The Blog Beginning

Hello

I have been scrapbooking since about 1997.  I think I began at about the apex of the scapbooking heyday when there were lots of local scrapbooking stores, the shelves where packed at places like Joann’s, Micheal’s and Hobby Lobby.  But just before the products started getting really sophisticated.  As I write today, I believe the products are wonderful and great, sophisticated however beyond what many people can use due to skill level, financial ability, or time constraints and I honestly think this is what has led to the downfall of the industry.  I don’t think it is because people “now-a-days” don’t want to preserve memories, it is because the industry has made it much too difficult for them to begin and maintain this hobby in its current marketed form.

What was once fun, buying stickers for a Halloween page, initiating a “sticker sneeze” and telling a great story of how the photo subject decided on the costume and the things that happened on All Hallow’s Eve, have taken a backseat to trying to create this masterpiece work of art using gesso, paints and ink, layers of itty bitty pieces of paper, creating a visual triangle.  A 15-30 minute page has now turned into a work of art.  That is wonderful for those who have the time and ability to create these masterpieces, but we have to stop making those of us who do not have the time nor the talent ashamed of our work.  I would love to see some of the designers post on their blog a simple sticker sneeze page, or a page with matted photos and a story and nothing more.  If the goal is the memory it just does not matter what the page looks like, it really doesn’t.  Nothing brought this fact home better than Christmas 2014 when my son of 33 sat and looked at some my scrapbooks. Oh he had seen them before, but this was the very first time he actually “SAW” them. He has reached the age that the stories of his grandmother (no longer with us) his Aunt, (who help me raise him), touched him and he was honored to know he would become the future keeper of these memories upon my death. And I even found out through my daughter-in-law that he made a really big deal of them after they arrived home from visiting our house. I am by no means a designer, my pages have lots of sticker sneezes, lots of pages with matted photos and not much else.  I don’t think he gives a crap (scuse’ the language) where the butterfly is placed on the page or if there is a visual triangle (and I can tell you there weren’t any), he focused on the photo, the story (which was not written on the page, something I must now go back and correct – journaling has not been my strong point as I got so caught up in making a pretty page), and the fact that I put my heart and soul into keeping the memories of our family.  This is what it is about people!  THIS!  THE MEMORIES.

Remember where it started, Creative Memories, and how happy those first scrappers where with their blank white pages and their handwritten journaling all over the page, the stickers they started putting out to add a bit to the page. I was not initially introduced to the hobby of scrapbooking through Creative Memories like many people were, I began using other products. I have followed forums where through the years Creative Memories consultants have been the target of anger because Creative Memories consultants required the use of those products exclusively at their crops and function. I am here to tell you, I use ANYBODY’s product, because I use what I want to use, but let me defend Creative Memories consultants for a moment. They are operating a business. Just like any other business, they are not going to allow you to bring other peoples products to their establishment. I use to go to a Local Scrapbook Store, and attend classes. If the instructors project did not include 100% product that was sold in that store she could not teach the project, and would be required to alter it so that every item could be purchased at the store. Frankly I was there to learn the technique, not to learn to reproduce the exact project, but I understood why the store owner made this requirement. She didn’t make money off the class, she made money from the sale of the items used in the class when the attendees learned the project and wanted to make more. My point however is not about marketing, it is to stress that getting back to basics the Creative Memories philosophy of scrapbooking is not a bad idea. With all the stylized layouts, aren’t the current industry leaders saying (or at least implying) the same things Creative Memories consultants are currently ridiculed for by instructing us where to put things, using the color wheel, mixed media products, and all the complex page compositions and process videos published online.  Many of these things are way over some of our heads.  This prevents those of us who want to begin memory keeping from even getting started, it is to overwhelming to begin.  It no longer takes a couple pieces of card stock, a few stickers (or embellishments) and a story, to construct a memory page, IT TAKES AN ART STUDIO!!!!, and it shouldn’t. In this hobby of Memory Keeping/Scrapbooking, there IS room for both. Let’s accept all pages, all products, all people, lets unify this community not divide it.

So this is my new blog, dedicated to helping people create works of art, getting stories recorded, and get the photos displayed in ANY FASHION so everyone will feel good about what they have accomplished.

I hope you will continue to join me, I would love to read your comments, and maybe make some scrapping relationships with you all along the way.

Free Givaway

For a free Simple Stories So Fancy collection…….

If you are brand new to scrapping go grab a photo a piece of any paper or card stock you have in the house, tell a story, and your first page is complete.   Link it up here by February 28th at 11:55 pm to win a great bunch of goodies.  In the comment section reference your link and tell a little bit about how you felt making the page and how you feel about the page.

If you are a seasoned scrapper, your challenge is to link up your first scrapbook page and in in the comment section tell us what you remember about how you felt while making the page, and how you feel about the page now, and what memories this page brings back to you.  You have the same deadline February 28th at 11:55.

The winner will be chosen by random.

Here is my first page. Sadly no one in my husbands family know who the people in are in this photo, and as you can see the mounted photo has been damaged. Such a good example of why we need to get our photos into albums and document, at the very least names and dates. Don’t let someone in your future go through your photos after you are gone, and wonder “Who are these people? Why are these people in a photo box of my ________?”

I would love to get this MEMORY minded community going, so your participation is greatly appreciated.

Maribeth

Next Post – Documenting a child’s sporting season.  EASY PEASY

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