why I scrapbook...

I’m going to give you a sneak peak into the life of a scrapbooker. Are you excited?? I sure hope so. Because the scrapbooker who’s life you are about to get a sneak peak of is none other than me. *wink*

First off, let me tell you a little bit about WHY I scrapbook. Mainly, I scrapbook so I can preserve my family’s history. And I’m a crafty kindof gal, so preserving my family’s stories in a creative way suits me so well. I believe that there is no right or wrong way to scrapbook. Using photos and words to document the amazing everyday stories of each of my family members is what it is all about for me. I may or may not consider myself a perfectionist. But when it comes to scrapbooking, I have adopted a few mantras that I often repeat to myself when my perfectionism rises to the surface. --->Imperfection is perfect. Its OK the way it is. Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be.<---

Because I focus on scrapbooking everyday moments and stories, my goal is that anyone could flip through one of my scrapbooks and really understand the essence of my family. Both good and not so good things. Funny things. Quirky things. Our likes and dislikes. What our everyday routines looked like. Conversations we had with our kids. Places we go on a regular basis. And all of the many MANY little stories in between. This is why I scrapbook.

I don’t worry about “keeping up” with my layouts. I don’t even come close to scrapbooking all of the photos we take. I scrapbook those photos that tell the stories I most want to tell. I scrapbook some of my favorite photos just because I want to. And lots and lots of photos just get put into our photo boxes. And that is fine with me. The day that I start to say I’m “behind” in my scrapbooking is probably the day that I will stop scrapbooking. I don’t want my hobby to become a chore. I don’t want to feel pressured to make scrapbooking a lot of extra hard work. I just want to document my family’s stories.

Here is where I do most of my scrapbooking. This room is our old walk-in closet. But it was too big for a closet so it is now my scrapbooking room. I LOVE it in here.

I have everything out and ready to go. All my supplies are within an arms reach. Well, some supplies are a few steps away….but it is nice to go in my scrapbook room and work for a few minutes and then leave everything out until I have a few more minutes later in the day. By the way, my scrapbook room also serves as our home office and Santa’s workshop (wrapping + hiding gifts). Perfect.

Throughout the next few posts, I'll share some of my favorite scrapbook techniques, post a bunch of photos of recent layouts, and attempt to show you how it IS possible to document your family's stories on a tight budget with not a lot of free time....and EVEN if you think you're not creative. Stay tuned!