Tuesday 19 November 2013

A Scrapbooking Reset.

Wow, it has been awhile. Life sure has a way of getting in the way doesn't it? But if I'm going to be honest, the real reason I haven't been blogging is because I have been trying to figure out something out scrapbooking-wise. And because honesty takes awhile, you might want to freshen your drink.

I scrapbook because it's fun.  For a long, long time, that was enough for me. It didn't matter that my pages sat in albums or boxes and it didn't matter that no one ever looked at them. No one. Not even me. Hardly ever.

This summer it started to matter. It mattered that my kids, who love to look at the pages I make about them, didn't know where I kept their albums. And if they did stumble across them, they couldn't lift those big 12x12 albums off the shelf.

I needed to figure out a way to make my scrapbooking more accessible to my family.

I thought about trying Project Life again.
I thought about making only mini-books.
I thought about scrapbooking in my art journals.
I thought about doing all these things at the same time.

And while I was thinking, I was also scrapping. Not as much as usual but I made a mini-book about our summer vacation and I made 12x12 pages for design team projects and blog posts.

And then in September, it was time for Week in the Life.  I love Week in the Life and have been doing it for years.  This year, I settled on the Simple Stories SN@P album with divided page protectors.  And putting all those pictures with all in those stories in that little album...well, it started to make sense.

I was nervous about changing my page size. I've been a 12x12 scrapper since the beginning. My style has changed and evolved but always on a 12x12 canvas. But I decided to try scrapping smaller pages at  The Paperie's annual Fall Retreat - to see if I liked it. And that's what I did the whole weekend long. I scrapped a few 12x12 pages but mostly it was smaller 6x8 pages.

And I liked it. I have plenty of room for artistic fun and I can add as much journaling as I want to the back of my pages.  I'll never give up 12x12. That large canvas is just too much but these smaller albums are the perfect size for flipping through whether you're 2 years old or 6 or...older. And I like that.

I can't help but think that this whole journey was not just about being able to share my pages with my family but finding a way for me to enjoy them. These little albums feel like books and I love books.  I especially love making and reading books that are full of my stories.

So, that's the story of my scrapbook reset. I'm excited. It feels good because change is good, right? And the timing couldn't be better because December Daily is right around the corner.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie

1 comment:

  1. I love this, Cathie! As a super clean & simple card-maker, I have always found scrapbooking a little more challenging. I always preferred making 8x8 pages whenever I did scrapbook, the 12x12 canvas just seemed a little daunting - as much as I love white space, my pages always felt incomplete, or lacking in some way. I love the smaller Snap Albums and if I decide to give scrapbooking a try again, that is definitely the size I'll go with. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the subject, makes perfect sense!

    -Meghan

    ReplyDelete