page I do. My first layouts were of my little girl's awards in her dance and cheerleading and gymnastics. Then I began to "branch out" into lots of other topics, and now I document any and every day things that we all do.I love to do heritage layouts of both my husband's and my own families,and family members love how the photos come to life on a scrapbook page. Instead of just old black and white photos, we love to read and re-read the stories the photos tell, when I include the journaling with them.
My little girl will know the long- gone loved ones she was never able to meet by seeing them in a layout with explanations of who each person was to her. It is a wonderful way of actually bringing a family's history into the present,and making sure the memories are protected from any more aging. A kind of bridge from the past into the future. It is so good to know that the old,sometimes crumbly treasured photos I've rescued from magnetic albums,cardboard boxes, and trunks are now protected from any more deterioration.Scrapbooking our own times now is very essential to me for the same reason. I want my daughter, and then her children and grand-children, to know what our lives were all about "way back when"; and I know,by archiving our photos and important memorabilia,that these things will last for many, many years. That's what this "craft" is all about.
Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: My Scrapbooking Addiction, by Melodie Jones, Yorba Linda, CA
