What if I just quit scrapbooking?

Ditto. I like the books I made but don't miss the hobby at all. 

((( jeremysgirl )))

I saw your post before before the board ate it. It broke my heart. Mom is right. You are grieving and will be grieving in one form or another forever. Because of this, you are a different person. A stronger, smarter and braver person. You have walked the horrible walk and have come out stronger and confident. There is nothing that you can’t do. We all know this. You may have lost a friend through all this - but you gained about 100 friends. ❤️

This is me, too. I quit a very long time ago.  I was big into scrapbooking, doing page, recipe and card swaps, and I have many books worth of pages that I've never completed with pictures, and never will.  I got rid of most of my supplies to the high school when my youngest was still in school (he's 33 now!),and a couple of years ago sold a bunch on FB, keeping some papers and adhesives and a few other 'tools' (just in case, ya know), but I really think I'm going to find a way to get rid of the rest.  Face it, I'm never going to SB again.  I just don't want to anymore.  And I think I'm finally ok with that.

I'm actually coming at this from the opposite direction. I've always loved anything to do with paper crafts and office supplies. I started an album in 1998 when my son was seven. I didn't do more than a few pages, then we had two big moves. I didn't come back to scrapbooking until 2011 with Smashbooks and then moved to Project Life. I also started making cards again. All of my scrapping was current day.

I've just in the past year started scrapping my son's childhood. I'm absolutely having a ball. I don't put any pressure in myself to scrap every picture or to even do the scrapping in chronological order. I pick and choose and also keep my PL going.

If I was doing this during his childhood and trying to keep up I would probably be burned out by now. My goal is not to "complete" anything, it's just to have fun.

When it comes to anything and everything (not just scrapbooking).....you need to do what is best for you.

I will gently say, if you decide to "quit scrapbooking"....I would start with a long break. You can always make a more permanent choice, down the road.

When I am feeling overwhelmed with life in general. I take a break: Meaning....I take care of myself first. I decline invites. I let some things go (does having a dust free home really matter). I prioritize what I am going to spend my energy on. 

I know you are having a rough time. I wish you strength and healing. You matter.
It's okay to distance toxic people from your life. You need to do what is best for YOU.
Hugs.

oddly I don’t miss the hobby - and I also don’t really enjoy looking at the books! No one in my family really cares to look at them either. Maybe we are odd lol.

((((Hugs)))) I didn't see your original post but I think you need to do what feels right to you. If scrapbooking isn't that right now that's OK. Maybe you'll come back to memory keeping from a different approach in the future. Maybe you won't. It's good either way.

I'm sorry that Chloe is having difficulties again - but I 100% support you giving yourself space away from her and those difficulties. That doesn't mean that you don't love her and wish all the best for her - it just means you need to protect yourself. And of course, you're still grieving Esther - and it's okay to give yourself the space to do that. If memory keeping doesn't make you happy at the moment - and not everyone is up for documenting the tough times - then don't.

we're all here for you.

I only do travel journals. That’s all I’ve ever done, with the exception of a single album for each of my kids when they turned 21. I don’t think they appreciate the albums very much, and I wonder sometimes why I bothered.

We all go through different seasons in our lives - good and bad, happy and sad, productive and less-productive, etc. How you feel in each season is valid and you have to do what is best for you during those seasons.

I started scrapbooking in 1997 not long after my younger daughter was born. I was a faithful chronological scrapbooker for many years. Then life just got too busy to keep my scrapbooks up to date. I kept working on layouts as I had time. As I got further and further behind on scrapping my photos I felt more and more pressure to get "caught up". Scrapbooking wasn't fun anymore - it felt like a chore. I can't say I every gave up scrapbooking completely but I took some long pauses where I wouldn't work on layouts. I think one year I finished maybe 6 layouts at most. And I came to realize after a while that I was okay with never being "caught up". I put into it all that I could manage and I was okay with that.

Once my girls got a little older and more independent I started to think about scrapbooking more regularly again. When I realized I had years and years of photos I was "behind" on scrapping the task of getting "caught up" was huge. And then I told myself, "Self, no one gives a rat's rear end if you scrap chronologically or not. There are no scrapbooking police that are going to come to your house and arrest you for scrapping out of order." Once I gave myself permission to do what I wanted with my scrapbooking it became more enjoyable and something I looked forward to as a creative outlet, not a chore. Now I mostly scrap photos of vacations or events. Not every part of my life is documented and I'm okay with that. And I don't necessarily scrapbook those vacations or events in chronological order. When I finished one album I decide what I want to do next and then I start working on that project.

Another revelation I had was that I didn't have to spend all of my creative time on one hobby. I could "cheat" on scrapbooking - it was okay. No one is judging me on that. I enjoy crocheting so I do that. I just started doing cross stitch again after a many year hiatus. I've started to take up watercolor painting. For a while I got sucked into YouTube videos of people making seasonal home decor-type things from Dollar Tree items so I ended up with more Dollar Tree crap in my craft closet than I'll probably use in my lifetime. But that's okay. It's what made me happy and worked for me at the time.

All of this to say, you do what works for you right now. No one here is judging your decisions (well that's a generalization so I'll say that if they are judging you that's on them, not you - their opinions don't need to have any relevancy in your life.) I will echo another poster and say that maybe start with a long break from scrapbooking before you decide to divest all of your supplies. Heck, even if you never scrapbook again they might come in handy for something, like cheap Dollar Tree seasonal decor crafting! As long as you're happy with your decision, that's all that matters in the end.

I was an avid scrapper when the kids were little.
I have lots of scrapbooks and thankfully my son is super sentimental and wants all of them if his sister doesn’t want any. She’s way less sentimental and much more of a minimalist.

When they hit high school life got too busy between work and their sports schedules and I slowed way down. I’d do nothing for a year and then national scrapbook day would come and I’d get the bug and do some scrapping.

When they flew the coop to college and the military I basically quit scrapping.

I went on a girl’s trip with friends I made on 2peas (the original) to Disney World and when I got home I couldn’t wait to scrap those pages. That is the last 12x12 book I did and that was back in like 2016.

Since then I discovered mini books and I make those as gifts.
I did one for my daughter of a trip we took to Disneyland, I did mini memorial books for the kids when my Mom passed in 2019. I did a mini for my son’s wedding and a memorial book for their doggy that passed away at a year old 😢. I made a baby’s first year mini album for them to put photos of my Grandson in. I enjoy doing them because they are not so overwhelming and they are much easier to store and flip through. They give me just enough of a creative outlet that I feel satisfied without feeling overwhelmed.

I can’t remember the last time I scrapbooked. When we first came to Germany, I had so much fun making albums of our vacations and day trips all over. I would upload and sort my photos as soon as we got home and send them off to be printed and start the book within a month. Now - I post photos of our travels to Facebook and I can’t remember the last photo order I made. I have a mini printer at home, and have used that for some travel pages in my journal, but that’s been it for the past year or so. I know some of it is that my craft area is a mess and it overwhelms me to the point where I freeze when I try to get organised.
i now knit a lot more and have started crocheting again and would like to get back to sewing. There just isn’t time for everything and - right now - it’s scrapbooking that’s fallen to the wayside.

I am trying to let go of the guilt of spending so much money on supplies that sit there unused. If I tell myself it’s a break rather than giving up completely, it’s a bit easier.