Scrapbooking for Dummies


Did I mention my scrapbooking retreat? I probably did not talk too much about it because I was embarrassed. I am just now crawling out of my closet of shame.

You see, I was invited by my one of my roommates from college to attend her semi-annual scrapbook retreat that she helps to host. She asked me back in like September and the retreat was not until January. I thought to myself, what's the big deal? Why would you need to sign up five months early to get a spot for something like that, but she was pretty emphatic that we reserve our spot quickly if we were interested.

A little bit about me. I love to collect paper and stickers. Very seldom do I actually use them. I have "Scrapbooked" a time or two so I thought. Mainly, if you know me, this will not come as a surprise, I like people and I like to talk. That's it, that was my motivation for signing up so quickly. Forty-five women to talk to. Yay!

Well, let me tell you what a big deal this scrapbooking retreat was! I just did not know there were such people out there so interested in their "hobby" to have special cup-holders to hold their drinks in while they cut paper. And much to my dismay and utter shame I wheeled in my American Tourister luggage (shown on the bottom left hand corner of the pic) full of scrapbooking supplies. I was even a little impressed with myself that I even thought to put my "scrapbooking" supplies in such a handy device. Well, if you don't know I will let you in on a secret. They have scrapbooking carrying cases just for your scrap-booking supplies. Many of them go by the code name, Crop in Style.

Alright, now that I have let you in on the secret you can imagine my face when I walked in on about 45 ladies scrapbooking that had walked in earlier with these and these. Yeah, I was one of the last ones to arrive and they had been there all day and I made my GRAND ENTRANCE with my American Tourister Luggage BABY.

Many of them brought their own cut-out machines called Cricuts. Well, where I am from, you hear those at night, not on the table while you are cutting out paper. Girls, it was a real wake-up call to me to be around such classy scrapbookers. I learned a few tricks of the trade like how to make a sticker out of ANYTHING! People kept saying, "Could you pass the Xyron!?" I didn' t even know what language they were speaking. . .I guess scrapbookease.

It was super fun because my original goal was still being met. To sit there for almost 48 hours straight talking with women about all kinds of things. The biggest reward of the whole weekend was the intense love I felt coming home to my kids and husband. I had been looking at thousands of pictures and recounting all of the memories that my family and I had shared over the last year. It was an amazing weekend . . .even if I am a big ol' dummy when it comes to scrapbooking.

1 comment:

Sarah said...

Yes, BUT you can take that American Tourister to Hawaii with CLOTHES in it . . . you can't do that with the other $100 paper cases! :)

How funny - I just discovered and am getting involved in digital scrapbooking and having a blast. But what I love MOST about it is that I don't need ANY organizing products or systems other than what I build in my computer and I can use the products again and again PLUS (and this is a huge plus for me) I can stop mid-way through a project and not have to worry about putting away scissors and glue sticks and tiny scraps of paper and punches and brads and rickrack and all the other STUFF that comes with traditional scrapbooking (which is probably why I wasn't very good at it!) Having fun with the digital (plus I'm excited about card making, stationery making, etc.) version is much more my style!

Have a great week!
Sarah

PS - If you are interested in learning more about the digital side, check out www.pclayers.com or www.shabbyprincess.com - both have great products and shabby princess has fantastic tutorials - plus member galleries for inspiration (which I can always use as a neophyte in this craft!)