Friday 25 September 2015

There is no Onion

I went to a Crop a couple of weeks ago and actually did some scrapbooking. I took photos of the pages and then filed them in another growing album. That actually, is part of the pleasure for me - the satisfaction of the filling album.
Deskers will recognise' Stamping by H' Helen..trying my desk out for
size and then a year later, opting to work on the floor!
It's a strange thing scrapbooking. I love it. I'm never going to use all the photos we have in 'archive' or indeed all the digital photos we've taken since digital became the reality (don't ask me to remember when!). I don't feel any pressure at all to use certain photos or chronologically record our lives, and I don't apply any order at all to the use of photos or indeed the filing of layouts.

I haven't experienced a sense of competition over the number of pages completed at a crop. We all want to do more, we sometimes jest and even complain about how little we do against how much we talk and eat, but that's part of the Crop experience and isn't genuine!
So how come,  every time a page is finished, I feel relief - as if that's 'anther one out of the way'? I don't know. Perhaps it's the actual 'making' of the page that makes a bit tentative - I do sit next to people with awesome scrapbooking skills. Perhaps I have a sense of guilt over the photos sitting around unscrapped? I don't think so! I don't know.
But there's a genuine sense of relief. If you would like to analyse this, please do. I won't, because I can't be bothered. I will just live with it and enjoy the little surprise I get when I realise that instead of being the usual, not-very-grown-up smug at the completion point, I'm relieved!

7 comments:

Sue said...

Love the LOs. My scrapbooking is very spasmodic. Once I start I like to finish an album, but then I go ages until I start another one. I actually have one of the girls underway, but that got put aside when dad passed and I haven't gone back to it yet.

Hope you have a nice relaxing evening. Sue

Helen said...

oh my word... me in your scrapbook!! I still don't have a working printer so all the hundreds (each time I go to Kew) of photos just sit on the computer... well done you I say!!

misteejay said...

Lovely LOs Julia.
I think part of the enjoyment of attending a crop is being with 'likeminded' folk so as long as you enjoy the day I don't think it really matters whether you produce one/none/or 50.
I don't get to a crop very often but I always have a super day (especially as they are normally held at a Toby carvery LOL).
Toni xx

Unknown said...

I don't scrapbook but I do use my photos in art journals. I find I get too hung up on things being chronological and often don't use the batch of photos I just printed because I don't have time to look up the dates and get them in order. I need to follow your thinking and just let go... enjoy the art and stop worrying about the nit-picky stuff! I too get satisfaction for filling up an art journal. That's what i need to focus on. Thank you for this gentle nudge.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I have never been to a crop, but I'm sure I would get very little accomplished, because I would be busy enjoying and learning.

I enjoyed those layouts. Loved the one of Helen. It is SO her and her floor. I can't sit to craft, but I can't sit on the floor, either. There's something about standing that works for me, maybe because I'm so short.

I promise to NOT analyze your take on crops and how much and in what order you finish a layout. I just enjoy seeing them, because you are SO down to earth and don't require 100 different embellishments for each page.

Elizabeth said...

Hi Julia, like you, I know for certain I will never scrap all our photos, printed or otherwise, and they don't get scrapped in chronological order, but I do try to file them into albums in date order. This can be a bit of pain because it means that every so often I have to take pages out and re-shuffle them to make way for the latest layouts done. Daft really because it's only me that cares one way or the other. I've never been to a crop but if I ever did I bet I wouldn't get much scrapping done too ... I'm sure part of the fun is the exchange of ideas and watching those very talented scrappers do their thing :) Hugs, Elizabeth xx

PS: The craft room makeover is done and I'm now in the process of finding a home for all the stuff that came out ... that's like trying to put a pint into a half pint. Very odd. After all it all fitted in before!!!

Sharon Madson said...

Great pages! I wish that I didn't feel the pressure to get all my photos done chronologically! LOL Thanks for sharing.