Happy Saturday! It's Tina here, enjoying a lovely afternoon, browsing through my layouts and really, really enjoying it. I must say, it's not that often that I actually pull out my albums and look through them. They're on a shelf in my garage/scrap studio/spider haven, and rarely get looked through (that's about to change - more on that in a bit).
My paper crafting days started in 1995 or so at a Stampin' Up! demonstration. I remained a faithful card-maker for years and had amassed a large collection of stamp sets, and even became a SU! demonstrator for a while. But I never really got into the scrapbooking craze. That was about to change.
I started scrapping in late 2002/early 2003 during the adoption of our son, Aidan, from Haiti. We spent time with him in Haiti during the process and took lots of pictures of him, and I started scrapbooking as a way to stay close to him when we couldn't be together, and as a way to keep myself from going crazy during the 11-month adoption journey toward bringing him home. Here's the very first page I ever scrapped, and the cover of the first album I made. I was an 8.5 x 11 girl from the very beginning:
At the time, my scrap supply consisted of Stampin' Up! stamps (which I used to create my background paper and title), eyelets, and SU! paper and a few other things I picked up at my local Michael's.
For me, vellum, torn paper and eyelets were big back then.
It was during this time that my new love of scrapbooking added fuel to my love of photography. I had joined 2 Peas and saw Tara Whitney's work and things just grew from there. As a scrapper who had always kept my photos front-and-center, I was inspired to take better photos for my family and for my pages, and to learn everything I could about photography. I got my first digital SLR in early 2004. Two more digital SLRs, a nice collection of lenses, my own photography business, and eight Simple cover photos later, my passion for photography is still stronger than ever.
When we adopted our second child, Makena, and as I scrapped even more (now with lots of pink!), I noticed my simple, photo-focused style was mostly still intact, but that my collection of scrapping supplies now required the conversion of our two-car garage into a scrapbooking studio and the installation of a whole wall of IKEA cabinets.
This layout above was the first time I ever tried sewing on a layout.
This layout marked the beginning of my use of drawn lines on my pages, which I still do all. the. time.
I guess I've always been a simple and easy scrapper and that's why Simple Scrapbooks magazine was such a huge part of my scrapbooking. And because now that I have three kids and even less free time on our hands, I have stuck with a less-is-more approach, and that same philosophy still rings true.
Now, about those 12 or so binders and albums full of layouts. I've been selfish. I have kept them safe, away from grubby and not-so-gentle hands, not wanting any of my pages bent or torn. And it's only been within the last few weeks that I realized that even though the process of scrapbooking has been for me, the pages I make are really for them - my three precious kiddos and my handsome hubby. So tonight we're going to look through them, touch them, talk about them and laugh and giggle about funny faces and silly stories. A new phase in my enjoyment of the pages I create.
I've really been enjoying these last few days seeing how everyone's pages have evolved, both here and on our Flickr group. If you get the chance, I'd love to see yours, too!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
