I was inspired to write this post after listening to the latest Paperclipping Roundtable podcast. They talked about college scrapbooking. And I thought, hey! I did that!

I've been scrapping since 1995. Yup, 19 years. What makes it even more impressive is that in 1995 I was only 13 years old. So by the time I went to college in 2000, I was already in the habit of taking photos and saving ephemera. 

Keep in mind, even in 2000, digital just wasn't around. No one had camera phones (or really even cell phones at all!), and very few of my friends even owned a camera. I had a point and shoot film camera that my mom and dad had gotten me for some birthday a while back, but it was exactly that - a point and shoot. No settings, no flash, no zoom, no batteries even!  Just point, click (don't forget to advance the roll!), and hope for the best when you got the film developed 2-6 months later. And every time I got my photos back, it was the best day ever! I would drag out my supplies from the one little box I kept stuffed under my bed and make pages on the floor of my dorm room (the desk was nowhere big enough for a 12x12 book) till my roommates needed to actually use the floor.

 I had no extra money to spend on supplies, so I would use whatever I could get my hands on. Printer paper, construction paper, confetti, stickers, die-cut holiday wall decor, anything! I even included a balloon someone decorated for me on my birthday!

At some point in High School, I received a large collection of Mrs. Grossman stickers (remember those?) Since I had to use what I had, I began to incorporate those stickers into my college scrapbooks. I had many, many sheets of penguins, so they became my unofficial college mascot, showing up on almost every page. I would put hats on them, put them in boats, give them fun little props, anything to make the page more fun! 

At the end of my sophomore year, my roomies and I got an off-campus apartment and in a fit of "oh my goodness, last time in a dorm room!" nostalgia, I photographed everything around the room that held any sort of meaning and made a 'year in review' page.

And I made another for my junior year.

And for my senior year, I made mini books for my roommates. An A-Z walk down the 4 year long memory lane we had traveled together. I translated those books into singles pages for each of them for me. 

By this time, I was using my computer (and the scanner in the campus library) quite heavily in my scrapbooking.

My senior year, I also started making calendars every month of what happened, ever (especially!) if I didn't have any photos to go with it. I've always been obsessed with calendars, planners, graphic organizers, so this was a perfect way for me to include a bit of every day into my books.

It was like an early Project Life! 

As senior year (and my extra student teaching semester) wore on, my style developed into more of a traditional scrapbook, then into more artsy. I found scrapbooking communities online, I found a local scrapbooking store, and I helped found a Meetup group of scrapper in my college town (I was the youngest in the group by at least 15 years). Gone were the days of Mrs. Grossman stickers and construction paper (and mangling my poor photos with severe cropping!). 

I love looking through my old college books, they are a complete look back into my life at that time. I'm so happy I was able to keep up with my scrapbooks as I went through school rather than trying to go back and create or finish them. I do wish I had journaled more, but the year in review pages and the ephemera I included tell enough of the story.

So now it's your turn. Do you have a record of your college years? Did you keep a journal? A memory box? A scrapbook? Did you do it while you were there or after the fact? Will it ever see the light of day or is it squirreled away in a secret place where no one can ever see proof of your college insanity? :-)

On December 20, 2008, one of my very best friends, Amy, got married. And for her wedding gift, I promised to make her a scrapbook - all she had to do was send me her photos. But, as it always does, life got in the way. Amy had a child, then another. I moved and got very busy with school.

We both just kind of forgot.

For 4 years...

We saw each other on and off through the years, but as Amy lives in Missouri and I'm in Minnesota, it was difficult to get together on a regular basis. So when Amy contacted me a few weeks ago with the news that she would be in Minneapolis for a day and did I want to get together, I knew that I had to finally fulfill my promise.

I had 9 days notice to create her book.

I finally got the photos printed, I stocked up on paper and embellishments at Michaels, and I dove in head first! 

After working on Project Life for so long, I was in the mindset of 'simple is better'. Which worked well for this book. The pictures were the important part, not the 'scrapping'. And for the first time in 2 years - I made a scrapbook page. And another, and another, until I had worked my way through the whole 20-page book!

So, without further ado - here are some of my favorite pages:

So there you have it! I had a lot of fun not only making the pages, but remembering back 4 1/2 years ago to Amy's wonderful wedding. 

And Amy loved it when I gave it to her - her daughter even looked through it with her, naming all her family members! 

Now I just have to do my own wedding album... it's only been 5 years... hehehe!

So, how are your wedding photos displayed? Do you have an album from your photographer? A scrapbook? Photos on your wall? Or *gasp* nothing at all!?!?

I love to scrapbook. I love to take photos and stories and turn them into works of art. And believe me - some of my pages were truly works of art. However, the last 2-3 years has seen a decidedly steep drop in the number of scrapbook pages. 

As in, almost none at all.

I think the reason for this is because I was an event scrapper. I would go to an event (Christmas, birthday party, broomball party), take photos, then make a page about it. But there are only so many ways you can scrap Christmas. Or a birthday party. Or anything that happens every year. It gets monotonous. And monotony is anything but creative. So I stopped.

Until last fall when I discovered Project Life. 

Project Life is scrapbooking made easy. Gone are the mountain of supplies and the need for elaborate works of art. Gone are the monotonous subjects that remain stagnant each year. And gone is the guilt of not being 'caught up'! (That's my favorite part!) Project Life is the brain-child of Beck Higgins and is all about recording your life as you live it. In all it's messy, day-to-day glory. All you need is a binder, some of her photo pocket pages, and some 3x4 cards (or one of her core kits - which are very beautiful!). Each week, just slide your photos into the 4x6 slots, jot down some info (yes! In your own handwriting!) on 3x4 cards and slide them into their slots, and turn the page - you're done!

So, ok, enough explaining - it's easier to show anyway. Here are some of my favorite pages.

This is one of my first pages (Week 2 to be exact) and I like it because I think it tells a complete story. There's minimal journaling but you get what's going on. (This is a friend's baby shower, BTW - not me!) I also like that I could get a little creative and add in one of the cards I made for her and even make a 3x4 card to include that matches the theme! The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, so I was able to fit it all onto the right-hand page.

This page I like because of the colors! They fit together so nicely and look like it took so much time to coordinate, but it's easily my simplest page. All I did was print off photos, jot down a quick story from the day, and slide everything into place. 

This isn't a regular weekly page, it's an insert. Some weeks have a lot going of and there's just no way you can fit it all into 16 little pockets. This week, a friend of mine got married so I knew I had to do a little something more. So I made a mini scrapbook page. Nothing fancy - just some journaling and a photo booth strip and her invite. On the back is a collage of more photo booth strips. And the page underneath has more photos from the wedding. I got to showcase 10 photos plus a bunch of photo booth photos! Plus my whole week surround these pages (it really was a busy week!).

I just realized that these 3 are not my typical pages. My typical pages are very boring-looking. And full of my own handwriting. And much less... coordinated. Which is the point. I love that most weeks are just a collection of random stories, but every once in a while, I get to be creative and put together a page that is more reminiscent of my scrapbook pages of yore. Or even throw one of those pages into the middle of the book!

So, in the weeks to come, I will be sharing more of my Project Life pages with you. Including some tricks I use and some tips for getting the most out of your photos.

Do any of you use Project Life? Would you? You don't need to start in January - you can start with the school year, or a birthday, or a wedding, or a birth, or... whenever!

Once she got the 'traditional' out of her system, she started making mini books.

After I graduated college, I was a substitute teacher for a few months while I looked for a permanent position. And my Mom was inspired...

And here is what happened when Mom came across a group of photos my Dad had taken when I was little:

Apparently a 2-year-old and a red chair is pretty entertaining. This book has 9 pictures in it! Of me playing on my chair! :-)

I wish I had more of my Mom's creations to share, but this is all I have at my house. I know there is a hook-loop wall hanging that used to be in my Dad's office and a macrame wall hanging that used to be in our stairway. I wonder what happened to those...?

Anyway...

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Creating!

Another scrapbook page! it's amazing!

This one is of my sister's adorable kitty, Maddie.

She's a funny cat. She loves to be around people and 'talk' to you, but hates to be held! She has beautiful green eyes, and I'm so excited I found some paper that matched! And it's purple, too! (purple being my sister's favorite color!)

Thanks for checking out my site and my creative products for the last 6 days. I'm hoping I can keep up with this 30 days of creativity project - it's really inspiring and pushing me to just DO something!

Happy Creating!

Today's creative result is a scrapbook page.

I have books and books filled with scrapbook pages; I have done it since I was in high school (13 years, if you're counting), but lately I've been so preoccupied (and enthusiastic) about other projects, scrapbooking has fallen to the wayside.

Tonight, it made it's triumphant (if brief) return to my creative workspace! Behold: a scrapbook page!!!

I have a uniquely-sized (12x6) scrapbook that I keep of all the celebrities I meet or get an autograph from. This one is from Robert Verdi, star (at the time) of "What Not To Wear" on TLC. He came to Minneapolis one summer and my mom surprised me and brought me to Macy's to meet him. Unfortunately, she forgot her camera! So I found a picture online. That's what took me so long to make this page - I didn't have a photo to use. But a quick stop at Google Images and here it is!

Curious to see who else is in my autograph scrapbook? Well, here it is:

Ok, so I have 2 designers and 4 scrapbook-related celebs.
So I'm a bit of a geek.
So what?
:-)

I also have a large stack of ticket stubs I've collected from concerts I've been to, I just haven't figured out what to do with them yet.

And thus ends Day 3.

Happy Creating!