by Paula Mitchell-Bentley

Created on: October 30, 2008

Paper art is one of the hot up and coming craft phenomenons in the last few years. Women are taking to scrap booking at an ever increasing rate as more and more scrap booking stores, clubs and retreats pop up. There is an entire subculture of women scrap booking at kitchen tables across the continent.

There are home parties by several scrap booking companies including Creative Memories and Close to My Heart. While Tupperware and Avon used to be all the rage, it seems to be mostly scrap booking parties now.

Scrap booking is a unique art form. It is used to preserve memories of family members, pets, events, holidays, seasons, and even the deceased. This is how I became addicted to the art of paper. When I miscarried a baby recently, my support group was visited by a scrap booker who handed out free scrap booking supplies and told us how this art form could actually help us through our grieving process.

I was very hesitant at first because I don't even have one picture of my son who died. I never spent one moment with him at all. And then I remembered all of the time I spent with him inside of me. Feeling his tiny kicks and somersaults, watching my stomach grow increasingly bigger with each passing week. These were surely memories that I wanted and needed to preserve forever.

I realized that I had ultra sound pictures, his footprints after his death, pictures of me pregnant with him, pictures of me pregnant with him and my living children touching him, pictures of his memorial, pictures of our grief. These are the remnants of a life never lived that I am scrap booking.

I cry a lot while I'm scrap booking but I've come to realize that it's okay to do that. In fact, I have to do that. I am not nearly done his scrap book yet but I am already planning others. I hope to start a scrap book for each of my children who have feet instead of wings too. Maybe even a family scrap book.

This doesn't have to be an expensive or elaborate hobby, although it can easily become both. Supplies can be bought at a Dollar Store or at Wal-Mart as easily as they can be bought at high end scrap booking stores.

Scrap booking is also a way to reach out to other women in your community. Women who are like you and enjoy their families tremendously. I've found that there is a plethora of scrap booking clubs and groups out there. There are often even weekend retreats where women go away for a weekend together, without their families, to bond over the joy of paper art.

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