My Scrapbooking History

I was introduced to the concept of scrapbooking back in 1995 when my now oldest child was only a year in age. Back then, the only scrapbook supplies available were from Creative Memories. Although I loved it, money was tight and I couldn't imagine spending that kind of money. But I did my research and figured out that I could find acid-free achival safe supplies and scrapbook on 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock and place them in sheet protectors and 3-ring binders. And so, my scrapbooking journey began. It wasn't long before scrapbooking became huge and all kinds of supplies were available.

I loved scrapbooking because my photos became more than just random pictures in an album or even worse, a shoebox. Now I could record the stories behind those photos and they had so much more meaning. But even though I loved it, I struggled to get it done. With small children underfoot, it is hard to do. Children take a lot of time and interupt you and they are also so tempted to try out your fun scrapbook supplies themselves.

Now, I had never heard of digital scrapbooking, but we had one of the first digital cameras (a Sony Mavica) and I had Print Shop. It just seemed natural for me to use the photos that I already had on the computer in Print Shop and make scrapbook pages to print out. Looking back, they were SO BAD. Luckily, I didn't spend too much time on this.

Several years passed and in 2003, an online scrapbooking friend introduced me to true digital scrapbooking and a site called Scrapbook-Bytes that was dedicated to it. I realized that I already had Paint Shop Pro, a program I could use for this. I read every tutorial I could and plunged into digital scrapbooking whole heartedly. My very first pages are still on that site, too, if you really want a laugh.


Now, I have been at this for quite a few years. I have found some wonderful digital scrapbook designers that I LOVE to work with and hopefully you will agree that my pages have come a long way. I even tried my hand at being a designer myself for a while and although the designing itself was fun, I found the business aspect of it stressful and too time consuming so I gave it up.

If you are interested, here are some links to my online scrapbook galleries:
Scrapbook-Bytes has nearly every digital scrapbook page I have ever done.
Cottage Arts showcases my pages using their wonderful designs.
ScrapbookGraphics showcases my pages using the designs of Doris Castle.
Then there's also: DigiShopTalk, The Digital Scrapbook Place , 2 Peas , Scrappers Guide .