This month is National Scrapbooking Month, and we want to take a moment to explain why memory keeping matters so deeply to us. In addition to the cathartic, empowering experience of creating something with your own two hands, scrapbooking allows you to fully preserve your memories: You can combine photos, stories, and mementos all in one place while creating artwork that is a reflection of you. These are the little things that represent your unique life, a life no one else lives or will ever live.
Did you know that it only takes three generations for your story to be lost? Think about it: Your children will remember some stories about you, and your grandchildren may remember a handful, but unless you have your memories preserved, you’ll be nothing more than a name, and maybe a face, to your great grandchildren and their posterity.
We now live in a generation consumed with sharing the present moment through channels like Facebook and Instagram, and even more short-lived forms like Insta stories and Snapchat. They’re an easy and fast way to share photos, which sounds great, right? However, if you were to look back at your social media accounts 40 years from now (assuming they still exist!) do they truly capture your story? Will your great grandchildren have access to these accounts, and if so, will what they see fully capture the legacy of your life?
The art of writing down our stories, printing our photos, saving our mementos, and storing everything in albums seems to be a dying art, but this is still the best way to preserve our memories. It gives you something tangible that can literally be handed down from generation to generation, something that can be experienced in person.
Also, your story isn’t the only one that can be lost. If no one else preserves your family’s stories, they will be lost as well. These are the stories of the people who mean the world to you, who fill your life with meaning and purpose.
We’re talking about the big stories here, the stories you yourself could never forget but others may not remember. When it comes to the small, beautiful, everyday moments, like the first word your child pronounces wrong or a kind act of service your spouse performs—these moments can be forgotten within months, weeks, even days unless you write them down, which is why we need to be diligent in our memory keeping. Time makes everything fade so fast.
Here is our plea to you, our readers. Please don’t let your stories be forgotten. When it comes down to it, it really doesn’t matter how exactly you preserve your memories, so long as you do it in a way that is meaningful to your posterity, easy for them to access, and will live far beyond your years.
It’s okay if you’re not a great scrapbooker. It’s okay if the pages you create aren’t perfect. It’s okay to stick to pocket scrapbooking or pre-cut kits because that’s all you have time for. We’ve got news for you, folks: There’s no “right” way to scrapbook! What really matters is that we all remember how important it is to preserve our stories and photos, and that we each do something about it before it’s too late.
If you are willing to pledge that your memories and the memories of your family won’t be forgotten, please sign your name in the comments below and share this post on Facebook. Make a goal to spend even 10 minutes a day preserving your memories, or maybe 30 minutes a week! Do whatever you can, just don’t let your story and the stories of your family be forgotten. Together, we can help others rediscover memory keeping and the true importance of it to future generations.
Let’s do this! 🙂
Recipes
12″ x 12″ Cut Above® Live Beautifully Layout
CC1225 Live Beautifully D-ring Album Bundle
12″ x 12″ Hello Life Pocket Scrapbooking Layout
B1548 My Acrylix® Journaling Prompts Stamp Set, D1702 My Acrylix® Capture This Stamp Set, CC1212B Live Beautifully Paper Packet, Z3271 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3217 Picture My Life™ Watercolor Cards—Gold, Z3264 Good Life Complements, Z3267 All Together Complements, Z3269 You & Me Complements, Z2012 Sequins Gold Assortment, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen
6″ x 8″ Everyday Life™ Mini Album Beautiful Life Story Layout
B1548 My Acrylix® Journaling Prompts Stamp Set, Z3294 Memo Fundamentals, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5770 Glacier Cardstock, Z2872 Whisper Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2841 Glacier Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3273 Baby Boy Complements, Z9979 Everyday Life™ Album—Stripes, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen, Z3252 Memory Protectors™ 6″ x 8″
6″ x 8″ Everyday Life™ Mini Album Smile Layout
CC1212C My Acrylix® Live Beautifully Stamp Set, C1212B Live Beautifully Paper Packet, Z2844 Pixie Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2872 Whisper Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3271 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z891 VersaMark™ Ink Pad, Z3283 Picture My Life™ Overlays—White Frames, Z9979 Everyday Life™ Album—Stripes, Z3192 Memory Protectors™ 6″ x 8″, Z3191 Memory Protectors™ 3″ x 4″, X7219C Little Dreamer Complements, Z3314 Black & White Dots, Z2068 Ranger™ White Super Fine Embossing Powder, Z555 Craft Heater
My mom didn’t scrapbook. She had very few pictures of her family. The pictures she had of us were in a box . When my mother passed and her husband remarried, his wife took any pictures of my mother’s life, which included all us kids, put them in a box and into the garage they went. The lived on the coast of southern Oregon, needless to say most didn’t make it and the few that did were pretty damaged. We had all changed so much I did know who was who .
I started scrapbooking in high school, and with my first marriage but lost them in a divorce. As years went by , I either didn’t get my film developed or if I did, kept them in the envelopes then came in after brining developed.
I’m almost 65 now and have a heck of a job ahead of me . It’s absolutely overwhelming! But I have no history! A couple pics of my mom and dad as newlyweds and me and one brother as young children, after that it’s very spotty. Many times I’ve regretted and bemoaned a lack of knowing my heritage, I don’t know my maternal grandfather’ name and only know the first name of my maternal grandmother. The same on my father’s side but I do have one picture of my paternal grandmother. I know this is a lengthy post, but I write this in agreement to the blog. Memory keeping/scrapbooking is important. We need to know who we are and where we came from. It matters; it gives a s sense belonging and without that, there will always be a big hole.
So…. here’s to starting over. I hope our family will be around for a looooooog time. I hope someday my now great grandchildren will be sitting with their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren sharing our story. Scrapbook… it’s important! ❤️
Thank you, Cathy, for sharing your story. Scrapbooking really is so important. We know you’ll do amazing things to preserve your family’s stories for future generations. 🙂
Belinda Kersey is preserving the memories of our family!
Go Belinda! 🙂
I’m afraid I have let my scrapbooking fall way behind…maybe this post will be just what I needed to give me the push to get back to it and get it caught up!
We all need a reminder at some point. The important thing is to start up again! 🙂
I think this is one of my favourite blog posts! I try to write in my journal at least once a week, but I know I get behind sometimes. I don’t remember my great-grandmothers at all as they both passed on when I was very young. I have photos of my great-grandmother on my mom’s side but nothing from my dad’s side beyond my grandparents. They rarely took photographs before my dad and his brother were born, so there is no record. I don’t even have names – just “might be” names. My mom’s family, though, were always taking photos and I have tons! I will need to get their information on paper!
Thank you so much, Janet! You made our day! 🙂
Here’s to preserving memories for generations to come!
Hear hear! 🙂
This is probably the best– and wisest– blog post I have ever read. Thank you so much for your words, which validate what I am doing for my family and those who will come afterward. Scrapbooking and memory-keeping are so intertwined with story-telling: what a wonderful way of weaving together the tales of our lives! I am proud to be telling stories with (or without!) photos, through the pages of my scrapbooks, and I promise to continue…
Thank you so much, alimom4! We’re so glad you loved this post, and we’re proud you’re telling your stories through scrapbooking. 🙂
I think this is so important!! I scrap for my kids and my grandkids all the time but just started going back in time!! I am fortunate to still have my parents and lots of old photos! My mom has been helping identify all the family in those old photos! She gave me a whole box of pictures of me as a baby and growing up!! I can’t wait to put them in an album… relive a little bit of my childhood! And I can’t wait to share these with my grandchildren!! My mom was never a scrapbooker so I have nothing to look back to… I feel that the albums I create will be one of my greatest gifts to my family! A true legacy of love!
“A true legacy of love”—we LOVE that! Beautifully put, Bonnie!
Now that both of my parents are gone, all I have are memories . I was very fortunate that my grandmother was a memory keeper! I have copies of her college memory book as well as photos and information of my great great grandparents. I cherish these memories and photos!
We’re so glad you have those memories and photos. They’re so important, especially after loved ones are gone. Thanks for sharing, Joanne.
So very True . We may know a little about our Great Grandparents but do our children. Probably not. I am inspired to create a memory to last for generations to come. ARE you !
So glad to hear you’re inspired!
Here’s to preserving our Friends & Family Memories!
Hear hear! 🙂
As an adult, I’m more curious about my grandparents & what they did for fun growing up, in what ways might I be like them, etc but they’re no longer here. It’s important to keep family connections & document life!
It really is so important!
I challenge myself to scrapbook weekly. Twice a month I share my pages and memories with my granddaughter. It is a great joy to share the stories and the behind the scenes details of the pages.
That’s a great challenge! We all need to follow your example, Sheryl! 😉
I love to scrapbook. I love to have my daughter’s over to scrapbook with me. We have so much fun. Of course they are a lot further than I am. I’m scrapbooking and organizing photos from long ago. I plan on getting done with that part this summer. I am also starting my oldest daughter’s wedding book using the Live Beautifully paper pack. It is the most gorgeous paper!
We’re so glad you love it, Shirley, and scrapbooking with your daughter! Those are some great memories you’re creating!
This is why I scrapbook!! So my memories and my family’s memories won’t be lost. Sadly, I did not know my grandparents or my great-grandparents. My parents immigrated from the Philippines and brought few photos of their families. We don’t have many photos of my siblings and parents. Four generations that are lost right now.
I’m committed to scrapbooking my children and husband so that our future generations will know who we are! I do want to create heritage albums of my families past generations, too. Certainly a big project but with that goal in mind I will carve time into my weekly scrapbooking time to do this!
Thank you so much for this blog post!!!
That’s an amazing goal! We believe in you, Julyne! You’ve got this! 😉
I pledge to work hard to preserve my memories and those of my family, spending each week to scrapbook them and share them.
I pledge to spend time preserving my family memories and stories, to share them and make them special.
Love it, thebusymumma!