Hey everyone! I am Noel Culbertson. I am the wife of my very own US Navy hero. I am a mom of (in my opinion) the two sweetest shoulda-been-twin girls on the planet. I am a scrapbooker. With so much scrappin' ammo, it's no wonder I ended up head over heals in love with this hobby.Why do I say shoulda-been-twin girls? Only because I have two girls, 18 months apart, that is the same height, weight, clothes size, shoe size and look a lot alike. Oh, that and I dress them alike. (Hey, they've gotta have something to tell the therapist later on!) I figure my days are numbered on the matching, so I'm just milking it while I still can. My true life inspiration, though, is my husband. I'm telling you girls, I am lucky enough to be married to the certifiably best man ever. I'm not sure what I've ever done to deserve such a great guy, but it must have won some big points somewhere! It is amazing how being truly loved makes for a fantastic creative environment. And when my husband deploys, I have some extra late night hours available for scrapping & making cards to send off to him.
What's so great about scrapbooking? (Seriously, what's not great about it, right? LOL.) I'll tell you what I think is pretty darn great, anyway. Scapbooking is one of those hobbies that's like 10 hobbies rolled into one. And when it comes right down to it that means a lot of shopping opportunities. But really, the daily draw is that it pulls all of the things that I love dearly together... Experiencing daily moments with my family and focusing on each of those little blessing that may have otherwise slipped by. Keeping a camera always at my side to memorialize those little moments. Sitting down and reminiscing over the photos from the days, weeks, months and years before. Then digging into my treasure chest of supplies to let loose the creative beast inside. Ha! That sounds a little less like a hobby and more like a lifestyle.
My scrapping style seems to be an ever changing flow of whatever is inspiring me at the moment. I'm not much of a pre-planner, so I usually just shop for supplies that grab my attention to have on hand when the juices are flowing. The one thing I always do with my scrapbooking is start with the pictures. Lately I've been doing most of my printing at home, which has seemed to mesh well with my procrastination tendencies. I can sit down at my computer in my scrap room, browse through the recorded little moments, and choose the one that jumps out at me. From there, the pictures (and my mood) determine the colors and flow of a page. If I were to describe my current style I'd say clean lines, with layered patterns and captivating pictures. I, admittedly, have a bit of a hard time making a layout without any flourishes or swirls attached. I am however, slowly working on this obsession.
The fabulous thing about designing layouts is that the world around us is filled with inspiration. Ever buy a magazine JUST for the ads? I have. Companies spend millions hiring amazing designers from all over the world to create beautifully simple and captivating ads. Why not, um, borrow their talent and make it our own? Everything from typography to titles, from color scheme to layout ads are a constant source of inspiration to me. I keep a three ring binder full of torn out ads and articles. I have the notebook divided into tabbed sections titled Color, Layout and Quotes. So the "quotes" title isn't the best, but I was using my Dymo label maker, and journaling was just too long to fit on the tab. It's a speedy way to keep and access ideas quickly. I even have hole punched clothing tags and postcards to add to the notebook. One of my favorite picks from the inspiration notebook is one of writing letters for your kids. It was an article where people wrote letters to their kids for different life moments (i.e. the first time your heart is broken, etc). I haven't started mine yet, but I've got a minibook of letters planned out in my mind. My pages seem to be a contently changing love affair with new color combinations. Right now I'm hooked on brown, bright pink and teal as well white, yellow and gray. I'm sure that all of this sunshiny weather we've been having is aiding in my love of summery colors lately.
Procrastination and compulsive picture taking has lead to a wonderful ah-ha moment for me... I do NOT have to scrap every picture. It's a darn good thing too because with well over 100 grand floating around on my hard drives, I'd be scrapping pictures until the cows came home. But another big part of my process is not scrapping in order. How does out-of-order equal any sort of process, you say? That's the beauty of it. For me, not being bound to a schedule or timeline helps the creative juices flow more freely. Plus it relieves the huge burden of being so overwhelmingly behind why should I even start? My kids each had a baby scrapbook of their first two months of life in order... after that my freedom scrappin' went into effect. Now they flip through books with pictures out of order, and they remember the little moments. They laugh, and say, "Awe, how cute is that?" without a "Why aren't these pages in order?" in sight. Ahhhh, sweet freedom!
Create Well: Remember to experience those daily moments with your family and focus on each of those little blessings that may have otherwise slipped by. Keep a camera always at your side to memorialize those little moments. Then, don't let your memories sit on a shelf collecting dust! Sit down and reminisce over the photos from the days, weeks, months and years before.
