amandac

MOC9 - Jan 2 - Why?

MOC9 - Jan 2 - Why?
amandac, Jan 3, 2021
Description:
Pocket Art: Signature Kit 8 by Rachel Jefferies
Count the stars (elements) by Little Butterfly Wings
Storyteller BYOC 2021 January - Your Story by Just Jaimee
Listed | Elements by Pink Reptile Designs
Heimili| Alpha by Pink Reptile Designs
Journaling:
Because of this challenge I have realised that the reason WHY I love to scrapbook has undergone a process of metamorphosis over the years. It has been a journey starting back in 2007 when I first discovered digital scrapbooking after searching online for a more interesting way to showcase holiday photos. I wanted to share them with my friends, but I didn’t want to bore them to tears with a typical slideshow. What I stumbled upon, the world of digital scrapbooking, changed my life for the better. Up until that point I would never have considered such a creative hobby because I never thought of myself as an arty person. I thought I was a bit of an artistic dud honestly.

At first, my scrapbooking was purely about the love of preserving and documenting memories. I created pages and pages of my family’s special moments, filling my hard drives over and over. Wven now, I love to look at them and laugh out loud. Because of scrapbooking I can go back to pages about beloved family members, wonderful friends, much loved pets and recapture those moments easily. I have created pages dedicated to remembering birthdays, reading, missing teeth, shaved eyebrows, holidays, books, school performances, Christmases, best friends, books (lots of pages about reading and books!) and even a few pages about ice-cream, just to name a topic or two (or more). All these moments mean something important to me and looking back at the pages brings them right to the forefront of my mind and heart. For example, when I started to prepare this journaling piece, I looked back at some of my older work and I came across a page I made back in 2008 with a photo of my two girls laying on the couch together. On the scrapbook page it became something so much more meaningful than simply a couple of sweet photos because I was able to journal how precious (and rare) these moments of sisterly love and harmony were!

Another reason that I scrapbook is to be Remembered. Over the years I have made a few All About Me pages so that when my family look back in years to come, they will learn a bit more about me, the crazy lady behind the camera. These were not easy to do, I had to force myself to make them by doing some challenges because it is so much easier to be hidden behind the camera than be standing in front of it! But I think it is as important to document ourselves as it is to document our loved ones. One day these pages are all they will have and that makes me proud to have been part of the opportunity for my loved ones to know more about my hopes and dreams.

As time passed, and the girls became less willing to have photos taken 50 times a day to feed my scrapbooking addiction I started to look at other types of scrapbooking, such as art journaling and mixed media. I’ll be honest, it took me a while to actually give Art Journaling a try because even years after starting to scrapbook I still felt I wasn’t very artistic. But I did some challenges and started to dabble. As my confidence grew, I felt something so wonderfully satisfying in the creation of these sorts of pages! I found that I could pour out emotions onto the page and in that moment, both celebrate and release those feelings into the universe. Its honest, cathartic, liberating and to my eyes it can be incredibly beautiful.

Aside from the thrill of the creative process and the evolution of form and style another WHY I love scrapbooking is the PEOPLE. Because of scrapbooking I discovered a wonderful International community of like-minded souls, memory keepers, artists, and all-around fun people! Starting at Pickleberrypop in 2007 I met a great bunch of Aussie scrapy ladies, and I am honoured to say I am still friends with a few them today. I met my bestest, online friend Deb during our time on Anna Benjamin’s CT and during The Amazing Race, and we are still friends years later, chatting regularly even with the hassle of different hemispheres and opposite timelines. We have had lots of laughs, shared our lives through our art and generally had a fabulous time!

Discovering The Lilypad in 2010, I started out by playing along with the challenges and expanding my horizons creatively. Getting to know the people here really opened the world to me and I have made some great friendships and even had the pleasure to meet up with a few in real life. The awesome community of scrappers is a huge WHY that love this creative outlet! So, for me the WHY of scrapbooking is, not only about being the official memory keeper in my family and having the opportunity to be part of a fabulous community, it’s also about the artistic expression of emotion and feeling. I am a scrapper for life!

838 words as per word counter
    • Dalis
      You went with almost a book and I love it!

      btw. love that we all are struggling with the kids not wanting to be snapped pics of them anymore. LOL!!!

      Brilliant idea to put some of your pages! SCRAPPER FOR LIFE!!!!!!!
      amandac likes this.
    • HeatherB
      Loved reading your journaling. I remember the days at Pickleberry Pop - great group of ladies there. I love how you have the pages from various years cascading down your layout showing how your style has changed over the years. Great page! Thanks for playing along with my challenge!
      amandac likes this.
    • Iowan
      Wow, such wonderful journaling and I like your highlighted layouts. Nicely done.
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  • Category:
    Pollywog Team Layouts
    Uploaded By:
    amandac
    Date:
    Jan 3, 2021
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    Comment Count:
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