I love the idea of remembering places, times, events and people. I love the idea of sharing those memories and having others share their memories with me. What I have learned about scrapbooking is this - there are no rules to what is right or wrong or what is better or worse so long as a story is told. If there was a rule not to break it would be to have no record that you existed, no picture of who you are and no written words of how you felt and what was important to you.

Scrapbooking life as an art is not always done within the confines of an album. It can often take other forms. Let me share with you one of the most profound examples of scrapbooking I have ever seen.

I received this story that shows the gift of scrapbooking various lives on canvas. It’s powerful so grab a hanky and prepare to be amazed at just how remarkable remembering one life can be. Once you have seen it, I hope you will begin to understand the value of the art of scrapbooking in all its varied forms.

Click and watch this video

I enjoyed this story of a strong willed woman who places value in the lives of people she has never known. But in her creative work, she comes to know each life that has touched her in a very personal way. She then passes her work on to those who cherished that life the most.

What a wonderful thing she is doing, what a wonderful way to make a difference. Her gift keeps a beautiful life alive through her art for generations to come. Imagine her joy in memoralizing so many lives. You can almost feel the love she puts in each painting and the love others feel whey they receive her precious gift. As she clearly stated, her contribution of time, money and effort is not a sacrifice at all.

I believe that any creative or non-creative form we use to remember a place, a time, an event or a person is a form of scrapbooking. I believe the greatest personal gift any of us will ever get or give will be in the form of a scrapbook. It can be a stunning creative masterpiece or a simple crayon drawing created by a child.

There is no best or worst in scrapbooking. There are no trophies or real awards that can or should be placed on any scrapbook. To do so is missing the meaning of scrapbooking a life. No matter how we choose to document those special moments, the greatest reward is between the giver and the receiver.

Think about the first scrapbook. It was painted on the wall of a cave thousands of years ago by someone who wanted to express important moments of their life. It told a powerful story, not of just their life but also of our history.

In the end, we are the sum total of our memories. If we value our lives we will state, in one form or another, who we are and who we loved. We will state what we want others to remember and the things we have learned in life. We can say, “Here are my failures and sorrow I hope you can avoid in your life. Here are my great joys, may they be yours as well.” In a profound way, you are using the past to reach out to the future.

When we are gone, those who look at our lives through our scrapbooks will have never personally met us. They will want to know us. They will want to see what we looked like; and they will want to see if they look like us. They will want to laugh and cry with us. They will know we are a part of who they are. They will take the lessons of our lives and pass them on.

So value your life, document it and document the lives around you. Scrapbooking is more than just paper and embellishments that go out of style faster than any other product category on the planet. It’s more than pictures and words. It is a record of you and me and us. It is how we lived, learned, laughed and loved. Scrapbooking is a lifestyle not a fad or a trend. It’s a personal commitment to pass our lives forward to those who may have more value in our art than we can possibly imagine.