How Many of You Started as Paper Scrappers?

I started as a card maker back in I'd like to say 1997/8 actually then a paper scrapper late 1998/9. Wasn't overly great as a paper scrapper as my eyesight for detail & cutting isn't there. I'm a much better digi scrapper when I transitioned in 2006 than I ever was paper

 

I started with paper, but I found it so hard. I wanted to make albums for the memories, but I was never good at it. When I found digital scrapbooking, it felt like I had found "my thing".

 

That was my feeling too

 

I started with paper in 2000 with Creative Memories. Found digi in 2006 and never looked back.

I would actually love to digitize all my paper albums for safekeeping, but that's all I'll do with paper scrapbooking at this point.

 

I also started with Paper in about 1998 ish... I was a demonstrator for Stampin' Up! lol! Funny to think of that now. I made all sorts of things, and even made the place cards/gift bags for my wedding in 2002. I also made many Christmas Cards, Baby Announcement cards, trading cards (just card fronts - for the big events to trade), and gifts during that time. I have scrapbooks and maybe some cards still... but I think I was pretty good. Haha!

I transitioned to digital once I had my first son, and he was mobile. lol! I still did paper, but over time it diminished. I loved playing with the papers, elements or working out new techniques. I tried digital with SU program, and didn't like it... so I got Photoshop Elements. I got frustrated with that and some differences of PS/shadowing... and then jumped to Photoshop. Never looked back.

I also tried hybrid, but that was definitely not my thing. All or nothing.

 

Yes! I started paper scrapping in 2003 when my daughter was little. About a year earlier my next door neighbor was hosting a Creative Memories party and at the last minute I couldn't go, I was so mad. So I started looking around online and found twopeasinabucket and went that route. Even though I picked up digital scrapping around 2011 I kept doing paper. Maybe too many things at once led to the burnout and me stopping altogether in 2014.

Like Karen I would like to digitize all of my old paper layouts.

 

I went to a Creative Memories party around 1999 and was hooked immediately. Became a consultant just to get my supplies at a discount. I was my best customer. Through the AOL CM message boards I met others that lived in Ohio/Michigan that I talked with online a lot. Some of us transitioned to a long defunct message board that eventually evolved into our beloved ScrapShare community. Through that community I met a few of those AOL peeps in person!

I stuck with paper scrapping until late 2007 even though I had been using Paint Shop Pro for other things since around 1997. Once I found digital, I knew that's where I belonged. However, I still have some paper supplies and have done some paper scrapping to finish projects. One was transferring my falling apart photo albums my mom had done for my childhood to CM albums. I still love the CM album coversets and all my digital layouts go into them.

The first Scrapshare retreat I went to in 2007, I was still doing paper.... as were you @bonnenuit (found a photo of you scrapping!)

 

I started in 2001 making a book for our newly adopted daughter. One of my best friends was in a small group of women who scrapped together at a local scrapbook store every couple weeks, so I joined them. It was a good way to socialize, get out of the house and do something creative. Our group would also do scrap weekends a couple times/year.

We used to have a huge scrapbook store about 35 minutes from me and my friend and I would take our photos and go pick out papers and embellishments and goodies and then go have lunch. I miss that!

I switched to digital in 2006. I still have some of my old paper supplies but got rid of most of them along the way. I do make a lot of hybrid projects but mostly for planners, not for scrapping. Paper scrapbooks take up too much room.

 

I started as a paper scraper in 1997. I made the switch in 2006. I, very surprisingly, have no regrets.

 

I started as a paper scrapper around 2000, then started digital scrapping in 2008 but didn’t completely switch for a couple of years. I still have a couple of half finished paper albums and some supplies.

 

I started with paper and still have all the stuff!

 

I started with card making, Creative Memories, then discovered stamping with Close To My Heart and Stampin Up. Made some 12x12 LOs but mostly smaller projects i.e. cards, tags, bookmarkers, mini books. Really got into the mixed media side of it with gesso, paints, copics, glitters, inks, alcohol inks, etc. I taught classes for about 3 years at a few scrap stores in Vancouver so I got discounts aside from being a CTMH/SU rep. So much fun but so pricey even with my discounts. I had a classroom for private classes in my home too and had a whole room full of product. It broke my heart to get rid of it but once I discovered digi I was hooked and eventually gave, donated and sold all my stuff.

 

I started with traditional double page scrapbook layouts in ring bound albums. I also dabbled with rubber stamping and some card making.

 

I did. I started paper scrapping in like 2001 and moved over to digital in 2011. I used to always go weekly to a local scrap store and then when kids started coming along it was more challenging to get out of the house. I decided to switch to digital because I could take my laptop with me to practices and pull out the laptop in the living room if they were watching a movie - I didn't have to lug everything out and go to a different room! I don't know that I would have continued scrapping if I hadn't moved to digital.
of course I also had my own version of smash books in high school! lol. which I find hilarious to look back on now but I was scrapping even back then!

 

I started with paper scrapbooking in 1987, when I rescued all my photos from my mom that were in those old acidic sticky photo albums, removed them from those albums, then only put back the ones that I wanted. I made my own tags and elements, put in clippings of ticket stubs, maps, ribbon and petals from corsages, etc. I started rubber stamping in 1995 when I bought a rubber stamp to do the seals for our wedding invitations, and got hooked. I was a demonstrator for Stampin Up from 1997 - 2002, alternating back and forth between scrapbooking and rubber stamping, and stamping in my scrapbooks.

I was heavily into paper scrapbooking from 1987 to about 2006, freelance designing for a manufacturer (Boxer Scrapbooks), Creative TECHniques, Memory Makers Magazine, and Boxer's books. I have about 75 layouts in print for those companies and was a runner up in Memory Makers Masters 2004. When I was pregnant with our second child and our first kid was 4, I started digital scrapbooking so I could watch him easily and follow him around with my laptop. We remodeled our house to build a gorgeous craft room for me with an attached playroom, but my vision of our son quietly playing in the play room while I blissfully scrapbooked did NOT work. Laptop and digital scrapbooking incoming!!!

95% of my scrapbooking is digital these days. I still paper scrap occasionally, and I've returned to my craft room for card making now that the kids are old enough (17 and 22) that they don't need supervision. My 17 year old has special needs so I still can't leave her alone for very long before she gets into mischief, but I can get in about an hour of creative time, whether on my laptop or in my room, a few times a week.

 

I never did anything even remotely scrapbook related other than a photo album with some cards and pictures stuck in it from high school until I stumbled on digiscrapping in 2006 when I was trying to learn how to use Photoshop. But I was hooked then!

 

If you count going to Hobby Lobby and buying way too many supplies and then only making a couple pages before giving up and deciding it wasn't for me, then yes I started with paper!! I quickly realized I am way too messy of a person to do paper, and also too busy to deal with getting everything out, spending hours making a layout, and then putting it all back away. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

I tried it with my oldest daughter when she was born, thinking I was going to make a beautiful scrapbook for her. That was in 2001. I gave up immediately, but didn't even know digiscrapping was a thing until 2010 when someone in a photography forum I was a part of mentioned it. It was just what I wanted.

 

I started gluing, taping, and stapling memories onto paper in 1983 when I was 11 years old! If you'd like to see, I've shared it on my website before. https://www.michelekendzie.com/Digital-Scrapbooking/My-Very-First-Scrapbook-Ever

After that one, I used 3 ring binders throughout high school and college. So I was very ready when Michael's started carrying paper scrapbooking products in the late 90's. I made maybe 10 paper albums before discovering digital scrapbooking in 2005.