I really enjoy this hobby and it is as individual as you want it to be. I am an avid collector of memories and there are many ways to do this. Photographs, cards, tickets and the list goes on, all make interesting items to fill scrapbooks. The presentation is also very important and lots of fun. The hardest part is deciding what and how you are going to do it and this is the most critical decision if you want to do a really great job.
It is all about colour and design and having the right equipment. I pick up many little bits and bobs in the art and crafts sections of department stores and the cheap dollar stores. Stickers, shapes and cutouts are readily available and it helps to make it more interesting. It is about making it personal, presentable and having fun. The paper is important to longevity of the book itself, the better the quality of the paper, the longer it will last.
Children of all ages can participate in this hobby too. My daughters used to have a lot of fun cutting, pasting and adding to the scrapbook. I have six books that they made from all the birthday cards, postcards and other items (including a lock of hair), things that interested them at the time of making them which was when they were from kindergarten age till about ten years old. Pictures from magazines of the ‘Spice Girls' and Harry Potter, they groan a little but at that time that is who they were. They are my ‘true' memories of my children and the ones we love to read over and over again. They still giggle and laugh at the things they put into these ones. The little books that they wrote and made in kindergarten are all here. These scrapbooks were not the fancy ones that they like to do now, which are themed and beautiful.
The ones now are much more polished and well planned. My eldest daughter has two books, one of her overseas trip to New Caledonia with her french class and another of the two balls she attended. It is a nice way to remember events, the people and the fun of it all. My youngest daughter likes to draw and I think I will get a collection of her pictures and place them in a book of their own, for prosperity.
Every year I make personalized calendars as gifts and presents, I am starting to get a collection of those, maybe its time to start scrap booking those, hmmm. It is an important time line for me and shifting of interests and abilities becomes very apparent when you look back at them. The graphic art and design course that went on has been very useful and gives my work a more polished appearance. I have a portfolio of the work that I have produced for others too. Scrap booking is definitely an art form that I enjoy. Maybe you would too, give it a go!
