Scraps Of Mind

Why I Scrapbook?

A couple of weeks ago Debra Roby of BlogHer wrote an article called Scrapbooking. Why? The article was basically about Debra’s puzzlement with Scrapbooking and why people do it. She quoted an article on Jessica Sprague’s blog as evidence for what scrapbooking is about. But she said she still doesn’t ‘get it’.

Personally I’m puzzled why any non-scrapbooker should even ask that question about someone else’s hobby. It’s like saying “Why do you collect stamps?” or “Why do you do embroidery?” And the discussion in the Comments section really took off with a bunch of non-scrapbookers making a series of ill-informed remarks and once again questioning why other people would want to do it. I attempted to register with the site to leave a comment but unfortunately in a battle with the registration process I came off second best.

Now whilst I see no reason why I would need to justify why I Scrapbook, this article did get me thinking about what it is about Scrapbooking that presses my buttons. What makes Scrapbooking my hobby and passion.

You see I’ve dabbled in other crafts and hobbies and I’ve found them to be ‘phases’. When I started Scrapbooking I wondered if this was going to be the same. My first foray into Scrapbooking was in early 2005 when I scrapped an album of an overseas trip I took in 2003. I was frustrated with having my memories of that great trip fragmented across my photos on a CD, a plastic bag full of mementos and a transcript of my travel journal. I wanted something that would pull them all together so I could leisurely browse through and relive the trip. That’s how Scrapbooking came into my life. But I wasn’t convinced that Scrapbooking wasn’t a ‘fad’ for me until I returned from another overseas trip that year and I found I had the same enthusiasm to get back into it and created another trip album. I realised then that this was something that I was really hooked on.

So Scrapbooking started for me as a means to create a record that would let me gently ramble down memory lane to relive my experiences. I started to create scrapbook pages to commemorate different events in my daughter’s life with a view to building a record for her future.

But now my approach to Scrapbooking is different. I have found it to be a wonderful creative outlet for me. And I never even knew I was creative. I particularly enjoy the scope I have in creating digital scrapbook layouts where I feel a greater sense of creative freedom. And whilst I still want to ‘leave a record’ I find myself more and more creating scrapbook layouts just for the sake of creating.

Scrapbooking has enabled me to open up and develop a side to my life that I never even knew existed. It has allowed me to explore my creative side that I never knew I had. Scrapbooking is not just about cutting and pasting bits of paper, any more than quilting is just about sewing together scraps of material or painting is about splashing around with brushes and coloured pigments. It has added something to my life which I never previously realised was missing.

So how about you? What does Scrapbooking mean to you?

Other related posts:

Wanna be a Scrapbook Investigative Reporter?
Hybrid Scrapbooking - What’s it all about?
Have you ever done a Scrapbook Layout Makeover?

With digital scrapbooking you don’t have to worry about making mistakes.

Click over to Step by Step Digital Scrapbook and you’ll see what I mean.