How did you become a pea/what’s your ‘story’

Found it initially as a scrapping site when I was a SAHM around 2004/5. Lurked a lot. Was intimidated by the Pub board/Garden Girls and wandered over to NSBR at some point.

I was a pretty active member by the time my parents were killed in 2007. Was really touched by the outpouring of support from strangers when that happened. Since then, I’ve been here. My kids have grown up, my life has changed substantially. Peas are responsible for helping to change my views on lots of topics.

I was surprised at how shocked I was when the old board went under, and how much I missed it even in the 24-48 hours or so until I found the new one through a Facebook contact.

I had found 2Peas, the store, when I was newly pregnant with my first. I had spotted a few items I knew I liked for a babyscrapbook and 2 Peas was the place where I could get all of the elements of the collection that I wanted. At that time I noticed that they had a scrapbook related message board, which I checked out a bit, but nothing major.

Then in my 2nd trimester I was put on strict bedrest and I was bored. DH moved the furniture around so I could have my big clunky desktop computer & monitor within reach of the bed, LOL. No laptops or smart phones at that point. And I worked on the baby album as well as a Disney album for a trip we had taken as our "Babymoon". And I started spending more time on the scrapbook board and the gallery.

And then at some point I wandered over to NSBR, and I loved how it was a place where you could talk about anything. At that point my other message boards were all AOL boards geared to one topic each. (Similar to Facebook groups now.) So NSBR was great because there was such variety. And I was hooked. The peas kept me sane while I was stuck home all alone day after day with nothing but that computer and daytime cable TV (no streaming yet, either!) to keep me company.

More recently, I have taken 2 breaks--once just for the holidays, and another that was meant to just be for the holidays, but which lasted quite a bit longer. But it's still nice to have a place where the conversation covers a variety of topics, and by and large, most of the people here are used to my quirks, so I don't have to break anyone new in, so to speak.

Around 2003. Some family members got me into scrapbooking. My cousin told me about the 2peas site for ideas, and then I found NSBR. I'm not a huge poster and pretty much fly under the radar but I enjoy reading and have had so much fun here.

I only actively scrapped for a couple of years. And since then it's been very on and off. Mostly off due to no time. Now I have more time and energy but still can't seem to get back into it very much.

I had a stamping business way, way back when that gradually morphed into more of a scrapbooking business. I joined the old board more to keep a finger on the pulse of the scrapbooking community than anything else, because at the old board any talk of competing SB businesses was strictly forbidden. I had a lot to say but really couldn’t say any of it back then! Some of those people on the old NSBR were scary and some of the stuff on those spin-off smack down groups was so mean spirited and catty. I wasn’t willing to engage with people like that.

It wasn’t until Archiver’s imploded that I really started participating on the boards over there and the next thing I knew, 2Peas imploded too. By that time I had had my kid, and with a lot of small increments of downtime throughout the day, checking in with the Peas had become a daily habit. I was so glad when this site popped up to fill the void and it was actually a much nicer version. We’ve had a few real characters here too over the years, but for the most part the regulars are a good bunch and we look out for each other.

I would also heartily agree that collectively the Peas do know everything! I can’t tell you how many times someone in real life will breathlessly say, “Did you hear about…?” Yeah, old news! Almost to a fault, the Peas had discussed it days or even weeks before! 

ETA: Even though I haven’t made a page in probably three years, I still have a room full of stuff and hope to get things organized at some point so I can jump back in. I have so many photos I would like to scrapbook. I don’t want to end up in a mad dash when my kid is graduating high school to get all her school memories scrapped.

I joined the old old 2peas board in 98? 99? I was in my early twenties, an amateur photographer, and my mother gave me all the family and heritage albums because they were downsizing after a bankruptcy. She was depressed about leaving her childhood home, and I wanted to organize all the photos and do something nice with them for her.

I was also on dMarie and CK boards, and had to re-register in 2001 when 2Peas switched platforms. My original user names used my first name, and I changed it pretty early on to this one when I was dipping my toe into scrap blogging and wanted to use the same name everywhere. I recently found some of my old TypePad and Blogger posts while recycling old external hard drives. 

I spent most of my early time on the SB and Photo boards, but eventually got sucked into NSBR with drama around CK HOF and publishing in general. And lurked on the scrap smack blog for awhile.

I drifted into the digital board around 2011, and completely away around 2012-13 while we struggled to figure out how to parent our youngest who was later diagnosed with ASD, so I missed the 2014 closure and had no idea a new home had been created. 

My only 2Peas claims to fame were

- the gallery post of the Lowe’s cabinet I turned into a scrapbook armoire when my oldest was becoming mobile. Not a single layout I ever posted got that reaction. I still trip over pins of it on Pinterest.
- accidental drama when I questioned Scenic Route naming a Halloween line Salem. Boy did I get jumped on! I felt bad Layle had to do PR damage control on the post, but I still think it’s weird Salem celebrates/d murdering young women in the name of religion with kitschy tourism. 

I still scrapbook occasionally, but mostly mini or theme albums with paper. Trying to figure out a strategy on how to deal with the thousands of digital pics and a huge archival scanning project to share the heritage with my large, spread out family. 

(I came out of left field, I guess)

I have never scrapbooked in my life. I don't do any craft. I do knit and crochet.

I belonged to a local discussion board for YEARS. Then the host got tired of a couple of men who started arguments all the time, wanted to curse others etc. so he closed that board. I was lost. A member here was a part of that group. She told to come over here..and here I am. My personal information says I joined in 2014.
The person who pointed me over here no longer participates here.

Started 12 x 12 scrapping in 1998 after seeing it mentioned on the old Aleene’s craft show and after a friend started CM scrapping. Found dMarie in 2000 and also joined 2peas around 2001 or so. Didn’t post much, too scared! But read it all. After a break of about 10 years, went back to scrapping a Project Life type annual album. Was happy to find the current board right after after the original shut down.

I started scrapbooking in early 1998. A year or so later I was visiting family in Florida and we went to a really nice SB store in Sarasota. I started talking to another shopper and she asked if I was a member . The rest is history!!

I consider them "needlework."  Additionally, my skills for both are VERY WEAK (I only make baby blankets) so I hardly consider that I have skill there.

I have no recollection of how or when I became a Pea. It was before my son was born, so 2004 or earlier. I wasn't very active on the old board. 

My first message board was DMarie, then Scrap Jazz, then 2 Peas, and an Australian scrapbook store's message board. I remember posting something there once about something I'd read at 2 Peas NSBR, and quickly discovered that they did NOT like 2 Peas at all! 

2000 ish for 2peas #3850.... DIL started. I walked into a scrap look store and was blown away...called her and so was she. I bought the Jetmax cubes, she bought the Crop 'n Style(?).. they are bigger then mine. I still have mine, she doesn't. She made many many wonderful, crrative and original pages. She joined here as did my DS. She left, he's gone and I'm still here. Some of you knew him on the Photography board.

I think I found it by googling scrapbook layouts when I first started scrapbooking. I didn’t even know what a message board was and it took me a bit of reading to figure out. At first it seemed like everyone knew each other and I was a complete outsider. I remember posting very awkwardly when I started. It was right before the 2004 election and I was completely intimidated. 

My husband worked long hours and traveled all the time and I was alone a lot in a new city with a baby. I remember staying up late reading all sorts of funny threads and lots of drama. And I’m still here 17 years later. 

I moved from the UK to the USA in 2003. I discovered Michaels and took a (really terrible) scrapbooking class in store. I connected with some other kindergarten moms in the neighbourhood and heard about two peas. I’ve been here ever since.
I joined a U.K. based message board belonging to DoCrafts a couple of years later, but it was awful. The members treated it like their own group text and started tons of ‘good morning’ ‘ I’m going to walk the dog’ ‘I’m back’ I’m going to make dinner’ I’m going to the supermarket, ‘good night’ posts. They had no idea how to use a message board so I left pretty quickly!