I LOVE to scrapbook. I think I'm 'OK' (at best) at it, but would really love to get better. Scrapbooking, I realize, is something you get better at the more you do it. I truly am a left-brained person at heart, so I am much more analytical than 'artsy'!
I made my first scrapbook right after college. It still isn't finished, but what I have is HUGE (I have pictures from my entire Junior year, and half of my Senior year in it). I pulled it out a couple weeks ago, and was laughing at it. Not only have I gotten much better since then...I really think scrapbooking materials have improved greatly since 2001!
When Kevin and I were getting married, we wanted to get a gift for our parents that was special. We decided to each do a scrapbook for them. We took the same pictures and got the same materials for each page, but made them uniquely our own. It was a big hit! Both sets of parents really liked them. My parents still have theirs sitting in their living room (almost 5 years later).
I started a wedding scrapbook, but it has sadly been MIA since we moved into our house almost three years ago. I most likely am going to make another one at some point! I also did a recipe scrapbook for my friend Gail's bridal shower last year. I emailed everyone that was invited to Gail's shower and had them send me their favorite recipes and pictures if they had them. This was actually probably my favorite scrapbook that I've done. It was so much fun working with all the different materials, pictures, and recipes. Not to toot my own horn, but it turned out really cute!
Last year while working on the recipe scrapbook, I also did one of Kevin and my trip to Disney World in 2008. It was actually nice working on two projects at the same time. It kept me from getting bored working on the same thing. I also started a scrapbook from our Myrtle Beach trip (in 2007) last summer. Then we got busy. We went to Disney World in September, St. Pete in October, and before we knew it we were in the midst of the holiday season!
My parents got me a
Cricut for Christmas and it renewed my need to finish the Myrtle Beach scrapbook and start on some new projects. Unfortunately, the fact still remained that I really didn't have a good place to scrapbook. I have a nice roll-y scrapbook bag, but after a while it gets really annoying packing it to the brim, rolling the bag around, unloading it, re-loading it, etc. Over the summer, I was taking my bag with me when I went in with Kevin to do his radio show, but I can’t take my cricut with me when he is on the air, so I was back to pulling everything out at home, bringing it downstairs, then putting it away when I was done and taking it all back up. Kevin had been thinking about it for a while, and a little over a month ago he decided to make our fourth bedroom into a scrapbook room. He closed the room off for a week and worked on cleaning it up, painting, and putting together a great room for me. The only input I had was the paint color and the desk :). He did an amazing job! Here are some pictures of the room:
The Room!
Even Mullen loves it!
Now, I have the space I've always wanted! I usually spend a couple hours a week in here. I just plug my iPod in and get a chance to clear my head.
Last weekend, my parents came down because my mom was going to the scrapbook expo with me. We had a blast (and bought too much!!). They have it at one of the buildings at the Ohio State Fairgrounds. A bunch of companies have booths there full of all different types of scrapbook stuff. It was so nice to walk around to all the different booths and get new ideas. There was a booth we went to that had a product that allowed you to make your own paper from junk mail. How great is that?!? It was actually very cool. There were also a lot of new things I learned, like how to work with chipboard and glitter. My head has been spinning since then with all kinds of new ideas.
My favorite booth by far was
Creek Bank Creations. They have a lot of their own products, and so many great ideas. My mom and I visited that booth twice, and although I didn't buy anything there at the show, I will be making many purchases from them soon! One of their ‘Take Home a Class’ albums will be my next project. (In addition to the Disney scrapbook I am going to start working on from our anniversary trip last year.)
Also, another one of my favorite websites for scrapbook stuff is
Scrap Your Trip.com! They have a huge variety of products including personalized papers. I've used them for my Disney and Myrtle Beach scrapbooks!
I will try to post some layouts and new projects I'm working on so I can have documentation of my 'scrapbooking progression!' :)
