enJOY it

an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

it’s not so much flying as falling with style.

Photo_445So let us be clear, my camera is the opposite of state of the art. It is in fact not state of the art. It is duct taped together for one thing, because once upon a time, while tipsy in San Francisco, I dropped it on the floor of a bar. Which at the time was an extremely big problem.

It is a Canon PowerShot SD 450 digital ELPH which I am almost certain can be found in a Cracker Jack box near you. But I am a big fan. Because it fits in my clutch for going out and it is small enough to hide as I awkwardly sneak photos of food at restaurants.

I love my camera because it gets the job done. And by the job I mean Documentation and Goodness. Because to me that is what scrapbooking is all about. I was asked on an earlier post why I scrapbook – and I wanted to answer that question the best that I can. I suppose it is because at the end of the day I am a collector. A collector of images and cool design and stories and photos. And I need a place to store all of these scraps, ie, a book. Recently my paper projects have really left the realm of "Elise does X, Y and Z." Instead I have been creating with found stuff that I like. Things that speak to me at the time. (Example A + Example B.) And to be honest, I do not know if in 80 years I am going to look back on these projects and say "Hmmmm, who was I?" But the good news is if that happens then I will just direct my 103 year old self to eliseblaha.typepad.com and be like, "Dude, E, read your archives."

My advice for someone who was considering The Big Scrapbook Hobby is to just chill. There are so many billion styles out there and so many overwhelming products to purchase. You need to buy exactly one of them. Adhesive. Adhesive is all you need to glue one idea to another.

Hmm, where are we on the making sense meter? I feel like -4 out of 5. Sorry about that.

In other news. I am making a book out of my To-Do list. It will be ongoing but I hope to get some photos up soon.

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6 responses to “it’s not so much flying as falling with style.”

  1. katie Avatar
    katie

    no, it totally makes sense! i do a lot of paper art but have always felt kind of intimidated by “Scrapbooking.” so this is really reassuring to me. 😉

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  2. heidi Avatar
    heidi

    So true! I think too often people worry about making themselves, their lives and their scrapbook pages seem perfect. When I grab my camera or sit down with my adhesive, I think “what about my life will be interesting to my children/grandchildren (or what would I want to see about my mother’s or grandmother’s life?)” or “what would I have wanted to know about my life five years ago?” — these are the things that need to be captured. The rest is just a creative and cathartic release.

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  3. lucy Avatar
    lucy

    i am so one of those people that gets an anxiety attack when i think about the possibility of maybe picking a few scrapbooking supplies. but, elise, i’m so happy to have found you, because your lovely little pages are so simply wonderful and say so much and they make me feel like maybe i, too, can contain my memories in pages of bits and bobs and photos. thanks for the encouragement (today and every other).

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  4. jeny Avatar
    jeny

    “Just Chill!” I printed this out and I am TOTALLY doing an Art Journal on your quote. Giving credit to you of course. So many times I get frustrated because the image in my head…totally fails on the paper. This new page will always remind me to Just Chill. Man I love your style. All the best!
    jeny

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  5. lauren Avatar
    lauren

    well, on MY “making sense meter” you were 5 outta 5. for sure. so there.
    btw, how did i MISS seeing example a in november??! SHEESH! i am bummed, i could’ve been loving that for 3.25 months already. i soooooo want to make one of those now, b/c yeah, i too am AN ACCUMULATOR. an accumulator whose current favorite thing is to make little books!
    thank you for feeding both of my addictions simultaneously in a socially sanctioned way! 🙂

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  6. courtney Avatar
    courtney

    no way E…you are totally making sense to me…and I agree completely! I find the more I get away from the we did this, and this and this on our vacay…to the this is who I am be it thru a mini or perfect quote from said vacay…the more I enjoy what I am doing, the more I feel like an artist….the more me I feel…love your work! Thanks for sharing!

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