I started scrapbooking as a form of memory keeping in 2011. I was new and had to push past a lot of those “I’m not creative” feelings. Everyone starts somewhere and I want to show you where I started in this hobby. I’m going to start posting some of my older memory keeping projects and to kick things off, I’m sharing some pages from the first minibook I ever created.
In 2011, my Mom passed away and I started a journey through grief and towards openness and emotional vulnerability. As part of that I wrestled my own fear and misgivings and went way out of my comfort zone and signed up for a scrapbooking retreat in Santa Monica.
The retreat was hosted by Rachel Kaufman of Scrapbooking from the Inside Out (SFTIO). I cannot say enough good things about this company. Their mission advocates starting with an emotion for your scrapbooking using a form of what Rachel calls “’Scrapbook Therapy’ – using scrapbooking as a form of self exploration, self expression, and self discovery”.
I found their monthly scrapbooking kit in May 2011 just a few months after my Mom passed and SFTIO filled my deep need to document my life and my feelings, as a record for my daughter. I am so grateful for the outlet that scrapbooking with SFTIO provided me during that difficult time.
Back to the retreat. I signed up. It was held in November at the beautiful Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica. There were some great teachers including Amy Tan, better known as Amy Tangerine, a popular scrapbooker and product designer with American Crafts.
She presented a project using her (new at the time) Daybooks, a compilation of pretty papers with a decorative cover that you can fill with your own photos and embellishments. She demonstrated some creative techniques and encouraged us to create a minibook about What Matters Most in our lives. We used a combination of quotes and our own photos and some fun embellishments to fill the album.
It was a really beautiful weekend full of my own form of quiet self-care. I am proud of this minibook and I am proud of the emotions I sat with and didn’t push away in order to create it at that time.
What matters most to you? Consider documenting just a few of those things using a minibook or a photo album with pictures and your own words. It’s a quick project and a great way to dip your toes into the scrapbooking waters. I’d love to hear in the comments if this memory keeping project is something you’d consider doing and how I can help you get started.
I am grateful for your visit. Thank you for spending a moment of your time with me.
Oh, this turned out so lovely. Your story is so beautiful and heartfelt. So glad you shared this link with me! XO
Hi Amy! Thank you for coming over to look at my minibook. Your creativity and the way you teach and talk about your work is inspiring. =)
What a great way to honour the passing of someone special to you. I might try to do one for my MIL for Christmas – my FIL passed away a month or so ago
That’s a great idea! I didn’t start with that end in mind but it was definitely important to me to include my brother and my mom. I’m sure your MIL would really appreciate an album to look back on some of her most special memories with your FIL. Thank you for reading Cathy! =)