Scrapbooking - Again!

No, this is not one of my own pages but it is a very nice one and shows just one person's concept of committing boy's best friend to a fabulous memory.

Last night I cropped some of my Shih Tzu and and I also made a beautiful page of my last two homebred Shih Tzu, Sadie and Harry, who learned very quickly to live as family with Keith's two cats: Smokey and Sugar when I emigrated to Texas. I also added the beautiful hydrangea my sister-in-law, Louise contributed as a memorial to these animals.

You know we have Buddy the Lhasa now, but each dog (or cat) had his or her own personality - just like our human friends and it is nice to crop them in memory books.

I also have cropped some show portraits and one I did last night is of me with my first homebred Shih Tzu, Fanny, who was very sweet and devoted to me. She was not a "showdog" who could do a lot of winning, but we did pretty well that day when she was still a puppy. It is a photo dear to my heart and I will enjoy looking at that page over the years.

Scrapbooking has evolved tremendously and some people are into digital work now. That is not for me because - as you well know - I spend lots of time at my computer every day and would not consider that relaxing.

Regular cropping is changing with new three-dimensional embellishments arriving at my favorite store daily.

I can see when I look at a simple cropping of our church Mardi Gras Party three years ago and our Choir about five years ago, just how much this hobby has changed. The older pages are very flat with construction-type paper and stickers. A few weeks ago I did beautiful pages of this year's Mardi Gras party with glitter for a 3-D effect.

The papers now are sparkly with texture and beautiful patterns. We still use simple paper for borders, frames, outlines, etc. and it comes in so many colors, it is possible to match exactly to what you want.

Last night I used some metal lettering for Taury (my first Shih Tzu) and Fanny's pages and it just popped the page up perfectly.

I used my circular and oval cutters on the page of the "gang of four" on a background of paper that already had glistening circles on it.

Lots of you like to scrapbook and lots of you would "crop", if you had the time, etc. All those people who could be making such beautiful memories while making new friends and relaxing with this wonderful hobby. . .

Excuse me now . . . I am on my way back to the Crop Room!