Hi everyone, well this is a long with minimal photo blogpost today, I have tried to condense it the best I could, so I do hope you stay with me till the end!
We were recently contacted by a scrapbooker who was nervous about coming to one of our retreats on her own, and it got me thinking about my scrapbooking journey so far, and how it all started.
In 2006, I dipped my toe into card-making, attending a weekly workshop locally and loved my 2 hours a week crafting session. It’s at the same workshop that I met Julie, my best crafting buddy and my loveliest friend. After attending a ‘memory keeping’ class run by the lady who ran the card classes, I decided that I needed to find out more about this ‘thing’ called ‘scrapbooking’.
Sorry photograph not very good, but an early example of my card making!
So after purchasing several copies of Scrapbook Inspiration magazine and reading from cover to cover, I noticed a advert for a Retreat … a what ??? a Retreat … you mean people actually go away for a whole weekend and do pages of ‘memory keeping’ … WOW, now wouldn’t that be something …
Several chats to my hubby, and several times me saying ‘oh it’s not for me – but I really want to go’ etc., I eventually made the phone call to the organisers and booked it.
At this point, I hadn’t even done one page with any photographs on, let alone met anyone who had. So again back to the magazines to see if I could find a ‘crop’ … really ‘a crop’? I wondered what that would be like! Having found one locally to me, I went with my one packed bag, that contained everything I needed.
I went on my own not knowing what to expect, and said to myself if I don’t like it, I will stay an hour or so and come home… Honestly I could have stayed there all day and night, I loved it, and couldn’t wait till the following month to go again.
Then it was time to go to the ‘Retreat’… I was so nervous, but I knew I needed to find out what it was all about, and talk to people who had been doing ‘scrapbooking’ for a long time.
And the best of all, I would meet a designer who appeared in the Scrapbook Magazine that I was now subscribing to … I met Shimelle … what a lovely sweet person she is.
The ladies who ran this retreat were great in making me feel so welcome and then I worked out that there was a few other ladies who where there on their own as well, so we made a bee-line for each other and before long we were where chatting and laughing like we were old friends. One of these ladies was Sam, and we have been friends, crafting buddies and now business partners since that day in May 2008!
After the retreat, I decided that I needed to visit as many different crops/workshop as I could, just to see what was on offer, what others were doing, anything really, I just needed to get a ‘crafting fix’ every month. At one such crop/workshop I met Sheena. I was talking to someone about going to an upcoming retreat and Sheena said she was going to the same one. So another friendship was borne out of this crazy hobby called ‘scrapbooking’.
Photo taken in 2011 at a weekend friends retreat I’d organised in Shropshire.
Jump forward 9 years and now I’m on several design teams, I organise crafting weekend for a group of friends twice a year, and I’m a partner in a business that orgainses ‘Retreats’ … yes people actually stay in a hotel and craft all weekend … bliss.
I’ve made some amazing life long friends, some on-line friends, who I might not ever even meet as they are all around the UK and even abroad, but we all share this great love of scrapbooking.
One of my recent layouts
Its not all been plain sailing, and I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in getting this far, but I’ve kept going and I’m so glad I did.
This journey is one I’m so glad I took and looking forward to seeing where it will take me in the future.
Whats your journey?
Jackie xxxx
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