This Woman's History in Scrapbooks
- Cynthia Cote
- Mar 31, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 31, 2024
I was introduced to 'modern' scrapbooking in the late 90s. My sister-in-law, Larissa, was visiting from California and showed us her albums full of photos, beautiful embellishments, and text. I remember thinking – I want to do this! A while later, I was invited to a Creative Memories party and became hooked. At that time, it was paper, stickers, scissors with edges, and tracing templates for shapes with a heavy emphasis on telling your story. It was telling my stories artistically that appealed to me. I started telling the stories that would become my history.
BUILDING COMMUNITY WITH SCRAPBOOKS
What I came to love about that paper and sticker scrapbooking was that it could be done with others. It was likened to an old-fashioned quilting bee, and I totally got that. My sisters, mom, friends, cousins, and aunt all took up scrapbooking. We would gather at someone’s home and later at the town hall to spend the day documenting (and sharing) our histories via photos.
As they were all-day events, lunch and chocolate were also shared. Trips, weddings, and babies (in attendance and in pictures) were shared on those Saturdays. Sometimes a few of us would venture together to a scrapbook weekend where we would learn new techniques and see (and buy) the latest in tools & supplies.
By 2010 life became so busy with the children and family that we stopped gathering regularly. We would fit working on albums into extra time at home. I was busy too, but I missed that community of women sharing their lives.
GOING DIGITAL
In late 2003, I got a digital camera and in 2006 I was introduced to digital scrapbooking. The only option was predesigned pages. You could add text but could not control anything else. It made thinner books but by then my design skills had improved a bit so it felt like a step backward. I did use them to create quick books for my girls as a printed digital book was much easier to handle than a thick scrapbook for a young child.
Another few years and the software evolved to Storybook Creator giving the user near-complete control. For me, there was no turning back. I started taking my computer to the Saturday gatherings and by 2011 I was only making digitally designed albums that when printed reminded me of a nice children's storybook.
GETTING HELP
I was excited to discover a group of women who were not just pushing the abilities of scrapbooking software but were sharing what they knew. pixels2Pages offered new techniques and tips every week, not only for using the software but for taking better photos and journaling as well. It was one of the main reasons I joined Facebook.
In 2012, with a new DSLR camera, I joined their challenge and did my first picture-a-day project. I repeated it in 2017 and 2022. It is amazing to see what you take daily pictures of at different times of your life. These three albums are probably "My History" in the most unfiltered way. The 2012 pictures featured my children at a playground. In 2022, those children were graduating high school and looking toward college. FOREVER pixels2Pages still inspires, challenges, and educates me on how to use the software.
My daily highlight on May 6 - 2012 -2017 -2022
A NEW COMMUNITY TO SCRAPBOOK WITH
Years passed as I continued to take photos and use them to enhance the stories I put in digital albums. I was inspired to try to things, improve my design and software skills, and participate in the online community of women who did the same.
It’s been over 25 years since I started preserving my history in scrapbooks. I am blessed to have found a new group of friends to share my history and scrapbook with. Technology has improved so it doesn’t matter where we are, we can Zoom together to share our pages and stories. We gather at least once a year for a multi-day event of sharing stories, ideas, and good food.
One thing is certain anyone can become friends when working with their photos because it is how we share our history.
Some of my scrapbook pages documenting my history:
Join me on the second and fourth Mondays of the month for Photo Friends - and build some community with your shared history.
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