Why Do I Love Scrapbooking?

By:By Sherri, OH

Why do I love scrapbooking? I love to create and do crafts. I put up a hard and long fight though when it came to scrapbooking. A friend tried for two years to get me interested, but I brushed her off. I had my photos in magnetic albums and "knew" they were better off than others who had them in the little envelopes that came from the photo developer. Boy, was I wrong! I had all my high school pictures, wedding pictures and new baby pictures all in albums. I checked with my mom if I could borrow her books of my baby pictures to reproduce. Neither of us had looked at them for a while, but we were shocked when we did!

My baby pictures were all stuck in the pages and some were yellowing already. There were no negatives as they'd been lost years ago. We had to save my past! "Eek!" I yelled at my friend, "you have to help me!" She told me about acid free papers and stickers. She showed me her books again, which I paid attention to now! We shopped at our local scrapbook store, which just happened to be across the street from my bank. Why hadn't I ever noticed it was there??? I replaced those acid magnetic albums with acid free post bound ones and gorgeous papers and stickers.

With time I discovered punches and punchart too. I found a new passion. No longer did I take a few rolls of pictures a year, but snapped pictures every chance I had. I made up poses and reasons for certain photos, just because I had a cute scrapping idea for them! During a very long summer I had to have double knee replacement. I was laid up for months with nothing to do but physical therapy and .... scrapping! I finished an entire book full of original punchart designs during this time. I sent off a couple of designs to a publisher and they wanted all of them! I was so happy I was being published! Then the publisher said they wanted me to totally re-do my designs in their new designer cardstocks and I had four days to do it in! That was quite a deadline! I punched and glued and was still so far behind in getting my desings done in time. A fellow scrapper, that is also a dMarie visitor, came over and helped me finish my designs up, just in time for my deadline! My book, Punchin'2, came out last January and was a success. I've just sent in my new designs of punchart to my publisher and am anxiously awaiting approval.

My sons love their scrapbooks. They know that besides their photos being safe, that their books are filled with memories and their mother's love for them. When I'm no longer here with them, their books will be, so they can show their children how much they were loved. Their stories are written, memories saved and cherished, and stand as a creative outlet for their mom!

I recently interviewed my grandmother while going through photos of her childhood, so that I would know who everyone was in the pictures. I didn't want any "lost" family in them. The heritage pages we made are lovely and accent these cherished photos from long ago generations. Someday my scrapbooks will, I hope, be a cherished reminder of my generation! My sons tease me of being punching crazy and acid free, but they love the results..... and so do I.

Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: What dMarie means to me, by Lyn Meeker, Tucson AZ.