My Road to Digital

So I couldn't read cindy's blog without adding my own blog post about my scrapbooking progression. I went and looked over some of my scrapbooks and yes, wish I could cry, too. I started in 1995 when I was about a junior in high school. Maybe I was a sophomore. And I've done it ever since--there isn't a year of my life not somewhat scrapbooked since then, which is nice I suppose, but what a lot of stupid layouts I did! Of course, the ones in the beginning are the absolute worst. Here's one of the first pages I ever did. WHAT WAS I THINKING! These were the original copies of these pictures-I can't get them back again! Forever ruined! And oh, SO tacky!!!


It sure is hard to get a good shot of these pages. Sorry about that. By the end of that first scrapbook, I got a LITTLE better, but stil--UGLY!!


Then I went to college. Did it get better? Did I learn anything? No. I think this one is even worse. Look how closely jammed all these pictures are! I didn't even TRY to make it look cute. I just wanted to fit as much information in there as possible.



Oh, and THIS one! I remember I had seious misgivings about getting pictures from my old little girl srapbook and adding them to a modern one. But then I did it anyway. I took out pictures from my album, pictures mom took when I was only ten, and not only cut them up, but even used one of those stupid flower-shaped hole punching things to cut MORE holes in it. Why? Why did I do this? Could I not see how OBNOXIOUS it was??

By the time I got home from my mission, the scrapbooking style had changed somewhat. My first two pages in my mission scrapbook were done the "old" style, OBNOXIOUS. Then Cindy taught me a thing or two, and things got a little better. I can still look through my mission scrapbook and not totally cringe. Except the book is literally six inches thick, and when people see it they don't want to look through it because it's such a pain to heft it.



I think my last scrapbook after the mission was a bit of regression. The pages aren't near as good. Probably because my subject matter wasn't as fun. I mean, scrapbooking a mission to AFRICA was fun. All this other crap wasn't. My pages were better, but I had gotten to the point where I just wanted to get it DONE and didn't care anymore. I was already being prepared for the world of digital--I just didn't know it yet.



This is one of the last pages I ever scrapbooked. I did it long after this trip to New York, when I had already discovered digital scrapbooking. I MADE myself finish all my stuff up to 2004 when I met my husband. I remember the relief I felt that day at Roberts as I bought my last scrapbooking supplies. I knew I was done with this crap forever. And you know what, I don't miss it AT ALL.

Unfortunately I have long since deleted the original files I uploaded to create my digital scrapbooks, except this year's, so these are crappy photos too. Anyway, I then made my first digital book in 2006, the year I got married. I created "Our Love Story" which Trevor and I actually did together. I was still new to Photo shop and pages were all quite simple. But beleive me, I liked it SO much better! For one thing, the books are skinny and easy to carry around! I went with a company called CherishBound to get them published. I liked the focus they had on the WRITING, not just the pictures. My books now how much more journaling in them, which makes them more like a journal rather than a disjointed amalgamation of pictures...

Then I did my First Year book. I was better with Photoshop, but still not ready to go all out and make it really "scrappy". I hadn't yet discovered online digital kits and did everything from scratch. But I'm ok with that--I like how uniform this book was--every page the same color with the red ribbons. Very classy. I love having my wedding pictures so neatly arranged--and still have the originals if I need them!




Then I did my Year Two book. I don't have any pictures from it here, but that was the first one that was out and out DIGITALLY SCRAPBOOKED. And I love it! Here are some pictures from my 2008 book which I just submitted yesterday. I can't wait to get it back from the publishers!



So that is my road to digital scrapbooking. I don't know why anyone would care, but it was kinda fun sauntering through memory lane for a while--even if some of those memories are cut into star shapes and covered with tacky stickers.