Scrapbook My Life

If you walk through the aisles of your local scrapbook store, you may find yourself wondering if everyone who scrapbooks has a perfect life. There are supplies for vacations, weddings, birthdays, athletic achievements, and romantic rendezvous, but nothing to scrapbook the parts of life that are less than perfect. When is the last time you saw a layout about getting fired in your favorite scrapbook magazine? What would your scrapbooking friends say if they watched you complete a page about the trauma of getting a divorce or the difficulty you had coping with the death of your parents?

Even though it’s tempting to only scrapbook the happy parts of your life, I challenge you to take the time to record some of your more painful memories as well. The obstacles you’ve overcome are part of what makes you a special and unique person. Learning from your past experiences is a huge accomplishment and one that definitely deserves a place in your family history.

My small town of about 1,200 residents is almost ½ underwater today. Although I’m very fortunate in that my house is fine, we have several loved ones in the affected flood area. And, some of the losses I suspect will hurt the most are the family photographs. Photographs bring back so many memories, from a child’s first steps to a long awaited vacation. While insurance can help replace some of the tangible necessities of everyday life, the value of photographs is hard to measure in dollars alone. After all, how many times have you heard someone say the family photo album is one of the first items they’d grab if their house was on fire?

As a scrapbooker, be careful to protect your albums. Use acid free supplies whenever possible. Store albums away from heat, light, and humidity. If you make digital pages, burn backups to a CD and store them in a safe place. Don’t keep items in your garage or basement where they may be easily damaged.

Paper + Pixels: Scrapbook Layouts by Audrey Neal and May Flaum is a must-have book for anyone interested in beginning digital scrapbooking who still wants to find a way to use up their stash of traditional scrapbook supplies. I find the concept of digital scrapbooking so appealing, but I have enough cardstock and embellishments to open a small store after almost six years of hording supplies. That’s why I love the premise of this book – it encourages you to think of digital elements as additions to your normal scrapbook layouts instead of a total replacement for the products you’ve grown to love.

The “hybrid” style of scrapbooking covered in Paper + Pixels is easy to do even if you’re not too computer savvy. All you need is a computer, printer, and basic image editing software. And, if you lack the patience to search for free digital kits online, the book also includes a fabulous CD filled with papers and embellishments for a variety of themes, including baby scrapbooks and vacation albums.