It Was 20 Years Ago Today...

[pbp908]

When Sargeant Pepper taught the band to play.

Sorry, couldn't help myself. In actuality, it was Jan. 25, but "20 today" reminded me of that song that's older than I want to think about!

Pam posted a memory from 20 years ago today on FB, so I pulled out my album for that year to take a trip down memory lane.

The most interesting thing was seeing how much the boys have grown and changed. I did have to cringe a bit at the sticker sneezes and the photos cropped into shapes. Going through the album I could see my tastes changing, but it moved from stickers to paper piecing.

So what was the memory? If you didn't see her post, it was a huge snowstorm that moved quickly through the State. We had over 12" this far south, and RDU recorded over 23". The forecast was for 1"-3", which goes to show that the meteorologists aren't infallible. Most of the State was at a standstill.

Now I want to pull out all of my older albums and take a walk through the past for just a little while.

[pamcook]

What a week that was. Thank goodness we had a 4WD vehicle. Joel was out checking on our elderly neighbors and giving rides to folks walking to and from the stores. Some grocerys were actually open for a few hours - until they ran out of anything to sell. It was a good 4 or 5 days before trucks were able to get here to deliver. I worked at Duke at the time. They sent out deputies and Duke vehicles to pick up hospital employees. Getting home was your own headache. We (nurses) were told we could sleep in any bed we could find but physicians had priority. After that debacle, they tried to get staff to sign up to transport staff in an emergency. At our own risk. Um, no. Not on my insurance! Schools were closed for quite a while. I realize that amount of snow won't paralyze a lot of areas in the US - but with no snow removal equipment and no preparation - it was bad! We learned a lot from H. Fran and this snow storm.

20 years ago. Really?

[Keitha]

You're right Pam, having the right equipment to deal with the situation makes all the difference. Not sure if you've been seeing the news or posts down there, but Newfoundland suffered an unprecedented winter storm on the weekend dumping as much as 36" of snow in one day in some places. With snow drifts as high as 15' or more because of the winds, Facebook abounds with photos of people opening their front doors to a literal wall of snow - and some enterprising folks have turned those snow banks into beer fridges. Open your front door, retrieve a beer.

Pam P, I'm a big fan of occasionally looking through my old scrapbooks. I know some people never do, but I always enjoy seeing how the kids have grown and things have changed, as well as how my style has evolved in some areas and stayed the same in others. My first scrapbook dates back to the era of shaped photos as well, although fortunately I completely missed the tear bears craze.

[pbp908]

Keitha, I've seen some of those photos as well as time lapse videos of the snow accumulating. Nope nope nope. I love snow but that's a lot more than I want to deal with. My sister and her family had 36"+ snows in Connecticut a few times, but there were no huge wind drifts. I have photos of them up to their waist trying to dig their driveway out and them on the roof pushing the snow off before it collapsed. I'm very happy with the 2-4" we might get on a good year - the leaf blower handles that just fine.

[Monica]

Even in my state snow can shut down parts of it. The west side comes to a standstill with 3-4" of snow, while on my side we send out the snowplows and use 4WD.

Looking back at my first albums makes me laugh and cringe. When I first started scrapping around 1997/1998 a 12x12 paper or album wasn't really even a thing, and I never thought I'd switch to 12x12 when it started becoming popular. I think it was 2008ish before I finally accepted and embraced 12x12 entirely, and now the trend is planners and 6x8 mini books!

There were a lot of fun techniques I tried on those old pages, some insane amounts of cropping and shaped things, and some pages that even now I still love for the look. I still own the alphabet templates that will turn photos into 3" letters to spell out a word. Used them for 2 different beach layouts (one of sunsets and the other daytime beach shots) and those pages I'm still proud of. I got involved in a CM group for a few years and did wavy paper strip embellishments on pages (still have that trimmer too). There was a forum called the School of Scrap, with monthly 'school' assignments and event crops now and then that stretched my creative muscles and made some unique and special pages as well.

It's fun to walk down memory lane for both the memories and style used to scrap. The one thing I really wish hadn't been embraced was my mom using shape templates on my baby pictures for the scrapbook she made me... those 2x2" pictures were already small to begin with! And for whatever reason she used really bright cardstock as the base for all of them. (I need a facepalm emoji here) But they were done with love, and will always be a treasure simply because of that.

[pbp908]

I started out with CM like so many did. Then I discovered there was a LSS 20 miles away. No looking back but there's a lot of paper piecing from that time.

I did discover one thing today after going back through those older albums - I absolutely cannot stand those old strap hinge and post bound albums. Some of them are coming apart and a lot of them have pages that I've done that need to be inserted. Darned if I'm tearing them apart to do it. They're all going to be replaced with D-ring albums but that's going to be over time as so many have to be replaced.

I made it through to the 2012 album. I'd forgotten how blonde and curly Chris' hair was.

Only 8 more years to go through!

[Monica]

I'm firmly in the D ring category myself. I have a couple CS postbound albums, and 2 Disney themed ones that I wish I could convert to D ring, but beyond that I simply refuse. The CS are leather, but the floppiness may annoy me enough to replace them anyway someday.

Enjoy your stroll down memory lane!

[Keitha]

Did anyone else do mosaic pages, where you cut your photo into 1" squares and merged the edges of several together? I did a couple that way - of course I didn't have access to the cardstock with the lines printed on it to make lining up your photos easy, so meticulously measured everything with a ruler to get the spacing correct. Eventually with online shopping I did get a couple pieces of that cardstock - they're probably still in my stash somewhere LOL.
I know I'm in the minority as I am on several scrappy issues, but I don't like D-ring albums. Yes, it's easy to add and move pages. But the cons far outweigh the pros IMHO; the huge gap in 2-page spreads of which I have a majority, the ton of extra space they take on the shelf, and just how binderish they are - I'm not a fan. I know they can hold more pages than postbound albums but if you fill them they weigh even more than a full postbound album - and are just as prone to the rings springing open and dumping your pages all over when they're full if not handled carefully. My shelves are a mix of postbound and D-ring, with one precious WRMK linen-covered album that's sort of a cross between the two. How I wish I'd stocked up on those. I have almost as many different album covers as I do albums - the exception being multiple volumes of one album where I try to use matching ones - and I don't ever see me replacing them. I do plan however to eventually get to the Great Album Reorganization project that's on my list; in recent years I've gone astray with my regular albums and they need a good sort. I don't store pages chronologically because if I'm looking for a specific layout I'd have no clue what year it's from, but my objective is to be able to put my hands on the correct album in which to find it.

[katymjo]

I prefer post-bound albums too, Keitha, both 12x12 and 8x8.
I have a D ring binder for our Ammonite Quilters, where I keep the layouts from our quilt shows, and it's so heavy!
What do you all use as your "base layer" for your layouts, paper or cardstock?

[Monica]

What do you all use as your "base layer" for your layouts, paper or cardstock?

Both! It's dictated by the photos I'm scrapping and whether I'm pulling from the stack of ALSB pages I'm trying to use up or my pretty PP.

[jmp1022]

I like post bound albums too.
I have 3 D ring that come apart all the time- hate that

[pbp908]

I've never had a D ring come apart on me, and a few of them are stuffed.

My base for LOs is cardstock. The only time I use anything lighter is when I'm using it as a base for something else that's in smaller pieces that becomes a full page background. Ex - using 4 6x6 pieces to create my background. Did that make sense?

[mpizzazz]

I'm 100% in the postbound album group for the reasons Keitha stated! I hate D rings and the way you can't turn the pages smoothly but have to move each one over the 'hump' of the D ring. I need to replace a few of my oldest ones, 8.5 x 11", done before 12 x 12" came along! If anyone has any they don't want, let me know what colors you have. I don't know if they still make them.

Yes, Keitha, i did several of those 1" mosaic pages. I loved doing them! I made my own 12 x 12" page of little squares, drawing all the little boxes for planning the arrangements. I just pulled it out of a pile of stuff this morning and decided it could go into the recycling. Anyone want it to start a mosaic revival, !

Kathryn, I used whatever paper suited the photos, I never cared if it was heavy or thin since it was going into a page protector anyway.

[Keitha]

...What do you all use as your "base layer" for your layouts, paper or cardstock?

To begin with I always used patterned paper for backgrounds which I thought made the layouts more interesting, although somehow acquired a box full of cardstock. But it didn't take long before I declared I Could Live In A World Without Cardstock; I'd occasionally buy a sheet of specialty cardstock, but knowing I didn't use it for backgrounds kept me from buying much. Then when I started scrapping my Route 66 trip decided I wanted a different, fresher look, and finally jumped on the white cardstock bandwagon. While I do the occasional page with large pieces of background paper, I consistently put white cardstock on every page. It's one element that ties the album together, as my paper choices are as varied as possible. With the exception of that album which I'm still working on, I'm mostly inclined to reach for patterned paper. Now if I start with a cardstock base it's a neutral colour. I still have that box of rainbow-hued cardstock, and rejoice every time I use a sheet for a card base or die-cut; I'm frequently needing to trim the outside edges which have faded over time, and think nothing of recycling the scraps.

[paddlegal]

Not being much of a scrapper these days, I am enjoying this conversation. My scrapping career (not) began with the birth of Charley in 1994. When he was about 3 months old I went to a “Moms” group meeting to listen to a CM demonstrator/mom and try out a page with some photos. I HATED IT! I especially disliked the post bound/strap albums. Frustrated the H out of me. I gave it a number of tries that year but still hated the look of stickers and cutesy cut out photos and shapes. I soon however discovered stamping and card making and that made me happy.

Fast forward to about 2006 when I discovered CS! Well that changed everything and off I went ALSBing like a mad woman. I also realized I could use D ring binders...what a difference that made for me. I’m still not caught up and never will be. Then I got burned out with the CS scrapping contests and have done next to no scrapping since 2011.

I do understand the attraction to post bound albums. They definitely make a double spread look terrific. But they way I scrap, when I scrap, D ring makes more sense for me.