This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for exactly a year now. Mainly because I’m still waffling with what my opinion is.
The thing is, I have been a scrapbooker for most of my adult life.
When I say scrapbooker, I mean drawer-full-of-crazy-scissors, got-monopoly-board-game-paper-just-in-case, every-shade-of-sharpie-marker kind of scrapbooker.
Really, it’s all my Dad’s fault. (Yes, you Alpo.)
Knowing I was a crazed, crafty kid, once upon a time my Dad brought home half a dozen fancy old portfolio-style binders with clear sleeves thinking I might like to use them for a project. Little did he realize he was going to create a life-long tornado of patterned paper squares, mini paper-cutters and stickers for every occasion.
I save everything that has a memory associated with it. Funny fortune cookie slips, postcards, clippings from the boat ride on Cape Cod, notes on napkins and hospital bracelets. Then in a maelstrom of scotch tape and Fiskars fury I lovingly assemble them into a visual memoir of the year.
Then I got married and I made our wedding album online. And I liked it. I really liked it.
Now I feel torn. Usually as the year closes, I purchase my next scrapbook to begin recording the follow year. So that left me wondering… do I keep scrapbooking? I already have over a dozen hefty scrapbooks and have no idea where to keep them.
Maybe this digital photo book idea is the way of the future, but it still makes me sad to leave my scrapbooking ways behind.
Does that mean no more ironic word bubble stickers? What will I do with the straw wrapper from the restaurant we go to on our 10th anniversary? Or the road map from our first European travels? What will I do with my 2012 keepsakes if I don’t scrapbook them!?
But then the idea of creating yet another scrapbook feeling daunting. More paper, more clear sleeves, more albums.
Do you scrapbook? Do you ever feel like it’s time to quit?