Scrapbooking is easy

So I'd done a class, and bought a few magazines.

Ok if I am honest I bought quite a few magazines.

I spent a lot of time looking through these glorious pages and feeling quite overwhelmed. Scrapbook magazines full of incredibly creative and colourful scrapped pages that impressed me and left me feeling a little flat. I started to think it was a waste of time getting excited about it, as I'd never be as good as the people submitting pages to magazines.

One thing that at this very point in time, I want to share with you. every single scrapper I have ever met, has at some point thought like this. Don't.

Scrapbooking is about you, your creativity, your ideas, your family and your memories. Nobody elses. By all means use these gorgeous magazines for inspiration but don't hold your own work up to these pieces and start thinking that it's about comparisons and how your work measures up to someone else.

It's personal and it's to be enjoyed. Ultimately you don't even have to ever show anyone your work, do it for yourself and the pleasure you get from it. You will notice over time, once your confidence with your materials improves so will the confidence in your work.

I've noticed over the years how my style has changed too. Colours and embellishments I once loved have evolved and changed, into a look that is coompletely different to when I first began.

Back to the magazines - I have a huge collection of scrapping magazines, and would encourage any beginner to buy a few and have a really good look through them. Get a feel for how pages are put together, read through and take in the kinds of styles that are being used by scrappers. Take note of the topics and photo styles used on pages.

At this point you can start to think about your own pages. How many photographs have you got stuffed in a shoebox, or jammed into a dusty old photo album that deserve to be preserved and enlivened on a Scrap page?

Tips for today
1. Get a hold of some scrapbooking magazines

2. Read through and start taking note of the ideas behind pages, what is being celebrated in these pages?

3. Don't compare your work to others.