thoughts on scrapbooking

I've been thinking a lot about scrapbooking lately. How much I love it and how little time I am able to spend doing it. Each week I see the photos pile up and my thoughts overwhelm me of things I want to say or remember about my children, myself, and my family. Sure enough it is constantly put on the back burner.

I know I have some time to devote to it if I want. I mean I am setting up my smugmug site which does take time and blogging and...I suppose the list could go on and on. I believe a part of me is afraid too. It sounds crazy because once I dive in I love it. I can stop. I just put pressure on myself and I loose focus on why I am doing this in the first place so I back off for a while.

I love this hobby. I love being creative. I love looking back at the memories I've created.

So I am trying to go back to goals I made months ago after reading Stacy Julian's book the big picture. I decided I was going to start organizing my ablums like she does. No more trying to find where the pages fit chronologically. No more stressing about how many photos I have piling up and feeling behind. Just a collection of thoughts and photos displayed artistically for me and my family to enjoy. In a sense telling the stories of our life. It has really made a huge difference. I have loved the one page layouts. I have loved taking away the restrictions I put on myself. Why do I do that anyway? Now I just need to get back and do it.

Last night I was looking through with the kids some of my older albums and realized how far I've come. What a difference I've made. Some of the pages I really disliked, but loved being able to see the changes I have made artistically. I enjoy seeing the evolution my scrapbooking has taken over the last 9 years. It was funning seeing the pre-making memories and pre-bazzill basics paper days. I remember going to Pebbles in my Pocket with Jill for the first time and being so overwhelmed. I couldn't imagine what it would be like now getting into the hobby because let's face it, the stuff you had to work with then its a wonder I had some cute pages or I should say descent.



Here are a few of the first pages I ever made on the floor of my Orem house with Jill. (click here for more of my first layouts...no laughing). I remember using the corner rounder on everything. Funny that it's come full circle from being totally out to popular again. Anyway, I think these pages are interesting...very very basic, but so me. I am still lacking embellishments and use a lot of cardstock. I suppose I always liked it that way. It's my way of doing things. Love being able to see that some things never change.

interesting note: on the cancun layout i used paint way back then. Well, Adam used paint. But still had we only knew.



Also the layout of Bella I did ages ago and put in one of the 12x12 frames i just replaced.