Scrapping Your Collections

Back in the 50's my grandmother, whom I call Nan, started to collect little mouse ornaments. They are from a series called "Mouse in a..." and there are hundreds of different ones to collect. She saved her hard-earned money each month and this was her special treat to herself when she got paid. Each one was lovingly cared for, placed in a glass cabinet and admired by her on a daily basis. 

Nan then got married and had three children and as the years went by times got harder but those little mice took the journey with her. With three little mouths to feed and Grandad working all the hours God sent, she took a difficult but at the time necessary decision to sell some of these little ornaments. 

She didn't get much for each one of them, but gradually over a couple of years sold each one off - leaving just two. Feeling sad, she couldn't look at them alone in her bare cabinet so wrapped them in tissue paper and stored them away.

Then, in the early 1980's when her children had grown up and had children of their own, Nan went browsing at a thrift sale one day.  She couldn't believe her luck when she discovered a mouse ornament like one she had sold many years before - it wasn't worth much, that little mouse in a piano.

She was so excited that she paid the owner and rushed home to share the news. She took the two other ornaments out of their tissue paper and put them in pride of place with the new third ornament on the shelf.

At the time I was about five years old and loved looking at those mice.  Every time I would visit my Nan, I would rush into the living room to see what new ones she had managed to find. She had the whole family looking for them and we all got excited too when we managed to find one somewhere.

In 2006 my Nan passed her entire collection to me.  She knew I loved them as much as she did and that I would look after them and treasure them just as she had.  Sadly she passed away in 2007 and those little mice now take pride of place in a glass cabinet in my living room.

I regularly search online auctions to see if I can add to my collection and now proudly own more than 90 ornaments. It's a habit that I cannot escape! I love the excitement of finding something new and am even happier when it's for a bargain price.

My dilemma, however, was how I could capture this collection within my scrapbook pages. I thought about the different ways I could approach this task. Perhaps I could create a mini album or create one page about why I collect the mice with a photo of them all. 

The option I eventually chose was to create a full 12x12 size album of pages with one mouse on each page and some journaling around the story behind where I found it, why I liked it, how much it cost me and anything else that comes to mind. This was perfect for me as I am always adding to my collection and so one page on its own would not suffice as it would soon be out of date.

I started my album with the two mice where it all began. My favorite two from my collection - the ones my Nan held on to. The original beginnings of the collection and I journaled about how I came to start collecting these little creatures in the first place!

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, as scrapbookers, the chances are you enjoy collecting things, whether it is every color of Stickles glitter glue, every new piece of paper from BasicGrey,  empty coffee cup sleeves or Pez Dispensers . There is a collector hidden inside us all. 

I think collections are a great subject to scrapbook about and they give an insight into your character. They are great memories to get down on paper and there will always be a story behind the photos, which will lead to really interesting journaling!

If you do have a collection to scrapbook - get to it! Share your layouts with us in the gallery and tell us the story behind your collections.

Here are some things for you to think about:

• ·If you are creating an album full of layouts about your collection, consider a uniform approach to each page. Keep one or two things similar on every page so they link together nicely.
• ·Consider the color scheme of your album. Do you want every page the same or do you want to choose the colors from your photos and match them that way?
• ·Include close-up photos of your collection as well as an overall shot of everything you have at that specific time.
• ·Consider a before-and-after type layout where you use a photo from the beginnings of your collection and then another photo of what you have now.  You can always add to it in the future and create a "current update" layout!
• ·Don't over-embellish your page, so you don't overpower the busy photos of your collection.
• ·Remember to journal, journal, journal! The best thing on your layout will be your story behind the collection!