There are times when so many of us mention having boxes and boxes of photos – feeling guilty about not getting around to creating scrapbook pages for each and every one. Until recently – i was forever haunting myself with my own thoughts of all those boxes i’ve had for so many years. Here my youngest was - already 21 years old. And i hadn’t done a thing with all those photos. i grabbed onto the here and now and went with the flow – while those boxes of photos continued to sit in a corner.
Being blessed with the chance to view so many others’ layouts began to stir something inside me. i began to feel a loss of my own. So many mothers with new babies and small children – so many wonderful moments They were enjoying by creating Their pages of memories. i have those mothers to thank for motivating me into opening those boxes!
By the time i completed this last page about my daughter, Jennifer – i felt less guilty about letting the years of photos pile up inside the boxes. When it comes to reasons - i always give God the credit. And i’m sure He had special ones for this experience, as well. i ended up taking a different direction in my choices of photos and subject matter.
Most of the time, we tend to take the road of chronological order when it comes to our children. From there – it becomes all about little moments in Their daily lives that we capture. Or – it may be all the events in Their lives that come along as They grow – i.e. baseball, dance, band, drill team, cheerleading, sports, etc.
i found a blessing in a subject of guilt in my life when i began sorting through all those photos of Jen. Rather than attempt to begin a train of pages based on Her ages and stages – i chose to pick out one of Her traits that i adored about Her during Her childhood.
Playing in water was always a favorite of Hers! Naturally – i have a lot of photos relating to that subject, which makes it impossible to create only one page for all of them. To create pages for each and every photo would be an insane punishment that just wouldn’t fit the crime of my years spent storing the photos in boxes.
i set the tone for my goal with the first page. i chose photos with a span of time that showed Her fun in water throughout the years. The next will – most likely – be a few showing continued fun. But they will show other places and times in Her life. They will all have one other common trait about Her that always made me smile and embedded into my heart.
Most importantly – each of the pages will continue to have the journaling. my personal choice in this case is in letterform – to Jennifer. It is within the journaling that i will mention the memories – all the little things – everything wonderful that embedded itself into my mind and heart years ago. This will be my chance to make sure i get those things said to Jennifer. What better way to make sure She doesn’t have to just – keep a memory of hearing me say them? Somehow – putting our feelings into writing for Others seems to reach Them even more deeply. And i want my kids to always know how deeply my love lives for Them.
An artist has one specific vision/interpretation in mind when He/She creates a piece of artwork. Others viewing that same piece of artwork will - most likely - have various and different considerations. Without journaling - the same applies to scrapbooking a page. The true purpose for scrapbooking is about expression of our memories. Without journaling - Others may not see or feel what we have in our hearts that we're attempting to express.
i have already experienced too many times – coming across layouts that Others have created and had my heart broken – for Them. They post their layouts. The page consists of artwork and one, or more, photos. There may be a title – names – a date. They’ll take the time to offer Their description of what They were scrapping about on the page when They post the layout onto the website. And i find myself thinking – "What She said in Her description is so beautiful! Why in the world didn’t She put that on the page?"
We should never be afraid to sit a while and really take some time to gather our thoughts after completing the artwork on a scrapbook page. We should always make room on every page for those thoughts. In fact – no layout should ever be considered completed until we have done so.
It is not about the artwork we do on a scrapbook page. It’s about what we leave behind for our loved ones.
And that – You can count on for my signature around the Internet!
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Thursday, February 28, 2008
Those Photos Stored in Boxes for Years and Years!
There are times when so many of us mention having boxes and boxes of photos – feeling guilty about not getting around to creating scrapbook pages for each and every one. Until recently – i was forever haunting myself with my own thoughts of all those boxes i’ve had for so many years. Here my youngest was - already 21 years old. And i hadn’t done a thing with all those photos. i grabbed onto the here and now and went with the flow – while those boxes of photos continued to sit in a corner.
Being blessed with the chance to view so many others’ layouts began to stir something inside me. i began to feel a loss of my own. So many mothers with new babies and small children – so many wonderful moments They were enjoying by creating Their pages of memories. i have those mothers to thank for motivating me into opening those boxes!
By the time i completed this last page about my daughter, Jennifer – i felt less guilty about letting the years of photos pile up inside the boxes. When it comes to reasons - i always give God the credit. And i’m sure He had special ones for this experience, as well. i ended up taking a different direction in my choices of photos and subject matter.
Most of the time, we tend to take the road of chronological order when it comes to our children. From there – it becomes all about little moments in Their daily lives that we capture. Or – it may be all the events in Their lives that come along as They grow – i.e. baseball, dance, band, drill team, cheerleading, sports, etc.
i found a blessing in a subject of guilt in my life when i began sorting through all those photos of Jen. Rather than attempt to begin a train of pages based on Her ages and stages – i chose to pick out one of Her traits that i adored about Her during Her childhood.
Playing in water was always a favorite of Hers! Naturally – i have a lot of photos relating to that subject, which makes it impossible to create only one page for all of them. To create pages for each and every photo would be an insane punishment that just wouldn’t fit the crime of my years spent storing the photos in boxes.
i set the tone for my goal with the first page. i chose photos with a span of time that showed Her fun in water throughout the years. The next will – most likely – be a few showing continued fun. But they will show other places and times in Her life. They will all have one other common trait about Her that always made me smile and embedded into my heart.
Most importantly – each of the pages will continue to have the journaling. my personal choice in this case is in letterform – to Jennifer. It is within the journaling that i will mention the memories – all the little things – everything wonderful that embedded itself into my mind and heart years ago. This will be my chance to make sure i get those things said to Jennifer. What better way to make sure She doesn’t have to just – keep a memory of hearing me say them? Somehow – putting our feelings into writing for Others seems to reach Them even more deeply. And i want my kids to always know how deeply my love lives for Them.
An artist has one specific vision/interpretation in mind when He/She creates a piece of artwork. Others viewing that same piece of artwork will - most likely - have various and different considerations. Without journaling - the same applies to scrapbooking a page. The true purpose for scrapbooking is about expression of our memories. Without journaling - Others may not see or feel what we have in our hearts that we're attempting to express.
i have already experienced too many times – coming across layouts that Others have created and had my heart broken – for Them. They post their layouts. The page consists of artwork and one, or more, photos. There may be a title – names – a date. They’ll take the time to offer Their description of what They were scrapping about on the page when They post the layout onto the website. And i find myself thinking – "What She said in Her description is so beautiful! Why in the world didn’t She put that on the page?"
We should never be afraid to sit a while and really take some time to gather our thoughts after completing the artwork on a scrapbook page. We should always make room on every page for those thoughts. In fact – no layout should ever be considered completed until we have done so.
It is not about the artwork we do on a scrapbook page. It’s about what we leave behind for our loved ones.
And that – You can count on for my signature around the Internet!
Being blessed with the chance to view so many others’ layouts began to stir something inside me. i began to feel a loss of my own. So many mothers with new babies and small children – so many wonderful moments They were enjoying by creating Their pages of memories. i have those mothers to thank for motivating me into opening those boxes!
By the time i completed this last page about my daughter, Jennifer – i felt less guilty about letting the years of photos pile up inside the boxes. When it comes to reasons - i always give God the credit. And i’m sure He had special ones for this experience, as well. i ended up taking a different direction in my choices of photos and subject matter.
Most of the time, we tend to take the road of chronological order when it comes to our children. From there – it becomes all about little moments in Their daily lives that we capture. Or – it may be all the events in Their lives that come along as They grow – i.e. baseball, dance, band, drill team, cheerleading, sports, etc.
i found a blessing in a subject of guilt in my life when i began sorting through all those photos of Jen. Rather than attempt to begin a train of pages based on Her ages and stages – i chose to pick out one of Her traits that i adored about Her during Her childhood.
Playing in water was always a favorite of Hers! Naturally – i have a lot of photos relating to that subject, which makes it impossible to create only one page for all of them. To create pages for each and every photo would be an insane punishment that just wouldn’t fit the crime of my years spent storing the photos in boxes.
i set the tone for my goal with the first page. i chose photos with a span of time that showed Her fun in water throughout the years. The next will – most likely – be a few showing continued fun. But they will show other places and times in Her life. They will all have one other common trait about Her that always made me smile and embedded into my heart.
Most importantly – each of the pages will continue to have the journaling. my personal choice in this case is in letterform – to Jennifer. It is within the journaling that i will mention the memories – all the little things – everything wonderful that embedded itself into my mind and heart years ago. This will be my chance to make sure i get those things said to Jennifer. What better way to make sure She doesn’t have to just – keep a memory of hearing me say them? Somehow – putting our feelings into writing for Others seems to reach Them even more deeply. And i want my kids to always know how deeply my love lives for Them.
An artist has one specific vision/interpretation in mind when He/She creates a piece of artwork. Others viewing that same piece of artwork will - most likely - have various and different considerations. Without journaling - the same applies to scrapbooking a page. The true purpose for scrapbooking is about expression of our memories. Without journaling - Others may not see or feel what we have in our hearts that we're attempting to express.
i have already experienced too many times – coming across layouts that Others have created and had my heart broken – for Them. They post their layouts. The page consists of artwork and one, or more, photos. There may be a title – names – a date. They’ll take the time to offer Their description of what They were scrapping about on the page when They post the layout onto the website. And i find myself thinking – "What She said in Her description is so beautiful! Why in the world didn’t She put that on the page?"
We should never be afraid to sit a while and really take some time to gather our thoughts after completing the artwork on a scrapbook page. We should always make room on every page for those thoughts. In fact – no layout should ever be considered completed until we have done so.
It is not about the artwork we do on a scrapbook page. It’s about what we leave behind for our loved ones.
And that – You can count on for my signature around the Internet!
1 comment:
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A Soul's Heartbeat said...
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Oh this is just so very true. I've done pages, lately even, where there's just a quote or a title. But I also do many many pages where there's journaling about who's in the photos and why they are important to me.
I like to think someone will pick up what I've done years and years from now and get a glimpse into the people I knew and loved. Or, the Heritage ones I'm trying so hard to get a handle on (my own boxes of photos, lol).
It's a great addiction and I, like you, am so glad we've found it. Great insite, I'm off to see what else you've written here. -
March 10, 2008 at 9:50 AM
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1 comment:
Oh this is just so very true. I've done pages, lately even, where there's just a quote or a title. But I also do many many pages where there's journaling about who's in the photos and why they are important to me.
I like to think someone will pick up what I've done years and years from now and get a glimpse into the people I knew and loved. Or, the Heritage ones I'm trying so hard to get a handle on (my own boxes of photos, lol).
It's a great addiction and I, like you, am so glad we've found it. Great insite, I'm off to see what else you've written here.
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