Scrapbook on the Road: A Minimalist Scrapbooking Course

My early scrapbooking days involved scrapbooking trips. I still scrapbook trips. It didn’t dawn on me until I began working in a LSS to scrapbook much besides trips.

Sometimes it takes awhile for a trip album to be completed. I am finally finished a scrapbook about a trip to New York City earlier this year. The trip occurred in 2007. I tried my best to complete the album before my daughter was born in 2008, but I was also trying to complete all of my interviews for my dissertation before she was born, too. Excuses, excuses, I know. Anyway, it is finished.

We are now preparing for our next big trip. We will be going to San Diego and Los Angeles. I really don’t want all of those memories to be sitting in a box waiting for their day to be scrapbooked several years from now. I imagine my photographs and memorabilia sitting in the cabinet like the toys in Toy Story. They get all excited that I am sitting down to scrapbook. “Choose me,” they say, yet I ignore them and scrapbook something else. They fear the day when they will just be thrown away or even worse, sold in a rummage sale and hung on the walls in some chain restaurant. Enough of the dramatic.

I found out about this a couple of weeks ago:

I knew people scrapbooked “on the road” but I never have. I take a notebook with me foe notes to remind me of what I did each day, take hundreds of photographs, and collect memorabilia, but that’s about it.

I decided to purchase Ali’s course. For $14, what did I have to lose? It is a great course. I think you could use this course even if you are not taking an actual trip. It is really great idea for any sort of journey you might be taking. The course includes handouts, supply list, and videos, all of which are very high quality.

What I love most about this course is that Ali encourages you to use the supplies you already have on hand. She lists items she used for her examples, in case you want some of the items she uses, but she emphasizes how that is not the point.

For me, this course fits nicely into minimalist scrapbooking. I went through my stash to see what I could use. I even had book binding rings that I had purchased to one day use. Unfortunately, the three I started using quickly became to small and I only have two in the size I need so I will have to buy another book binding ring in the size I need. Other than that, I shopped my stash.

I completed the skeleton of my album last weekend and can’t wait for our trip so that I can finish the album. I took photos of the album, but want to redo them once I get the book binding ring I need because the album does not photograph well as it is. I also kept all the scraps and handouts from the course in one container so that way if I need more materials when I complete the album, I can focus on using up the supplies I already have begun using.

All in all, $14 well spent. Stay tuned for the photos of the skeleton and for the complete album later this summer.