If Scrapbooking is a craft...should it be stressful?
Well...first of all... I don't think that there should be any "shoulds" in scrapbooking...but that's just me.
In a nutshell, I think the answer to the stress in scrapbooking question will vary from person to person. It all depends on 1) why you scrapbook, 2) how you scrapbook, and 3) what you seek to get out of scrapbooking.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if scrapbooking is an outlet for you, that stress would better left out of the equation. I have enough stress in my life...I don't need to have it inundating my relaxation time as well...but it does.
I didn't used to...(how's that for baaaad grammar...Ms. Mendiola is probably somewhere balled up in a corner screaming to high heaven for my head on a platter!)
When I was a liberated scrapper, I scrapped to keep myself from hurting the people that I loved. I found that I was less likely to view my family as a Preying Mathis views her mate after copulation when I threw myself into creating layouts. Now that I've allowed stress into my creative environment, my family lives everyday in mortal peril.
Stress has no place in my crafting life...but that is again, my personal cup-o-tea. Make your own tea. Make your own rules. I did...now if I could just live by the darned things!
Stress is the main reason that I had my near fatal scrap-breakdown. My buddy Chicken Louver can attest to the day that I sent her an email telling her that I couldn't do it anymore. I almost short circuited my keyboard with my bitter tears of rejection and walking away from scrapbooking seemed to be the only solution that would end the constant, painful bombardment of rejection. I was a dumb little girl back then...I can't say I'm any smarter, but I did manage to grow up enough to get over myself.
We all need to determine the level of involvement (in this 'hobby') that will magically transform it into a J.O.B. and ask ourselves if we are ready to cross it. For me, that line of demarcation is right at the DT Gig level. I won't allow myself to work for scraps...because despite loving the shower of goodies, the word 'work' is still involved. I have a job...in fact... because I felt the urge to replicate myself...twice...I have 3 or 4 jobs. I need another pay-less job like I need another dimple in my thigh...no thank you very much! If my hobby looks, smells and tastes like work...then I'd better be getting paid for it...and even with paycheck in hand I will denounce it as any hobby of mine.
What I'm trying to say...if I'm trying to say anything at all, is that for me (and hopefully nobody will miss the "for me" part), Scrapbooking isn't about achievements (outside of achieving giddy happiness at completing a page I love), it isn't about goals, it isn't about 'catching up'. It's about release and release is the antithesis of stress...IMHO. Therefore, it only calls to reason that stress has no place in my scrapbooking. However it got there, it needs to exit, stage left and asap!
Now I need to ponder how to get the festering cyst out of my scrap area...
TFR
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10 comments:
gee you do have interesting thoughts !
At first, the liberated scrapper in me was going to say "stress, who me ? oh nooo, ne-ver"... And I thought about it. I do feel that self-inflicted unnecessary stress sometimes. Stress comes when I don't get any idea, when my photos start staring at me, when every color combination I come up with looks terrible and when I mess up a layout. Stress also comes when I get that idea that I'm going to die tonight and I haven't scrapped the gazillion photos in the boxes.
When the scrap-duty comes around I know it's time from a scrap break. A couple of weeks without scrapping is just great for the mind. As a matter of fact it's been 3 weeks that I haven't touched a cutter. I'm painting my walls, gardening, sewing and surfing the net to discover other people's crafts and talents.
Oh, 1:24, you'd be literally frightened to find out where my mind goes when I don't keep an eye on it.
I have to agree that a scrap-free life does help to alliviate stress..in fact...I had a scrap free life for about 4 months and now I'm scrapping 2 layouts a month. It's hard to get back into knowing where I went with it and being terrified of going there again!
I know where the stress came it, but it's like a trap door that swings both ways so there is no way to keep the poison from coming back in. The best I can do for now is to check myself every few minutes to make sure that what I am doing, I am doing for moi and not my peers. If that makes sense, go get your head checked.
I surely do wonder if the powers that be in the industry knew that they were laying a fertile ground for stress when they started on their money making endevours? I'm reluctant to think that they actually care unless it affects their bottom line. Quite honestly, it seems that the more of us who wake up and close our wallets the higher the prices of the new stuff rises, so as long as there are others out there to buy it, they'll never miss those of us who defected.
Oh well, even as a kid I never liked Koolaid.
CS
I've asked this question before elsewhere.
Wouldn't it be nice scrap with freedom from perfection?
I'm not there yet I'm sorry to say. Every page I produce is done with publication in mind and whether it is publication-worthy.
I'm having pages picked up but does seem more and more like work now and not just scrapping for the heck of it.
I surely do wonder if the powers that be in the industry knew that they were laying a fertile ground for stress when they started on their money making endevours?
I don't know either but I'm certain they felt that most women would easily fall in the recognition trap. That could very well be a stress factor, no ?
But you are right, their main goal is the bottom line ! Don't you think it's about time that OUR main goal should be our creative process, period? What I mean is that we should treat our layouts like my silly gardening, clumsy sewing or wall painting. A nicer environment has been "created" (with noooooo stress) for everyone in the family to enjoy !
Here here! 3:36!
I know that some would rather us take on the burden of "saving scrapbooking from itself", but I'm more of the mindset to save myself and let the scrapbooking industry learn its lesson the same way that I did; the hard way!
I'm just glad I'm not alone out there :-P I've been feeling slightly guilty for watching TV and movies in the evenings instead of scrapping (single, no kids :) but now I realize that this must be what I need or I wouldn't be so reluctant to scrap. Embrace the break! LOL. Now, if only I didn't have some boring periods between projects at work that led me online to kill time :-P Note to self: find some non-scrapbooking related sites to kill time with.
Okay, and speaking of TV as scrap avoidance, am I the only one who thinks Hell's Kitchen is totally staged?
Thanks CS! Another great 'you-read-my-mind' post :D
Thanks 4:28! I have to agree that there is a surreal quality to Hell's Kitchen. I don't know too many people who would be able to say the things that Chef Ramsey says to those people without getting their teeth rearranged in the interim. Last night was a bit much...the whole, "i couldn't smell the rancid crab" and "I figured I'd boil the bacteria off the spaghetti" thing was a bit much...it pretty much put me off of eating out...especially at high price restaurants where a tyrant is screaming for perfection. Blech!
lol CS... so glad I'm not the only one who was thinking that about HK :D.
And back on topic, last night I went and just sat in my scrap room and went through my layouts and I realized that even though they don't look like the ones I love online and in mags, I still love them. I love them MORE than the ones I see from others because they're mine - my memories, my creativity, my stories. I just suddenly felt free! I read some journaling and looked through some favorite albums and I really did remember why I scrapbook. All of the stress seemed to just fall away. Hopefully this will lead to some great pages in the near future :D
oh boy..what a topic. I used to have that scrap stress! I was trying SO HARD to get published...and everyone kept telling me my work was good enough to be in magazines...yet..nothing. So with every layout I was trying for perfection, trying to create something that THEY would like. (they being the mags). When I finally decided that maybe publication just wasn't it for me and started scrapping for the fun of it. The stress just dropped. I started having fun again. Now I'm on a DT which requires more than I would like. And by the time I'm done with my DT layouts I have absolutely NO desire to even LOOK at my scrap area. So once my gig is up I think I'm done because I've only allowed that stress to creep back into my scrap life.
Great topic as usual CS.
signed-d.fish
I, too got trapped in the whole "scrap-stress" to the point where I was having anxiety attack just visiting forums for God's sake! I was trying WAYYYY to hard to be liked for my layouts, trying toooooo hard to get recognized and getting DT positions, and trying to get published. My stress level was wayyyy off the chart and my personal life was beginning to be a bit of a mess. My DH begged me to give it all up, and I didn't want to. But something happened a couple of months ago that really made me finally decide then and there to actually give it all up. I am now not bothered by any forums, don't even visit them. I am not trying to get published or get on DTs. And my panic attacks have stopped, I no longer have anxiety attacks and I am scrapping for ME, visiting blogs and doing some challenges there but I don't have that pressure anymore to perform and I am not being watched by the "kewl" scrappers and the ones who think they are ALL THAT! No one looking down on me and I am loving it now! Finally I'm back to scrapping the way I want to scrap, all for ME and my family.
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