Welcome to the Lead Your Best Creative Life interview series! In this series, I feature memory keepers who make time to scrapbook in their busy lives. Each month you will meet a scrapbooker, just like you, and learn how they lead their best creative life.
I hope that this series will help you see that we all our doing our best to scrapbook our memories. It can be hard to prioritize your creative outlets, but you aren’t the only one that struggles with finding time to scrapbook and craft.
This month’s interview is with Sabrina Poole a.k.a. MrsScrapAndPlan. I have been following her Instagram for a while and I love that she makes time for scrapbooking in her busy schedule. She is also a part of multiple creative teams, so Sabrina cranks out layouts like no tomorrow! She has great style and I love that she features herself in her layouts often. You can check out all of her crafting on her blog Mrs Scrap and Plan. You can also follow her across social media on Instagram and Facebook.
Read on to learn more about Sabrina’s scrapbooking and creative process. See how her process has changed over the years and how she finds ways to prioritize her own creative time.
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How long have you been scrapbooking and why did you start?
I started scrapbooking shortly before I started college. I had always been collecting odds and ends of my life; usually in a metal tin and I wanted something more to document my life. I also had my first serious boyfriend in college (now my hubby) and I wanted to document our relationship.
Do you find it difficult to keep up with memory keeping?
Sometimes but only because I always have so many projects or ideas going at the same time. I honestly have a hard time focusing on just one project. The only exception is December Daily because I don’t mind that being my focus for December.
How do you currently make time for scrapbooking and how often do you scrapbook?
I am constantly scrapbooking or being creative any spare moment I get. If my kiddos are playing nicely or are getting some electronic time then you can find me at my desk or computer scrapping away. I also make a point to get a good chunk of me time by trading babysitting with my friends or asking my mother-in-law. To me, finding and making time for scrapbooking and creativity is vital to my health and how I do self care.
How has your scrapbooking methods changed since you started?
I started out a traditional scrapbooking with all the papers, stickers and embellishments. I did that for about 7 years and then in 2011 I moved into digital scrapbooking. My son was nearly 2, more mobile and demanding a lot of my time. I wanted something with less mess and something that I could finish quick. And then in 2017 I started dabbling in hybrid scrapbooking. I used my absolute love of digital scrapbooking to bring to life to projects and pages. I have found my happy spot with hybrid scrapbooking.
Has your scrapbooking changed this year?
This year I’m learning how to focus and hone in on the projects I do love. The projects I look forward to ‘catching up’ on and making pages for. For me, these projects seem to have a central theme and usually focused on a topic. I’m loving my 52 Favorites project (one favorite photo from the week documented in a small journal or TN), my Mommy and Kiddos album and my reading album. I love that these projects focus on one slice of life and allow me to document it differently. It has also made me want to create pages for these albums and therefore reflect on how I will document going forward.
Are there any methods, supplies, or strategies you use to scrapbook more efficiently to be able to finish projects?
I am a big list maker for projects. I write down every micro-step to getting the project done. It makes me feel so accomplished to get a baby step done. I usually start with a list of layouts I would like to include for the project, then I map out the project with page protectors and lastly add in detailed steps to finish the project. I’m doing this right now to finish up Summer 2017, finish up my Me Album for 2017 and to help start my Summer 2018 projects.
I also tend to repeat to myself over and over that done is better than perfect. I would much rather have a finished scrapbook then something not finished because I was fussing over little things that won’t matter in the long run.
What is your biggest challenge in scrapbooking right now?
Figuring out how to document my children’s lives. For my son’s birth to 4 years he has detailed, massive 12×12 books that take up an entire IKEA cube system. To me, that’s too much and I don’t want to continue in that way for my daughter. I am also just not documenting much of either of them right now because I’m stumped on the best way to move forward. I’m leaning towards Project Life App because it (again) prevents me from fussing over the details and I will be able to include the photos or their artwork and drawings.
Speed Round:
- Favorite scrapbooking tool or product? Just one!?! Ok, I have to choose my pink tape gun.
- Current inspiration that gets your creative juices flowing? Looking on Instagram under certain hashtags like #hybridscrapping #thehappyplanner #pocketpages #pocketpagescrapbooking #scrapbooking
- Favorite scrapbooking guru? Again just one!?! That is so incredible hard! If I had to pick one entity, it would be the creative community I have found through Instagram. If I have to pick just one person, then I can’t! How about top 10 in no particular order?
- Your go-to crafting method or design? Using my computer, Photoshop Elements and digital elements or papers
- Something new you’ve recently discovered in the scrapbooking or crafting world? Ringed Traveler’s Notebooks! My TNs wind up so big and Jessica Upton decided to take hers apart and it revolutionized the way I look at TNs. There’s another scrapper, Tazhiana, who started the hashtag freetheTN which is just perfect.
Share a recent project that you made – we would love to see!
One of Sabrina’s 6×8 layouts about life as a Mom. A quick and simple story and fun memories to keep!
Sabrina’s Week in the Life created in her 52 Favorites Traveler’s Notebook. A collage of the photos from the week!
A 6×8 page of a book review created by Sabrina. Scrapbooking doesn’t just have to be about photos.
A Traveler’s Notebook page with vellum insert. If you peek on her Instagram, you’ll find a ton of other great TN layouts.
Any last thoughts for our crafty friends out there who are struggling to prioritize their scrapbooking and creative time?
I say you MUST find and fight for creative time. Like I said earlier, I believe it is vital to your overall health to be able to be creative if that is your hobby and where you find happiness. You should never feel guilty about taking care of yourself and doing things to make you happy. Take a few minutes for yourself or ask a friend to scrap with you or if you have kids do want I do and trade kids so you both get free time. Because when you find and make the time to be creative you are happy and you in turn make others happy. Your ‘tank’ being full doesn’t just affect you, but it affects so many in your life. So, the creativity benefits are immense.
Thanks again to Sabrina for being a part of this series! I love that she recognizes what works and doesn’t work for her in each season of her life. She also knows how she can best accomplish her projects by stepping them out into a checklist. It makes completing projects easier when she doesn’t have a large chunk of time to sit down at once. I have found some great tips from Sabrina that will help me refine my process.
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If you are interested in participating in the interview series, please contact me here!
See you next month – until then, lead your best creative life today!
Julie
Blog header photo by Vladimir Proskurovskiy on Unsplash
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