Makers gonna make.

I have a crafters heart. I learned this in college. I remember taking my first paycheck from my new job as a nanny and spending it at a small scrap booking store at a shopping center in Roseville. I can envision myself walking out of that store with a scrapbook in hand and supplies in the bag and I felt JOYFUL. I spent many a Friday night at the workshops offered by Archivers eating the pizza buffet and chatting with my girlfriends as we die cut, embossed, cut and pasted. I would walk away having finished one page after a 3 hour scrap booking marathon – and I loved it! But, a page per 3 hours was not efficient once my college days ended and I had 2 babies 21 months a part, a full time job and a hubby in Pharmacy school. In a short time, my collection of paper and supplies became larger than my collection of finished books.

One of the top romantic gestures of my life relates to scrap booking. Joe and I moved to Hutchinson, Minnesota in 2006. It was the dead of winter and I was 9 months pregnant with Jack with 21 month-old Olivia on my hip. We were 26 and as broke as 2 kids with 2 kids could be. For Jack’s baby book, I decided to do an alphabet theme for the first year of his life. For my birthday, in lieu of spending money on a gift, Joe went to a little scrap booking store in downtown Hutch and finished one of the letters. It still makes my heart melt whenever I look at that page.

In Hutch, my attention was diverted away from scrap booking for a short time when I got into quilting with the local ladies. Looking at fabrics had the same effect on me as staring at papers. I could do it for hours! But, I needed something to show for it and quilting proved more time consuming (and frustrating – darn sewing machine) than scrap booking. I abandoned that hobby after finishing a “Tea Time” quilt for Olivia’s wall and a Halloween decorative pillow which, to this day, is one of my most treasured possessions - I love that pillow. About this time, Facebook was on the rise which felt like a convenient way to capture my memories, easing the guilt of “I’m not writing down anything” and allowing me to put REAL scrap booking on the back burner. As the digital age was on the rise, I printed less and less photos and got more and more overwhelmed by the volume of pictures on my cell phone and computer which ultimately lead to a period of avoidance (and quite a number of low quality pictures☹).

Then, before I knew it, my Olivia, the little girl I dressed up and took photo shoots of at every holiday, started to show her own passion in photography. She brought me full circle and reminded me why quality photos on a good camera are worth it. She reminded me that you can never have too many pictures. And, she began to naturally journal during family vacations and make her own scrapbooks and on-line cards – showing me that the energy I was investing in preserving our memories was 100% worth it and needed to be prioritized once again in my life. I found my second bought of pure JOY from scrap booking – watching my daughter read my scrapbooks and seeing she authentically treasures them.

So, now I am back to being a scrap booking enthusiast and I know the importance of printing my pictures and recording our memories.

I have 3 pieces of advice to offer based on my experiences:

Shutterfly is the best way to scrapbook. I have tried every version of scrap booking that exists. I’ve tried paper scrap booking (using products like hole punches and paper cutters from Creative Memories), digital scrap booking (using resources like Apple or Shutterfly), 9 by 11 binders with photo inserts (using Avery photo inserts and then the 2 by 3 business cards to journal) and photo books with 4 by 6 scrapbook inserts so you can still use the fun paper and stickers in one of the openings and use full pictures in the other openings. I’m convinced the best option (and, by “best”, I mean most efficient and easiest to store, print (multiple copies - yay!) and share) is Shutterfly. I hate making this declaration. Being a professional who spends large bulks of her workday at a computer leaves me wanting a hobby away from electronics, but, in the end, these are the books we, and our family and friends, most enjoy.

Create a Facebook group for every trip to journal as you go. Every time we go on a trip, I create a Facebook Group for just us and those family members who I know actually care about what we are doing to the degree of which I want to capture, and I journal as we go along ensuring I write an entry for every day of our trip. Facebook makes it easy to check in at locations which then time stamps where you were and when cataloging the places you went for future reference and recommendations. Then, when we get back, I use all that fabulous detail to create a book on Shutterfly. The beauty is that I can start on a book whenever I want to and work on it as long as I want to and the detail is all there, waiting for me.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. With time, I’ve realized I love all my books equally once the future arrives. Those spelling errors, outdated fonts or tacky graphics don’t bother me as I am reading through all the memories and seeing the pictures. The only thing I consistently think is “this is so great, why don’t I make more of these?” – the JOY is in the process of the creation. The “discretionary effort” is best spent on journaling. Document the details using all five senses...what did you taste, touch, hear, smell and see? Do this AS YOU GO and the memories come flooding back AS YOU READ. It’s amazing what you will forget if you don’t write it down! All the other stuff, you, and future generations, will love all the same.

That’s all for now! It’s 2019 and my crafting heart has recently stretched to embrace cross stitching. More on that next time.

Keep those feet moving.

Love,

Katie, the craft lover, Kruger