What's the point of Scrapbooking?

Ok, pop quiz today--

What's the point of Scrapbooking?
A) To have an socially acceptable excuse to play with paper and paste as an adult.
B) To have a outlet for creative expression.
C) To preserve photos in a safe manner.
D) To be grateful for the moments in our life before time slips away.
E) All of the above.


Last week I attended Creating Keepsakes University (CKU)-Houston. It was a 3 day total immersion in scrapbooking education. I learned so much and relished being in the company of so many others who were just as enthusiastic as me about scrapbooking. I was even more impressed at the genuine emotion and enthusiasm that the instructors (many of them are big names in the industry, some of them the bigwigs at the scrapbooking magazines) still had for scrapbooking.

Two of my instructors stood out for their "real" attitudes about why we scrapbook, and what is really important about it. One, the editor in chief of Creating Keepsakes magazine, was very earnest about her struggles with weight and depression, and how all that is a part of who she is, and that it is important for that to be represented in her scrapbooks. I think that it would have been a challenge to find a dry eye in the room when she talked about how as women, we are often the historians of our families, and yet our stories and identities aren't always represented in our scrapbooks because we are usually BEHIND the camera, not in front. And that it IS important, not vain, for us to record who we are. For ourselves, and for others we may share our books with.

The second very inspiring instructor was the founding editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine, and she set out to remove the guilt and the "shoulds" we all feel when it comes to scrapbooking. She was able to really boil down to the essence the most important reason for scrapbooks. We create them in order to be GRATEFUL--to take the time to be mindful of what is significant in our lives, before the time slips away and these moments and thoughts are forgotten....lost.

So the answer to the pop quiz is--E--All of the Above. The moral of this very looong entry is that scrapbooks can be more than a "fake" and "incomplete" representation of only the happy events in our lives. It's not just about cute embellishments and fancy papers (though those are certainly fun). For those of you who find that the idea of scrapbooks seems cheesy--they do not need to be. They can be honest. And they are our opportunity to recognize our blessings, our struggles. Our reality.

Can your photo album do that?