Hello there! Welcome to my small corner of the Internet.
Scrapbooking
I scrapbook because I love paper crafting and cataloging my experiences. I march to the beat of my own drummer: my pages and products are not trendy but I hope timeless. My scrapbooks emphasize ephemera and photos. Papers and design play a supporting role. I scrapbook chronologically rather than by theme — it’s just how my mind is organized. I love to design and make things and you’ll often see other projects on this blog. These are the scrapbooking priorities that I like to stick to. Whether you document your memories my way or not, I hope I help you learn something and inspire you.
Archives Student
I am also studying for my master’s degree and focus on archives and information management. My scapbooking and personal memory keeping often inform my studies and vice versa. I frequently blog about things I’m learning that relate to scrapbooking, such as the value of information, personal records, preservation, and archival theory. I’m especially interested in Personal Digital Archiving, which is the study of how regular people manage their digital belongings.
Me
I’m based in the wonderful San Francisco Bay Area with my husband, whom I refer to here as Mr. P. I have lots of other hobbies like watching football, cooking, traveling, and generally making more work for myself out of any situation. Collecting things for my scrapbooks at a faster rate than I can get them into scrapbooks is a fun pastime. When I’m not scrapbooking or studying, I work full time in the tech industry.
A Note About my Projects
Every project you see here was created by me unless I specifically say otherwise. Every project is also completely finished. I rarely show unfinished projects but when I do, I will tell you it’s unfinished or, even better, where it went horribly wrong.
Policies, Serious Stuff, etc.
This blog is written solely by me, Natalie Parker, to share my scrapbooking and other thoughts. The views expressed here are my own. I don’t make money off this blog, but if I ever do, you’ll be the first to know right here in this space. The tutorials and ideas I share are free to you to use but are for your personal use only. Any products endorsed on this blog are products I actually use and like. I have not accepted any freebies or payments in exchange for promotions. Unless otherwise stated, all photos are my own. I do not embed photos without permission from the owner, period.
Want to use any of my pictures?
You may embed a picture from my site, but you must link back to the original post where the photo came from and include the name of my blog in your link. Found something of mine on Pinterest? Please link directly back to the post.
Reprinting Content
Aside from pictures as discussed above, none of my blog’s content may be reprinted, copied, reposted, recycled, regurgitated, or rewritten and posted elsewhere without my express written permission. This includes my craft tutorials. If you wish to use my content, please email me first.
If I think of anymore scary things to say, I’ll put them right here. Have a great day!
Almost Never Clever 
Just think when the kids come along (I know it’s in the long range plan not the short term plan) you will have a whole new box (or boxes in my case) of mementos.
I’m trying not to think about that right now! I’m already worried about not having enough room for the boxes I already have much less adding to it. I’ve started to accept the fact that I’ll always be behind!
So glad I found someone like me who actually scrapbooks with scraps (if/when I can actually find the time to get through that box of ticket stubs, maps, photos, napkins, etc.) Thanks for sharing!
Eeeep! I get so excited when I find a kindred spirit! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy my posts!
i literally “scrap” too — i think of the pre-made scrapbooks as a waste of money and a great way to lose all sense of creativity! so, i too use pieces from my kids bday parties, bags that gifts came in, pieces of “stuff” collected on a trip or just a piece of paper and some scissors to create cool dimensions in my scrapbooks. i DO use those fun little sheets of letters & #’s…. but placing too many on a page bores me!! i didn’t know there was any of “me” left!!! YEAH!
Yup! You save some of the same stuff as me! I’m totally known to save bags that stuff came in. I’ve done a couple of posts about how I save keepsakes. Here’s the most recent one that I did showing how I keep everything from a big trip (pretty applicable to you!): https://almostneverclever.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/saving-travel-keepsakes/
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Wow, besides your beautiful crafts this blog has a perfect layout and is impeccably organised:) Great work!!!
Thank you! I’ve been working hard at the organization part.
Hi Nat! I’ve nominated your blog for The Kreativ Blogger Award. Please check out my latest post for more info: http://downhomesouthjersey.com/2012/04/12/the-kreativ-blogger-award/.
Hi Nat,
I just discovered your blog. I’m from the UK and I’m just about to try my hand at scrapbooking for the first time! I was looking around for inspiration for my own wedding scrapbook and I love your simple layouts. I’m not a first time crafter though and I always use tonnes of recycled bits in my makes. I plan on doing the same for my wedding project and I even had my friends and family picking up the little bits of table confetti so I could use it. I’m interested to find someone else who ‘upcycles’ as we call it over here.
Look forward to reading more,
Lizz
Hey Lizz – thanks for the comments! If you have any questions for your wedding scrapbook, please feel free to let me know. I’m sort of a product minimalist with what I put on pages and I reuse a lot of stuff too. I’ve been known to collect confetti to use later too! If you are really interested in upcycling, you should check out Danielle’s blog – EcoScrapbook.
I may be in trouble. I discovered you today – through “the happy scrapper” – and have been all over your site already. And on a rabbit trail to 2 other bloggers you posted. Love it!
As to this post, I also ScrapBook with memoribilia!! I am much more selective now than I used ot be, but still can’t get rid of what I did keep and isn’t scrapped yet. Crazy, I know. Also, I find that taking a picture of me with ticket stub in hand or a scanned copy of a program will do. It just depends on the project.
On being arrears … Join the club! And just this week my mother has added to that. I have Scrapped for decades. And could never get my Mom to put the old family photos in albums. Now she has decided to do this! While I am overwhelmingly excited, I am also overwhemled. LOL. We have estimated there are 5000 photos. No, I don’t use every photo. But, these go back to the late 1800’s to my great-grandparents. We won’t be getting rid of too many of these!
I have gone digital to catch up. I was sooo totally against it. But for a variety of reasons – that really is a whole n’other story! – I decided to do just ONE digital book. That was a December 2009 weekend trip to Disney. Where I had over 500 photos in 3 days from 2 cameras. A 30 page digital book took me about 30 hours TOTAL to do. About 4 hours to select them. The rest to design the pages. I use Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Software, not the online stuff where I can’t do whatever I want on the pages. Now I have completed a dozen or so Digital ScrapBook Albums.
MY SATISFACTION AT HAVING THE ALBUMS COMPLETED FAR OUTWEIGHS MY NEED TO CUT AND PASTE!! REALLY, I PROMISE!! So, after that experience I came up with a happy medium. Current events/pictures I am doing digitally. Sooo fast!! Projects in arrears – especially where the photos are already printed – satisfies my need to handle and choose paper, cut pretty shapes and have raised elements etc. I also make cards, so that helps too.
Thanks for sharing about being in arrears. I actually know people who are caught up. Sometimes they scare me!! LOL
Ha! I’ve had that rabbit-hole thing happen to me before when I’ve discovered a new blog. Thank you for your kind words!
I’ve been evolving how I include keepsakes. Recently I’ve been taking more pictures of keepsakes “in situ” and not keeping everything. For example, I’m not going to keep all the Euros from my trip to Paris, but I took a picture of them with my hotel key.
I’m sticking with cutting and pasting for the time being, though the lure of faster scrapbooking is tempting. I make photobooks from time to time and I actually don’t like making them, i.e. I don’t have fun making them. I really like working with paper 🙂
Have you thought about WHY you don’t have fun?? I had already discovered StoryBook Creator Plus by Creative Memories (hereafter, SBC and CM) when I had the opportunity to get a FREE Digital Book by someone else. I tried it. Who can pass up FREE?!?!? I really tried it. But I struggled with one thing after another.
I had to be online – with dial up 😦 I had to stick with their designs/layouts/papers/embellishments. I couldn’t add and delete photos like I wanted. Even text choices were limited. I was NOT a happy scrapper 😦 I had friends doing make-it-from-scratch with almost professional-grade Photoshop and some other similar software. That wan’t for me either. My computer skills were not that good. And I could keep making traditional books at the same speed as the learning curve would be for that kind of digital album making.
CM’s SBC was sooo user-friendly. They sold their paper and embellishments digitally just like the traditional. I could use ANYTHING that was a jpg or png file in their software – so I am not limited to their paper. I can digitally “rip” or “cut” or give it a shadow to make it appear raised.
Yet my last vacation and my 40th birthday are traditional albums. Cutting and pasting to my heart’s content!! Cards do the same. The freedom to make the digital pages as creative as traditional is what keeps me making them. I could go on … and on and on!! LOL.
Funny thing is, I can go on just as much with traditional. My favorite recent page was from a Virtual Crop Challenge. It started out: “There probably aren’t as many pictures of you as others in your family because you are always behind the camera.” That is me. I realized there were NOOO picture of just me, by myself, for more than TWO years!! I set out to be sure one was taken the next time I was dressed nicely and had a little lipstick on 🙂 Anyway, I have chosen to make the best of both worlds!! And getting my projects completed makes me very happy.
I’m pretty controlling with how I like things and don’t like to operate in limited environments, so I don’t think software is the right way for me. I print my own photos so I can do them EXACTLY like I want. The photobooks I make are pretty customized. Still with print versus digital generally, at the end of the day, I like cutting and pasting with paper and working with my hands. My mom is the same way.
I linked to your site through Scrapbworthy Lives and love your approach to scrapbooking and style. I used a couple of those Pioneer scrapbooks as a teenager before I knew that I was really “scrapbooking.” I switched to 12×12 albums later, but I have done less and less scrapbooking over time. Your posts are helping me rethink my process since I still save the memorabilia and want to do something with it.
Thanks! I love Stephanie’s blog.
I think with process, you have to do what’s right for you and not let the industry or what others are doing make you feel like you are supposed to do something. My priority is to tell the story and get the important memorabilia onto the page above all other things. I spend a bit of time playing with design, but that’s because I like doing it, not because I feel like I have to. I wrote a Priorities Post a bit ago that might be helpful. In the end, if you have stuff that you’d like to get in a scrapbook, just gluing it into a book and writing some comments can be all you really need.
And yep, I love 11×14 because it gives me more room to add memorabilia 🙂
Hi Natalie- I heard you on the Paperclipping Roundtable and would love to follow your Pinterest board where you’ve been pinning color palates. What is your Pinterest name? There are a bazillion Natalie Parkers 🙂
Here you go! http://www.pinterest.com/nsane/scrapbook-colors/
Thanks for listening to the show! I hope you liked it.
I heard you on Paperclipping as well and have been reading your blog. I wanted to email you to ask you about your masters but for some reason I can’t send email through links. I’d love to know more about what you’re panning on doing with your masters degree. I’ve been interested in Library science for a long time (after a career as an accountant) but have never pursued it because I thought it was a dying industry. After hearing you on Paperclipping, I started looking into this field and would love to know more.
Hey Gina! You can email me at almostneverclever at gmail dot com. I’m happy to talk with you about my LIS plans! I have some holiday plans that I have to get to, but if you send me a message I’ll flag it and put some thoughts together.
Thanks! “Talk” to you in January. Good luck with the. Christmas stuff!
Hi Natalie! New subscriber here. I heard you on Paperclipping Roundtable. I love discovering California scrapbooking bloggers. It doesn’t seem like there’s too many. I was born and raised in SoCal but have spent A LOT of time in Oakland for my previous profession as a Community Organizer. I love the layout of your blog. Looking forward to seeing your posts.
Nice to “meet” you and thanks for the comment! Glad I can represent Oakland! 🙂 I just saw your comments about Frozen on your blog and it made me laugh — a couple moms in my office can’t get the songs out of their heads.