Monday, July 23, 2007

About Scrapbooking

This is how weird I am. Ok, maybe not TOTAL weirdness, but this is one weird thing about me. I have been putting off doing my scrapbooks of vacations because I haven’t collected enough scrapbooking materials to make the album “perfect”. Oh, I’ve shopped many sites and found the “perfect” papers, embellishments, etc., but have I purchased them? No! And why not? Um, er, well, um, hmmm, I dunno. Oh wait, it’s cuz I haven’t found the perfect album! Yeah, that’s it! Nope, that’s not it. Oh! It’s because I don’t have all my pictures printed out! Nope, that’s not it, either. I think it boils down to my age old problem of “if I can’t do it perfectly, then I won’t do it at all”. That’s pretty dumb considering some of the cards I’ve been putting out recently. Oh, but that’s different, I tell myself. Why? I dunno. So why don’t I just make the damn scrapbooks? I have tons of them to do. I’ve even decided to make a scrapbook of my school years. I got the book, the papers the doodads and have I done it? Nope. What if I do it WRONG!? Yeah, like there’s a right way and a wrong way, huh? I’m mental. Get the net. One time, a long, long time ago, there was this Princess…. Oh wait, that’s another story. A long time ago I went to a Creative Memories party. She told us that we should only put 3-4 pictures on a page and that we should tell the story of the event in just a few pages – like 3-4 layouts. Well, that told me that I should whittle my vacations down to just four pages in a scrapbook. How the hell do you put a trip to London in 4 pages?! How do you put a week’s vacation to the Riviera Maya or Jamaica in 4 pages? What the hell was she thinking? Or do you maybe think I got the message wrong? Hmmm, now that’s a thought. So all this time I’ve thought that the 300 or so pictures from each vacation needed to be taken down to 20-30 pictures. Impossible! Why did I think that? Because she was the “professional” and she told me that so it must be true! OMG, am I from a different planet or what?? I can think for myself, but sometimes I wonder…. So I’ve emailed my sister about this and told her I would be starting the projects of doing my scrapbooks. I will start with the London trip because I am already losing some of the memories that go with each picture. You know how that goes, right? Why can I still remember almost every kid in my 2nd grade class picture, but not what happened in London 3 years ago?! Again, get the net. (10 points to the person who knows what movie that is from.) Scrapbooking is not an exact science. That’s what I’m telling myself. I can’t and I won’t be perfect, but it will get done. Journaling and all! I’ll keep you posted. Just take a deep breath and go, Deb. Now. You CAN do this!

5 comments:

Julie Prichard said...

Oh no.....scrapbooking. sigh...how about digital scrapbooking? All of the pictures I print out can't withstand my "Julification" process...I always have to order prints. Scrapbooking is not fun for me at all...

Felt like cake today...so I made one.

thimbles bobbins paper and ink said...

Amen to all you said about scrapbooking. No it isn't an exact science so why do we stress and then put it off and not do it at all? I've done it before. The first album was "perfect" and the one after it was...umm...ok. Now I just don't do them.

K Hutchinson said...

Deb,

You can do it if you want too! What great pictures you must have from all the wonderful trips! I hate scrap booking- I did a small one once and I HATED it! I do think Digital is way more the way to go for me at least!

Good luck!

~K

Tami Bayer said...

I completely understand and could have written all these words myself...except I haven't been to the Riviera Maya (yet). I completely solved this nightmare of scrapbooking at our house. I introduced the house photographer to digi scrapping. He's great at it and I'm off the hook. Whew!

Suzi said...

I used to s/b. I haven't done any vacation book tho. I did "scrapbook" my CA vacation on my blog. I figured when/if I EVER get around to doing those pics, I'd have journalling prompts.

However, since I've been sucking at the card/stamp thing lately, I'm thinking I should go back to s/bing. No one will see them until I'm dead!