with school being basically finished, i’ve been taking advantage of my extra time and reading! oh, how i love my summer time reading 
i’m in the middle of another great historical fiction book, the first in a trilogy, and i have another trilogy awaiting my attention. yea!
but, i have also been reading a new book by my favorite artist, ali edwards. it’s called life artist: scrapbooking life’s journey. “scrapbooking celebrity ali edwards is well-known for her charming ability to capture the everyday moments of life on beautiful layouts. in her third book, ali explores scrapbooking as a form of life art…scrapbook your life moments and share your stories in a way that’s real, authentic and a true reflection of your personality.” this quote is taken from the back of her book.
i attended my first scrapbooking party in 1996. at that point in time, one of my best friends katharine and i bought some creative memories stuff together, and we shared it. i immediately fell in love with scrapbooking. my friends and family would occasionally chide me about my “picture-less pages”. if i didn’t have pictures for an event i wanted to remember, i wasn’t shy about putting it into my album anyways! i was adamant about the fact that i was making a scrapbook, not just a fancy photo album with cute stickers and shapes. i didn’t need pictures to record life’s events. when i stopped to reflect on this new hobby of mine, i realized that it really wasn’t so new in my life after all. it simply had a different look compared to the past.
because really, i began scrapbooking a long time ago! in elementary school i would cut out pictures from magazines and paste them into my scrapbook. i also had some signatures from people who were famous in my little world! i know that i also included ribbons i won at elementary school track meets. there were some very ordinary things in my book. but, they were reflections of my everyday life, and the things that were important to me at that point in my life. i’m very disappointed in myself, because i threw my precious scrapbook away, thinking it was childish. i can picture some of it in my mind, and i would love to have it back again. i remember it was bulging, it was so full! i also remember that at one point in time i was quite proud of my book.
i do have a couple scrapbooks from high school. when we finally move into a new house, i look forward to unpacking them and taking a long walk down memory lane. i remember a few of the treasures that are there, but certainly not everything. of course, both of these were back in the day when i was more focused on preserving memories, than worrying about protecting them. theses old books are simply spiral bound construction paper books. and again, they hold awards and pictures, but i’m sure there are some very mundane things pasted in there as well.
over the years, scrapbooking has become a major part of my life. i have discovered things about myself that i never knew; it is an artistic outlet for me. i always liked art classes in school — except when we had to draw, that was torture. but if you gave me paper or paints i felt much more comfortable. i remember, too, many hours spent with my cousin eric. he and i were always designing the houses we would build when we grew up! lol! but, i’vehad to jump over the hurdle of insecurity many, many times. i could always (and still do) find someone else whose work was better than mine, and i never believed that i had any artistic ability.
but overtime, my eye for design has changed and grown. i gradually became much more confident in my ability to create, and i began to branch out a little more. i wasn’t so stuck on replicating pages from design books or following a “how to” formula. ironically, it was during the most difficult period of my life that i truly realized how important it was to me to create with my hands. it was also during this time that i began to realize that i did have artistic abilities. in some of the darkest moments of these very painful years, i really struggled because i did not have any pictures i wanted to scrapbook. i had no happy memories that i wanted in an album to remember for years to come. but, i still had this need inside of me to create — i needed an outlet.
so, it was at this point that i began to design cards. i found great joy in designing baby announcements for friends. i’d make stacks of notecards — birthday, thank you, congratulations, etc… some of them i sold, some i gave away as presents. for many, many years friends and family only received homemade cards! i would also make mini scrapbooks and give them away as presents. (in more recent years, i’ve branched out a little more and now make picture frames and decorate the covers of journals to give away as gifts.)
it was also during this point that i began a scrapbook journal. i poured my heart out here; very few people have ever seen or read my scrabook journal. it was an outlet for me to still be able to create, but i didn’t have to worry what others might think or say. it was mine, and it was a painful reflection of where i was in life, what i was feeling, thinking, and experiencing. however, it’s a not book that i continue to use. (although, i have found a couple things over the years that are pieces of my life from then that i would like to add, simply for the sake of completeness.) it was good therapy for that period of life.
and a third thing emerged out of this dark time of life, and this is what prompted my lengthy post tonight. out of this time, i realized that it can be the little things in life that make a difference, and i developed a greater appreciation for ordinary things. i learned in a whole new way how to celebrate simple things. i record a lot more events and occurrences in my scrapbooks now. i scrapbook events that may not be significant to other people, but they are to me. i still don’t worry if there is not a picture to use, i create my design without a photo on the page. i’ve been more aware that journaling my thoughts and feelings is just as important as including a date for when the events take place.
all this began swirling around in my mind over the past few days as i have been reading more and more of life artist . it has been refreshing and inspirational to read ali edwards’ perspective on scrapbooking life. i just finished reading chapter 4, “celebrate the everyday”. it reaffirmed for me in many ways my approach to scrapbooking. it encourages me to continue to scrap the way i do, and to go even further in celebrating everyday life. there’s so much more to capture along the way! one thing bothers me, however. why is it that i feel more confident and secure in my work after reading a book? why does it mean more to me when i hear it from someone i greatly admire? why can’t i be more confident in my work on my own? i know that i have grown tremendously in the area of realization that i do have artistic ability. (just being able to type that statement shows some of my growth.)
if you are still reading this, you must have an appreciation for art of some sort so, just one more thing that was a piece of inspiration to me, just today. in church this morning, my pastor read a passage from the book of exodus that i had never read before. (he used it in a different, but related context for his sermon.) it’s the story of bezalel and oholiab in exodus 31:1-11. verses 1-6 in particular spoke to me. “then the Lord said to moses, ’see, i have chosen bezalel…and i have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts — to make artistic designs for work…and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship…’ “. this passage really captured my attention because several years ago when i began attending ivanrest church, i went on a church retreat. at this retreat we studied spiritual gifts and learned about our own spiritual gifts. i was surprised to learn that i have the spiritual gifts of faith and creative communication. it had never occurred to me that my hobby had a much deeper meaning, and that it was a much more integral part of who i am…a child of God, created in His image. creative communication and craftsmanship are areas that God uses and has called us to use for His glory, not our own. and this morning, it was so amazing to me to read a passage from the old testament that spoke directly to God’s creating people specifically to be able to build what he asked of them — the tent of meeting, the ark, and all the furnishings in the tent! it was a passage that was an eye opener for me today.
this is really long, i know. thanks for reading all my ramblings if you’d made it this far! i feel like i could really delve into the analogy of life artist and how that relates to the Christian faith, but it’s late and this post is way too long already. but, i must admit that all this has also fueled my desire to have a good digital camera! i want to be able to better capture life’s unexpected moments. those ordinary moments which we do not realize are important until they are past.
