SCRAPBOOKING & CARDMAKING - Close To My Heart

I love scrapbooking.  I have since I was about 14 and started taking my own photo's, developing them and placing them in the old "magnetic" style albums - the ones with hundreds of sticky lines across the page, with a protective plastic sheet over them. Does anybody still actually use these albums anymore??

I remember getting my supplies together on my desk.  Sticky tape. Check.  Colouring pencils. Check. Paper, scissors, stickers, ticket stubs and other miscellaneous paper embellishments. Check, check, check.

I didn't know it was actually called "Scrapbooking".  I called it "Putting my Photo's in an Album and Decorating Them".

I'd write names of who was in the photo in a silver or gold texta pen (gosh I had to save my pocket money for those expensive pens!), where it was taken, why we were there, etc.

To me, it was Memory Keeping.  I'd thumbed through my Mum's albums and wondered who all those people were (well, the ones I couldn't identify), where they were, what they were doing (if it wasn't completely obvious).  I decided I wouldn't leave photo's that didn't complete the story the picture was telling.

Sometimes, I'd just cut out a picture from the paper that I liked, and write down what I thought of it, if I dreamed of going there, doing that.  Other times, it was a cartoon strip that made me laugh.  Lots of times, it was the latest pop group I was into.  But it was all there, ready for the next generation to learn something about me.  To learn that I wasn't just "Mum", or "Sharon", or "Dorothy's/Clarrie's daughter".  That I was somebody, and I had dreams, ambitions, laughs, loves and to be honest - weirdness, too!

In 2013, I decided to join the crafting company "Close To My Heart".  Now, I get to play with a whole heap of scrapbooking, cardmaking and crafting supplies AND get paid to help others leave their own legacy to the future through creating wonderful items.

And, besides.  It's a lot of FUN.

 I made this card for a friend's birthday last night.  No more buying cards - my gosh - have you seen the price of greeting cards these days?  Nearly $5.00 for a card!  Or you can get the cheap ones from the Reject Shop and places, but I really don't like them ... they really aren't that personal ... and my friends all tell me they love it when they get a hand-made card, makes them feel special.

And doesn't everyone deserve to feel special??