Scrap Happy: Don’t Expect Praise or Appreciation (File Under Remember Love)

This entry is part 15 of 66 in the series My Scrap Happy Project

Each Monday, I discuss my Scrap Happy project based on Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun.
The most challenging task in my Scrap Happy Project thus far, would have to be the second aspect of
remembering love: Don’t expect praise or appreciation.

Most scrapbookers can’t wait to share their scrapbooks with others. Most of us want to be told that our scrapbookers are beautiful, that others are glad we are compiling scrapbooks, or that our hard work compiling scrapbooks is acknowledged in a positive way. For most of us, this rarely happens. We have to learn to let this go. We have to realize a that most
people have no interest in seeing our scrapbooks. We have to find other reasons to create our scrapbooks or you will soon stop scrapbooking.
I see the task of not expecting praise or appreciation as having two sides:

  • Realize that no one else wants to really look at your albums
  • Ask a friend if you can look at his or her albums

If we want other people to look at our albums, then we should ask to look at other scrapbooker’s albums. Personally, I knew that most people are uninterested in looking at my albums, but through my dissertation research, I learned that most scrapbookers (in my sample) were really appreciative of someone taking an interest in their hobby and their scrapbooks (in other words, most scrapbookers find that few people are interested in their albums). This is one reason why I ended up viewing nearly three times as many scrapbook pages as I anticipated during my interviews.
On caveat of my point, is that if you have young children around, they love looking at scrapbooks. They especially love looking at pages about themselves or about other babies.
Overall, make the effort to look at other scrapbooker’s albums. They’ll appreciate it. And maybe, they’ll ask to look at your albums, too.
Related Posts:


Stephanie

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This Week on Scrapworthy Lives: February 26, 2011

Each Saturday, I provide a compilation of links from the week’s posts.

7 Ways to get more out of Scrapworthy Lives:
1. Subscribe by RSS. Click on the RSS button (in the upper left corner) and you can receive all of Scrapworthy Live’s posts in your RSS feeder.
2. Comment. I would love to hear from you! Join the discussion by commenting.
3. Become a fan of Scrapworthy Lives on Facebook.
4. Follow scrapworthy on Twitter.
5. Join the Email List so you never miss a post! You will receive no more than two emails a week from this list. Subscribers will be the first to learn about any new products and promotions at Scrapworthy Lives.
6. Email me your questions and suggestions. Email me at stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com or contact me here (http://www.scrapworthylives.com/contact-me/) and let me know what you’re thinking, what you’d like to see, and any questions you might have. I will personally respond to your emails and may use your questions in future articles.
7. Share a great article you find with your friends. Tweet it, facebook it (is that a real expression?), email it, save it and so on. Just look at the link at the bottom of each article to share it in the way that suits you best. I appreciate it!

Stephanie

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Scrapweb: February 25, 2011 Edition

It was a slow week for posts this week.

Here are the best links from the web for the week:

  • In Use Your Stash: Older Embellishments (http://www.yourmemoryconnection.com/use-your-stash-old-embellishments), Tammy provides some motivation to scrapbookers to use up some of their scarpbooking stash.
  • Deena Wuest provides some inspiration on scrapbooking President’s day. (http://www.creatingkeepsakesblog.com/blog/2011/02/21/happy-presidents%E2%80%99-day/).


Stephanie

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B&B Review: Becky’s Blog

This entry is part 15 of 45 in the series Books & Blogs Review

Each Thursday I review a book or blog related to scrapbooking.
The Review
Today’s review is of Becky’s Blog by Becky Higgins. I reviewed her posts from January 21 to February 22, 2011. There were 20 posts during this time frame.
Becky’s posts are diverse and most are not about scrapbooking at all. I see her more as a lifestyle blogger rather than a scrapbooking-focused blogger. So why even review her blog? Well, she’s kind of a big deal in the scrapbooking industry. She has created quite a following through her idea books (such as, Creative Sketches for Scrapbooking) and her work at Creating Keepsakes.
During the month, she shared a file of one her sayings that readers could download for free and use in their home décor. I have seen her do this before, but I am unsure how often she shares these files.
Becky began February with a photo challenge. This is something else she does occasionally, but there does not appear to be any regularity to it (so if you wanted to follow the challenges specifically, you just have to keep coming back to the blog to find them). A few posts later, she shared some of the photos her readers had taken based on the challenge.
There were a couple of giveaways. One thing that sets Becky’s Blog apart from others that do giveaways is that she doesn’t necessarily devote a whole post just to the giveaway or just to the winners. The announcements for the giveaway and the winners often appear in posts about other topics.
There were a couple of posts about Project Life – Amber Edition, which is her product line. There were photos of reader-submitted photos of them with their kit. Becky also wrote a post about how she used the digital version of her kit to create a scrapbook of one whole year of her life in one day.
Overall, Becky’s Blog is a nice place to go if you want to find out how streamline your scrapbooking (by doing Project Life) or home décor. Becky’s Blog is not really a blog about scrapbooking. It is a lifestyle blog with a smattering of scrapbooking thrown in. If you want to read a blog with an explicit-scrapbooking focus, there are better options out there. That being said, if you are a Project Lifer, then you should probably be reading Beckys’ Blog.

Publishers and Authors

If you are a publisher or an author and would like me to review your scrapbooking-related book or blog, please email me at stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com.

Stephanie

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Scrapbooking is Relaxing and Fun (Purpose of Scrapbooking)

Each Wednesday, I write a post that is from my dissertation.

Last week, I introduced a few purposes of scrapbooking. It should come as no surprise that all of my respondents talked about how they found scrapbooking to be relaxing, fun, or both. Scrapbooking was an enjoyable hobby and made them happy to do it. For some, this was the only reason they scrapbook. Others consider their hobby an addiction or a passion (more on this in a later post). Many view scrapbooking as a way to express their self or use it as a creative or artistic outlet. Finally, my respondents emphasize that scrapbooking is not supposed to be stressful, but is supposed to be a stress reliever and if a scrapbooker finds it stressful, then they need to take a step back and figure out why it is stressful and why they are scrapbooking.
Related posts:


Stephanie

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Should Scrapbook Magazines Be Treated Like Fashion Magazines?

One complaint from scrapbookers and a reason why some people stop scrapbooking is because of the high expectations they perceive are placed on them by scrapbooking magazines and idea books. Common complaints about the layouts in magazines are that:

  • The layouts contain mostly product instead of photographs or the story.
  • The layouts only have one or two photos or the photos have been resized to smaller sizes than most scrapbookers use.
  • The layouts demonstrate techniques that are not real practical.
  • Every layout should be publishable quality.

In sum, the layouts in magazines are just not realistic.
The response from the industry that I have heard and have read on more than one blog, is that scrapbook magazines should be treated like fashion magazines. Very few people really believe they could ever attain the stylish looks presented in fashion magazines, so why would a scrapbooker think that all of their scrapbook layouts should like those published in scrapbooking magazines.
I disagree with this assessment. Scrapbook magazines are similar to fashion magazines in that they present cultural ideals of life. But, there is one huge difference. Most of the layouts published in scrapbook magazines were created by regular people. Most fashion spreads are designed by professionals. I have never seen a call from Elle, Vogue, or any other fashion magazine for readers to submit photographs of their fashionable outfits. Scrapbook magazines do rely on their readers to provide the bulk of the content in their magazines. Creating Keepsakes has elevated regular scrapbookers to their Scrapbooking Hall of Fame or declared them Scrapbooker of the Year. I do not know of any fashion magazine that does anything like this.
In this context, regular scrapbookers are the people creating the layouts in the magazines. Regular scrapbookers have every right to be angry at magazines that do not publish examples of layouts that most people can easily and regularly replicate. Regular scrapbookers have every right to get frustrated by what is published. That being said, I think if scrapbookers don’t like the system, then they should change it. Cancel your subscription if every time you read a scrapbook magazine it makes you feel bad about your scrapbooking or makes you want to stop scrapbooking. Start your own blog and self-publish your layouts. You don’t need a scrapbook magazine to validate your scrapbooking. If your goal is scrapbooking fame, you can gain that in other ways. Think big. Think about why you are scrapbooking. Ignore the critics, including your internal critic.

Stephanie

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Scrap Happy: Child-Free Edition (File Under Remember Love)

This entry is part 14 of 66 in the series My Scrap Happy Project

Each Monday, I discuss my Scrap Happy project based on Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun.

As I was writing last week’s post, I realized that all of the ways I have suggested to show proofs of love involve my daughter. I have not always had my daughter. I became a scrapbooker long before I ever considered having children.
So what’s a scrapbooker to do if they don’t have children? How might they give proofs of love?
Well, they could do the tasks I already have mentioned, only about them instead of a child. Don’t you think that your parents might want an updated photograph of you every now and then? Maybe you have nieces and nephews. Don’t you think they might want an updated photograph of their awesome aunt or uncle? Or photographs from your adventures as a child-free person? Maybe you are the family photographer, so you have lots of photographs from various family events. You could put these on a cd-rom and share with the family members that might be interested in these events.
Having a child makes it easy for me to see how I could give proofs of love to other family members, but it is definitely possible to do similar tasks without children.
Related Posts:


Stephanie

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This Week on Scrapworthy Lives: February 19, 2011

Each Saturday, I provide a compilation of links from the week’s posts.

7 Ways to get more out of Scrapworthy Lives:
1. Subscribe by RSS. Click on the RSS button (in the upper left corner) and you can receive all of Scrapworthy Live’s posts in your RSS feeder.
2. Comment. I would love to hear from you! Join the discussion by commenting.
3. Become a fan of Scrapworthy Lives on Facebook.
4. Follow scrapworthy on Twitter.
5. Join the Email List so you never miss a post! You will receive no more than two emails a week from this list. Subscribers will be the first to learn about any new products and promotions at Scrapworthy Lives.
6. Email me your questions and suggestions. Email me at stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com or contact me here (http://www.scrapworthylives.com/contact-me/) and let me know what you’re thinking, what you’d like to see, and any questions you might have. I will personally respond to your emails and may use your questions in future articles.
7. Share a great article you find with your friends. Tweet it, facebook it (is that a real expression?), email it, save it and so on. Just look at the link at the bottom of each article to share it in the way that suits you best. I appreciate it!

Stephanie

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Scrapweb: February 18, 2011 Edition

Here are the best links from the web for the week:

Simple Ways to Create Hybrid Scrapbook Pages shows readers exactly what it says it will. I have only made a handful of truly hybrid scrapbook pages. Most of my pages are all conventional. I rarely even type my journaling anymore. What about you? Do you hybrid scrapbook?

9 Unmissable Photographic Accessories for Your Mobile shares with readers several accessories you might not have thought of to really get the most out of your photographs on your mobile phone.

If you own a lot of inks, here is a great tip for Keeping Track of Your Inks: Make Your Own Ink Swatch Ring from Get it Scrapped!

A Scrapbook by Any Other Name…A Rant by Lain Ehmann sums it up well. I’ll let you read it for yourself.


Stephanie

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The Show Notes for The Paperclipping Roundtable Episode PRT057: The Closet Trendsetter

I am a fan of The Paperclipping Roundtable, a podcast devoted to conversation about scrapbooking and the scrapbooking industry. One thing that listeners occasionally ask (both The Paperclipping Roundtable and it’s sister show, The Paperclipping Digi Show is about having more extensive write-ups about each episode. Each time the response, is that the shows producer and hosts really do not have time to provide this in addition to their other work. They do provide links to the picks of the week and information about any sponsors, but that’s about it.

Many listeners patiently wait for new episodes to post and listen immediately. New listeners often listen to older episodes in addition the new episodes. Some listeners listen to episodes more than once.

This week, I thought that I would try something new. I often take notes during the show anyway, especially if it relates to my research in some way. I thought, why not take notes that could be shared with other listeners of the Paperclipping Roundtable? So here are my notes from The Paperclipping Roundtable episode PRT057, The Closet Trendsetter.
The Guests
This week’s guests are Wendy Smedley, Angie Lucas, Nancy Nally, and Noell Hyman. Nancy and Noell are the shows hosts. Both Wendy and Angie have been on as guests in the past. I am not linking to any of the guests or hosts because you can get those links through The Paperclipping Roundtable’s blog.
Introduction
In today’s show, Nancy Nally took the lead hosting duties. The discussion began with a brief commentary on how difficult it was for Nancy to select her CHA hot picks. Angie and Noell also talked about how they process the new products at CHA. Angie is able to let it percolate and think about after CHA. Noell has to think fast on the spot because she provides video coverage from the show floor. The biggest challenge at this year’s show was that there were not as many buzz-worthy products.
The Male Reads the Mail
Question 1: The first reader question asked about how do the guests decide what to buy for your own personal use compared to what the trends are. Nancy says it is fairly simple. She looks at CHA like it is the worlds biggest scrapbook store so she uses the same system she would use in any scrapbook store. She asks herself, what are the things I actually use? Wendy thinks about what are the things that I can not seem to find or wish that I had. Angie decides that if the item still excites her by the time it is available to consumers, then she buys it. Noell thinks about the learning curve. If she doesn’t have time to learn how to use product, then she most likely will not purchase it. Izzy (the producer) mentions that even then, he might still make a purchase if there is a promo code. Both Nancy and Noell stress that they think about how they might use the product and that they buy what they love.
Question 2: How does metadata transfer with photographs? So if a photo is emailed, does the metatdata go with it? Noell wrote a blog post recently about using metadata, which I can not find to link to right now. Overall, you should assume that the metadata will stay with the photograph. If you use Flickr, the metadata will upload with your photograph. Be careful here. This means that anyone can see your metadata if you photos are publicly available.If you use facebook, the metadata is stripped from the photos when they upload. For the most part, you have to strip the metadata from the photo in order for it to be removed.
Question 3: This was comment that Scrivener is coming to Windows.
Question 4: This was a comment from a listener about how she has been scrapbooking since 1994, finally became a Paperclipping subscriber, and has learned so much from the video tutorials.
Sponsor Message
Today’s sponsor is Big Picture Classes. The sponsor also has a giveaway to a class by Karen Grunberg. I did not catch the class name, but there will be a separate blog post on Paperclipping with more details about the giveaway.
Main Discussion
Nancy Nally, who runs Scrapbook Update, took the lead hosting duties during the discussion. Today’s topic is albums. She presents the case that the industry is moving more towards being project-centered instead of layout-centered. Being layout centered means that most scrapbookers do not put a lot of thought into album selection because the album is seen just as storage. Being project-centered means that the album is just as important of a component as the layouts. This transition stems from scrapbookers making stacks of layouts and never putting them in albums. The guests talked about how there are more albums today that can be decorated than there were in the past to prove their point. Personally, I disagree that albums have never been very important to scrapbookers. I spend a great deal of time selecting just the right album. The scrapbook industry has almost almost always had albums that could be personalized. For instance you can get Creative Memories albums engraved with a title. Other companies have produced albums with a window on the cover so you could put a title or a photo to decorate the cover. Wendy does talk about how there have been companies that offered albums that could have embroidered covers.
Angie mentioned that she has always been a project-centered scrapbooker. Noell talked about how she was a chronological scrapbooker but now practices the Library of Memories (LOM) system. Now that she uses LOM, she does sometimes end up with a stack of layouts because she has to think for a minute about which album it should go into.
The discussion of album covers led to a discussion of page protectors. They say there are more varieties of page protectors now. You can get page protectors that hold layouts or protectors that are more like photo sleeves. For instance, American Crafts now has photo sleeves that are 6x 12.
They talked about how consumer demand for gimicky page protectors is usually small, so alternatives have existed before but they tend to fade away. Wendy (I think) mentioned SEI’s Preservation Series as an alternative album type and there was a brief discussion of the different album styles, which I have wrote about on this blog before here.
The guests then identified a couple of products they would like to see more of produced. First, they want more color/fabric combination in albums. They also want to see more album or page protector styles that completely protect the page. One of the guests (I missed which one) complained about how dust and dog hair finds its way into her top-loading page protectors. They talked about the box style of scrapbook albums and how they were not always in the most stylish color so they were not much of an option right now. I agree and would add that the box style scrapbooks are problematic if you need to get everything in an album. I used one of these for my pregnancy journal and I really have 2 or 3 too many page protectors. It is a struggle every time I close the album to get it closed. They work better for more open ended projects, where continuing your story into another album is more feasible or for smaller projects.
Wrap-Up
Noell shared a coupon code for The Very Basics with Katrina Kennedy, a photography class from Get It Scrapped.
Picks of the Week
I am not going to go over their picks of the week because they have links to the picks of the week in the blog post for this episode.
Where Can You Be Found
I am also not going over this segment because they have links to where each of the guests can be found in the blog post for this episode.
Closing (from me not the episode)
Well, that’s this week’s episode! I can’t make any promises that I will ever do this again. This took a great deal of time and I am not sure how many people really want the show notes. I’ll have to think about it. I also was never authorized by anyone from the Paperclipping Roundtable to do this, so they could be really mad that I did. I hope you enjoyed the notes. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Stephanie

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