A digital scrapbooker steps out of the closet

It seems more and more these days that digital scrapbookers are people in hiding. They secretly do their own scrapbooking thing when others aren't watching. They don't talk about it much. They are stunned if they stumble across anyone in real life that also digital scrapbooks. They mingle in the midsts of online forums filled with other scrapbookers just like them.

I've been doing it for years. I've been doing digital scrapbooks of sorts from a time long before digital scrapbooking was all the rage even online. It always seemed to fit me better. It just made sense to me. I was releaved when I started stumbling more and more upon digital scrapbooking when looking online. No longer was I a stranger in the scrapbooking world.

But stepping out of that closet has been a release for me.

It is true, not everyone likes digital scrapbooking. It is true that not everyone will even try it. It is true that many paper scrapbookers will incorporate some "digital" aspects in their paper scrapbooks but will never convert 100%. THAT IS OK!

I have done the whole paper scrapbook and for most it is suitable. I enjoyed doing it, that isn't the issue. For me, it was a burden. I would have to drag everything out, work on something, clean up my mess, then put everything away. I would repeat this every single time I wanted to scrapbook. Dragging all that stuff to parties with friends would never have been much fun. I would have done it begrudgingly. Then there were the tools. It was a burden that I could no longer afford to keep up with.

It doesn't mean that paper scrapbooking is any less of an art. For my friends it is very much an art and I enjoy sitting and watching their pages emerge. I would even sit in awe and watch some of them at work. I would wonder, "Why couldn't I get that into it?"

For me, however, the digital realm of scrapbooking opened the doors to my own creativity. I enjoyed the digital design, desktop publishing, and digital imaging classes I took at the local community college. See a trend here? I am a web designer by profession. I found total comfort in the "digital" world. No longer did I need to ask "why couldn't I get that into it?" because I COULD get that into it. I just had to find my own element so to speak.

So I broke out of that shell I was hiding in. Slowly, but it happened over time. I started to take my laptop to scrapbooking night with the girls. I was hesitant at first. "Are paper scrappers as receptive to other techniques as I am to their prefered methods?" But they were receptive. I didn't feel left out that first night. I was suffering from the same lack of inspiration as the others. I enjoyed the conversation and the sharing of ideas.

As more and more people become aware of the possibilities, more and more want to find out more about it. It doesn't mean that they will convert to digital scrapbooking and that is OK. It simply means that awareness is being raised and that is a good thing.