Scrapster

 

I’ve been scrapping for over 6 years and most of the time I just scrapped my recent ‘pretty’ pictures. Having been on a lot of CT’s, I always wanted to make outstanding pages, and for me, those start with outstanding photos. I would take new portraits of my kids when I ran out of photos. I would have my daughter pose in different positions so I could extract her from the pictures for my fantasy pages. I’ve taken a lot of pretty photos that I’m proud of, and I made a lot of ditto pages. But along the road, I lost my main focus - the reason why I started scrapping: to preserve my children’s (and my own!) memories.

And the result is that my 7 y old daughter still has not a single album finished. Photos from many important events (often low quality pictures) are still sitting on my computer, unscrapped and never even developed. The only exception is my son’s baby book. That one is finished and printed and I’m so proud of it. But that didn’t happen by coincidence. No. I had a PLAN for it. I even sketched out how I wanted the book to be, BEFORE I started it. It has spreads with lots of photos for every month and they all have detailed journaling. It’s a complete report of my son’s first year and I love to look in it and so do my children.
Here’s the book I made for him:

 

 

 

I’m a bit of a perfectionist when I’m scrapping. I spend about 2 to 3 hours on a single page and close to 4 hours on a spread, even with a template. That means I’m a slow scrapper: events and special moments happen way faster than I can scrap. And I still have so much pictures from earlier years I want to scrap! After all those years I just now realized I need a plan. After all, ofcourse I want my daughter to have her own baby book like her brother has! Not to mention everything that happened in the years thereafter! And I can’t just focus on finishing those early year books, because then I will forget about the important moments of TODAY. Unless I settle in scrapping this years pictures in a couple of years from now, but I DON’T.

So I started thinking. What do I want my children to remember when they’re older?
I want them to remember special events and trips. But I also want them to remember the little things. Things they said that made me laugh. Their favorite TV-shows or passtimes, their favorite food. Their first visit to the hairdresser, their first icecream. I also want them to know how they make me feel. The things that are on my mind in this very important task of raising them. My hopes and dreams for them. But I also want them to learn more about me and their daddy as a person. What our favorite things are, our hobbies, our jobs, our fears. We are rarely in the picture when I scrap, it’s always been all about them. So I decided I need to keep three things in mind and I need to divide my time over three projects:

1. keep scrapping older photos and have those books printed by year.
   
2. keep scrapping today’s photos and write down the stories
   
3. scrap about me and their daddy.

I usually scrap 1 page a day, in the evenings. So I need to scrap 2 pages of each every week (allowing me to take a day off as well). I also really must:

1. include the date on every page
   
2. JOURNAL! I have so many older pages with pretty pictures but no journaling at all! The stories are so important!
   
3. scrap important events or moments that I don’t have photos of. Photos are not always necessary, it’s the story that’s most important!

So there you have it! My PLAN.
One might think these ‘obligations’ take away my joy and liberty of scrapbooking, but in fact they don’t. On the contrary! I am enjoying it even more because this made me step away from wasting my time with meaningless pages and giving more thought to my pages. I still get to choose which photos I scrap. I still get to scrap just pretty portraits, but I include journaling now. There’s always a story to tell!

Here are a couple of my recent pages I did.

Credits:

Shabby Kind of Love by Jenn Barrette
swirl from In full Bloom by Meg Mullens
silly scale from Silly Girl by Jenn Barrette and Valorie Wibbens
Alpha Dots by Shawna Clingerman
Zoe Pearn Fun for me (lace)
Traci Reed Bad Stitching Machine 20
Alpha by Brittish Designs: So Thankful for…
template by AK Designs

Credits:

template by Ciny Schneider (modified) set 56
Sending All My Love by Misty Cato;
Stitched by Anna Borders No. 1 by Anna Aspnes;
Shabby Sweetheart by Jenn Barrette and Susan Bartolini;
Memories by Sweet Shoppe Designers;
Fonts: MTFBecki

Credits:

Oh Snap! by Kristin Cronin-Barrow;
leaves from Vintage Charm by Jenn Barrette;
Bad Sewing machine Squares v 3 by Traci Reed

Credits:

Kitschy Kitchen by Jenn Barrette and Sahlin Studio;
Take Note by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Jenn Barrette;
Chick flick by Jenn Barrette and Kristin Cronin-Barrow;
What She Said by Fee Jardine;
Mademoiselle by Jenn Barrette;
So Happy Together by Jenn Barrette and Shawna Clingerman;
Lil’ Miss Cartwheelie by Lliella;
Just Like Mom by Lliella,
template from set 63 by Cindy Schneider,
MixedStamped Alpha by Katie Pertiet,
Make A Wish by Sahlin Studio (small flower)
Font: PeaJane

Credits:

Park Play by Jady Day Studios and Kay Miller
Stitches by Traci Reed
I started with a template from set 72 by Cindy Schneider but ended up changing it a lot
fonts: DJB Jeannie Script by Darcy Baldwin
Bauhaus

Credits:

Cindy’s listmakers 1 A
Me Time Bundle: Chick flick and Chick lit by Jenn Barrette and Kristin Cronin-Barrow
red alpha from Busted by Libby Pritchett and Kristin Aagard
Cutsie Kraft alpha by Shawna Clingerman

Credits:

Smartypants by Jenn Barrette
Font: Little Days

Credits:

paper from Totally Rad Birthday by Jenn Barrette
alpha from Kitschy Kitchen by Jenn Barrette and Sahlin Studios
alpha from Wonderous by Julie Billingsley
ribbon from All a flutter by Julie Billingsley
ribbon from Autumn Memories by Melissa Bennett
ribbon from Waiting for Something by Lauren Grier and Shawna Clingerman
frame from Shabby kind of love by Jenn Barrette
string from School Days by Zoe Pearn
Dandelion fluff by Traci Reed

So how do you scrap? Do you have a plan? I’d love to hear about it!