Scrapbooking is a popular art form and from all indications it is
here to stay. Kids love to make
scrapbooks. I can remember my first
scrapbook. It was just a book of blank
pages, but I couldn’t wait to get started. I filled the pages with dozens of
pictures of animals and flowers. Scrapbooking today is more than pretty
pictures cut from a magazine.
Scrapbooking has become a really big deal.
My mother kept a big box of
what she called keepsakes. This mystery box was filled to the brim with
photographs, newspaper clippings, dried flowers and other mementos that had
meaning to her. I felt privileged to be
included when the family would gather around to go through the box. Each picture held a story, and we were eager
to hear about the people and events that inspired them. I didn’t know it then, but this collection of
memorabilia was actually a frontrunner to what we now know as Scrapbooking.
Most of the pictures had
names and dates penciled on the backs but they never made it out of the box. The
plan, of course, was to put them in a photo
album someday, but I don’t believe that every happened. Unless someone in the family decides to sort,
mount and recreate these stories they will be lost forever.
Scrapbooks are more than
photo albums. They have become more like
a visual diary or a journal. A Scrapbook
might chronicle a year in a person’s life, a special event like a christening
or a wedding, a family vacation or even a hobby. A friend of mine honors the lives of her
family members by creating scrapbooks to give them on special occasions. A scrapbook reflects our need to tell stories
and share our lives. Scrapbooks have
been around in one form or another as long as paper and photographs have been
in existence.
Seniors have
more time to Scrapbook than most but the work can be tedious. Decreased manual dexterity often makes it
difficult to cut and paste. Researching, cataloging, narrating, and decorating
pages make scrapbooking quite a project.
The good news is that modern
technology is available to help us out.
If you have a computer at your disposal you can enter the world of digital scrapbooking. Would you be willing to spend time making
something truly memorable if you could by-pass the repetitive tasks that make
it so hard and so time consuming?
Dozens of web addresses and
books like “Digital Scrapbooking for Dummies” by Jeanne Wines-Reed are
available to tell you how to get started.
If you need a more hands-on approach you can find classes at your local
recreation or senior centers. You can by-pass the cutting and pasting and
sitting hunched over a work table for hours on end. No muss and no fuss because everything is on
your computer.
Come on, I am willing to bet
you have boxes of memento’s of your own, just waiting to be turned into
something truly memorable.
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