Seeing the Big Picture

By:Chrissy Cooper

Scrap booking has brought a whole new dimension of creativity to my life. Ever since I was a little girl I have had a camera hanging from my neck. Taking photos has always been a passion of mine, now scrap booking my photographs is.

When I take a photo of someone, especially someone I love, I am already envisioning how it will look on my scrapbook page. I ask myself “what colors and poetry will best flatter this person, how can I evolve this photo into a work of art and a beautiful lasting memory in my book?” Page titles, eyelets, fibers, cardstock colors and poetry envelope my mind as I take pictures now. Every photograph is a dynamic scrapbook page waiting to happen.

Scrap booking is very important to me because I want to share my children’s and my life with other family members. When my grandchildren or great grandchildren leaf through our memory books I want them to be able to actually put themselves back in that time because my journaling, colors and photos can take them there. They will be able to look at our memories and laugh, gasp or cry like we did at the time.

Scrap booking has definitely changed my life. It has taught me to really look at people and the pictures I have taken. I see things in my photography that eluded me before. Every color, every detail is visible to me now, as I frame a scrapbook page around it. My memories are much clearer and easy to share and display. Sometimes when I am foggy on a memory of a certain photo I will ask a family member what they recall. Hearing their recollection of the day creates all new memories for me and brings us closer together sharing it.

Dmarie is an incredibly useful website. I have used oodles of ideas and tips from the site and lots of poetry. I think the best thing about Dmarie would be the friends that I have made while corresponding through the Dmarie Friend Finder. It’s wonderful to have a local friend to talk to about scrap booking and they understand every word you utter. New friendships and more memories…leads to more scrap booking.

My family is as excited about my scrap booking as I am. They love to page through my books and see how I designed my pages. My children often stand waiting at my side to see the next creation beneath my fingertips. They love to see how I portrait them. I feel scrap booking is a way to truly express how we feel about a person or event in our lives. Who ever thought that with some pretty paper, adhesive and embellishments that you could beautify some fascinating memories and record them in a book for everyone to see and cherish as you do?


Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: A Lifetime of Memories, by Lynn D