4 Big Myths About Scrapbooking

I love scrapbooking and I have a singular obsession with it. I am somewhat amazed that for the many years I've been doing it (over ten years digital scrapbooking and basically my whole life paper scrapbooking) I have not yet tired of it. In fact I think I love it even more today than I have in the past. Part of the reason for this is that in the last few years I've really been able to focus in on what I love and do more of it. What's helped me make this breakthrough was identifying certain myths that were informing what I thought I should be doing. Since it was such an important part of my creative journey, I thought I'd take some time to collect some common scrapbooking myths (thanks to everyone who helped me!). Hopefully taking some time to consider your own creative journey in the light of these myths will help bring you to a new level of creativity.

Once I started thinking about the myths of scrapbooking, it turned out there were a lot! In today's post I'm going to focus on the big idea myths of scrapbooking. In my next post I'll focus on the nitty-gritty myths of scrapbooking.

1. You don't have to be a heritage scrapbooker.
Most of the literature and people talking about scrapbooking are coming at it from a place of creating something to pass on. It took me a long time to realize you don't have to scrapbook to create an heirloom. It seems somewhat silly at first glance to admit that I'm not creating and saving these scrapbooks for the future. But the truth is that I'm interested in the patterns and the colors and the embellishments. I like layering papers and adding flowers. I like including photos because I like looking at my photos. I care about creating in the moment and not really what happens to my pages after that. It's totally okay to create something for the sake of creating it. It doesn't have to have purpose or be given a place of honor (or even space in the closet).

Being freed from the heirloom myth means I can make scrapbooks that won't stand the test of time (neither my junk journals nor my travelers notebooks feel like they have much lasting abilities) and I don't have to do stuff I don't like doing, like journaling.

2. You don't have to keep everything you make.
For me one of the biggest realizations was that I could throw my stuff away. I'm a very prolific scrapper and the thought of drowning in scrapbooks and notebooks was actually keeping me from making anything. Once I realized I could get rid of them if I wanted, I started making a lot more stuff.

3. You don't have to scrapbook for your kids.
When I meet new people and they find out that I basically make scrapbooks for a living they will often tell me their guilty secret, which is that they haven't made a scrapbook for their child. I always find this a bit comical since the whole reason I scrapbook is because my mother also did not make me a scrapbook. Scrapbook what you want. It doesn't have to be your kids. Or don't scrapbook if you don't want to. Life is short and scrapbooking should not be attached to guilt. Make what you want to make.

4. You don't need kids to scrapbook.
Another invasive myth is that you need kids to scrapbook. Since I started scrapbooking as a teenager it never bothered me that I didn't have kids to scrapbook, but I can certainly see how most images from the scrapbooking community would lead you to believe that having kids was important to scrapbooking. Children are certainly a common topic for scrapbook pages, but certainly not the only one.

Basically what it comes down to is that there's no right way to scrapbook. Pay attention to what you like doing and what motivates you to create a scrapbook. That's a lot more important than any scrapbook ideals you may have picked up along the way. What myths have you believes over the years about scrapbooking?