January 2 - Why I Scrap

Discussion in 'MOC 2021 Challenges' started by HeatherB, Jan 2, 2021.

  1. Angela Toucan

    Angela Toucan I keep looking for THAT wardrobe

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    thank you for the journaling prompt. I wrote a lot more than I thought I would and could probably have continued on another page if I wasn't needed for a medical procedure. So stopped at 427 words, and decorated the page when I got back to my laptop.
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  2. melscrap

    melscrap CT - Lynne-Marie

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    Here's my page:
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    Word count = 274
     
  3. cinna

    cinna The Force is ALWAYS with me ...

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    I am so doing my journaling in Swedish this time but I will add a (lazy) Google translate in the credits so you can get it...:giggle
     
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  4. barbaraj

    barbaraj Well-Known Member

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  5. jam-on-toast

    jam-on-toast Well-Known Member

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    Day 2: Journaling on why I scrap. 422 words

    This was fun. I love journaling. This one reads:

    Why do I scrap? The simple – and the straightforward – answer is… because I like it. The not so simple – deeper and twisted - answer is because when I sit in front of my computer, I get to kill two birds with one stone: enjoy some me time, all the while indulging my creativity – and shopping - in a totally guilt-free way.

    I was introduced to scrapbooking – paper at the time – back in 2008 when I was pregnant with my second child. I felt I needed a hobby – something what would mean I’m not just a stay-at-home wife/stepmother/mom to a family of five-soon-to-be six, but a person with a life outside the four walls of our home. Yes, life was fun back then… So… I wanted to get myself a hobby, but it had to be a practical one, so I wouldn’t feel guilty dedicating my time and money to it, something I would enjoy but not banish to the attic once I was done with it. Knitting, crocheting, even cross stitching have all ended up in that – virtual - attic… Scrapbooking seemed to tick all the boxes and so I gave it a try. It wasn’t love at first sight as it turned out I’m not good with scissors and glue. And every page took forever, because I needed to print the photos, then decide on the layout, then print more photos – sometimes different size… in a word – NOT what you’d call practical. I had four kids and a dog and a hubby who was forever on a business trip and my days were not that long…

    And then I discovered digital. And was hooked. Digital meant less set up/cleanup and more flexibility and I was no longer limited by what our local stores had to offer. It was perfect! To this day I have stayed true to my motto: my hobby must be practical. I scrapbook to keep those precious moments forever. I enjoy the creative side of it - making clusters, blending, brush work – and can spend hours perfecting a layout, but I do this knowing that the page will eventually go into one of my albums. Even this page. Oh, and by the way… Scrapbooking family memories is cheaper – and more effective - than therapy. I mean it. When choosing a kit/color/pattern/layout and the photos themselves, I get to relive and reflect on those happy moments, and it fills my soul with love. So, I guess I scrapbook because it is my way of saying I love my family.

    Kit used: All About Me
    https://the-lilypad.com/store/COLLAB-All-About-Me-5-THIS-WEEKEND-ONLY.html

    Template: My Travel Journal Templates 2 by Scrapping with Liz
    https://the-lilypad.com/store/My-Travel-Journal-2-Digital-Scrapbook-Templates.html

     
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  6. berniek

    berniek I have a girl crush on the Naming Fairy

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    Here it is!

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    Word count Dutch: 337
    Word count English translation: also 337 :)

    Journaling loosely translated:
    Digital scrapbooking for me has always been a way to express my creativity. What I couldn't make with paper, glue, scissors and my hand, I could make it in Photoshop. As pretty and perfect as it looked in my mind, I could make it. Capturing and preserving memories weren't nearly as important to me as the creative process.
    But during the years went by, photos became more important and I tried several times to capture my daily life by doing P52. But I never made it through the year. However I kept using more and more photos that were meaningful instead of just a pretty picture.
    I can count the pages I made over the last two years on just a few hands. Life got busier: I moved and spent years in a house that wasn't quite finished. I definitely wasn't working on it every day or every week, but in my head the stress was heavy. I started working more days and also the layout of the house and the cats made it less and less normal to sit down behind my big beautiful iMac and scrap. And so I didn't scrap for days, for weeks, for months and even for a full year.
    I found other creative outlets, because without creativity I cannot live. I started doing jigsaw puzzles, fuse beads, diamond painting and cross stitching. Cross stitching has slowly become my new biggest hobby. I love it and it give me a way of being creative.
    But why do I keep coming back to scrapbooking? My biggest wish in 2021 is to get pregnant. And those memories I need to preserve. A future child needs to have albums full of photos and stories. Thát is the reason I want to get back to it. And why keeping at it has to work.
    So the answer to the question why I scrap is one that changes throughout the years. And I'm sure I haven't arrived at the end station of this wonderful hobby quite yet.
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2021
  7. ajm

    ajm Well-Known Member

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  8. violaine

    violaine Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for this challenge
     
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  9. jetjez

    jetjez Swim the deepest ocean

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    384 words
     
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  10. IntenseMagic

    IntenseMagic Some grannies cuss a lot. I'm some grannies.

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    Awesome challenge :) My word count is 310
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  11. KimJ

    KimJ Did you check in the refrigerator?

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    There is no title requirement for this challenge. :)
     
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  12. ashleywb

    ashleywb Sand in my toes

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    Thanks for the great challenge, Heather! Word count: 272.

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  13. designbylime

    designbylime Definitely a cat person.

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    Fabulous challenge! I've used 257 words.
    [​IMG].

    I am scrapping because it makes my creativity flow.
    I love to be able to make a layout that reminds me of that day.
    My family can look at them and they have a totally other outlook on that moment.
    To not scrap should make me sad, less creative and most of all where would I put all the photos?
    I am loving most of the types of scrapbooking, love white space pages, love mixed media pages and I know have begun junk journaling and that fills me with joy because that is a new world. Tepmlates always makes think outside the box. I love the spirit how everyone helps another when there are any problems with a page. I love the whole community of scrappers and I have never, ever heard a harch language against anyone and that must be a good sign, right? Colors is also what I love, they can fill my page and I just go with it. Sometimes journaling makes me cry but I know I need those words down on the page so I can start to heal. Sometimes it is really hard to put down those words and there can be a lot of crying doing it. Another time I just get thrilled with a page that turns out totally different than I thought from the start. I love when a designers makes a kit, collection and I just feel that it was made for me and I just have to buy it because my world can’t go on without it.
     
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  14. tinkerbell1112

    tinkerbell1112 Offical Ambassador of the Magic Kingdom

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    word count: 787.
    My journaling challenge is usually keeping it UNDER 250. *I'm going to fix my journaling for my own page to print, but I just looked it up - I received my digital program in 2011 for Christmas, so I'm almost 10 years into digital. wow!
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    Here is the journaling for easier reading, though I guess a 12 point showed up ok online!:
    I started scrapbooking back in 2001 as something to do. Carey and I decided we were going to try it so took a class at a local store. We then continued to meet there a couple times a week for a couple hours and she worked on her wedding and honeymoon and I worked on Eric’s and my trips and dating life. We loved the girl time together. After my wedding, I decided I wanted to do a wedding album too. I did it because I wanted to remember the wedding as I did it. That was one of my biggest draws to scrapbooking; the fact that as I was scrapbooking something, I got to re-live it. I also really loved the paper and elements! LOL. I absolutely loved to stand in the aisles of a scrapbook store with my photos in hand and find something that went perfectly with what I wanted to do. Eventually she stopped scrapbooking, but I continued. I just went by myself to scrap nights.

    Once Asher came along, scrapbooking was a way to get out of the house. None of my friends were scrapbooking yet, but that didn’t matter. I went every couple Fridays and enjoyed some Mom time. They served food at the store where I went, I listened to those who had friends with them talk about themselves and I just threw myself into my memories. I was thankful to be alone for a few minutes.

    After we moved to Texas, I used scrapbooking to try to meet people. It failed. Unfortunately, the hobby can be cliquish. When you attend an event, usually people attend with others and therefore the single person in the corner was not usually included in any conversation. But just as I did in Omaha, I loved the time away from home, with my memories, walking up and down the aisle and shopping. It was still a great hobby for me.

    Eventually friends in Omaha started picking up the hobby and exclaiming how they wished they’d tried it while I was there. So a little less than a year after we moved here, I used scrapbooking as a way to get away for entire weekends! I would meet Teri & Michelle in Wichita for scrapbooking weekends as we stayed in hotels for 2 nights. This has now extended to 3 or 4 nights and the accommodations have upgraded to AirBnBs. Then Christie & Rachel started scrapbooking, so they and I started doing the same thing, so now I was getting away twice a year!

    Unfortunately, by the time Ada came, scrapbooking had become time consuming and cluttery. I had purchased too much, and I wasn’t able to find the time to get away like I had when we only had Asher. I tried to stop buying new items, but my pages suffered. I tried to scrap at the table Eric once bought me, but I couldn’t find the energy to pull everything out if I only had 20 or 30 minutes. For a while I only scrapped when I went to Wichita and found myself falling behind and becoming upset. I realized that I missed re-living my memories.

    This is when I thought I’d give digital scrapbooking a try. I thought maybe that was what a busy, tired, mom needed. I asked for a copy of the Creative Memories software for Christmas, received it, found someone local who would teach me in person, and within a year had busted out more than 100 pages of memories. I had found what I needed – something I could take out while the kids watched a movie, or while Asher was at a practice, or while we were just doing something but I wanted to be with them, but didn’t need to BE with them.

    I now scrap to keep not only my memories alive, but my children’s memories. I am still behind, but I try. I attempt to print a book a year for the family as well as one book for each child every year (most years I’ve been successful – most are at the verge of being printed). I also do one book for each large vacation. I love to watch them look at the books and share them with people. This has changed as they’ve become older; they share with fewer people. But I hope someday they look at them and remember that I made these books for them with love. And if my memory ever goes, then I hope they can use them to show me that I made them for them with love.

    Socially I have scrapbooked over the years for many different reasons, but in my soul I scrapbook to preserve the memories.
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2021
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  15. chloe_digiscrap

    chloe_digiscrap Well-Known Member

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    Thanks Kim. That's what I thought but I wanted to be sure!
     
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  16. LoveItScrapIt

    LoveItScrapIt I'm a poet, and everyone knows it!

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    I love journaling challenges - credits and word count (it's 279) in the gallery
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  17. jenn mccabe

    jenn mccabe She's OUR sunshine!

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    Fun challenge Heather ... we are all here for a reason! :) 526 is my word count.

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  18. Meg

    Meg There's no place like home

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    I don't like journaling challenge but this one was not so difficult about this theme.
    Word counts: 320 in french and 308 in english (translation in gallery)

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  19. turtlebug

    turtlebug Well-Known Member

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  20. tw1717

    tw1717 Pretty in Pink

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    Here is my page. 300 words.

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