Many people report that one reason they started scrapbooking was that they felt guilty for having boxes and boxes of unorganized photographs. When we are experiencing a birthday, anniversary, vacation or any other personal or family event, it’s difficult to imagine ever forgetting it. We record the day with photos and go home with a sense of fulfillment and joy. But life begins to take over and photos get stored in boxes, and eventually our life is defined by a closet full of odd-sized boxes. Scrapbooking lets us reopen our memories and give them a place of higher honor in the daylight, where everyone can share in them.

But there’s more to scrapbooking than just the need to organize. Many scrappers are all about preserving family memories. It seems that times just get tougher for families. The structure of families is constantly changing. We rarely live with extended family anymore and end up missing the reminiscing of our grandparents. And, today’s families are more mobile, moving to new homes and new cities much more often than ever before. Scrapbooks give us a link to our past. They let us look back in time and see the flow of our lives, and maybe even help us make sense of it all.

Scrapbooks allow us to be creative. By combining photographs, physical objects and text in an album, we can be as creative as we desire. Almost anything goes inside a scrapbook, from ticket stubs to newspaper clippings to hair clippings! These scraps of our lives can then be embellished with ribbons, fabric, artwork and graphics.

There are lots of great reasons to become a scrapbook addict. But this is an addiction that will enrich your life and the lives of those you love.

Other times, I would get distracted and suddenly realize it had been weeks since I had last worked on my scrapbooks. A really big problem that I struggle with is thinking up new ideas while I’m trying to finish my current scrapbook, and we all know how much more exciting it is to start something new compared to finishing something “old.”

Here are some tips I’ve come up with that will help you get your scrapbook done, instead of letting it drag out for way too long.

Keep your designs simple. This is especially important if you’re just starting out with scrapbooking. It’s easy to fall in love with designs that my be more than we can accomplish. If you stay with a simpler design, you will save time on each page and the project will seem to fly by. Simple designs are also a great way to learn the basics. As you become more proficient, it’s easier to branch out and add to your designs.

Set up a schedule. If your scrapbooking project is important and you want to give it some priority, then schedule specific times for working on it. Decide what works best for you. Schedule a little scrapbook time every day, or plan to work on it certain days every week. When you put your scrapbooking onto the calendar before other tasks, then you’ll be surprised how easy it is to accomplish what you want.

Keep things organized. Try to store everything for each scrapbooking project together. Even better, keep everything organized by page. That way, if you are interrupted in your scrapbooking, it won’t take you forever to get started again when you do have time.
Keep things organized, store everything together, organize by page

Work on one project at a time. It is so easy to let the fruit of your creativity distract you from the task at hand. If you have a flash of inspiration for a great new scrapbooking project, don’t drop the one you’re working on now. Instead, just take a second to write down the ideas you have. You can keep a notebook around for this purpose. Then, once you finish your current project, you can grab the notebook and decide which project to tackle next.

And that’s how you finish a scrapbooking project. Stick with simple designs, work on a predetermined schedule, keep all your stuff organized and work on a project until you finish it. By following these simple and easy suggestions, you’ll soon have shelves filled with beautifully displayed memories.

Do you get the chance to do creating things during your day? For me, every day at home pretty much starts and ends the same way; we have routines for getting up and getting started in the morning, and routines for relaxing and finishing every evening. I don’t know about your job, but mine is full of routine. There are certain things that have to be done, and they have to be done a certain way. There’s just not much room for letting out my creative spirit. But scrapbooking is an activity that begs for you to be creative. Whenever I’m working on a scrapbook, I can be as creative as I want.

I also love scrapbooking because it lets me work with my hands. That’s something else that I don’t get much chance to do in the course of a normal day, unless washing dishes or typing on a keyboard counts. Of course, 100 years ago everyone pretty much worked with their hands and were probably happy to get a rest. I can’t really explain it, but there’s something very satisfying about actually moving physical items around and arranging them in a way that’s pleasing to me. It’s very satisfying and it’s a great stress reliever.

A third reason that I’m a scrap booking addict is that I can produce a finished product that everyone can look at. Almost everything else I do during the day seems to be part of a process. I don’t see the beginning, I don’t see the end. I just add my little part to something bigger. That doesn’t really give me a huge sense of accomplishment. It’s different with scrapbooking. I start with an idea, I gather the materials, I work on a project until it’s done, and then I share the results with my family and friends. It provides a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction that’s hard to get anywhere else. I guess it comes from the creative process from beginning to end.

Scrapbooking is not difficult to start, it’s not complicated to figure out, and it doesn’t cost a bundle leader. Sure, you can probably spend as much as you want–but it’s definitely not required.

So welcome to my site. I have written about my experiences with scrapbooking, about the things I’ve learned, and a few tricks I came up with on my own. I hope you enjoy your visit. Maybe you’ll become a scrapbook addict too!