Carol loves to create scrapbooks filled with all of our special Disney memories . . . or does she?
Every time we take a Disney trip she picks up a blank scrapbook, a package or two of “scrapping accessories” and gathers every bit of paper she can find. By the time we get home she has brochures, maps, ticket stubs, colourful paper, Disney themed picture frames, bags of embellishments and many other little bits and pieces which will showcase our magnificent story.
All of this stuff is packed into a bag or a folder and then stored in a big plastic bin . . . waiting until she starts the scrapbook.
That’s where the problem arises . . . the starting! You see, scrapbooking moves up and down on Carol’s priority list, but it never hits the top of the list!
We now have two big tote-bins full of those carefully saved memories. In those two bins are more than thirty bags and folders, possibly as many as fifty.
I’m afraid that counting the “un-scrapped” trips wouldn’t motivate her . . . she just cannot find the right time to start scrapping!
The last scrapbook she completed covered our Panama Canal cruise on the Disney Wonder in January 2011. My sweet scrapper is seriously behind and each year she loses more ground!
It has become a running joke with us, I tease her quite a bit about her “someday I’ll scrap” bags . . . but of course I dutifully pick up every bit of paper I can find . . . everything in duplicate in case she has to cut one of them up!
Yes, we’re both retired and we have all the time in the world, but the time for scrapping just never seems to be there. Other priorities seem to pop up!
Then, just a month or two ago, fate intervened. Our friend Carrie also loves Disney and she’s a die-hard scrapper. She and Carol decided it was time for a weekend scrap-a-thon! On the appointed day Carrie loaded up her car, bright and early, and drove east for two hours. She pulled in at 9:30 and started unpacking her trunk.
Wow! This girl has a load of “stuff”! She brought a Cricut, a die cutter, boxes and bins full of paper, embellishments, knives, pens, adhesives and a partridge in a pear tree.
The scrap-a-ganza took place in Carol’s Disney room! We set up two tables . . . there wasn’t enough room . . . so we set up a few folding TV tables . . . still not enough. The materials overflowed, filling the coffee table, TV stand, couch, love-seat and a few chairs!
Then they spent an hour strategizing . . . I thought it was just another stall tactic, but they explained to me how important it is to get that first page “just right”!
By 10:30 Carrie and Carol were both in action . . . working on an April 2011 cruise on the Disney Wonder. The ship was re-positioning from Los Angeles to Vancouver and it remains one of our favourite cruises ever!
They had that first page pretty much finished when I called them for lunch, then they scurried off to get right back at it. They were determined; they were inspired!
I poked my head in a few times during the afternoon to see what was going on. I was astounded as I watched the Cricut work, moving the paper back and forth again and again as it cut out little letters on coloured paper. It’s an interesting piece of technology and it sure does a nice job!
At one point I said, “Hey, what’s going on? Those are the same pictures you were working with two hours ago!” I was invited to leave!
They took a break for dinner then quickly re-immersed themselves . . . vicariously reliving our fabulous two-day stop in San Francisco. I watched some TV, then popped in to say goodnight at 11:00 p.m. The ladies laboured on into the wee small hours!
Sunday morning we all lingered over a pot of coffee and a few muffins, then Carrie and Carol dove in again! Victoria, British Columbia and Butchart Gardens were on the morning’s agenda and they couldn’t wait to get started! Carol loves flowers and she had plenty of great photos from our stop at that world famous destination!
By the time they broke for lunch the ladies had finished documenting our shore excursion on Vancouver Island and our ship was steaming toward the mainland!
The re-positioning cruise was at an end when the Disney Wonder reached the cruise terminal in Vancouver. Even though we were staying aboard to do a back-to-back cruise to Alaska we left the ship for a few hours and took a self-guided tour at Stanley Park. Not long after lunch the pictures from that excursion were framed, embellished and finding their way onto the pages!
By 2:30 Sunday afternoon it was Fait Accompli . . . the scrapbook was finished. Here are some sample pages; don’t you think they did a magnificent job?
It was a very productive weekend . . . but there are still plenty of trips left un-scrapbooked!
Will Carol find the motivation to finish them on her own . . . or will Carrie have to come back and crack her whip a few more times?
I’m a bit late to the party with this comment, but, I’m just like Carol, I have come back with so much ‘for scrapbooking’ from my many Disney trips. However, since the start of Covid and not being able to travel from the UK I decided it was time to start scrapbooking all my memories from all my previous trips and I’ve had so much fun, I’ve found guides, tickets and ephemera from my first trip in 1989, it’s the prices of things like parking that have been fascinating. I’m not one for social media, I have no accounts on Facebook etc and all my Disney memories are personal, but, I have had so much joy from reliving my trips, especially meeting Bob Gurr in 2011 and finding new ways to scrapbook photos to make them pop. My machine is a Scan n Cut and it’s wonderful, especially as I have all the Disney pattern cards to go with it.
I agree with several comments – Scrapping is BEST DONE – with Friends!
For the past several years, my girlfriends and I have packed up our cars with piles of ‘scrapping stuff’, left the husbands and kids at home, and headed off to a timeshare resort for MLK weekend. Once there, we rearrange the furniture in the LR/DR, set up our folding tables, and start scrapping. We bring enough food and wine so that we do not need to leave the building (except maybe for a quick Jacuzzi) and spend the entire weekend scrapping. Lots of laughs and great memories are made. And… lots of scrapbooks are created.
Sounds like me. I am still working on my Dec. 2007 Disney World, 2009 Hawaii, 2009 Disney World, 2013 Disney World and now 2015 Disneyland. I do need help!
Scrapbook weekends are the best! They should definitely make a habit of it.
I too have so many trips to scrap, and with young kids don’t have the opportunity often (even with an awesome craft room!).
Absolutely great! Love the layouts! Beautiful story as always from my favorite Canadian disney fans! Thank you for sharing! I have a cricut too and I adore the way you can put Mickey ears or a ticket on almost anything. Good luck and keep scrapping and writing!
This is how it goes!!! The last scrapbook I finished was our Disney Dream Cruise to the Bahamas in 2011. One day I’ll get to the rest of it, I promise! Scrapbooking is fun, but it takes a lot of time and space. It is a huge commitment once you start a project. But, just keep scrapping… 🙂
I, also, just finished getting up-to-date with my scrapbooking of two years of photos and stuff which included a 3-week vacation of the San Diego/Panama Canal/Florida, Walt Disney World and other adventures.
I set up a table in our spare bedroom and worked at it on weekends and evenings since I work full-time and after 2 weeks it was done! Amen!
I think Carol should start a scrapbooking group. Maybe the third Thursday of the month, a group of friends come over and the scrap together.
Thanks for this story. I only scrapbook Disney for myself. I have a book for each park and one for cruises. I find it easier to just keep adding to a book rather than starting a new one. It’s not overwhelming. Good luck!
I am bad for that too. I have almost completed our 2010 vacation. Then I have 2012-2014-2015 and this year we just went to Florida but no Disney… that doesn’t include our regular albums..2012 is what I am working on.
Beautiful! Inspires me to drag out my bins of photos, photo albums, and souvenirs, and start working on them. After I take care of taxes and house projects and yard work and … Well, maybe next year. 😉
Gary, my husband and I enjoy reading about your Disney adventures. As someone who has failed at scrapbooking, I found this post particularly interesting. Congratulations to Carol for completing some great pages.
Love all your blogs, Gary. Aimee had the same issue, falling behind with her scrap booking. But going on Deb’s premise above that it’s a social activity, we re-arranged and cleared out our basement and set up an all-inclusive scrapping area. Now she can work on her scrapbooks while I can be be there also watching TV, listening to music, doing laundry, using the treadmill (not!), organizing pins, etc.
As an avid scrapper I understand the boxes of stuff waiting to be organized into books. I agree that it is way more fun scrapping with a fellow scrapper. I have not put together any new books since we retired and moved to Florida 2 years ago (just 20 min from the parks). I think I need to find a local friend to get me motivated again.
Hey Gary – I love everything scrapbook, and I hope I will NEVER get caught up on my Disney scrapbooking – I hope I will always have too many trips to catch up on. However, I applaud Carol for taking a big step forward, and Carrie for helping her jump start the effort! They did some lovely pages!
This is so me but without the friend to scrapbook with, so no motivation. And now that I work at Disney World, the pictures and souvenirs have taken over.
I, too, used to scrapbook.
What I have found is that it is a social activity- much more fun with someone else rather than alone.
Maybe that’s where Carol has found herself- she needs Carrie to motivate her!
They are beautiful.
I buy and buy also; but never get it done.
So happy to see that someone was able to help you and get it done.