The Best of British Scrapbooking & Cardmaking

"I'm married to Nigel, and we have a son, Stephen who is five and a half, and a dog Maisie," says Alison by way of introducing herself. "I am a primary school teacher but, at the moment, am enjoying spending time at home with my son. I run a Brownie Pack and we particularly enjoy singing, craft activities and going away on Pack Holiday. I have a close circle of friends who have children the same age as Stephen-it has been lovely to watch them all growing up together. I have a group of friends that I enjoy scrapping with, mainly at weekend retreats. In my spare (!) time, I enjoy reading, felt appliqué work and making cards."

Alison has been scrapping for just over three years after having seen a show about it on QVC. She had always journaled in her normal photo albums and this seemed the perfect opportunity to develop her creativity while preserving memories. She says that she has always loved stationery and all the supplies were a great attraction-all that gorgeous paper!

Alison fairly bubbles over when you ask her about her favourite technique: "Oooh-so many! Hand cutting titles...using patterned paper...I think journaling is my favourite part of a page (although not strictly a technique, I suppose). I find it sums up the whole page for me."

Of the layouts in The Best of British Scrapbooking and Cardmaking, A Few Heartbeats Away is her favourite. She explains, "It was the first time I had journaled about a very difficult time, and I found it really therapeutic to see I had come through to the other side. It also uses one of my favourite photos."

Most of Alison's pages are about her son. However, she also really enjoys doing heritage pages. She says, " I love finding out more about my family so I can pass that information on-and the story of my grandma throwing boxes of old photos into the fire made me feel so sad. I want to try and document as much as possible of what's left."

As it is for so many scrapbookers, Alison finds scrapbooking a great way to make friends. She explains, "I have made many new friends since taking up scrapbooking, mainly through UKScrappers. I love to meet up with them and share ideas-- although I generally get very little done when we do! I find another huge source of inspiration is the regular on-line CyberCrops."

When asked to share advice about scrapping, Alison said, "Use your stash! Don't hang on to that gorgeous piece of paper waiting for 'the perfect layout' to come along-if it fits with what you're doing, use it. There will always be another gorgeous piece of paper to buy tomorrow."

She adds, "For people who've not scrapbooked before, I would say don't start with really important photos. Use repositionable glue and don't crop photos into fancy shapes-that way you always have the option to change things. Other than that, don't worry-it's supposed to be fun! And remember, it's YOUR family who will be looking at the albums in years to come-so do what YOU like and not necessarily what others are doing."