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.

                                                                                                

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