Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Food for thought- for scrappers

It's no secret that I love designing stuff, scrap stuff (I actually don't do many paper layouts- but I love to browse the stores and get ideas and make other "stuff"), and journaling. That's how I got into this blog-thing in the first place. I was reading Cathy Zielske's book Clean & Simple Scrapbooking and then I googled her and found her blog. From there I found links and links of other bloggers all doing similar- but different stuff.
I've just started some digital scrapdesigning and am having a lot of fun learning and doing it. But it's got me thinking about some of the activites I want to capture in photos so that I can in turn do layouts and tell more of the story. Or at least document the facts of the story.
So here is my latest thoughts on scrapping...
Why are almost all the layouts people do about "nice" things? I mean, I get that we love our family and our friends and pets and even nature around us- but those things can tick us off or cause problems too. Right? So why doesn't anybody make pages about them? For example you could do one about "the dessert I made that was a total flop" or "my day stinks because I got my first speeding ticket" [note here: it would be a good idea to have your camera in the car with you when this happens and maybe ask the officer if s/he would pose with you, or if you could snap a few pictures of him/her writing out the ticket] or what about "the clutter that piles up on my counter and drives me crazy" layout. There are more ideas in my head like the ones I just mentioned. Maybe for my New Year's resolution I will try to scrap something not so nice - but that helps tell a story anyway. Afterall, if scrapbooking is about our lives and passing on a part of ourselves to our loved ones- then it better include some of the "bad stuff" if we want it to be authentic. I got it. Authentic scrapbooking. That's what I'm about! Would love to hear some of your ideas on this topic if you're a scrapblogger. For the rest of my readers, I will try to pull something new and thought-provoking out of my head tomorrow- that doesn't inlude paper or scissors. That's all for now. Uh-oh. I hope I didn't just jinx myself about getting a ticket!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

You know what - that is an awesome thought to share - scrapbooking REAL life!!! I only began to scrapbook a year ago and off I went! One of my very favorite pages is of my daughter's 1st driving ticket (note teh "1st). I had actually saved the ticket and every time she goes back through her scrapbooks we laugh and share memories. You go!

Anonymous said...

First visit to your blog, and I'm hooked. I love the idea of authentic scrapbooking...messy, chaotic, everyday stuff!

Iris said...

I have had this conversation with my friends for several years now and we really encourage each other to "be real" in our scrapbooking. My first attempt was this album: http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/album_display.asp?album_id=39955 which was an inspiration from Maria-a fellow scrapbooker and blogger.

You've just inspired me to go and complete a layout I've been wanting to work on, but not sure how to start because of that whole 'authenticity' thing. Thanks.

jiles said...

i love this idea. we don't want to look back and have it all seem so perfect when we know the reality.

Anonymous said...

had to share, and maybe one day I can show you. I did a layout about the first and ONLY time my son was suspended from school. It was real life and I want him to remember it. First, short term because he hated how much I made him work during his time "off" from school (I beleive he counted 133 chores), he also hated how angry we were with him and how I made him do all the school work he missed even though he wouldn't get credit. I do believe he learned that suspention was a far cry worse than being in school, no vacation. Secondly I want him to look back a loooong time from now and know we were parenting him, guiding him in the right direction out of love we wanted what was best for him in the long run, not was what easier short term.