I'm a Scrapbooker

I know, I know. Saying you're a scrapbooker is like saying you play Bingo or drive a pick-up truck or study the history of bees. There's a stereotype that goes along with admitting that you scrapbook. For the record, I'm a scrapbooker. I don't have big hair. I don't own a shirt with the words "Got Photos" on it. I don't own decorative-edged scissors; well . . . not anymore.


I've been a crafter since I was a kid, long before I found scrapbooking. When I was introduced to scrapbooking there wasn't much of an industry. 12 years ago it was mostly Creative Memories paper, shape templates, a pen and stickers. (There were a lot of stickers.) I found scrapbooking before I had kids, so I scrapbooked photos from high school, dating my now-husband, our honeymoon and trips we took with family and friends. Scrapbooking back then was about having a good time, getting out with other scrapbookers and just having fun doing something new.


And then I had kids and scrapbooking became something else. It was a way to get out of the house. Nobody tells you how isolating being a stay-at-home-mom is. It was having a warm dinner, drive-thru fast food on the way to a crop though it was, it was hot. It was time spent with grown-ups, having grown-up conversations, using grown-up words. It was time for me. I was still having fun, but the creative process became more about getting something done. Something completed. Something completed without interruption within a few hours of starting it. I think many moms can appreciate the beauty and rarity in such a thing.

Scrapbooking before kids was a new path in what I had always done -- crafting. Back then I could take a look back at who I was; the paths that made me, well, me. After kids scrapbooking definitely was something that was energy-giving. As much as I love my kids, love being a mom, there are certainly days that it can suck the life right out of you. So, scrapbooking became a way of reconnecting with myself. It became a way of expressing myself in ways that are more difficult for me to do verbally. Now I wasn't just looking back at me, I was looking at the little people in my life, with fondness and good memories on those days when it was tough to see that. I was looking at who they were, what made them tick and gave me a glimpse of the paths they were and are taking.


It's only since I've had kids that I'm able to realize how lucky I am to have found scrapbooking. So, yes, I'm a scrapbooker and proud of it.