How Do You Do It? Fitting Scrapbooking into Your Life
People ask me all the time how I do it—how am I able to fit in scrapbooking my 5-month old son Elias when I work full-time, am a mommy and a wife, keep a blog, go to church, spend time with friends and just live life? Well, uh, for starters, I don’t do a lot of housework. 
But it takes more than not dusting to scrapbook, doesn’t it? And for a lot of people (especially moms), it can be an intimidating hobby. But I promise, it doesn’t have to be.
Here are five tips for fitting scrapbooking into your busy life:
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Keep it Simple: Your scrapbooks do not have to look like they are off the pages of the latest scrapbook magazine. You can effectively share the story of your baby’s firsts without spending hours on the latest techniques. (This layout only took 30 minutes.)
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Stick to a Theme: The amount of scrapbook products available is overwhelming! Stick to one brand or theme. This will limit the amount of product that you have to use on a layout or album and will streamline the process. (This layout was created using all products from Making Memories Animal Crackers line)
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Don’t Overbuy: Along with sticking to a theme, don’t overbuy! You don’t need every embellishment that Michaels carries. (Take this from a girl who has bought it all.) Start out with just the basics – paper, some journaling cards and maybe a few word stickers. You can always go back and get more. (This layout was created just using paper and stickers from Little Yellow Bicycle)
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Only Scrap Your Favorite Photos: People today take more pictures than ever before thanks to digital cameras. You will NEVER be able to scrapbook all of your photos. Never. Ever. Just get it out of your head. Instead, just scrapbook a few of your favorites, or the ones that really capture a story you want to tell. (I took about 50 pictures when my Nana met Elias, but only scrapbooked the ones below.)
- Find 15 Minutes a Day: Moms don’t have a lot of time. If you can carve out just 15 minutes a day to do something scrapbook related – upload your photos to a photo developing site like Snapfish or Shutterfly, journal, organize your supplies, or scrapbook – you will be amazed at what you get accomplished!
My mom always said, you make time for what is important to you. And so, while the laundry may be piled a little higher than I would like, I am making time for what matters to me – leaving a family legacy in photos and words for my son.
To learn more about Jessica, her family, scrapbooking endeavors and more, please visit her blog: The Life, Faith and Creativity of Jessica Turner.
