Do you scrap through your hard times, or are you more of a sunshine and lollipops kind of a scrapper? I totally think it’s a personal choice, and can see validity for either style. On the one hand, if you are in the hobby of capturing memories, do you really want to preserve the dark times, or are they better left unrecorded? And if you DO decided to document them, maybe you do so in a private journal that you choose not to share.
Not me. My scrapping is my creative outlet, and is the way I work through a lot of my feelings. I started scrapping as a coping strategy to help me get through my husband’s frequent military deployment, and have kept it up through family crises, illnesses, and other challenges we have had. And I choose to share all of it, too. It’s just how I roll. Here’s one I did last year right before my husband left for his latest trip to Afghanistan:
I asked the team to share some of their “dark times” layouts, and was frankly bowled over and humbled by the response I got! Turns out that many of us engage in “scrap therapy.” In fact, there are so many of them that I can’t include all of them here, so I narrowed it down to one per CT member, which was really tough because by narrowing it down I felt like.. I don’t know, like I was passing some kind of value judgement on the sentiment expressed. Trust me, girls, every one of them was an elegant, heartfelt statement of emotion, beautifully expressed. Here are some of the gorgeous layouts that the team shared. But, *spoiler alert* you may want to make sure you have some tissues available before you go on.
By Jenny:
From Amy aka Anrobe:
This one’s by Celeste:
From Patti:
By Tania:
by Brynn Marie
by Kym
By Anna Donelle, aka whatannaloves
And, because now I’m sad, I’ll leave you with this one by Robin. Not to belittle her dog Penny’s experience, it’s just that pugs *always* help me feel a little bit better
That was my first blog post here at One Story Down! Thanks for sharing some time with me!
What a great article and such powerful examples! I know I am overdue for some scrap therapy!
Wow. Fantastic layouts - though there needs to be disclaimer of needing tissue lol I’m a hard times scrapper too. Scrap therapy is what gets me through the hardest of times
Fantastic article- beautiful pages and incredibly honest and brave stories- very inspiring.
Very inspirational! Thank you!
I don’t think I’d have survived the past two years without scrapping the hard times. It’s an instinctive, necessary thing for me now. I’m so grateful that I have an outlet … and a community to share the burdens (hope your galleries are like that too).
Thanks Andrea. Great post.
The hard times are what makes us stronger, right?!?!? I totally believe in Scrap Therapy and these are wonderful examples! Thanks for sharing and congrats on your posting!
Beautiful, beautiful post and layouts. I started scrapbooking exactly for sorting my painful and confused feeling and for reminding some of the beautiful moments of my past, to try grounding me in the long years of the hardest time of my life. Often I feel a downer posting my pages between a sea of sweet/beautiful works, but lately I’m starting to give up feeling guilty.