How did you begin scrapping and how did you find 2peas?

I think I started scrapbooking around middle school. I distinctly remember keeping all of the notes a friend had written me and our (looking back now, insane) ridiculously silly sayings, thoughts, and asking if the other could hang out that weekend. I wonder whatever happened to that book... I then had another through high school - first concert ticket and stuff like that. No idea where that one is either. Probably under my bed at my parents' house.

Since then, though, I've mostly done event or trip scrapbooks. I have one that's our wedding/honeymoon (that should probably be in two books because it's sort of cumbersome); and then I scrapbook all of the trips my husband and I take. One's larger than others because we spent more time in Chicago than we did for an overnight trip to Norfolk (eventually, we'd like to do a trip that is even longer than Chicago was [3 days/about 15 sites], so I can only imagine how much fun that will be to both take and scrapbook). Apart from that, I don't scrapbook the day to day, though I always say I am. I'm also working on redoing our wedding cards into a scrapbook and a ticket scrapbook that's really 2 (one hockey, one all the other ticketed events we've gone to).

In terms of 2peas, I was never on the original site. I was just looking for ideas/inspiration, and this site came up as one of the results and here I am.

(And I've never used CM stuff, but I have been eyeing up their 6"x12" page flaps.)

It's really nice to hear someone else discovered scrapping through channels other than the traditional home-based sales companies.

I joined an email group back in January 1998 - we were brought together through a parenting site: we were all due with babies in August 1998. (That email based group became a message board group and now a Facebook group. It's amazing to think how long I've "known" them)

Some of them were scrapbookers and when I asked what they were talking about they enabled me. I had long adored paper, stickers, markers. Michael's became my source. I had a small bag of supplies. Then I bought a plastic drawer unit. I scrapped in the living room, putting all my supplies away each time. Then the LSS's came along. Never looked back.

I have no idea how I found 2 peas but it was about 2001 I believe and I was searching for inspiration. Found! I remember that panic when 2 peas closed everything down without warning. That was AWFUL.

I was invited to a Creative Memories party in 2000 by my soon to be sister in law. I went with no real interest in scrapbooking - I didn't even bring the 3-5 pictures we were asked to bring so I had to use my SIL pics to create my page. Welp....the scrappin bug hit me & I ended up ordering a "kit" thinking it would be good to have to scrap my upcoming honeymoon photos. When I got home, I immediately went to Target (??) and bought a mini scrapbook & some stickers and made a mini book with pics of our dogs & cat What is funny is of all the folks that went to that CM party I am the only one still creating! AND I still have my CM scissors that I got with my "class fee" from that day.

I found several LSS in the Dallas area (now all closed) and frequented those & took classes, went to crops & GASC etc. I think I found the original 2 Peas around 2001 from an ad in one of the scrapbook magazines (I subscribed to all of them!) I never really posted - was just a lurker & shopper.

After 2 peas closed I remember googling scrapbook message boards or 2 peas or something and found this board about a month later. I'm usually more of a lurker and just post from time to time.

I still scrapbook & now create cards as well (my bestie got me into stamps & cards). When I started, I had a little tote that all my supplies fit in...now I have a whole room & I love it - it's my happy place!!!

My mom works in a bookstore and around 2003 she used to give me used magazines to try to get me to art journal. I visited scrapbook stores (many) because the supplies for art journaling and scrapbooking and stamping overlap, with my mom. My favorite was Art House in NE Portland and Paper Zone.

I made my first scrapbook page in 2005 after I got a Susan Branch kit for Christmas and I had an infant and a digital camera...

I didn't actually get into scrapbooking scrapbooking until 2009 when DS was born. By then all the LSS around here were gone

I used to order stuff from Addicted to Rubberstamping (although I'm not much of a stamper) and might have stumbled onto Two Peas looking for a different place to shop. I'm not exactly sure what year that was, 2010ish maybe, Addicted to Rubberstamping closed in 2011.

I found the new site by accident Googling something about Two Peas after the other site abruptly closed.

In 2000 I worked at a school where some of the teachers scrapbooked (mostly Creative Memories), but they never invited me to a party. Maybe because I was 24, childfree, and single? Anyway, I moved to another job the next year and put a starter scrapbook kit on my Christmas list. It was a D-ring binder, some cardstock, adhesive, and deco scissors, the kind you could get at Walmart or similar stores. Meanwhile one of my friends from high school became a Creative Memories consultant so I had a party for her. I had their circle and oval cutters but never used their albums. My Creative Memories party is what got grammadee into scrapbooking!

I was never on the original 2peas site. Someone told me about it, but that was when I wasn't aware of the online scrapbooking world at all, so I never checked it out. Then later, my online store decided to close and I couldn't imagine not having a scrapbook message board in my life, so I googled for a new message board and arrived here.

Same. I only went to my first CM event when I'd been scrapping for like 7-8 years? I did use their digital software when I was into that for a bit. I didn't know any/many scrapbookers IRL and still don't, tho I have found some local events. 





I was always into photos, photo books, crafting, saving ephemera, but didn't start what I consider the scrapbooking I do now until I was dating my xdh. I wanted to document our travels and life together. I have no idea how I found 2 peas, but I know I found Ali Edwards way early on, like when she first started and I think she was linked up to them? I had a different name on the old site and didn't post much. I wasn't totally into the site, so I don't remember a lot of the stories that go around, but I vaguely remember the garden girls things and first seeing Shimelle and Dear Lizzy there. 

I tried to go to the site one day and found out it was closed, and I think I must've googled and found this site. I always just enjoy seeing what people are working on, ideas, products, etc. It's my escape from reality! But I've also come to enjoy hearing the different perspectives on NSBR and all that too. 

I've always been a collector of memorabilia and lover of photos and history. Earliest attempts at scrapbooks were from my college days, I cut out the people and used construction paper to embellish I think I discovered 2 peas sometime between college and when my daughter was born 18 years ago (this week). I knew here baby book was going to be a scrapbook (or 3). The rest is history. I scrap traditional 12x12, project life style, mini albums, project albums (WITL, DD) and most recently junk journaling which is just pure fun. I never was into Creative Memories. I've purchased, then sold or donated some items from STMH, just not my style.

It was 1994 and we moved to SLC. I went to the Quilted Bear (an indoor craft market with booths from various vendors). Saw the Pebbles in my Pocket booth. With cute templates, stickers, Yes! Glue, colorful 8.5x11 three ring binders and page protectors. I was hooked!

I found two peas from an ad in Creating Keepsakes.

I’ve never gone down the CM path. In high school and college I kept artist notebooks full of memorabilia, photos and journaling. But, it was much more casual. Scotch tape and ballpoint pen or pencil.

I started scrapbooking when I was invited to a CM crop by a co-worker in the late 90s (? I think?). I had heard of them and the SB hobby in general but hadn't done anything yet, even though I've always been into paper crafts. I was a stamper and card-maker long before I got the scrapbooking bug. Anyway, I bought a few of the CM tools and an album at that first crop, then went on from there. I still use a LOT of the CM tools (they last!!) - like the circle & oval cutters, scissors, personal-sized cutter (I only use that for trimming photo edges now), corner rounder (somehow I have 2). I do use their albums and pages because they are the style I like (12x12 only). I've tried other album systems and they are not for me, LOL. I completely "wallpaper" the pages as a base.

I fairly quickly gravitated away from the "CM style" and even though I went to several CM crops (with several different CM consultants), I never experienced any negativity about my use of "contraband" - many others were doing the same, LOL. The consultants (& other attendees) didn't care! At some point, I discovered my SIL was also into scrapbooking (via CM) and we still scrap together occasionally even though we have completely different styles. She is mainly a CM style scrapper, while my pages bear no resemblence to that style other than in my very first album (which I'm itching to re-do, BTW!!). My SIL and I go to a crop 1-2x per year and she'll sometimes come to my house to have me cut titles, words, or other die cuts on my Silhouette for her. (She doesn't use many non-CM supplies). She and I have been to two of the Expos together too (quite some time ago).

I'm not sure how I found 2peas - it was probably either through an online community I was a part of when I was expecting DS, OR through one of the several scrapbooking magazines I had started reading. Either way, I was mostly a lurker on the site and was very late to join - only a few years before they closed, maybe. I was on vacation out of the country when the old site shut down so it took me several weeks upon my return to find this site. I was under a different username on the old site, but I rarely posted anything. I think I was quite intimidated, because I wasn't an insider, a designer, or even in the industry.

What a fun thread. These are the facts I can remember

1989-1993 Made traditional scrapbooks during college with mostly ephemera. I did not own a camera and no iPhones yet!

I found Creating Keepsakes magazine during that time, and the message board (Edited to add: I just read that CK started in 1996 so I guess there was a gap.  I bet I was exposed to CM at that point and then CK and 2 peas). That led to attending CKUs, Creative Escapes 2-3 times, and the original 2 peas site. I was a shopper there and avid fan of the garden girls! Read but did not post on message board. At some point, also exposed to Creative Memories and we had a ton of LSS in DFW. I was using all kinds of products. I had my kids in 2003+2005 so I slowed down but still scrapped. I got back in to scrapbooking more with December Daily in the early 2010s.

When 2peas closed I panicked also and eventually found this site, but life was also super busy so I joined but did not really visit much til 2020 when I got Covid and then long Covid. I also had many years in there of paper crafting but not scrapbooking. I am enjoying returning to it now.

Realize now that CKUs, the CK board and 2peas are what exposed me to most of the brands, influencers and product knowledge I have today.

My oldest was about to leave home for the first time, and he was going to another country for 2 years. We went as a family to visit DH’s siblings, and my (now ex) SIL introduced me to scrapbooking (1996). She had been a Creative Memories rep, but she also loved stamping, which CM frowned upon, so she later migrated to Close to My Heart albums and stamps soon after.  Because of her, my first pages and albums were CM, but I also migrated away from CM. I started searching the internet for ideas and techniques, and I found the original 2 Peas from someone at another scrapping message board. 

I have a Holly Hobbie yellow scrapbook (1978) from my early teens where I put things like friends’ school pictures. My senior year in high school (1983) I bought the memory book offered to save stuff from my senior year. Neither has much in them. Nothing after that as I was in the military and moving constantly.

In 1997 or 98 someone at work invited me to a Creative Memories party. I bought supplies, made a scrapbook for my in-laws with pictures of DS (we never lived near family). I started a family scrapbook but never got very far (we were still moving a lot).

In 2010 I joined Facebook and found Smashbooks. That was my gateway back to scrapping and card making. Archivers and Project Life pulled me in completely.

I found the peas when I did a google search for Smashbooks and I believe a post at Splitcoast Stampers came up talking about the peas (and boy did the peas have a bad, bad, bad reputation). So I moseyed on over to see what was what. This was about 12-18 months before the shutdown. I was a lurker with very few posts. I also gobbled up all the Two Peas videos, my favorite being Saturday morning Project Life videos.

Until COVID, I have completed a Project Life album every year since 2012, as well as backtracked to do 2010 and 2011. But I have not gone back farther than that and I have not completed 2020 nor 2021. I’ve mostly been making cards since 2020.

I scrapbooked a little in high school (1994-98) but didn't really get into it until 2004. Then I got into scrapbooking (like we know it today) with my kids books.