Scrap YOU!

No, i've not gone postal, cursing you all off. Today's topic is indeed scrapping yourself. I chose this topic today, actually after seeing some comments on a message board talking about how hard it was to scrap pictures of yourself on a layout. Now, i immediately replied, "What?? i scrap myself constantly!" but upon further thought, I do acknowledge there was a time when i'd not even considered including myself in my pages. It wasn't until a wise woman shared a thought with me that changed my point of view on this topic. She said something along the lines of, wouldn't you like to know what your grandmother or great grandmother's biggest struggle was, what her family like was like. What her favorite ice cream flavor was?? And indeed as one who struggles now with Genealogy, i could reply to that question with a resounding YES! I'd love to know that, and more! I'd gladly devour whatever information i could get about my relatives. I think for me i'm at a time in my life where i'd really like to know where i came from. But i'm sure others who don't share that concern could relate as well. Generations from now, i can say with surety, MY descendants will have all the info they'd ever want to know about me, (and them some!) and i think that's awesome!

I hope you are convinced that you NEED to include yourself in your scrapping! IF so, what are some ways you can do that? First, start by making sure your husband, or friend or children or parents or whomever are taking pictures of you! its unpleasant, especially to those of us who are especially self conscious, but its worth it!
Scrap yourself in your family pics! Someday your children will be just as excited to see YOU in the pages as they will themselves. The thing is, many of us, myself included have issues with our looks, our weight (ME!) various bodily features, etc. But is that reason enough to deny our loved ones the chance to see their wife, mother, sister, etc. in print? NO way! I may be overweight, getting old, not nearly as cute as i used to be but SO WHAT??? I'm a valuable person! i'm raising 5 children, i have a husband who loves me! My life is an amazing success and its WORTH celebrating, and i'm not willing to let extra fat or wrinkles get in the way of that! What if you died tomorrow. Have you left behind happy memories for your children INCLUDING you? have you left behind a peice of YOU for posterity? I hope so!

Once you become comfortable with being in family pics, the next step is to make a book just about you! Some things you could include are pictures of you from childhoood, how you felt at that time, what you enjoyed doing, what your family was like. Include special times in your life like graduation, marraige, having children, but also more basic mundane things too, like what music you listened to, what movies you watched, etc.

When i reached that point of wanting to start scrapping myself, i started with a simple "book of me" i cut 2 peices of pink cardstock down to 9x8 and punched 3 holes in the sides, measuring to make them even, I added 3 loose rings and voila! a book of me. (just a note about the images in this post. Since i am using so many i made them medium instead of large. You can click on the pictures for more detail if you'd like!)



That worked for a while but soon it started to get really really PACKED! i then decided to cut the excess off the pages and put them in a regular 8x11 album, more easily expandable that way. Now, i'm doing my "me" pages in 12x12 format and including them in my heritage album, which is my book about individual times that don't fit well into a Chronological album, about our family's philosophies, etc. Its definately a work in progress!!

Here's some pages i've done through the years....















RESOURCES:

http://www.scrapyourstories.com/
http://www.scrapjazz.com/topics/Themes/About_Me/108.php
http://angiepedersen.typepad.com/book_of_me_shop/
http://angiepedersen.typepad.com/
http://www.scrapbook.com/tips/tech/224.html