Scrap Happy

Scrapbooking.

Blissful amazement. I heart this hobby of mine so so so much.

My sister, Michele, introduced me to scrapbooking back when I was pregnant with Keaton. I took to it instantly. It became a passion and a great creative outlet. Keaton's baby book was jammed packed with every breath and movement of his first years. I detailed each month with precision. I have pictures (and detailed journaling) of his first steps, his first tooth, and his first pickle.

Then came Sawyer. My style of scrapping began to take a turn for the highly embellished, causing me to leave a crop night with only a few pages done. The pages were beautiful, but they only caused me to begin to fall behind....totally not being able to stay caught up with the rate that I was taking pictures! But, somehow or other (thanks to many a LOOOONNNNGGG night), Sawyer's scrapbooks detail all his happenings including his first smile, his first hospital stay, and his first haircut (complete with a precious red curl).

Then came Tate. Poor Tate. His books are minimalized to say the least. They are beautiful, and I'm so proud of them, but I didn't include EVERY single happening. I focused more on my favorite pictures, instead of every move he made. Trying to keep up with all 3 boys' scrapbooks plus our family album, made it so hard to spend the time I needed to on Tate's books. In fact, I think I have a whole page dedicated to pictures of his little body parts like his belly button and toes, but I don't have any documentation of when he first walked. Hmmmm....

And then I stopped. 2 years ago I stopped scrapbooking. Cold turkey. I'm going to blame it on my family. Not my little family of 5 family, but my dad, mom, and sister. A few years ago, my sister and I decided to pool our talents to make scrapbooks for our grandmother, uncle, and cousin detailing our family heritage. And these weren't little dinky books. I'm talking several hundred page scrapbooks.....the kind that cause you to not sleep because you are cutting, sticking, and stamping your way through the night just to get them done. They were marvelous presents and I'm so glad that we did them...but, oh my....talk about burnout. Then there was the ginormous scrapbook that I made for my parents that outlined our missionary experience in Bangladesh. Again....amazing treasure....amazing burnout.

And that was it. Haven't picked up a cutter since.

And now I'm sad. I miss it. It has taken me 2 years to miss it. But I do. So much.

Only problem.....I'm 2 years behind and have a stack of CDs packed with pictures a mile high.

I've had people say that I just need to go digital. I just can't make myself do it. I love the feel of the papers and tools and embellishments too much. I love that my layouts are all hand pieced. I also would be hanged by my toenails by my husband if I ever quit hand-scrapping for good. Several years ago, he made me this AMAZING scrapbook cabinet....isn't it beautiful?

He would kill me if I never used it again.

But, being 2 years behind is so daunting to me. I can't imagine starting where I left off and trying to catch myself up. Time doesn't grow on trees around these parts. And I also hate the idea of forgetting 2 whole years of our family's lives just because I couldn't stay on top of things.

SO....this is what I've decided to do. I'm going to cave. For the 2 years that I'm behind, I'm going to go digital. I'm going to hop on one of those nifty make your own digital albums sites like here and here and try to get my family's lives documented for 2007 and 2008.

And then......I'm going to start fresh. By hand. I'm going to open my beautiful cabinet back up, pick up my cutters, and stick on a sticker. I'm going to roll out my ribbons and attach an eyelet.

And it is going to feel oh.so.good.

How about you? Are you a scrapper? What do you do to stay on top of your books? I'd love to hear your ideas.....because I hate the thought of falling so far behind again.

***Scrapping must be on the brain....Charity and Nina both were scrappy minded today, too!***