The Evolution of a Hobby
Katy moms no longer need the craft stores to be crafty
In 1996, I became a card maker using rubber stamps. My friend Sharon taught me how to use stamps to make beautiful cards. She had thousands of stamps, and I’m not exaggerating. I slowly built up my own collection of stamps along with embossing pens and powder, markers, ink pads, adhesives, and cardstock. It then became necessary to buy a drafting table and a rolling cart to store the materials for my new hobby. I also needed a room for my crafts, so my study became the craft room.” I have to admit that since I started this hobby, I have bought roughly five cards in the last 14 years. I justified my crafting expenses by the money I saved from not buying cards. Well, that’s what I told my husband anyway.
My friend Christine was also a stamper (as we fellow crafters called ourselves), but she was also a scrapbooker. She tried to convince me to become a scrapbooker like many ladies in the Katy area. I kept thinking of the expenses that scrapbooking would incur; I would have to buy even more supplies like a die cut machine, special 12×12 papers, embellishments, ribbon, organization bins, albums, and on and on…
After resisting for many years, I finally did it. I became a scrapbooker, much to the delight of Hobby Lobby and Michael’s. No matter how many supplies I owned, it became an obsession to want more supplies. I was thrilled with my new” hobby. I chose to create chronological albums of my children’s lives that include each month of the year. After two years of being an official scrapbooker, I became disillusioned by the overwhelming effort it was to make a single page. For example, if I wanted to make a page of our visit to the zoo, then it would require all (but not limited to) the following: a couple of 12×12 papers of animal print, cardstock, alpha chipboard or alpha die cuts, animal stickers, a cute phrase sticker or rub on, ribbon to match the paper, adhesive for the ribbon, glue dots, fun embellishments, and printed pictures. Then I would need space and free time. Scrapbooking wasn’t for me anymore, especially with my two little kids who needed my attention. I admire all the ladies who are hard-core-weekend retreat-going-scrapbooking enthusiasts. I marvel at their patience.
I became overjoyed when I discovered digital scrapbooking. I researched the best software online and then bought it for about $25. It is very user friendly, and I can now make a beautiful page in just a fraction of the time and cost of the hand made pages. I entered the world of digital scrapbooking blogs. There are so many women out there with a passion for digital scrapbooking, and they love to share their digital embellishments, papers, and alphas (digikits). When I say share, I mean it’s FREE to download. Do a search for free digikits, and you will find that it is endless. Be careful though…it’s addictive. Once I have made a page, I save it as a JPG, and then upload it onto one of the many digital printing websites. One 12×12 page typically costs $1.99 to print; I print 20+ pages at a time, and then I wait for the delivery in my mail box. When I hold my pages in my hands, I am so happy. I have given away or thrown away most of my supplies. My craft room has become a study again, and I now need only my pictures on my external hard drive and my laptop to craft.”
So, busy Katy moms — If you want to preserve your kids ‘memories (or your own) in a special way but don’t want to spend a fortune on supplies, then consider digital scrapbooking. Do you have any questions about digital scrapbooking? What are your thoughts about it? Post your comments below.
