Tuesday, May 25, 2010

One for the scrapbook

Would it trouble you to know that I once attempted scrapbooking? I was trawling the internet this evening, researching a story and all, when I came across a scrapbooking site (it was relevant, I promise). And it all came back.

I have a secret stash of scrapbooking materials, shoved into the back of a dark corner of the garage. I even completed two pages. Two. Whole. Pages.

To set the scene, my foray into this decorative world began not long after the birth of Mr6 (I can feel you nodding now, muttering about hormones). I was so enamoured of the beauty of my creation (being Mr6 himself) and the 4672 photographs that I had taken of him (in the first three months) that I wanted to do something with them. Digital photography has a lot to answer for if you ask me.

A girl in my Mothers’ Group introduced me to the notion of scrapbooking. What can I say? It seemed like a good idea at the time. So I went out – and a time when getting out the door was a major feat – and bought the stuff. Pages and pages of pretty paper. Stickers. Cut-out thingies. Ruler thingies. Badges that said stuff like ‘baby’. Tags that spelt out ‘little man’. Decals.

I know. What exactly did I think I was going to do with it all?

To be fair, I began. I made the aforementioned two pages. Between breastfeeding, not sleeping, working (oh yes, I forgot to mention that, as a freelancer, I just kept on writing), changing nappies. Etc. And I realised something that my hormone-drenched mind would have known pre-hormones. I have no patience for that sort of thing.

None.

Not only that, but visually-speaking, I’m, um, in need of guidance. The only subject I ever well-and-truly failed at school was Art. F. Not even maths came close to that. My major work in year 10 (my last Art class ever) was a half-finished painting of some rocks that looked like Medusa’s hair (I was supposed to ‘shade it in’ but, you know, was expressing my creative right, um, not to) and some pencil drawings of ‘surreal’ stuff, in the Dali style, which were really just 'so awful'.

On the other hand, I did very well in the Art Essay section. Which says it all.

I confess that the sight of the finished pages on the scrapbooking site did bring on a pang. It looks great when done well. But I didn’t linger long and didn’t dash to the cupboard to pull out my own ‘stuff’.

Some sleeping hormones are best left undisturbed.

{image: MummyScraps}

22 comments:

  1. Nice. I too have attempted scrapbooking, knowing intuitively my limits would be met quickly. I tried to be realistic that all photos would not be scrapbooked. I just envisioned one scrapbook, calling it "The Adventure Journal", so I'd just feel the need to document major trips in a manner that involved glue sticks and such. I did one year. That was 4 years ago. Enough said.

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  2. Scrapbooks are another of God's signals that one has too much time on one's hands... like plucking leg hairs one by one. The decals etc tend to be impossibly 'sweet' too, whereas iPhoto, Flickr etc are mercifully utilitarian, and immediate and easy!

    Why don't you donate them to an eight year old girl? Then no more guilt!

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  3. Yeah, it's not my sort of thing either. Even looking at all the stuff involved makes me feel overwhelmed and nervous!

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  4. One thing we don't have in common. I have never tried scrapbooking. And nor will I ever. Shoot me if I start. Having said that, my friend and I are having 'craft nights' starting next week.....

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  5. I can't scrapbook but a kind art friend who knows I am artistically challenged showed me how to set up a book that was foolproof. So my kids have memory books, but they aren't conventional at all!

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  6. Sorry, but I'm going to have to disown you now. Scrapbooking is the work of the devil.

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  7. Oh this made me laugh! I too had a brief fling with scrapbooking,seduced by the pretty papers and stickers. However I too lack patience and 'visually-speaking am in need of guidance'. The only difference is that I did fail Maths!

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  8. My boss used to live across the road from a woman who did it (scrapbooking) for a living. Like someone paid her to do this for them and she got big bucks for it. Long waiting list etc. This chick also drank heavily and let her kids walk around on their two story roof til 10pm each night. Hmm, enough said I reckon.

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  9. I laughed out loud for real. Al what on earth were you thinking. I do blame the hormones though. Ill confess here in relative safety that I started doing cross stitch with every pregnancy. I think i may have even finished one - Shauna

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  10. The best thing about this post is discovering that I am not alone in my moments of insanity.

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  11. At the time scrapbooking started to get really big, I was knee deep in nappies and baby vomit, so I just didn't bother. However, I always thought back then that if I'd had the time...I'd have been SO in to it.

    Then years later, I got my Mac, and my new obsession became making my own DVDs of the kids' pics and home movies. I made this great DVD for Christmas the year before last - the folks LOVED it.

    Then I got too busy again and then my latest obsession, blogging, came about.

    But maybe I'll get back to the scrap book idea some day. The pretty papers in Spotlight are always wooing me.

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  12. I'll put my hand up to join the visually/artistically-challenged-but-susceptible-to-creative-fads therapy group. Fortunately, I have an incredibly artistic 9 year old daughter. I can simply pretend that all those pretty papers etc were deliberately put aside for her pleasure. :-)

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  13. I'm at pains to point out that there should be 'scraps' in scrap booking. The pre-packaged stickers and decals and ribbons and pages etc etc just go against the very nature of it. Blogging is the new scrapbooking anyway.

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  14. Oh, eep. Pleased to say that my experience with scrapbooking never crossed beyond bemuzzled expression {bemused/puzzled - exclusive expression devoted to scrapbooking}. Oh, the stickers with "Little Man"... again, eep!

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  15. OMG Shauna above - I did a long stitch when pregnant with my daughter. I call it the Teddy Bears' Picnic Massacre. Teddy Bears! What was I thinking?? I have never sewn or tapestried or cross-stitched anything in my life before or since.

    Meanwhile I have occasionally looked at my 9yo son's quilt that is so bedraggled it can no longer be washed (but he loooooves) and think I should take a snippet and scrapbook it or something. But surely a lone scrapbooking page is sadder than a disintegrating quilt. Plus the only photo I have of anyone using it is of the cat.

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  16. Oh, this is so funny!
    I love craft stuff but scrapbooking is one path I've never been down.
    I bet I'd be totally sucked in if I did!! :)

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  17. Okay, the cross stitch thing has me LMAO. I thought I was bad! I did start knitting - have the world's longest (unfinished) scarf. I should know better, really, shouldn't I?

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  18. Haha oh dear I too succumbed to the scrapbooking curse. It is a curse and the work of the devil. It lures you in to spend loads of money on pretty bits and pieces with the promise of transforming photos into grand masterpieces. This DOES NOT HAPPEN - it is just heaps of crap filling up a drawer that could be put to better use and the photos are still sitting in the shoe boxes! Don't get me started on the cross stitch!!

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  19. Think of your blog as your virtual scrapbook. Done.

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  20. I love Allison Rushby. The sweet voice of reason.

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  21. I too went on a scrapbooking journey many years ago but i believe mine lasted about seven pages! A friend has tried to convince me to try digi-scrapping but I feel way too much guilt over the hundreds of dollars worth of conventional scrapbooking 'stuff' still sitting in a box :( Who has the time?

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  22. Loving your makeover and loving your retro visists.

    I scrapbooked all three kids to the age of two. And don't faint, I still do the odd layout. I like it. (I know that that is tragic. My layouts are NOT like the majority -tizzy shit is not my thing.)

    I like playing with paper. What can I say.

    My kids ADORE poring over their scrapbook albums. Narcissism, much?!

    But blogging and writing and digital snippeting are quicker and easier...

    (Runs and hides...)

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