Being a Scrapbooker

For as long as I can remember I've had a desire to be crafty. I said I had a desire to be crafty, not that I was crafty lol. To say that money was in short supply growing up would be the understatement of the century. I still found ways to be crafty--whether it was cutting out pictures from Nonnie's Sears catalog and using them for paper dolls, or cutting shapes out of paper, it satisfied that desire within me. As I grew into an adult I took up several crafts including crocheting, sewing and embroidery. But I've always been a huge picture taker (thank goodness!!) so when I was introduced to scrapbooking in 2003 I knew deep deep in my heart that I'd found my calling. I'm not the greatest scrapbooker--I've never been published, never been on a design team and never been one who received a lot of comments on the layouts I post online. But scrapbooking makes me HAPPY...it satisfies the extreme sentimentalist inside me and I truly believe that I will always be a scrapbooker.
I worry that the hobby is losing ground and it scares me. I see so many of my online friends that I met via scrapbook.com giving it up and selling their scrapbook stuff. So very many of them are taking up other hobbies or have simply decided they just don't have the time or desire to scrapbook. A little piece of my heart breaks every time I see it happen. I just want to be able to reach into my own soul and take a piece of the desire, longing and joy that scrapbooking brings to my life and share it with them. Unfortunately, I've never been able to do that. So for now, I'll just keep on doing what I love and what brings me joy. And I'll keep hoping and praying that scrapbooking doesn't become extinct. I feel it's such a real possibility and especially after the top rated scrapbook message board and store announced last week that they are closing their doors. When I heard that news I was absolutely floored--I was a member there but never posted or purchased from them because scrapbook.com is my "go to" for those things. I'm sad for them but my real hope is that people will realize that this industry is stumbling and maybe they'll find their love for this hobby reignited. With every scrapbook layout I do, I imagine my children, grandchildren and so forth as they look back on my thoughts and my memories--I hope these albums bring them as much joy to look at as they bring me while creating them.

And with that being said, here are 2 layouts that I've done this week. And I'm about to start a new one :)

Happy Scrapping everybody!

NOTE: the bear paper piecing was made using a file I bought from Miss Kate Cuttables @

cute bear