The summer of fourth grade, my mother had me scrapbook our road trip through New England.. Scrapbooking the Nixon-Humphrey campaign was a school project. I scrapbooked Apollo 11 all on my own. Then no more scrapbooks. My children's baby books were cute fill in the blanks styles.
Then in 2000 I visited my cousin Lynn who had plunged into scrapbooking. I was hooked, despite my stressful and chaotic life and job, I love my scrapbooks, my scrapbook paper, my supplies, and my tools. I love my scrapbook magazines. I love font websites. Why ??
- Scrapbook pages are more meaningful to me than the stored boxes of photos and bits and pieces of paper I collect
- Shifting through the boxes for material for my pages triggers memories I had forgotten.
- Compared to my day jobs, creating attractive pages gives me a challenge without real risks of pain, danger, death, or lawsuit.
- Applying design concepts learned in my past lives working in my father's typography studio and working in Dr. Cooley's college media production labs link my past and current lives.
- My interest in historical research can provide captions, embellishments, and style elements that are uniquely mine.
- My life requires a hobby that I can do anytime, with little travel, timetable, and relatively little cost for supplies (at least per purchase).
- Swapping scrapbook pages with my mom lets us collaborate despite our distance
- Scrapbooking has given me an identity in my family -- the photographer of photos for the scrapbook.
- Looking at the albums on the shelf reminds me that my life has been full of happy times.
- Occassionally my children actually look at them.
- Rarely my children actually show them to friends.
- When I am old, I will enjoy looking at them and forcing young people in my life to look at them with me.
