I’ve made my first foray into a new creative outlet. I’ve started scrapbooking. For everyone who knows me, this is a shock. I have several friends who have more creativity in their little pinky than I do in my entire body. I’ve always been envious. I used to dance when I was younger and had the body for it. That and writing about sums up my artistic talents. I can’t draw a stick figure. I suck at arts and crafts (a glue gun can HURT!). Don’t even ask me to cook unless you want it black and toasty. I have reserved my talent for words.
But I started this endeavor as a way to put together a unique autograph book for my girls for our upcoming Disney trip. I did this because the last time we went – three years ago – the autograph books we bought and spent hours at the parks getting signed quickly turned into doodling scratch pads and chew toys for the dog. Mommy was not happy. This time I am going to control this project and the books are going on a shelf. Twenty years from now I will take them down and embarrass the crud out of my children with them as all good mothers are supposed to do.
However, at the moment, this project has taken on a life of it’s own. Those of you who know me will also not find it shocking that I’ve become a bit obsessed. Shrugs. I simply have an obsessive personality. Age and wisdom have allowed me to accept this part of my life. I wasn’t content to just purchase a book, some paper and stickers, slap them together and call it done. No. I have spent the last weeks stalking Hobby Lobby and Michael’s for the perfect paper and 3D stickers. I have spent way more money than I should on a project that probably doesn’t mean very much to my children. The girls think the albums are cute. My sore back and the 12 hours of labor I’ve put into these suckers so far says they are a work of art, damn it!
The bright side is my obsessions usually don’t last long…this one’s probably close to running it’s course. And I have friends who will benefit from the leftover abundance of supplies when I do finally admit it’s over. Now if I could only find someone interested in my leftover cross stitch supplies from that ten minute madness…anyone?
Do you scrapbook? Paint? Do stained glass? Other projects? Ever wanted to try a creative project but talked yourself out of it? Do you verge on obsessive when it comes to projects? Seriously, I need to know I’m not alone in my quirks.
Kira
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Okay so I tried to post this once and it didn’t show up so I will try again.
Okay so I was heavily into scrapbooking at one time. I spent money on packets of paper, stickers and sharpie markers. I did a lot of my stuff digitally. I took images that I found on the web to embellish my pages. IE.. pics of Ronald McDonald peeking around a corner to frame a pic that I took of him visiting my youngest daughter in the hospital after her back surgery where they placed her second set of Harrington Rods. She slept through the entire visit but I have pics of her lying there with him leaning over her smiling and waving. I also had the picture he autographed for her. I also printed pics of the Sesame Street charters for her first Birthday. Then there is the ink I bought to make my own headlines, words and borders.
Yeah I went a little overboard and I no longer scrapbook like I did but I have a foot locker, several plastic boxes and two of those roll around plastic drawer things full of stuff. My pages are not fancy. My sisters pages look like they could hang in a museum somewhere but I am proud of my hard work!
Maybe someday if I am lucky I will have grandkids and they will want to look at pics of their mom’s as kids and enjoy my hard work. Well maybe not! They will probably think it is corny just like my daughters do.
I haven’t progressed to the rolling bag stage yet, but I don’t think it’s very far off.
This sort of stuff has never been very important to me. I’m not sure why. I mean I have shelves full of pictures that are still in the packs because I don’t know what to do with them. Even the photo albums from when I was a child, I don’t mind looking at them but I don’t usually think about doing it. Maybe it’s because my mom was never into it very much. I’m hoping the girls will appreciate the albums at some point in their lives…although they’ll probably only have the one
A couple years ago I started making beaded bookmarks. I sent one to a friend for Christmas and she emailed back and said “How do I get 50 of these?” So for about a year and a half I made a little money on the side selling them to authors to use as promotional items and contest prizes. But any item like that will run its course, so I have a couple boxes of beads I haven’t touched in a long time. Maybe I’ll learn to make some other beaded item.
And then there was the Christmas I knit scarves for everyone. All I can do is knit but if you do it with bulky yarn and fun fur yarn you get a very pretty scarf. But you can only give those for one Christmas.
I haven’t tried scrapbooking and after seeing the array of stuff you and Smarty Pants had on the table, I don’t think my pocketbook could afford it. Your girls may not appreciate those books now, but give them a few years and they will be the envy of their friends. (Y)
Your bookmarks are beautiful. I’m almost afriad to use mine because I know I’ll lose them and then I’d have to cry. They’re special! And the scarves were beautiful too. The girls wore them this winter and actually play dress up with them.
Kira,
I don’t do crafts either. I have a black thumb. If I weren’t such a good cook, I’d be a total disappointment to my mom. But once, I got into the geneology thing. I spent more than I should on this “Family Tree Maker” and started trying to learn about the Burns ancestors. About a week later I was talking with my sister-in-law and she told me they’d already traced their family back to my husband’s great-great-grandfather and had made a poster of their family tree. She told me they were traveling to Ireland to find the cottage my husband’s great-great-grandfather lived in and later in the year were traveling to Wisconsin to find the gravestone of their great-grandfather who was a carpenter and had carved this beautiful baptismal font that still stood in this church there. There was no way I could travel anywhere at that time with 3 little kids and a tight budget. I asked her to send me the info, put the Family Tree Kit on the shelf and went back to my first love: reading Romance novels.
Black thunb? We won’t even talk about the state of my thumb :-). There’s a reason my amazing husband is not only the cook in our family but also the gardener. Everything I touch dies.
I’ve never tried geneology but my father-in-law is big into it. I have a family tree somewhere for my dad’s side of the family…but it doesn’t help me much when I don’t know who any of the people are. Would be interesting though to learn.
Kira
You’re doing great, Kira. You’re just…uh…enthusiastic. Yeah, that’s it. Just be glad that you don’t have to buy all the tools and such – that’s where the money really piles up. I’m glad to have you using up some of my supplies. I have way too much, honestly, but I too, got sucked in and overspent.
I like doing different creative things. I wouldn’t call it crafty, really, but I like to scrapbook, I enjoy cake decorating, and the occasional art type project with paint and such. I draw. That’s about it. No interest in ribbon or silk flowers or puff paint. Stay away from me with knitting needles. No knitting, no crocheting, no sewing, no macrame. :-P
But I like your nifty tools.
There’s no way I would have been able to do all those pages without those cutting thingies, your adhesive and all your paper.
Hi Kira.
I like to have a lot of creative outlets, so does my husband (who does woodworking, boat-building, guitar, karate, stained glass work, and works on the tile and gardens with me). I need a lot of different things to do or I’d get bored. 
I love to sew, not clothes, but I make quilts, bags/purses, and home decor kinds of things. I also like to cook and garden, and I switch between projects depending on what grabs me. I did tile work in our kitchen and bathroom. I didn’t do anything with tile for quite some time, but then we found an old table at a garage sale this past weekend, and so we needed an outdoor garden table for near our fire pit, and we bought this table and hauled out the table, and spent some of Sat and Sunday making a mosaic top for it, so it would be pretty and we could put hot things on it (the center part) but also have room for food, games, books, etc. I think it came out really cute.
Good luck with your projects! I think all kinds of creativity nurtures our writing, too, so it’s good that you found an obsession!
Sam
I wish I could sew – another set of skills I’m jealous of. If it weren’t for my mother my girls would never have costumes! I’m sorta afraid of sewing machines though. I think it stems from an incident when I was younger. I watched the needle go through my mom’s thumb nail. Not pleasant to watch.
Whoops, in previous post, meant “hauled out the TILE” LOL, not table — all of the tile we used was odd ends and leftovers from the other house projects — we just put them in a box and smashed them, and used them for mosaic. It was fun, and our garden table ended up costing less than $20 (since we had to buy adhesive and grout).
That’s the other thing I like about crafting and making things — you can often end up with something better and unique for less than you buy retail…
Sam
There’s not a crafty bone in my body! When my children were born I decided to cross stitch a small picture and have it framed. I finished my son’s when he was about 10. My daughter will be 18 this weekend and the thing is in a plastic box somewhere..not finished. I don’t do sit down projects very well. Way to squirmy. Of course writing and reading don’t count. That’s an obsession.
Right now I’m in to gardening which is a good thing since I work for a landscaping co. and probably had the worst looking yard in the neighborhood! LOL And I love to cook. Recipezaar is my favorite haunt.
Your daughters are going to love those scrapbooks!
Hmm. Are you sure you don’t want to add a half finished scene of a momma tiger and her 2 cubs? It’s really cute…just not quite done.
But I know what you mean about unfinished baby projects. I have 2 baby books with little or nothing in them. I have a baseball kit I bought for my husband when Baby Girl was born. I was supposed to put her handprint on it. I think maybe her hand’s a little too big to fit on it now. But the kit’s still sitting on the shelf in her room. Maybe she’ll use it for her baby one day.
Kira,
I have little creativity and no artistic ability whatsoever, and have found that scrapbooking is like sewing: there are so many patterns available to do a layout that you don’t have to actually be creative – as long as you can follow a pattern, you’ll have an awesome scrapbook. And the kids love them – my twins still pull out the scrapbooks when they have friends over and pour through them. But it can be addictive – my scrapbook area has overflowed in my office to the point that I now write in my bedroom instead of at my desk!
I know exactly what you mean about it being addictive!! I am so there. I think I’ve gone into Hobby Lobby more in the last month than I have in the past three years. It’s insane. But I keep thinking I’m going to find something new and just can’t stop myself from going in. And to Hobby Lobby’s happiness, I always find something to buy.
I’m not an artsy-craftsy person either. Aside from writing the only projects I do is family history. I love finding out what my ancestors were up to.
Maybe that’ll be my next project…when the excitement of this one wanes
Ooooh, I love scrapbooking!!! Some days my husband swears I spend all my writing income on supplies LOL. I do books for the holidays, gift books, each of my girls has their own book. I’ve even made a scrapbook for my husbands classic cars. I’m a total junkie!!!
I love the idea of pre-making a autograph book. We’re doing Disney in October and the last time we were there, we got an autograph book there and had the characters sign it, then I took each autograph and put it on a scrapbook page featuring them with my kids glommed on like glue. But a pre-designed one with a spot for the picture and and a place to sign is SO perfect.
Can I borrow this idea?
Absolutely! I borrowed it from Andrea.
The books I’m doing are too big to bring into the parks (8×8 but I’ll have 2 of them.) so I’m printing out specially designed autograph cards for each of the character meals/characters/parks that I think we’ll see. Then I’ll add them to the pages I’ve already started along with pictures and anything else (like a journal box for their Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique experience) and be done. If you go to disboards.com they have a thread for creative DISigns and there’s a ton of stuff there! I got lost for days looking at grahics.
Kira
I am not crafty at all. I can’t even draw a straight line with a ruler(always ends up uneven). I did have to make a scrapbook in college for my pledge year, but it was mostly pictures and really not that great. I do still have it somewhere in one of my boxes from college.
Oh, I’m sure your girls will absolutely love what you’ve done in a couple of years’ time. I started introducing my son to my stitcheries at a very early age and he is very sweet in feigning interest. My entire blog is about cross stitch, so if you still need to get rid of your things…
I’m not crafty either. I have to work really hard to get my mind in artistic mode just for decorating my home. That taps about all the good creativity I have outside of writing and a smidge of gardening (of course, that’s kind of home decorating too since I mostly want to spruce up the place with those flowers!).
Good luck with the scrapbooking though. You’ll always be glad to have the things you made!
You should feel lucky that you have leftover cross stitching supplies! Hobby Lobby and Michael’s no longer carry counted cross stitching kits. Hold on to them, you never know when you want to step away from scrapbooking and jab at something with a needle