Pixels and Pix

Why do you scrapbook? Have you asked yourself that lately?

It’s so easy to get caught up in thinking, “I’ll never be caught up with my scrapbooks,” that sometimes it’s also easy to wonder, “so why even try?” I understand. My daughter is 6 years old, and I never finished her first year in her scrapbooks. From ages 2 to 5, my son’s pages are extremely sparse, almost nonexistent. And those are some precious years in a child’s life, for sure. Even when thinking about the present, when my kids are 6 and 9 years old, I can count numerous pages that I want to create, but in reality, only a handful might ever get created. And when I think about the things my friends and extended family do that I would love to document (weddings, graduations, babies, birthdays, even simple relationships), I can easily get down on myself for not “keeping up” or scrapbooking more.

But you know what? It’s OK.

The truth is, I don’t scrapbook for the sake of documenting every single detail of every little thing my kids (or my friends or my family members) do in their lifetimes. That would be nice, sure – and I do scrap those kinds of pages when the feeling strikes – but it’s certainly not realistic. Who has that kind of time? Instead, the primary reason I scrapbook is to document my feelings and capture a brief overview of our lives together. I want my kids to know that their dad and I love them and that we cherish their place in our lives. I want them to know what their personalities are like at different stages in their lives, and I want them to know that no matter who they are, what kind of grades they get or what their gifts and talents are, their family is the most important thing. I also scrapbook to give my kids a deeper understanding of who I am, and I’m hopeful that one day their children and maybe even their grandchildren will enjoy learning a little more about me, even if I’m not physically around to share that with them.

It’s for this reason that I think I am enjoying this book as much as I am. The book (50 Moments: Scrapbook the Pages that Matter Most by Lisa Bearnson) includes a list of 50 meaningful topics for scrapbooking. It’s a handbook of sorts for scrapbooking pages with meaning, pages that will mean the most to one’s children and grandchildren (and even to the scrapper herself!), pages that share an insight into the scrapper – what she loves, what she cherishes, the moments that have defined who she is – in a way that is personal and honest.

The list of topics to scrap includes things like a choice you’ve made that has defined who you are, a secret you have kept about yourself or one you have been a part of keeping, what your work ethic is and why you chose the career you did, what your goals are and how they’ve changed over the years, a wish you have or one that has come true, a time when you took a risk and how it turned out, why you love home and why you love your community, and so much more.

I am reading through this book slowly the first time, trying to take it all in, reading the journaling on the layouts that are given as samples, and enjoying the book as I would any other scrapbook magazine or book. But when I’m finished, I plan to go back and use the book as a checklist of sorts for pages I want to make sure to scrap before my time on this planet is finished. I might even collect all of those layouts in a separate album and, who knows, maybe I’ll print copies of those albums for my kids when they move out of the house some day. (That’s one beauty of digital scrapbooking…simple duplicates!)

I have a feeling this book is going to be one that sits on my nightstand for a long time coming. I’m only a about a third of the way into it, but I can tell it’s going to be one of my favorites of all time.

I hope you take some time to find this book (you can get it here for just $10 today!), read through it and consider scrapbooking some of these moments from your own story. Even if you never share the layouts that come out of it with anyone else, I think it would be a great way to document your feelings and your experiences, maybe even giving you a new glimpse of yourself.

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The book’s back cover reads:

Scrapbooking is about sharing who we are with others — our goals, our values, our dreams. But with so many photos to take and so many stories to share, how do you decide where to begin? This book will help you create scrapbook pages that celebrate your life, that paint a picture of who you really are, that pass along family traditions and so much more.

In this book, you’ll discover:

• The 50 most important topics to include in your scrapbook.
• 150 thoughtful prompts and questions for bloggers, journal-keepers, family historians, teachers, writers and more.
• Dozens of inspirational quotes to use on your layouts.
• 150 brand-new scrapbook pages and ideas.

This book is published by Creating Keepsakes/CK Media. And no, they are not paying me to post this! (I wish!)