Scrapbooking Memories: Do Your Own Thing?

A post on Scrapsmack throws up different thoughts on scrapbooking.

To me, scrapbooking is about preserving the memories that I want to keep. If I want to have 100 scrapsbooks about my dog (which incidentally, I don't) then, it is up to me.I love leafing through old scrapbooks of times past and noting the clothes, hairstyles etc. of the day. Surely, it's social history!

Banality And Self Indulgence

This was an old entry by Silence Dogood and thought it should be revisited-

"Do you ever wonder if ten or twenty years down the road, you'll look at the pages you've slaved over and and wonder, what the heck was I thinking?

This thought has often passed through my mind as I've sat to scrap a particular moment that I value today - but will it really mean that much in the future?I have seen some amazing layouts that I do believe will stand the test of time and bring much enjoyment to friends and family as they view them. But I've also seen some layouts that I can only describe as being extreme exercises in banality and self-indulgence. I mean, really - how many layouts in a year need to be about your dog? Or a new manicure? I may be flamed for saying such things.

For many, scrapbooking has moved beyond preserving memories to simply being a form of self-expression in creativity. But for some reason, the picture of some 80 year-old, thumbing through a scrapbook exclusively filled with bad "freeform" pages and bad photos covered by a multitude of embellishments - won't leave my mind."