Wednesday, March 12, 2008

What's a prolific scrapper to do?

This is from a conversation that a friend and I were having about topics in scrapbooking that have been 'overdone'.

I said: but then that is true of pretty much everything. I mean, there are only so many 'significant events' in our lives (otherwise we wouldnt call them significant) and even those get boring after a while. I mean, yeah scrap your birthday but then you have another birthday next year and the pics are more or less the same and the sentiment is more or less the same.

so what is a prolific scrapper to do?

I find myself constantly bored with my available topics because the ones that I am excited about, I do right away.

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what do you think? I mean, we are always hearing how the 'hot' pages have one pic and one word titles and that is boring and doesnt tell a story. But how many stories does one person have to tell? I scrap A LOT. I don't intend on stopping, maybe slowing down a little as my pages get more complicated, but my creative time is something that I NEED. So if I don't scrap one word, one photo, no-story pages, and holidays are the same every year, then what do I scrap? Do I scrap my everyday? Yeah, I already do that. I scrap my feelings, my past, my present and my future. I scrap funny things that Ellie said. I scrap trips that I have taken. I scrap parties and holidays (and being in an interfaith family, I have LOTS of holidays). But do people still get bored looking at my pages that repeatedly show similar pictures of Ellie? probably. do I care? not really. But do *I* get bored with those pages? sometimes. do I care? absolutely! I dont want my books to be filled with pages that don't mean anything to me. So what am I to do?

I guess something that compounds that problem is the fact that I have been trying to be more selective about the photos that I scrap. I took about 300 pictures at Christmas, and I scrapped about 5 pages. Could I have scrapped more of those pics? yes, but I didnt want to. In 50 years, I dont need 20 pages about Christmas 2007.

I have a new camera. and I am getting into photography a little - very very slowly. And I know you are absolutely *SHOCKED* to hear that, being that it seems getting into photography is the trendy scrappy thing to do right now. I hate going along with trends, I really do. But I got this new camera mainly because it can take pictures much faster than my old camera. But now I see the photos it takes and it just amazes me! I mean, when I see these photos I think - wow! I could actually take photos like the 'celebs' if I put a little effort in. So far, I havent put any effort in, but I COULD, right?

Anyway, I digress. What I am getting at is that I guess if I take more photos of everyday things then I could scrap them. But is that something I really need to do? I mean, I love nature and plan to take lots of photos of nature and stuff, but would I really want to scrap those photos? arent the photos enough?

I guess what it all comes down to is that I just want to scrap.I dont really have anything exciting to scrap right now, but I still want to scrap. so I guess we are back to the original question: what is a prolific scrapper to do?

5 comments:

Shannon said...

whatever we scrap, we must not scrap anything that the Smack blog would deem inappropriate! hehehe

dude, new camera??? what kind??? i just got a new (cheapy)one a few months ago but john saw one he wants the other day, one of those fancy schmancy jobs...hello tax return!

scrapwordsmom said...

This is a great entry and question, Meg. Yeah, we do keep hearing about scrapping the same things over and over...but those things we are talking about are our LIVES! our MEMORIES!! We MUST record our own lives. I think you do an awesome job of that!

Colleen said...

This is an interesting question, but I say scrap what you want when you want. I sometimes get ideas for great layouts from mags or loooking at other people's work too.

I have to say that the one thing that does sort of make me curious are the people that don't scrap any "events" because those are often the bigger family/friend events in our licves that we share with the most people. When you look back, they are the things we often find easiest to remember, but why not scrap them with some journaling of the little things.

I just came across and old layout about the Thanksgiving that we told me family we were engaged and I'd written about the toast my aunt did and how she made me cry. It was a wonderful memory to have.

I also think I've figured out some of what is important by looking at a lot of my grandma's pics! It's not the close up faces (at least ont only those), but all of that wonderful stuf fin the background that helps tell the story of our life - yes, the everyday as well as the events.

OK, I'll stop by book here! You got me going here! hee hee Good question!

Brandy said...

i am feeling this post!! i was scrapblocked all week because i was overwhelmed with how many albums i was leaving future generations, albums with heidi swapp letters falling off and ridiculous primas. but i have this stash to use, so...

MichelleJ said...

History. Old vacations. Or if you are caught up, come to my house. Seriously though ~ scrap for others? For pay or gifts. Make household decorations. Make a planner, calendar, holiday art. Recipe book. Scrap your thoughts, just for you. Make it little - doesn't mean it's less detailed. I was just thinking about this last night - I don't think I am going to bring the camera to the egg hunt next Saturday. Well, ok, if I do, I'll just take photos of the littlest girl.

For holiday's though, I am trying each year to scrao something different, a different aspect of the traditions we have so that I am recording it all, and we have evidence of celebrating every year, but not the same stuff every year. My Mom gave me, for Christmas, an album of Christmas Celebrations going to back to the Christmas before they were married. Many years there are just shots of the whole family at the dinner table, before eating. Cool to see people change, the colors on the wall change, the furniture change... and yet we are all there together, celebrating the same traditions... Cool.