I began scrapbooking at age 5. My mother walked into my room and I had taken all my various yellow crayons and, across all the walls, I created fanciful borders. Inside those borders I had used my boogers to adhere drawings I made. When my mother asked me what I had done, I said, “It’s a scrapbooger page!” From that moment on she knew, as well as I, that scrapbooking would become an integral part of my life.

“Cut” to 30 years, and over 1000 layouts later. I am considered by my scrap circle as a hardcore scrapaholic. I have scrapped pages about everything from the obvious layouts, like weddings, niece’s birthdays, outings with my scrubby Steven, to the more eccentric pages that include layouts about my television remote, a stop sign, the time Steven chipped his tooth, and I even made a page about the color milk turns after four months of sitting in a forgotten glass in our backyard. That page was titled “Drink it if you Dairy”. The bottom line: I live to scrapbook.

One of the reasons I am able to scrap 10 pages a day, every day, is because I’m married to THE most supportive scrubby alive. I thought it would benefit others to know the qualities to look for in potential scrubbies. So here is my list of 5 scrubby attributes that will ensure you are able to invest yourself into cementing memories in scrapbooks. They are:

1) He is not attached to eating at the dining room table. For me, this is my office, my creative space. Dinners do not happen here.

2) He enjoys getting his picture taken. Scrapbook pages are only as good as the memories you are capturing. If he doesn’t want his picture taken, then a scrubby he is not. He’s more of a duddy.

3) This goes with #2. He allows for multiple pictures and poses to capture the moment you are trying to achieve. Steven, who does NOT rock climb, actually climbed a large rock wall so that I could get the picture for a layout I was working on, titled “Nothing We Can’t Conquer”. Incidentally, I also got to make a scrapbook page about two broken legs and a fractured rib.

4) He must be ok with radical spending. Scrapbooking costs money if you are as dedicated as I am. When Steven got his raise, we used all of that extra money for scrap supplies….and a nicer chair for me to scrap in.

5) He loves you. This is the foundation. Without this, you may as well take up watching tv…..that, or get yourself a good divorce attorney.

These are my top five. Steven has met all 5 criteria and, as a result, I am able to put in at least 10 hours a day of scrapbooking. I am also able to invest the time necessary to keep my business, Molly Stamps, alive and running. And on top of this, I’ve even had television crews follow me around and document my journey to Scrapapalooza. The fellows at mockutv.com will tell you…”She is one scrap happy lady!”

Through all of this, Steven has been by my side, lugged all my supply crates (over 400 lbs worth), and never had one bad thing to say about it. He’s a keeper! Oh boy! I just thought of my next layout! I’m gonna have Steven go to the local bee farm and I’ll take a picture of him opening up one of the hive crates. I’ll use the picture of him surrounded by bees to go along with the title “Steven: He’s a KEEPER!”… of course, he’ll have to do it without the hat part. I want to be able to see his face.

Molly is a guest columnist, star of mockUtv’s “Inside Scrapbooking” http://www.mockutv.com/ and co-owner of Molly Stamps http://www.mollystamps.com/. She is a dedicated scrapbooker living in Pasadena, CA.