Who and/or What inspired you to start scrapbooking?

[kldmom2000]

December 2002 I went to my first CM home show and was hooked..... after spending a fortune on their supplies (which I LOVE) I ended up finally signing on as a consultant this past August.... I'm so addicted!

 

[Stephres]

When my husband got a promotion and our family had to move, the first friends I made in the new place introduced me to scrapbooking. I am not an artistic person by any means, so I was skeptical that I could even make a decent looking page. We were all doing baby books for our 18 month olds so I thought I would give it a shot. I bought a kit that had a book from Memory Makers, stickers, papers, scizzors, papers and an 8 1/2 by 11 scrapbook in it.

My friends make fun of me because out of the three of us I am the most commited to our hobby 4 years later. My husband and the kids love looking the books so it really keeps me going.

 

[Tiger Fan]

I've always kept photo books and memorabilia in boxes or in those old style scrapbooks. As for the new scrapbooking I went to my first CM class when my DD was 3 months old with the sole intent of getting supplies to make her baby album. We had not been able to find a generic album that would work with our family and a friend told me about CM and that I could customize my own album. I was hooked immediately and even signed on as a CMC within a year.
Lisa
Tiger Fan

 

[ilovedale3]

I've been scrapping since 1999. My roommate at the time went to a CM party and got hooked so of course she signed up to have one at our apartment. I thought that she was totally nuts at first. But when I did a page at our demonstration that night (using WDW pictures of course), I was totally done for!

I am a little different scrapbooker than most. I don't have children and when I began scrapping, I was single so all of my first books are about me and my "stuff" (college, friends, etc.). I feel lucky that I was able to do books about me (since I read so many posts about people who have no pictures of themselves with friends and loved ones). I also scrap my biggest hobby -- NASCAR! In fact, when my DH and I first started dating, he went crazy for my racing scrapbooks!

 

[sweet maxine]

Well, I've gathered some things together. I've bought paper and stickers and dye-cuts (?) at a gift shop going-out-of-business sale, a package of scrap squares at Wal Mart, a book (my Dollar General sells the basic book for $5, refills for $1, acid-free mounting stickers for $1), and have all my trip mementos and pictures. I haven't spent a lot of money yet, cause I may not be too good at this.

So.......I'm still standing at the edge of the water and looking out, but I can't put my toes in yet! It's kind of scary, and I really don't know how to do a theme, or just how to start. Do I start on pages for each child, or just do a trip as a book or what? I'm good at gathering things together, but not always so great at PUTTING them together. I usually end up getting side-tracked by something else....Well, the weather is not so great here right now, so I thought after reading some of the threads about scrapbooking, I could just jump in and do that too. My kids (twins) are graduating high school next year, and I would love to have a book for them of their childhood, but is that too big of a project to start out with?

 

[Spinning]

sweet maxine
I say just jump in. Maybe start with something small. For your kids that will be a huge under taking if you have lots and lots of pictures. Most people in the field will tell you start with the most recent and work backwards. Which is what I have done and it does seem to make sense now that I have been scrapping for several years.
Do you have any scrapbook stores or a Michael's ACMoore's near you? They have classes on beginning scrap booking. It may be what you need to jump in.
You will also find us scrappers are collectors! It is just too much fun to shop for! So you have the right gene for it!
Simple pages are beautiful. even if you just crop the pictures and do some journalling. you don't need to make a master piece.
How are your pictures stored? if they are jsut in boxes I would start organizing them first. then after they are sorted pick the best pictures to scrap. Then jump in.
One thing I wish someone had told me when I first started to scrap....when it comes to buying stickers and paper....TAKE YOUR PICTURES TO THE STORE! LOL! I would buy things cause I like them not that they would go with anything pictures I actually have! Now that I am semi caught up, when I go the the store I htink about the pictures I plan to scrap and buy accordingly (well ok not all the time but I try...... )
also check out the first or second posting on this board. Lots of good information there.

 

[sweet maxine]

Thanks! I guess I'll spend the next few days organizing pictures then. There is a scrapbook store in a town an hour away from me. Michael's is 2 hrs. away.......I guess I live in the middle of nowhere! I think I'll go back to the gift shop sale today and pick up a few things before it's all gone.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

I come from a family that has been "scrapbooking" since the very early 1980s- back then it was all pictures on a page (the color varied by year) with journaling and maybe one or two random stickers- I started doing my own pages off and on since '91 and took complete control over my own books in '97- Since then Ive completed over 40 books with my kids having atleast one per year, my year books and misc trip ones (for 2004- 4 day WDW and 4 day cruise got 2 books- 5 days DL got 1 etc) I love it and its a great creative outlet


-em

 

[aunties]

I wanted to give my niece something really special for her five years off chemo party. So I contacted everyone invited and asked them to send favorite photos and special memories of times spent with her. I did use the "right" paper and stickers but that was about it. A year or so later, I attended a CM party and bought every tool they had. I asked Heather if I could redo her book and she refused. She said it was perfect just the way it is. I am now taking all the pictures the fun times we have had with her and her younger brother and am doing "real" albums for each of them now. I haven't seen my kitchen table in months! Very addictive, but worth every minute spent working on each page. They both love what I have finished so far.

 

[Spinning]

Aunti what a faboulus story! So Glad your neice is doing great! And what a nice gift! I can understand totally why she wouldnt' want to give the book back and redone. I am sure that book means more to her than words can ever express!
I think that is part of the magic of scrapping it can also be a part of all celebrations, and of healing. I made 5 books for my dear friend who was dealing cancer. 2 were of our trip to Disney (one for her and one for her mom who went with us) The books gave her so much pleasure to look at her life. and now the family and children have something to look back on all the good times and the beautiful person who was their mom.

 

[4greatboys]

Like others on here I started scrapping really before I even heard of it. In all my photo albums I would keep ticket stubs and anything and everything related to trip or event.
I got into offical scrapbooking by wanting to do something with my ride and park photo's. I could always find cute photo albums for my regular pictures but then the bigger ones were just loose. However once I got into putting my ride.park pictures in the scrapbook allbums I then had to start doing that with some of my regular pictures to and it just took off from there.

 

[Renysmom]

I remember doing it in HS but that was basically just pasting my stuff in a book to save for the future..

What really got me started was when my son was offered a college scholarship to play baseball. As a gift to him on his last home game of his sr year in HS, I wanted to give him something to look back on and to celebrate so I sorted all his baseball pictures, souveniers and newspaper articles all the way back to his first season of Tball.. This was to be a surprise so I only worked on it when he wasn't at home.

The opening page is a blown up picture of him at 5 years old staring into a baseball field in his little uniform, then all his stuff through local ball, JR high and HS ball, along with travel teams, tournaments, etc. the final pages are all his college scholarship offer letters and finally the last page is his college logo blown up to full-size with the wording.. If you believe and want it, it can happen...

After that final game, he met us at the local pizza joint where we presented him the book, he was stunned as it was a total surprise.Some of his teammates were there with their parents and they all enjoyed looking at it, as many of them were through-out the bool as well. Two moms have since done the same thing. I didn't let him take it to school with him, but he often looks through it when he comes home.

The look on his face that night got me hooked on this hobby and I doubt I will stop anytime soon.