"Are you caught up?" is something that I frequently hear in opening conversation when scrapbookers meet for the first time. I'm going to be honest; when I hear this question my heart breaks just a little bit.

Being the shutter bug that I am, I recently had my camera with me at my son's first soccer game of the season. It's hard for the other parents to not notice the 25 week pregnant lady on her knees at the goal with a zoom lens pointed at their children. Naturally, I was asked at the next practice if I was going to share the pictures.

Of course I would share & I confessed to the other Moms that I had taken 397 pictures but I was down to 100 so far. Met with bewildered looks I explained that I'm keeping several good series of other children because only a mother knows which face is "the face."

Our conversation turned to the fact that I am a scrapbooker & that is when one of the mothers said, "I am too! Except, I'm two years behind in both my kids' books so I don't really scrapbook anymore." She then told me, "that is why I don't take pictures anymore, because then I feel like I have to scrapbook them." This is when a piece of my heart broke. 

This guilt that we as scrapbookers place on ourselves is something that I was once intimately acquainted with. I did not break up with this guilt until I was a student in the 2008 Session of Library of Memories taught by Stacy Julian at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Stacy says that "Library of Memories is about igniting or reigniting your passion for scrapbooking." I agree with my whole heart.

The experience altered the course of my life. Before I took the class, I was so consumed with "have tos" that I was ready to give up the hobby I once loved. Now,I love this hobby more than when I began & I am serving as a trainer for the second time in the current session of Library of Memories. I count myself lucky to be able to work with Stacy & a group of scrapbookers that are ready to reclaim the joy of scrapbooking.

Inspired by my conversation at soccer practice I recently shared my soccer practice conversation & the following thoughts with the students in the 2010 Session of Library of Memories.

I wanted to tell her if I was worried about the guilt associated with how many pictures I take I would miss series of photos like this.

I am a shutter bug who prints more pictures from my highlight folders than I will scrapbook because I am emotionally attached to my pictures. Sometimes I print a series and only scrap a few but sometimes even after a year I'm still emotionally attached to the entire series. When I find myself inspired, not guilty, I tell the story.

I wanted to tell her that if I felt obligated to create a layout for every single day I took pictures I would bore myself.


As an eager first time mother I took pictures of every new food Garrett tried in the beginning. Before I implemented my Library of Memories, I would have scrapped each new food individually. I am so glad I hadn't made it to this set of pictures before I took this class. This one layout impacts me so much more than four individual ones would have.

I wanted to tell her that if I stopped taking pictures because I felt like I had to scrapbook them all in order that I wouldn't be able to look with perspective at how my son has changed.

If I had been caught up, I would have never been able to see the trend in my son's clothing. How quietly we shifted from him being a willing participant in dressing to a little boy developing his identity & expressing it in his clothing choices.

I wanted to tell her if I felt every picture had to have a purpose when I took it I wouldn't be able to tell stories that don't necessarily have a picture to go with them.


Pairing this random shot taken on an afternoon playing at the track field was the perfect little something where I had more words than pictures to tell my story.

I wanted to tell her that there is another way and I did. I am thrilled to report that I was able to share this message with my fellow soccer mom & she is borrowing my copy of Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian.

I am here to encourage you to go find your joy! It doesn't matter if we scrapbook digitally, traditionally, weekly, monthly, yearly, to express our inner artist, or to serve as our family's history. What does matter is that we let go of the guilt & celebrate that we each have a story to tell.  

You can read about my personal journey at my blog, Life Without Filters.

I'm excited to share some creations I made using more of the KiKi Art goodies featured here on The Daily Trumpet last week! (And visit my blog for a fun giveaway.)

These pictures were the perfect match for this paper & Donna Jannuzzi's Sketch from the first week of Six Weeks of Sketches. I adapted Donna's Sketch from 12x12 to 8.5x11, rotated it & played with the placement of the title and journaling. Since I live in a house of boys it was so much to work with pictures of my best friend's daughter.

Supplies: Patterned Paper (KiKi Art) + Cardstock (American Crafts & Stampin' Up!) + Chipboard Letters (American Crafts) + Font (Traveling Typewriter)

With Valentines Day just around the corner, I was excited when I saw the red, green & white glitter paper. I've had this unfinished clothespin in my project stash for years & thought it would be perfect to hold love notes between my husband & me. I painted the clothespin, used ModPodge to adhere the paper & added a few embellishments. 

Supplies: Patterned Paper (KiKi Art) + Cardstock (American Crats) + Letters (K&Company & Making Memories) + Precision Pen .05 (American Crafts) + Embellishment (Anna Griffin) + Wooden Clothespin + White Paint + Mod Podge + Sanding Paper

I fell in love with this paper, which meant I had to finish a frame with the whole sheet.  I was inspired to add the flowers after I saw a tutorial on the Studio Calico Blog for paper roses.  Once it all came together, I knew the perfect picture would be one I've already scrapped but had a 5x7 copy I planned on sending to my best friend. Instead, I'll be sending the finished frame as a sweet Valentine's surprise. 

Supplies: Patterned Paper (KiKi Art) + Jewel Brads (American Crafts) + Wooden Frame + Brown Paint + Mod Podge + Sanding Paper

Please visit me on my blog, Without Filters, for the giveaway. Hurry, contest ends Friday, February 12th at midnight CST.