National Scrapbooking Day - May 7, 2022

 Hello Crafters! I thought I'd share some highlights of projects made during a Scrapbook day at my home to celebrate National Scrapbooking day. It was such a fun day! If you're interested, here is a link to some Fun Facts about National scrapbook day 

My original paper crafting hobby started with Scrapbooking some 20+ years ago. I really needed to remove some photos that were discoloring and getting damaged in a 'sticky' album. Creative Memories was all about Archival Quality albums/products so they were my very first purchase. Little did I know how addicting it would be to create Scrapbook albums. It also created some wonderful opportunities to hang out with friends to socialize and craft. I have attended so many craft weekends in the last 15 years and have wonderful memories of those weekends! 

Here is a sample page from that very first album - which I still have never finished! My goal was simply to remove the photos that were getting damaged, so I didn't really do much else. I really do need to rethink this album and add some journaling/embellishment touches to it. 

Fast forward to today and I count about 40 albums I've completed and yet still have so many photos/events I'd like to capture in a memory album. I've been more focused on my grandchildren as they are such cute subjects. Additionally, my 'style' of scrapbooking has changed significantly. Here's a page of some fun with my daughter and her family up in Canada this past summer.

 

Stampin' Up! still is my go to for supplies. I love their paper, designs, how all the colors match for embellishments, etc. I incorporate much more stamping and die cuts into my scrapbooking than I used to do in the past.  While they no longer carry sheet load albums, which is my go to choice, they do have pocket albums that I supplement photos I don't want to full on scrapbook. 

The below layout is my Great Aunt Ann who was a special lady and an important mentor in my life.  I still need to write up a special journal story on the below photo. I'm not always good at the journaling aspect of layouts, but I'm going to type something up for this one to honor her. You'll see in the next layout I often handwrite my journaling. While my handwriting is not the greatest, I think having my handwriting is an important element to the memory. 

Last but not least, I am trying to scrapbook more about my own life. My paper crafting hobby plays such an important roll in my life, I really need to do a better job of scrapbooking about the fun I have creating with my friends. They make our time together fly by and we encourage each other when we get stuck on a page or project. Creating time is probably one of the biggest challenges of this hobby!  Space is another and I since we downsized our home, I was able to remodel a bit and better utilize the smaller space available in our loft. It works well for me, although I'm slowly creeping over into my husband's office part of this space- lol. 

You may notice in some of the above photos that there is a mix of new and old supplies. I've been trying to use up old supplies. We all have that stash of old supplies hidden somewhere. Well, when you bring them out, they start to get used. In this process I've also realized I'm not much for stickers anymore, or eyelets. This has helped me identify items in my stash to get rid of as it no longer brings me joy. Like any design industry, trends come & go, supplies don't last forever and new, shiny stuff is more appealing! Like clothes or accessories, it's important to go through stuff annually and see what you haven't used in the past year. My sister and fellow Demonstrator provided the following tips recently that I think is very helpful when deciding what you want to keep: 

• Pull old and/or retired products from your shelves and drawers. 
• Sort into 2 boxes: a) keep, b) sell/giveaway
• For the KEEP BOX: mark the box with retired, if you know the brand/year of products or have a catalog that went with them, include this details and set aside. If after a year or so, you find that you're not longing to use any of the contents, then that goes in the sell pile too.
• For the SELL BOX: Mark each product with the price if you have it (i.e. if you have the catalog, it helps). Then when you have a sale, or know someone having a sale, you can choose the actual price you want to sell it for. Maybe everything is half off, or whatever you decide. ALSO keep the matching catalog in the box in case you missed pricing something.

I hope you were able to get some creative time in over the weekend. We have so many memories to share. The style of scrapbooking/memory making/journaling is a personal yet important choice. You do not need to be elaborate with your pages. I tend to stay simple other than the occasional picture that screams for a special layout. If you have questions about scrapbooking/memory making, please give me a call, I'd be happy to help get you started, or start up again if you've had a long hiatus.  

Jill Hamlett
Stampin’ Up!® Independent Demonstrator
763-442-8284
Hamlett05@gmail.com

Shop Stampin Up
For Creative Inspiration
Join Stampin' Up! -$99 Starter Kit, Get $125 in product, with NEW In Color BONUS ($66.50 value)
Paper Pumpkin
JH Stamping Studio Private FB Group
Pinterest
You Tube