Keep on Scrapping

I don't have a challenge for you today, just a layout that emphasizes my philosophy toward scrapbooking.  I remember reading an interview with Heidi Swapp many years ago where she was asked if she loved all her layouts.  Her response was along the lines of, "No, I don't love them all, but once a page is done, it's done, and time to move on to another."  Now I'm majorly paraphrasing here, but you get the gist of what she was saying.  You're not going to be crazy in love with everything you create.  Not everything is going to be worthy of being displayed on the living room wall.  And that's ok.

I had pretty much completely stopped scrapbooking for over 2 years.  In prepping for Craft Your Nest, I started scrapbooking again (the site is motivation for me as much as anyone else!).  Some layouts I'm liking more than others.  But I put all of them on a little display stand in the kitchen as they're complete.  And my husband loves to stop and page through them.  He gets a smile on his face as he reads the journaling and looks at the photos.  He doesn't care if one layout has a mistake, or the design is a bit off, or the product is a couple years old.  He enjoys my documentation of our memories.  And that's really why I scrapbook.

We, as crafters, put so much stress on ourselves.  In the end, your family doesn't care which patterned paper you used, or how "trendy" your layout is...they just want to see your memories documented.  That's why I started Craft Your Nest.  We, as scrapbookers, need to get our photos out of boxes and envelopes and the computer, and on to pages and projects, where they can be seen and memories can be relived.

With all that being said, I'm going to share a layout that I'm not so crazy about.  I started this page, and my children decided to "help" me.  So they added the banner in the corner and some of the letter stickers on the banner.  It wasn't where I was going with the page, but instead of tearing it apart, I decided to work with the new additions to my layout.  Here's the finished product:

Do I love it?  Nope.  Did my husband enjoy the page?  Yep.  Did my boys like the layout?  You know it.  And, in the end, it's all good.  I really liked the very next layout I completed.  So, my final words to you - and myself - just keep on scrapping!