My Introduction to Scrapbooking

The 2Peas challenge is to write about how you got started in scrapbooking. Well, that's kindof a funny story for me. I'll try to keep it short.

In 1996 just after Julian was born, I returned to my work as a floral manager in a craft store in Jackson, MS. Floral Manager was the official title...but the truth was I had at one time or another worked in every department in the store. My favorite part of the job was creating displays and merchandising. Anytime we got in new merchandise, I built the vignettes to support it.

Just after I returned from maternity leave we began to hear that we were going to be receiving a large quanitity of papers and scissors for something called "memory crafting". I had no idea what that was. The store manager was a man who was usually pretty astute when it came to craft trends. One day before our shipment of mysterious memory craft supplies arrived he delivered to me a few idea sheets and a very brief over view of the topic. I knew I would need more information, so on my next trip to the library I looked up memory crafting on the internet.

WoW!

Through that internet search I hooked up with a local Creative Memories Consultant and Pebbles in my Pocket. Not to long after that, I took the CMC's beginner sales pitch and created my first page. <> Chopped photos...lack of flow...severe lack of style...way to many deco scissor incidents...

Anyway...

The CM products were way out of my price range at the time and the consultant was a little too pushy for my comfort level so I abandoned that route rather quickly. Pebbles in my Pocket (at that time) offered a beautiful mail order catalog that was the stuff my dreams were made of. They sold beautiful cardstock packs, albums, adhesives, pens, die cuts, templates and included wonderful information about scrapbooking. I studied their catalogs intensely and I can still describe some of the layouts.

One of the first scrapbookers I came to admire was a Pebbles artist named Brenda Cosgrove. To this day, I admire her work so much. Years later, she won a spot on the CK Hall of Fame list and occasionally still has pages published. Last time I checked, she's still teaching at Pebbles in Utah. I've always said that if I ever get to Utah--when I ever get Utah, I'm going to go when I can take one of her classes.

My research also brought me a friend named Karen--a DOTS demonstrator. DOTS is the original incarnation of Close to my Heart. She taught me to stamp and was my first stamp and scrap friend. I do miss her.

The web was my main resource for information and supplies because it would be years before Mississippi got it's first scrap store. Jennia Hart's now defunct website The Scrapbook Idea Network was an invaluable source of information for me in those early days. Thankfully, we moved to Tennessee about three years into my hobby. Tennessee has many scrap and stamp stores.

But wait...remeber that day when my manager brought me those papers about "memory crafting'. His comments: "I don't think this 'memory crafting' is going to really take off, but we need to be able to sell this stuff quickly so we don't get stuck with it. See what you can find out about it."

Funny, huh. Funny to the tune of several billion dollars being spent on scrapbooking each year. I think I know why he decided to go back into real estate a few years later. :)

So, now you know...