How, when & why did you start scrapbooking? How did you get sucked into the obsession? What's your story?
Here's mine:
In 2001, one of my girlfriends at work introduced me to scrapbooking. I told her vehemently, "Oh, I could never scrapbook. It sounds too stressful and complicated for me!" (Not to mention BORING & tedious! ...Of course, I didn't share that part.)
I politely lied and said that it would be interesting to look at her books sometime ..... so she promptly brought them for me to look at over lunch the very next day:
"Awww, look! Those strawberry stickers match your daughter's outfit! .... Hey, that giant heart-shaped photo that you cut with squiggle-edged scissors is cool.... Wow, I like how you cut every single family member as a silhouette for your Easter layout.....You mean my current albums are going to destroy all of my current photos before I even know it's happening?....You mean I just need a trimmer, some scissors and some glue to make a book like this? That doesn't sound too bad....."
Ha, ha, ha, ha. Yes, I know. Poor sucker that I was.
It was actually my husband who purchased my first supplies as a birthday gift to get me started. He went to a nearby LSS (they were plentiful at the time!) and purchased a tape runner, a "Crop In Style Paper Sticker Binder" (which I still have), some cutter bee scissors (which I also still have), and some SNAZZY patterned paper.
I sometimes tease him that he must regret that naive purchase made years ago. He is the one who provided my "gateway drug" that led to what is now a well-stocked craft room, regular crops, weekend retreats leaving him to parent our son alone, and mysterious unexplained charges on our credit card bills. (I do my very best to sneak-in my scrapbooking purchases while he's not around.... I'm not fooling anyone & we both know how the craft room became well-stocked. But why invite the eye-roll?)
Since then, I've moved away from Florida and my friend who brought me into "the cult." But I remember fondly our long discussions on Zig pens versus CM pens and our "quick" on-the-clock detours to pick up THE STACK I and THE STACK II at Joann.
Boy, things were easier then! That first paper pad had a patterned paper to fit every layout I created. Gotta love that late 90's pastoral / "Friends" look on every single page :) I scrapped only 4x6 photos. I never needed to order prints because I was taking vacation photos out of magnetic albums. For every event I scrapped, I used as many pages as needed to fit ALL of my photos w/o planning it out.
Wow, those were the days! This hobby is both so much more fun AND so much more complex for me now.... It's good that I'm thinking back to my scrapbooking "roots." Hopefully reminiscing will help ease my "need" for a perfect visual triangle on every page and my unfulfilled desire for the trendiest embellishments currently on the market!
What about you? Are you just starting out scrapping or have you been "one of us" for a while? What's YOUR story? (If your story is too long to leave in a comment, send it to me in an email. susan@papercrafterscorner.com.)
