Lessons

A few weeks ago I went to a friend’s house for a crop.  She’s a Creative Memories consultant but exceptionally tolerant of different scrapbooking styles and methods, so we get along beautifully.  Of the six of us, one woman spent her time organizing photos on her Mac (yes, I was constantly shooting jealous glances and surreptitiously wiping drool from the corners of my mouth), one was rediscovering her long-neglected scrapbooking supplies, another was creating a very simple (and super-fast) wedding album for her daughter while yet another was practicing with cutting tools.  Each of us had reached very different places in our journey to documenting our lives but we all wanted a way to record the special moments in life that made sense and had value to us and to those we love.  Amid the chatter about household cleansers, home maintenance and discount appliances, we managed to squeeze in some discourse on scrapbooking. 

I was asked how digital scrapbooking accommodates journaling and we discussed how, to me, a layout is hardly complete if all it includes is pictures and a title.  I explained that, for me, working digitally gives me the freedom to re-size photos in the moment and accommodate any layout design or space needs for journaling.  Unlike with traditional scrapbooking, I don’t have to spend additional funds or resources to resize an image or spend extra time planning print sizes in order to save those funds.  Consequently, I can spend less time on a layout and end up with a similar result.

“Well, do you miss the hands-on part of scrapbooking?  The cool tools? the tapes and glues? the glitter?!!” And the answer to that is… well… sometimes.  But, I didn’t get rid of my tools or even all my supplies.  When I get the itch to “get my hands dirty” I can work on a page with my 9-year-old daughter (who still scraps with paper) or I can make a card or I can just play because I feel like it. 

“What about texture and ‘lumps’?”  Hmm, every page in my albums is covered by a page protector, so texture in my albums is just visual and I can get that with the digital products of today.  In fact, I can put a fully dimensional soccer ball on my digital page and not have trouble closing the cover of the album.  Can you do that with traditional scrapping?

“So, is there anything you do miss?”  Yes.  I miss interactive pages even though I didn’t make a lot of those.  I miss pocket pages for holding special cards or memorabilia.  And there is a solution for this.  I could make a “hybrid” album combining the best of both worlds.  But one of my most compelling reasons for making the switch is the size of a photobook versus the size of even an empty scrapbook album.  The space I can save on the bookshelves makes digital scrapping and photobook printing the option that makes the most sense for me.

In the end, while it would be fun to have a friend nearby who scrapped digitally, I enjoy the interaction, the discussion and the differences in how each of us approaches this hobby that unites us once a month.  I wouldn’t change a thing.

Tschüss!

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