Memory Books

I kind of stumbled upon scrapbooking quite by accident. It all started when my friend Julide gave me a funky journal for Christmas. She had mysteriously borrowed a few of my Polaroids, scanned them, and then randomly peppered them throughout the journal along with quotes, lyrics, and poems.

I *loooved* the idea and jumped right in adding all manner of random photos, magazine clippings, ticket stubs, candy wrappers, etc.

It got to be quite full after a while.

I spent the next few years finishing that journal, and enjoyed it so much that I started a second one.

This time, I tried to limit myself to only one theme per page – like a special vacation, or “Goddess Girlfriends”, or whatever. I was very busy at work at the time, so the pages were much simpler, though still very meaningful to me.

To this day, if I’m feeling sad and blue, I can pull these books out and be reminded of numerous good times and great people, and it always lifts my spirits.

Then, one Christmas, my husband paid a visit to Michael’s (the craft store) and showered me with both quilting and proper scrapbooking supplies as gifts. At the time I was 7 months pregnant and dubious about any chances I would have to use the supplies, as well as my own abilities to create anything worthwhile in these new art forms.

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I started, but I thought it was a great way to make my photos more interesting.

Oh, boy <cringe>.

I have included several of my layouts in the accompanying pages. But I warn you, I don’t tend to follow the “rules” or trends of typical scrapbooking. I take lots of photos and thus want pages that display lots of photos instead of making a work of art out of just one…

Although I have mostly made scrapbooks to record my “fambily” life, I have also made a few for other people as well.

When my grandmother passed away a few years ago, I thought it would be nice to bring some photos to the funeral to help other people remember her in better times.

I opted for an intimate 8×8″ format rather than the usual 12×12″, and started by writing down as much as I could possibly remember about the stories she would tell me. It was actually quite a cathartic way to deal with my grief. I then scanned all of the photos that I had inherited from her over the years, and started to piece them all together in an attempt to tell her story my way.

I gave copies of the album to people who requested them, and every year on her birthday, I pull out my own and take a walk down memory lane with my little “fambily”.

*sigh* I would dearly like to go back and do a similar kind of thing for my other grandparents who passed away before Grandma Ray (all combined into one album, however, as I know relatively little about them). If only I could find the time.

Then, one year, my friend Christine suggested we exchange hand-made gifts for Christmas. We’d known each other for a couple of years, and I had a backlog of photos of our families doing fun stuff together that I’d never e-mailed her, so I figured another memory album would be a great way to share them.

Again, I opted for the more cozy feel of a smaller album, and I chronologically told our story – in pictures rather than words.

To this day, she says it’s one of the best gifts she’s ever received.

I’m so glad we all have such a great way to remember great times.

And then, a few years back, I, uh… Well… I made a “little black book” for my husband. The way I figured it, I wasn’t getting any younger, and if my husband was spending any time at all looking at pictures of pretty ladies in various states of undress, at least some of the time he could also be looking at pictures of me. (P.S. My hesitation at the beginning of this paragraph has nothing to do with my being bashful, by the way – I just don’t wish to either offend the more straight-laced visitors to the site,  or attract a more, um, creepy element.)

Each page has a tasteful “boudoir photo” of myself, and on the facing page, there are lyrics to a sexy song. I really like the book, actually, and highly recommend the exercise of taking sexy photos of oneself. Or getting a friend to do it for you (nudge nudge, wink wink). However, I will refrain from posting them here for obvious reasons. Anywho…

Since launching this site, I’ve been parusing other “artsy-craftsy” blogs and am in awe of the creativity out there. I tend to be very analytical and clean-cut with my photos, but am really starting to enjoy the layered collages and embellished pieces more and more. Who knows, with any hope, you might seeing layouts with a little more flair in the future.