Contributors

Tangie Baxter, Studio Tangie

As time seems to speed on ever faster, I love having the fleeting thoughts and glimpses at moments long gone preserved on paper. It’s amazing how seeing something you created brings back all the feelings you had at the time you made it. From the perspective of an art journaler it’s not about the finished product, but the journey through the creation of each of the pages that really touches me.

Kerri Bradford, Kerri Bradford Studio

My most favorite part of the memory keeping process is ‘sketching’ out my page on my computer using Illustrator or Silhouette. Both avenues allow me to layout my page, choose colors, and adjust sizes to simplify my process. I can get everything exactly how I want before even pulling out a sheet of paper. I’m all about simplifying. I like my my pages simply done with a bit of character. I’d much rather spend more time making memories than spend excess time preserving it.

Lexi Bridges, Prone to Wander

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is that there is no right or wrong way to do it. Not only are you able to preserve moments, but you can do it in as much of a creative way as you want and there are no rules. If it works for you and you like the outcome, then it’s perfect!

Joscelyne Cutchens, BossyJoscie

My most favorite party of the memory keeping process is nudging the papers around until it looks like the picture in my head.

Catherine Davis, Design Editor

The ability to combine two of my greatest passions: My family and design.

Patty Debowski, The Digital Scrapbook Teacher

Lisa Dickinson, Gettin’ By

Favorite part of the memory-keeping process: Seeing my family enjoy my creations.

Karla Dudley

What I love most in the process of preserving memories is choosing the photos. Yes, I love going through my gallery of family pictures and viewing them full size. Each one brings back that moment and exactly how I felt when I took the shot. Each picture has a story and it’s simply up to me to choose which one I want to tell. Looking through our photos is looking at life to me. Little pieces of life that are uniquely us.

Lain Ehmann, Layout a Day

My favorite part of the memory-keeping process is actually MAKING the memories with my family and friends!

Leah Farquharson, Bluebird Chic

I’m going to have to be completely honest and say that my most favorite part of memory keeping is the creativity. I love working with colors,patterns, photos, mediums and all of the little bits and pieces that go into making a page special. The documenting portiois icing on the cake for me. (And I think we all know that the icing is the most important part, right?)

Karen Grunberg, karenika

Getting to relive life’s little moments.

Jenni Hufford, The Hufford House

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is the fact that I feel as if I can freeze as special moment in time. Time goes by so fast, and in a strange way, documentation helps me to savor those moments and see time stand still on a page.

Donna Jannuzzi, ecclesia domestica

My favorite part of the scrapbooking process is working with paper and designing pages. I love patterned paper, as is evident when looking at my layouts, and choosing papers that help tell and enhance the stories present in my family’s photographs is the most exciting part of the process for me.

Amanda Jones, Amanda Jones Designs

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is the creative design aspect. Don’t get me wrong, I completely value the memories I am saving and stories I’m documenting but, for me, nothing beats losing myself in a pile of pretty papers, paints and embellishments. I love the process of designing my page and seeing it come to life.

Mandy Koeppen

My favorite part of the memory keeping process has to be looking through the photos for the first time as they are uploaded to the computer from the camera. I love seeing what I have been able to capture whether it was meant to be seen or I just caught that lucky moment without knowing it. This all sparks the beginning of stories I want to document.

Riika Kovasin, Paperiliitin

My most favorite part of the process is playing around with different paint media! Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy taking photos, journaling and looking at the finished page storing a memory, but the self creating takes the process to another level. I can enjoy and play and create something meaningful at the same time.

Kami Leonard, Ziggle Designs

While I really love the entire memory-keeping process from start to finish, my very favorite part is the final result, whether it is a printed layout, an album or a collection of videos. I just love having something to share with my family & friends.

Amy Mallory, Snap & Scrap

I love to design and decorate daily, but my most favorite part of the memory keeping process is savoring the small stuff – those tiny little things that most people wouldn’t notice. I savor the seconds when my son tucks my hair behind my ear when he talks to me or when my other son just grabs my hand for no reason when are walking through the mall. The beautiful thing about memory keeping is that you don’t take the small stuff for granted. It is also a beautiful thing that these moments can be visited over and over again through our memory keeping process.

Amy Martin

My most favorite part of the memory keeping process is the anticipation of the future enjoyment of a finished product. I love to revisit finished work, years later, and be taken immediately back to the moment that is documented.

Ann-Marie Morris, Ann-Marie Loves Paper

I love the way memory-keeping makes everyday life feel like a scavenger hunt. Instead of just blindly moving through my days, I am actively seeking out ways to capture a moment. Whether it’s ticket stubs, receipts, shopping lists or stopping to take a photo of my surroundings, I am forever collecting the bits + pieces of life that contribute to my ongoing story.

Céline Navarro, The Green Frog Studio

When I look back on the layouts or mini albums I made the last years, they help me remember how lucky I am for this life. Lucky and blessed. They remind me that life is beautiful, that my life, my loved ones’ lives are beautiful.

Kelly Purkey

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is playing with supplies and getting to feel like an artist. I love giving myself the creative freedom to just try new things and new products. Getting my fingers inky, having fun with colors, or layering stickers upon stickers just makes me feel like a happy little kid in art class again.

Krista Sahlin, Sahlin Studio

My favorite part to the memory keeping process is being able to store away all of these memories to enjoy again on another day. Often my kids and I will snuggle up on the couch and look back at things we’ve done, funny things that were said, how we’ve grown and changed.

Linda Sattgast, Digital Scrapper

My favorite part of scrapbooking is savoring the journey. I really don’t like to hurry. I like to take my time, though I don’t always have that luxury. And the final savoring of the finished page, when I’m totally satisfied with it, is the sweetest of all!

Cindy Schneider, Designs by Cindy Schneider

My favorite part is the reward of watching my children look through the finished albums and enjoy the layouts that I have put the time into creating. It makes me so happy seeing them read the journaling and reminisce over the photos, it definitely makes the whole scrapbooking process all worth it.

Elisha Snow, Elisha Snow Photography

The photos of course! My goal for memory keeping is to be able to capture photos in a way that tell a story and convey emotion all on their own. I’m a super simple scrapbooker, using minimal supplies and making my layouts all about the PHOTOS!

Amy Sorensen, The English Geek

Plain and simple, I love writing. This is true in all parts of my life, but perhaps nowhere else more so than with scrapbooking. Retelling and revisiting stories, adding details not apparent in photos, or noting the things I want people to know when I am not here to tell them myself: these and all other aspects of journaling are my favorite part of scrapbooking. In fact, if there was no such thing as journaling, I’d have to go ahead and invent it, because I believe that it is the stories that make our albums live.

Jill Sprott, Use Your Words

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is knowing that every page is an investment — in myself, in the moment, in my family, in memory. The creative process involves a lot of play, but it is also important work that we do when we decide to document that which matters most to us.

Wendy Smedley

Laura Vegas

I love the creative process that I go through as I’m recording our family’s memories. I love searching for photos that I want to scrap, digging through my supplies to find the perfect patterned papers and embellishments to use, and then sitting and playing with my favorite tools and and trying out new techniques. And when I’m doing playing with paper and adhesive, I have layouts upon layouts that record our memories and everyday life that my family can enjoy looking through in our albums.

Allison Waken

Making and re-living the memories! I love that through the process of memory-keeping all the sights, smells, sounds, and visions of the day are all brought together in my head putting a smile on my face and heart.

Crystal Wilkerson, Crystal Wilkerson Designs

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is that it reminds me to be grateful for all that I have…especially the relationships in my life. When I think about the memories that I want to record for my children, it’s those sweet little conversations & the funny things they say. I want them to remember the tender mercies that we receive & the friendships we’ve made throughout the years. Memory keeping is a way of waking up to life & saying thank you for the journey.

Jennifer S. Wilson, Simple Scrpper

I love seeing how words and beautiful supplies can elevate a photo to something magical and truly honor a great memory.

Cheryl Ashcraft, Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs

My favorite part of the process is the middle. What I mean by that is I’ve moved beyond the blank canvas in creating my layout and my page is filled with papers and elements and sometimes even photos at this point. In my mind’s eye, I can visualize the final version of the page and it makes me excited to continue with my page design and see the final product.

Anna Aspnes, aADesigns

Looking back on years past and remembering the details that would otherwise be forgotten.

Katie Clemons, Gadanke + Making This Home

I believe an incredible thing happens when we pause to celebrate our stories. IT GIVES US MEANING. The ordinary starts to feel downright awesome.

Elise Blaha Cripe, eliseblaha.typepad.com

I am a paper collector and I love when I find a project to finally use the perfect pattern or card I’ve been hanging on to for years. It’s extremely satisfying to find the perfect use for each piece.

Paula Gilarde, PaulaGilarde.com

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is probably the creative aspect – I like to record my memories in a creative way, be it through digital or paper means. I’ve been interested in crafts my whole life but scrapbooking is the one hobby that has taken hold – I only wish I had started sooner! It’s the combination of creating something beautiful (at least to me) along with preserving memories that makes it so appealing.

Sara Gleason, Plant Your Story

I love everything about storytelling..from the photos to the page design to the words. But it’s the words that move my heart most. I love preserving my thoughts and feelings in words, weaving a kind of personal narrative and acting as my family’s historian.

Michelle Hernandez, My Analog Life

I love developing my photographic skills, finding new ways to communicate my ideas and making friends. The scrapbook pages and Project Life Album are really an entry point into a community and I appreciate that almost as much as creating something that I can look on with pride and that my family and friends can look at later.

Debbie Hodge, Get It Scrapped

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is spending time with my photos as I make the page.

Katrina Kennedy, Capture Your 365

I LOVE capturing my families memories. My camera is a fourth family member accompanying us everywhere. When I decide to leave it at home my boys tell me it’s a bad idea! I love playing with settings, working on creative composition, and pushing my own limits.

Amy Kingsford, amykingsford.com

I love when it comes time to embellish my pages. Though capturing memories is my priority–scrapbooking really is quite therapeutic for me. It’s my time to be creative and express myself and I enjoy doing so through all of the embellishments that I use on my pages. Embellishing offers me a second chance to tell my story and to leave my mark on each and every page.

Cindy Liebel, Life As We Live It

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is using elements of texture and dimension, subtle or bold. I find inspiration in all sorts of places to carry out this process when creating my layouts, objects within the photos, such as, clothing, colors, etc. and even through the pattern paper I am creating with. I find that texture and dimension is quite appealing to the eye and really adds depth to the page design.

Crystal Livesay, Live Your Stories

I love feeling like I am bottling up my kids at these young ages so I never ever forget. I feel like it’s the closest thing to stopping time.

Angie Lucas, Ella Publishing Co. + angielucas.com

For me, nothing quite compares to revisiting the memories after they’ve been “kept.” And in fact, that’s my biggest productivity hurdle; once I sit down to scrapbook, if I start looking through past pages or journal entries, I get instantly lost in my memories. And while I have a wonderful time perusing the past, I’ll be lucky if I resurface in time to get any new experiences preserved.

Robyn Meierotto, pink trike design

My most favorite part of the memory keeping process is the flood of memories that comes back to you when looking through layouts/ albums. There are so many things you “think” you’ll remember, but don’t. Those layouts are so precious for just that reason.

CD Muckosky, cdmuckosky.com

I Love the way memory keeping opens my eyes and opens my heart; My photography, art and journaling makes me see all of the little treasures and moments I may otherwise pass by, and gives me the pause to truly enjoy them and be thankful for such incredible Blessings!

Nancy Nally, Scrapbook Update

I love playing with pattern and color in all forms. I fuss with the color in my photos. I like to spread all sorts of patterned papers out, and shuffle through them while I work, trying to find just the right color and patterns that work perfectly with all of the other elements that I’ve already selected. I’m even particular about the colors of the albums that house my layouts – to me the color sets a tone and gives them a personality.

Christine Newman, Listgirl Designs

My most favorite part of the memory keeping process is making the actual memories! Life is an adventure and I love getting out there and having fun!

Ashli Oliver (soapHOUSE mama), purplemailbox.com

I really enjoy reliving the moments and relishing in the joy they gave me, while also playing with creative ways to present the photo(s) and share my thoughts through journaling.

Amanda Padgett, Everyday Elements

Capturing moments in time that I will be able to look back on later with love and tenderness or laughter. Just as “the song remembers when” so does a photograph of a sweet moment.

Renee Pearson, ReneePearson.com

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is putting it all together in a meaningful way. I love to tell stories with my images. I’m not a great journaler, so I rely on my choice of imagery and designs to bring a memory to life again.

Elle Price, Elle’s Studio

Capturing those everyday moments, on paper, so that I can treasure them forever. It’s so easy to forget about all the little details of life! I love sitting down with my scrapbook and having all those memories come right back to me when I flip through the pages.

Heather Prins, Scrapping from the Heart

The absolute joy it brings me to record a story and relive a memory!

Traci Reed, Traci Reed Designs

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is the action of documenting the little things that I probably wouldn’t remember a few years from now. Things like nicknames, and the first jokes my kids told, the way my middle son used to make his “scrunchy face” as a baby instead of smile. I often look back at old scrapbook layouts and am reminded of things I have already forgotten.

Lauren Reid, One Story Down

I love watching my kids look through their albums and relive those moments… their smiles are priceless!

Amber Ries, Welcome to Grouchland

My favorite part is going back and reading the stories behind the pictures. It is amazing how much one forgets, I am so happy to have recorded as much as I have, and wish I had recorded more!

Kristin Rutten, Log Your Memory

I love when inspiration strikes… that moment when I’m watching my kids, reading a book or going for a run and I see or hear something I know I want to capture and share. That little spark totally gets my creative engine humming and very often leads me straight into some sort of memory-keeping activity, whether it’s grabbing my camera, jotting down ideas in a notebook and jumping on my computer for some scrapping.

Betsy Sammarco, just a pharmgirl

Adding that last embellishment to the layout that tells me the layout is finished and complete! Iʼll give my layout a smooch at that point! Why? Thereʼs a great sense of accomplishment when you finish a layout that tells your story and makes you happy just looking at it.

Jennifer Smith-Sloane, Live.Teach.Create

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is getting the story from the photographs and onto paper for others to see.

Jessica Sprague, JessicaSprague.com

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is what I call the “savoring” – I save things so I can savor them later. There’s a quote by Anais Nin, a memoirist, who said, “We write to taste life twice. Once in the moment and once in retrospection.” This is why I scrapbook. It’s why I take pictures. It’s why I look at my pages and albums and creations again and again – to taste my life again in retrospection.

Melissa L. Stinson, Scrappy Jedi

My favorite part of the memory keeping process is playing with color, pattern, and texture on my pages. For me scrapbooking is not so much about preserving memories and more about creative play, though I certainly don’t short my journaling!

Amy Tan, Amy Tangerine + Amy Tangerine Blog

I love reliving it while documenting. Not only do I love the process, but the fact that I have something tangible for years to come just brings me joy.

Tiffany Tillman, Simply Tiffany Studios

The opportunity to create drives my passion for the memory keeping process. If it wasn’t for the papers to pair with the photos or the fonts to illustrate my words, I would be perfectly happy documenting life in a photo album. But, thankfully, that’s not the case. Modern day scrapbooking transverses through many types of artistic mediums. I find solace in capturing my memories and sharing them in creative and unique ways.

Jennifer S. Wilson, Simple Scrpper

I love seeing how words and beautiful supplies can elevate a photo to something magical and truly honor a great memory.