Simplicity vs. Artistic

I've blogged before about how different scrapbooking is for everyone. People make albums for different reasons and everyone has different styles. There are people that recognize the importance of preserving memories in an album that will keep photos safe, but they're not concerned with creativity. There are people who see album-making as an outlet for their artistic side, as a way to make something that is a piece of themselves to pass on to future generations.

I think I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm certainly not the most imaginative person out there when it comes to designing pages, but I'm not really one to just slap on some pictures and move on. I can be a little bit of a perfectionist, too... spending more time on a page than I need to making sure things are straight, coordinated and aligned.

The key to this, is understanding what and who you are - and embracing that. It can seem defeating to watch someone next to you get 20 pages done in the same time it takes you to get 6 pages done, but knowing that it's because you're scrapbooking for a different reason, or because you're unleashing your artistic side can make it easier to swallow.

I have a friend who is behind in her scrapbooking... (one friend? Okay, MANY friends - who isn't?) Anyway, this particular friend is so far behind that she's even getting pressure from her husband to speed things up. He is even trying to persuade her to step away from Creative Memories and throw some pictures in a magnetic album (eee gads, do they still make those?) just so they're done. She's coming up with a compromise... she will put all recent family photos in the new PicFolio Album (Creative Memories answer to those who do not want to scrapbook, an album that provides photo safe sleeves and journaling boxes), which gives her the freedom to take her time on her kids' baby albums. Those albums may take her a long time to get done, but what she has done is absolutely lovely. And, most importantly it's something that SHE loves, a little piece of herself that she can give to her children.

I certainly don't mean to imply that you need to take hours on a page so that it's "creative". I'm always amazed at the beauty of a page that someone will think up in 5 minutes. Remember, most people just look at the pictures, anyway. The rest of it is to make YOU happy. There's not right or wrong way to get these albums done. Just your way.