“Do You Remember?”
Hello everybody! Welcome to anyone new and good to see you again to those who have been here before. I realized over on the My Story page that I had started with my current situation and how long I have been scrapbooking but not why I started in the first place. It all comes back to the question “Do You Remember?”
Memories + Photos = Stories
Telling stories is what families do. Remembering, re-living, laughing and sometimes tattling on each other. As a kid, I remember any time all my extended family got together someone would start talking about a person, time or place, and inevitably ask the question, “Do you remember . . .?” Everyone would join in with their own memories and there was usually a lot of laughing and talking over each other.
Other times it would just be me & my grandmother and I would ask her to get the box of old pictures down from the top of the closet. We would sit and she would tell me who everyone was, how they were known or related and where the picture was taken. Some of them had names & dates written on the back but most did not. When you are little it never occurs to you that you may not remember who is who or that your elders won’t always be there to tell you the story behind the picture.
However, that’s exactly what happened in my life. I grew up and my grandmother passed away. I have always loved pictures and photo albums so I inherited the box of photos. The problem was I didn’t remember who everyone was, where or why the pictures were taken. And that is how my journey to scrapbooking began. I had my own photo albums and ticket stubs and brochures from vacations but they also didn’t have dates or any information written on them. I did not want what happened to my grandmother’s pictures to happen to mine, so I took the little bits and pieces I had collected to go with the photos and added the who, what, when & why. Throwing in all the pretty paper, stickers, and die cuts was just icing on the cake!
The thing about our photos today is there are so many ways to document our memories, from sharing on social media, journaling, digital photobooks or traditional scrapbooks. We all tell our stories in different ways but the important thing is we tell them. Make sure when someone looks through your photos they know who the people are and why they are important to you.
I am happy that when my family looks through my albums they will always know the stories behind the pictures. Everyone has a story, how do you tell yours? Please leave me a message or comment and let me know, I would love to hear from you!
Thanks for stopping by!
Machelle
-2 Comments-
I have always thought of scrapbooking but somehow never proceeded. Ur post has just motivated me to start right away. Beautiful post
Manju
http://www.mymindvoice.com
That’s awesome! Scrapbooking is great in that it can be as simple or involved as you want it to be. Just a small book with pictures and the who, what when, where & why or a big book with lots of journaling or art type pages. Just please don’t let yourself become overwhelmed if you are new to the hobby. Just pick one project or group of pictures you would like to tell a story about and do that first, then move to the next. If you get stuck and would like some guidance, please reach out & let me know. I would love to help!