The Start of Scrapping

I guess I have always scrapped in some form. My photos were all in magnetic albums with cute sayings written on the pages. I got that from my dad's old albums, and I guess he probably got it from his father in law, my grandfather who was into photography, because the old albums all had my grandfather's neat handwriting on those black pages. One day, after my father's death, my brother and I sat all night taking the pictures out of Dad's album, placing them in one of mine, and carefully cutting out all Dad's writings and placing them on the page. Simple, but enough to make Mom cry, and very happy.

When I was very little I actually had one of those big old fashioned scrapbooks, with pictures of all my heart throbs in it! I still have this book and do intend to someday place it in an All About Me album that I started years ago, and only did 2 pages in!

I continued on taking tons of pictures, letting them accumulate for a year or two, and then putting them in albums, then September 11 happened.

I will not go deep into it, it was a hard time for everyone, at that point DH was Captain of L101 and he was home, but his men answered the call, and never came back. DH was never home after that, so I started saving articles, messages from phone calls, and emails that I thought he would want to see. Then came the funerals and memorials, at the first one, DH asked me to please take pictures. I was embarassed, but did it while hiding. One of the widows noticed me, and after that I was asked to take pictures at all the funerals or memorials we had.

I now had tons and tons of stuff I didn't know what to do with, so a friend suggested I do what she was doing and place it in an album. I had material embroidered "7 in heaven" and wrapped a looseleaf book, bought page protectors from Staples, and started assembling. With scissors and glue!

Not one of the best examples of scrapping, but when it was done it brought many a man (and woman) to tears. I will never redo this book for sentimental reasons, but it was the first. My friend that told me to scrap it showed me hers, she used fancy scissors and stickers! HUH?!?!? What was this thing she did? I was so intriqued I decided I was going to do a new scrapbook, of something else, and try all this stuff!

I decided the girls needed a special 21st birthday present. DD#1 was 20 and DD#2 was 18, I would scrap their lives from birth to 21! One of the largest undertaking I ever did in my life. I first had to put the last 3 years in photo albums, then scan and organize all these pictures.

It took me two years to do each girls books, but it was the start! Another friend introduced me to AC Moore, and my first LSS and it was off I went. I have learned so much since then, so much in fact that I promised #1 I would redo just a few of the very first pages in her book, they really are terrible, lol.

Now I scrap everything. My yearly photo albums are yearly scrapbooks, and every vaction or special occasion gets its own book. I am constantly learning new techniques and some pages are way better than others, but I'm still loving it, and still loving that first book I ever did.

coming next..... hopefully..... some scrapbook pictures