Why Scrap?

So a few posts ago, my friend Tracie wrote a blog entry about why she scrapbooks. I am constantly interested in this basic information about my friends. I love knowing what motivates and how they approach what they do. I am happy that I am blessed with friends who scrapbook for all kinds of different reasons and use different approaches. Sometimes it's a little odd when they all get together...but I think it's a valuable experiece.

So tell the world...why do you scrapbook and what's your scrapping philosophy?

Why do I scrapbook?

There are so many answers but the short one is very simple--I like it. I come by a love of photos genetically. My mother has preserved photos in albums for as long as I can remember. To me, the best photos aren't posed--they are fleeting moments of time captured on film. They express a realness and a reality that might otherwise be missed if it weren't captured on film.

I believe that God has given each of us a story worthy of recording and that much can be learned thru the witnessing of the stories of other peoples lives. It's our responsibility to live it out and to record it.

Paper and pen are a powerful medium. I write our stories with the passion of a participant and a loving historian. I think of my scrapbooks as letters to my children in the future and to anyone who reads them. I think of the images and words as the parts of our lives that I value and want to remember. What I value, I want my children to value as well.

By personality, I am drawn to texturally rich things. I'm a tactile learner. I can't remember the answer to 9x7 but I can remember paper manufacturers spring releases from 2002. Go figure. Scrapbooking is the perfect use for texturally rich items, especially beautiful papers, ribbons and fabrics.

Scrapbooking meets a need for my soul. It's deep. It feels good to be good at something and to have what I do be enjoyed and appreciated by my family. It feels like a contribution (small, admitantly)...a way of saying "this is me and this is a piece of me". This world is filled with negativity and ugliness. Pain and heartache. I prefer to enjoy images of love and family and friends and good.

Scrapbooking provides connections. One word...Croptoberfest. Anita. Julie. Sabrina. Carla. and others. Quite by divine accident my life has been irrevocably altered by many of the women whom I call my friends by way of scrapbooking. No other area of my life has produced such relationships.

People have all sorts of hobbies and honestly, I know some people who need a hobby or two. But really, I don't think of scrapbooking as a hobby. It's part of who I am. If Bazzill and Basic Grey and Chatterbox and all my other favorite companies closed down tomorrow, I would still journal, photograph and embellish. I'd find a way.

So now you know.