Monday, February 23, 2009

The Arrival!

My blog book arrived! I love it! I keep sitting down to look at it and re-read all the posts and appreciate all my family photos illustrating each entry!

My senior year of college I took a personal history class. It was 1991 and my teacher was enlightening us on archival scrapbooking and how the current sticky paged books of the day would ruin pictures in thirty years or less. We also wrote a story about out life each week. That very semester I pulled up every picture from my 20-year history and re-scrapbooked them with archival-friendly techniques: Cream-colored acid-free paper with razor slits at the corners of each picture to hold them (instead of glue or tape etc.) I summarized events and documented photos with a archival-quality ball-point pen blue ink that wouldn't smudge if it got wet or run evil acid ink onto my precious photo memories. It was a labor of love. I even got my picture in The Church News sprawled on the floor pouring over my photos and pages with razor blade in hand making meticulous acid-free, photo-friendly slits.

A year later everyone was on the bandwagon and had stepped it up a notch with their colored patterned paper and store-bought acid-free stickers to celebrate every Mormon event (I know people of all denominations scrapbook. But I think if we took a percentage...) My scrapbooks in their oversized acid-free maroon 3-ring 4" binders became a thing of the past before they ever became a thing. I attempted to put my photo memories on colored paper with a patterned border and meaningful stickers, but I don't have the talent for that type of thing. I spent a whole scrapbooking party agonizing over the colors of one page. I own a whole "kit in a bag" with circle and oval patterns and razor kit and paper and stickers and markers and on and on.... but it sits on a not so prominent shelf in my laundry room harboring our pictures from Argentina that I tried to put in place 8 years ago. (I know this because Christopher was at the party with me in his infant seat.)

Now I have a new way -- not so much to scrapbook, but to preserve my memories--from my blog. And yes, you can choose colored backgrounds or patterned backgrounds or both. But I didn't.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sweet! I'm with you on that whole color choice thing. I just choose white now, largely due to the fact that I hate all the old colors I did use (early 90's). Can't possibly go back and change the colors. I must press on, into the modern age of blog-booking.

Camille said...

I'm so glad there is the new book option. I am soo soo sooooo behind on scrapbooking because I am like you about matching the paper, and I also don't really have the time to spend an hour on each page. But then when I don't do all that, I feel guilty. I am going to put my blog in a book and be satisfied--plus it will look terrific!!

p.s. your maroon binders may be "out" but at least they are done!!!