Hey, y'all! Remi and Willy stayed up a little too late last night watching scary movies so I am taking over Remi's spot for the moment! My name is Carol and since I have been on the MB for almost four years now, most of you know I am a.k.a. TXStarfish and IgcognitoStarfish, live an hour southeast of RW and work as a pharmacist to support my scrapbook supplies habit. I have been making collages and scrapbooks since I was a kid and spent some time recently looking at a few of my old albums. It is really funny and interesting to look back and see how our hobby has evolved!! Remember the "old timey" scrapbooks with the grey paper pages?? Here is a "layout" from a book I had as a sophomore in high school, documenting our football team's run to the state championships that year. (we won--Go Lions!! LOL)

 

Note the lovely SCOTCH TAPE I used to attach the photo of my high school and the other items! Yeah, that stuff ain't EVER coming off that page! I do remember thinking that I was rather clever for the way I folded the ends of the ribbon at the corner of the page. Quite the technique, don't you think? Feel free to scraplift. (HAHAHA)

 

By the 1990's and early 2000's, I was used to picking up extra brochures, napkins, matchbooks, etc at various places to use as embellishments on my pages. However, the most important embellishment I discovered during this time was STICKERS!! For an album of a 1999 trip to Alaska, all the journaling was printed on my computer and glued onto the page. The stickers were all from an outdoors-y themed scrapbook kit from the Hallmark store. I had never even heard of a scrapbook store at that point!!

 

 

Wow! I was so proud of that album! Now I look at it and giggle a little. Oh, well. It is a TRUE historical document! While our hobby has changed over the years, I suppose my basic style has not. I still tend to do fairly simple, straightforward layouts with fairly basic embellishments. By 2005, I was shopping at scrapbook stores but still not very advanced. Here is one of my early creations using a leaf punch, my very first eyelets, and a hand drawn tree trunk for a modified family tree page.

 

 

In 2005, I had surgery, was off work for a couple of months and spent a lot of time at the computer. That was when I discovered the joy of Quickutz and ShopRememberWhen! Later that year, a lady named Debi Patron (thanks, DebiP!!) approached me in a rival (now closed) store and directed me to the RW message board. Now I can't imagine scrapbooking without Quickutz, Remember When and my friends on the RWMB!! I have learned a LOT from all of you and am learning even more, including pushing some comfort limits, by being a member of the Design Team. What a great opportunity and a lot of fun!!!!!!

See ya on the boards!!!! Carol (aka TXStarfish)

Comments

[Cyntia]

I wish I could see your pics Carol!!

[Angelique]

Nice to read your story Carol, I'd love to see your piccies too.. guess Remi made them disappear....

[Carol (TXStarfish)]

Now, why don't my pictures show up???? Remi, did you have something to do with this??!!!