Scrap It Friday!
Hello, my fellow Scrappers and others!! Hope everyone is having an AWESOMENESS Day!! For today’s “Scrap It Friday” post I wanted to tell a little about myself and my scrapbooking. Let’s get started with “Scrapbooking Over the Years…”
Scrapbooking Over the Years:
I scrapbook mainly with my mom, who at the time was a Special Education teacher, at the same school I attended. It’s most thanks to one of the other teachers who got us started as she was a Creative Memories Consultant. When we first started in 1995 it was just a small group of us; my mom, her best friend (who was also a Special Education teacher) and me.
For my 14th birthday, I had a scrapbooking party with my friends — though I don’t remember any of them actually enjoying it, but over the years a few of them have somewhat started to dabble in it a little. A few years later my favorite aunt started to scrapbook with us. Eventually, the four of us started making it a tradition every year to attend the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington, TX. If I remember correctly we started going back in 2001 and then stopped in 2011.
Ha! I remember the first year my sister attending the Great American Scrapbook Convention. She was SOOO overwhelmed, she didn’t know what to do. At the time and over the years she wasn’t really a scrapbooker – she dabbled a little but never really got into it as much as the rest of us. Nowadays, she is working on scrapbooks based their weddings (yes weddingS — they officially got married here in the States but also had a ceremony in Turkey for his friends and family who weren’t able to attend the States one).
Scrappin’ at the Lake:
Starting when I was 17 years old my uncle’s two aunts started holding retreats twice a year, once in February and the other in October, at some camping grounds a few hours where we live. They rented the group cabin and feed us breakfast, lunch, and dinner with snacks and treats in between. We never missed going for the whole 10 years except when they had to cancel due to the camping grounds were part of the refugee places when Hurricane Katrina made her final landfall in Bay St. Louis, MS back in 2005.
Every year no matter where I was, Natchitoches, LA; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; or Long Beach, MS — I came home so I could attend. I was also the youngest out of the 25-30 ladies that came to the retreats. They would always tease me about being the youngest and for going to bed first even though they knew it was so I could study since basically every time it just so happened I had a test that following Monday. 🙁
Scrappers Retreat:
More recently, we attend our Creative Memories’ (CM) Consultant’s retreat in Lindale, TX as well as a place in Tyler, TX. For the CM retreat, we attend twice a year – once in April and the other in September. The place in Tyler, TX we go at the beginning of June each year as a replacement for going to the Great American Scrapbook Convention. If you ever want a place just to crop and use what you have without spending a lot of money, Memory Lane Inn* is the place to be. The owners have two locations. Once in Tyler, TX and the other is in McKinney, TX. We have figured out we actually save a lot of money going to the retreat instead as we use the products we have purchased over the years instead of just buying more and more.
At the Beginning:
I’ll never forget when we first started and we used the absolute basics supplies Creative Memories made. We had a small blue photo cutter but used a huge paper cutter (mainly because that’s what my mom had to use when she was a teacher), and small scissors. For the embellishments, we had flat unidimensional stickers; the circle maker; a few punches; and a few markers. Now we have the Cricut machines, Sizzix machines, 3-D stickers, and so much more to even begin listing everything; heck I’ve even cut out letters for a Mardi Gras layout with the Cricut!
These days I actually use the Cricut Explore more than anything. I have tried to use up all my other embellishments so I would only have my machine. I love being able to just cut out my images in white cardstock then use my Versamark ink pad. This allows me to make them my own color with my chalk set I have (I’ll have a post on those products eventually so be sure to check back!)
Other than my Cricut, I have started to incorporate my brush calligraphy and embossing into my scrapbooking. It certainly makes it a bit different from what I have done in the past. For several years now I have had a heat gun for embossing but I have never used it, and now that I have moved so many times over the years; it’s nowhere to be found so I’ve been using my moms. 🙂
Alright, that’s all for now. Next week I’ll have a double page I’ve done and possibly step-by-step depending on difficulty. As always, I truly hope you enjoyed my post here, and hope you come back for more.
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Have a great day!
Crafty JBird
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