My Crafty Life Part Five

Ah. The Scrapbooking Years. Still in them. Still loving them. And it all started, as it usually does, with a trip to the newsagents.

A layout about a layout? Probably overkill. But for the sake of completeness, here it is

I'd taken the morning off from fixing the hem on my sister's wedding dress; and I was browsing around, thinking about what I could make for her as a souvenir of her big day. As I was paying for something else, I caught sight of a scrapbooking magazine. I'd never seen anything like it. All the things I'd been playing about with for years - cutting, collecting, keeping- were right there, together. It was irresistable. I brought the magazine home. I stayed up late into the night looking at the pictures. Then I got back out of bed so that I could read some more (really). I sat at midnight, wondering at such perfection.

Of course I had to have a go. I looked around, I bought a few things and I made this (ready? remember, it's my first page)

That's my very first page. Never seen in public before. We can all see what isn't so great about it. But, know what? I like it a lot. It has pictures (I even took a detail shot); it has a story (on the tag); it has ephemera (that receipt envelope from the shop in the story) and it has my set-the-mood patterned paper background I still use today. It was  a scrapbook page. and it was a start.

I joined UK Scrappers, I took some classes. I met some nice people and I kept on cutting and sticking. One of my pages was spotted in the UKS Gallery and in Spring 2009 it was published in Scrapbook Inspirations. Then I had another one picked up, so I submitted a couple more and they were published too. I took part in their Ready Steady Scrap challenge later that year and it was a lot of fun. I was so sad to see Scrapbook Inspirations go. A lot of us were.

Then I started to blog and I met even more lovely scrapbookers. I took other classes and I joined the Gotta Craft team; and all the time I'm still working on my pages, pushing myself to learn new things. I'm not a technique-y scrapper (I don't think). I'm more about the story and a piece of pretty paper and a sharp pair of scissors. But I'm always finding new ways to lay down what I want to say and I don't think I'll be retiring from this part of my crafty life any time soon. Oh, and that souvenir for my sister? I made her a scrapbook, of course, with some cross stitched decoration and a box to keep it in covered with some left over curtain silk. I never throw anything out, and I never, ever forget.

So that's my crafty life. By the time I'd finished all of my pages, this is what I thought:

- My Reading Life might just be next.
- I used the same basic design all week, and I'd do this again, even though I was aching to try something new by the end.
- I used two kits from Midnight Rooster throughout. This was the easiest way to keep it all coordinated.
- Other ideas did come to me as I worked. All the fancy dress costumes I made; and the soft toys I sold at a Craft Fair. But I'm happy enough to add pages in at some point in the future. That's what ring bound albums are made for.

Now over to you. If you were to tell your story in stages like this, what subject would you choose?