I am not a knitter. I am not a gardener. Those hobbies were never for me.
Writing. Drawing. Photography. Scrapbooking and picking out eye-catching patterned paper now you are talking. Those are the hobbies which soothe my soul, help recharge the batteries. And, being a scrapbooker has really paid off being a shutterbug, a mamarazzi if you will.
Once in a while I venture out of the office and take my supplies to a scrapbook crop. Just 12 hours out of the house to be around like minded people also losing the scissors they are holding in their hands.
I usually attend two scrapbook crops a year. I try for more but I like to make sure I am able to attend a Tammy crop, held by a young lady named Tammy. And March 2025 will mark 10 years going to crops she has held.
The one in November just passed, what I call Cropvember. It’s just catchier to hashtag on social media posts especially when I do the countdowns. And I do have countdowns, it’s really to get me into the frame of mind that I have a crop coming up and I need to be mentally ready and have supplies ready to go.

I was almost mentally there. I had pretty much everything ready to go since the crop this past March. I was going to work on the same project – the boys’ Florida albums. The photos were still in the holders. The paper was still in the plastic containers ready to grab and put in totes. I just needed to get there mentally.
It helped to bring all the totes up from the basement to the garage and load into the vehicle. I was down to seven totes and still questioning if I really needed two of those totes. But, I grabbed them anyway. I take a 12×12 container labeled family in case the mood sparks that this will be the day I work on my dad’s memorial pages. Spoiler alert: I did not work or even look at those photos…again.
I focused entirely on the Florida albums for Jonathan and Oliver and completed 22 pages. I ended up mostly working on the photos we took in Production Central at Universal Studios Florida.
The hardest part was picking out the paper but once the choices are made and the photos have been cut down, the process is really fast. I would do a few pages for Jonathan’s album then do almost the same for Oliver’s album. Did I mention I am doing two separate albums because I didn’t have enough projects going in my head or my dry erase board.
See once upon a time when it was just Jonathan I made him his own California album. Now I made an error of judgement after we went to Florida in 2022, I asked both JD and Oliver if they wanted an album. They said yes. My goal is to have the albums done by the next big family venture… My goal is also to finish Oliver’s first year album because it would be nice to say goodbye to all that baby scrapbook paper.
So, Cropvember was a success. A big dent was made in the stack of photos. I was with a great bunch of people – my sister, my sister-in-law and a friend I met at The Clarkston News office that I dragged back into the hobby.
Speaking of which, I may have a new scrapbook recruit and she’s a fourth grader so I have an opportunity to get her interested at a young age.
My best friend and I were in the midst of a Saturday night text message when she had sent “I will ask you if you have any scrapbook supplies to give. V wants to do a scrapbook.”
I was ecstatic, actually I still am – her daughter was interested in making a scrapbook, throwing a party for her photos if you will. I was mentally taking stock of what extra items I had in everything and nothing. I asked what size album. But it was an exciting moment also because her mom never got into scrapbooking.
But I ended the conversation with I will put some stuff to the side and the mother-daughter duo could come over and just take a look at what I have. Plus, I am sure the boys would love to show Vi and Emmett what they create with washi tape, which is decorative tape I use.
My best friend and her daughter have been in my office but I don’t know how much they noticed. One year my husband made a custom desk and shelves to hold my 12×12 plastic containers. And none of the shelves are empty. I have loaded them with containers, each one labeled with what theme paper, stickers and die-cuts are in them like Summer, Spring, School, Michigan, Disney, and more. Just know there are a lot because my space has grown, so has the collection of everything.
What about you? What is your hobby? Email us at wprice@mihomepaper.com.