I'm a Proud Scrapbooker

A little later than scheduled, inspired by this post by Shimelle, I bring you 10 Things I love about scrapbooking...

1. Supplies. I am not gonna lie. A huge part of my love of scrapbooking stems from my addiction to all things stationery. Hand on heart I spend more time swooning over my supplies than actual scrapping and that's OK with me. I ENJOY stroking and organising my crafty goodies until my hearts content. They make me smile. And I LOVE to see my supplies used up and on my pages for everyone to see and share their absolute beauty.

2. Shopping. Hello. My name is Kirsteen and I am a shopaholic. It's true. I am. I can honestly say that I look at new stash and new classes every. day. in. life. Searching for the prefect collection or finding a class that is 'right up my street' makes my heart sing. And why ever not.

3. Surfing. I have a PC, laptop or smartphone within my reach at all times. I have scrappy websites I check every day (UKScrappers), I follow fellow scrappers, scrappy stores and manufacturers on Facebook and Twitter. And I sub to lots n' lots of amazing blogs via Google Reader (one of my favourite bloggers - Stephanie Howell). I love reading about inspiring projects, new ideas and exciting developments in the scrappy world every day. I love that I can be a part of blog hops, and circle journals (not that I have ever done this but I could, you know) and online crop parties! Full on scrappy excitement 24/7 at my fingertips.

4. Planning/squirreling. I am a planner. I love to plan. I love to plan holidays, days/nights out, parties... in fact, I start every day with 'so what's the plan?' I didn't earn my title at university as the 'minx co-ordinator' for nothing you know. So it comes as no surprise that I love to plan my scrapbook pages. I love to collect 'things'. Tickets, maps (oh maps how I love thee), coins, wristbands, receipts, napkins, badges, clothes tags, postcards. I collect them ALL. I love to think about the types of photos I want to take and where. I love to pull out all the supplies that I think will work well with a particular project, and find that perfect paper or embellishment lurking in my stash. I have books upon books of 'scrappy ideas' (did I mention my notebook addiction?) I love nothing more than to scribble a memory down just as it's happened knowing that I don't have to rely on my dodgy memory bank to remember it.

5. Living. It goes without saying that I love to live life more than I want to scrapbook it. But knowing that I am going to scrap those moments. Knowing that I am going to remember them and be able to re-live them in far more techni-colour detail than I ever could if they weren't scrapped makes those moments all the more amazing!!

6. Sharing. I love creating pages for my family and friends. I love the looks on their faces as they look at their photos scrapped and preserved along with their story. And I'm not going lie. I like it when they woop over my 'creations'. And my heart did skip a tiny beat when I gave a friend a mini album of her wedding day as a first anniversary gift and she cried. I love that I can plan albums with them and tell them about the prefect collection I have found for their photos. I am lucky. They share my excitement. And for that I am forever grateful to this hobby that I can share with my friends and family even though they aren't scrapbookers themselves.

7. Friends. Without a word of a lie I have known my bestest scrappy friend for as long as I have been scrapping (2005) - Mandy Charlton you know who you are :) I loves her and I love that she 'gets' my scrappy obsession. She inspires me and and makes me laugh every day. Go on, go say hello to her on Twitter she's a hoot. I am a member of a team on UKScrappers, each of whom I love dearly. Absolutely Scrapulous girls - I love you!! I met our 'leader' Mon last year for lunch even though we live 100s of miles apart. We would never have met if it wasn't for scrapping and I thank my lucky stars for each and every one of my scrappy friends.

8. Learning. I have learnt so many new things about scrapping and most importantly, about myself and I am so excited about all the things I still have left to learn. And there is so much to learn.

9. Talking. Yup. It's no secret. I like to talk. And I love to talk scrapbooking. And I'll talk scrapbooking to anyone who will listen. Luckily, my husband is a great listener or slightly deaf... one of the two.

10. DOING! Knowing that I have a scrapping day or 30 minutes planned. Or that moment when a page comes together just how you'd imagined it or even better. You can't bottle than!!

I hope you've enjoyed my 10 things I love about this fantastic hobby or ours :) If you love scrapbooking as much as I do why not pop this cute image from Shimelle on your blog/signature/social networking site.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Scrapping!! Kxx