I began scrapbooking long ago when stickers were only for kids and elementary school teachers. Paper came in only three kinds, copy, lined, or construction. Glue was either in white liquid form or kindergarten paste. There were no punches, die cuts, or other embellishments, only what my limited artistic ability allowed me to put on paper and carefully cut out. Photo albums were sticky and no one had ever heard of acid free.
It was 1992 and I had just graduated from the eighth grade and as a gift my grandmother, Frances Peterson, gave me a scrapbook. Now this was not the kind of scrapbook you would see today. It had a synthetic leather cover and about fifteen black construction paper pages already attached. All of this did not matter. I couldn't wait to fill this book with my soon-to-be high school memories.
Since I did not know really how to start, I began primitively. I adhered my own handmade cut outs and pictures of friends with Elmer's All Purpose Glue. It was messy and difficult. I was half way through my junior year when I discovered my Aunt Kelly's scrapbook.
She had used a thick paper called cardstock to put her pictures on. They were just the right size to fit into a page protector inside a regular binder. Genius! I was frustrated with the tedious nature of my scrapbook pages. Aunt Kelly taught me about acid free materials, craft scissors, and the magic of a glue stick. I abandoned my primitive ways and took my first steps into modern scrapbooking.
I got a binder, a glue stick, a Sharpie marker, pinking shears and some cardstock. I was ready to scrapbook! I learned that those old sticky photo albums my parents had were slowly deteriorating my family's photos so it was important to get the pictures out of there and onto something acid free (such as cardstock) as soon as possible. I went through all the albums and had quite a stack of pictures to sort out. Through trial and error I found what worked best in organizing.
I guess I got lazy in my scrapbooking because instead of making drawings to embellish each page, as I had before, I put stickers on instead. Stickers then were still juvenile and difficult to incorporate and that is why my first cardstock pages were mismatched and nothing to brag about. I also felt as though I had to crop every picture down with craft scissors in order to fit as many as I could on one 8 1/2"x 11" paper. I was still learning the art of the layout.
As the years went by, I developed my own style and finished my family's photo albums. I left the country to teach English overseas in Taiwan from 2002 to 2003. When I returned to the States, I found that the scrapbooking world had changed . . . drastically! Multi-layered layouts, ribbons and fibers and metal hardware all were included in the modern scrapbook. I was overwhelmed! Whatever happened to easy two dimensional layouts with cute accent stickers? I found I was out of touch and my style was outdated. How could I catch up to this new and seemingly complicated style?
My sister, Robyn Candland, helped me find new faith in my abilities. I searched scrapbook magazines and other scrapbooks to give me new ideas and asked about any technique that looked difficult. I learned to use an eyelet setter and how matting a picture can add a lot to a page. I learned how easy and convenient it was to do journaling on the computer. I was learning fast and developing a whole new style and loving my hobby again. I encourage everyone I know to start scrapbooking and so far no one has had any regrets (except for maybe husbands!).
Well that's my story. I believe that scrapbooking is not just a creative outlet but a way to preserve cherished memories for generations to come. I hope I can inspire you to dive in and begin to love this new creative hobby as much as I do.
Let's get scrappin'!
