One Photograph......Page of Memories: My 1st Scrapbooking Experience

Today, I had my first scrapbooking session otherwise known as a crop.

Earlier in the week I had been invited to the crop in commemoration of National Scrapbooking Day (May 7), by a friend who's very deeply entrenched in the hobby. I had seen a few of her pages and was taken with this method of preserving memories by adding styling to what would otherwise remain as a simple photograph. Now for those who don't know, I am a painful stationery junkie. OBSESSIVE! I love pens, pencils, paper, books, crayons, markers, paper clips....I could go on (believe me). Because most people who interact with me regularly, know this and it was because of this (I'm sure) that I gained my crop invitation. I've often thought about taking up the hobby but decided against it as I didn't think I would be able to invest as much in it as I would like to, added to the fact that I would have to import everything as unfortunately, Jamaica presently doesn't have stores which cater to such activities.

But today changed my mind completely.

I sat and watched the other 4 ladies at the crop make initial layouts of their pages. There was an abundance of paper, stickers, buttons, stars and a host of other embellishments, and numerous tools. Of course being a beginner I didn't have anything to work with outside of my photograph for scrapping but I was immediately given useful guidance and thrust among the array of beautiful papers and embellishments to choose what I wanted to use. My initial anxieties melted away as I cut the paper, attached the various items to a single purple page and decided on the best styling, which I decided to use to commemorate my BFF's graduation from university (which sharing with her will always be a notable memory).

One person at the crop said "This is pretty much the equivalent of playtime for adults". I have to agree. I inked  a cardboard embellishment (made of chipboard), made ribbon from coloured paper and glued flowers. I'm all for finding the whimsy in life and at the end of my time at the crop I came away with a beautiful page complimented by the other participants, with the new feather in my artistic cap of "being a natural" at scrapbooking coupled with the comment, "we always had a feeling you would be good at this".

I've said it before, in life the number of things which happen on any given day will take up so much of our time. Being able to truly record a memory will allow you to not only think of that particular moment-in-time but of tthe associated emotions and meaning because of the creative efforts put into preserving it.

So after today, I've decided to take up scrapbooking.  I will not think of the reasons that I may be unable to do it but will instead focus on doing what I can, when I can, to develop a hobby I will surely grow to love. And as a special treat, I've posted my first scrapbook page for you all to see and hopefully inspire you to also get up and do that one thing you've been thinking of for the longest time but haven't been certain about.

The purpose of life after all is to find your happy =]

Peace and Love.

xoxo

Keeta :)