Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …
Since I’ve been in the homemade gift-giving spirit lately, I decided to just keep on going with the flow and work on my other Stitching and Crafting Merit Badge: Scrapbooking.
Now I know what y’all are saying: has Jane been living under a rock? We’ve all been scrapbooking since like, 2003! Well, I don’t mind saying, sometimes I’m behind the times and I just haven’t gotten around to all the fun girly crafts yet. I mean, I just now learned how to stamp and that whole craze is pretty much over. Ah well.
(My inspiration poster. I added my boyfriend, Mr. Wonderful, after we met last year. It was love at first sentence!)
So, not only do I have to put together a scrapbook, but I have to gift it as well. It’s a good thing Christmas is months away, because at the rate I’m going, I’m gonna need it. It’s taking me eons to put together one page, and I am sooooo not kidding! Rome wasn’t built in a day, girls, and I’m willing to bet Rome’s scrapbook wasn’t either. I spent all of yesterday cutting and pasting (and we aren’t talkin’ about Facebook statuses), gluing and sparkling, gem stone-ing and coloring. I felt like I was back in kindergarten and my results were about the same level.
I scratched it and started over. I learned to use of those fancy paper cutters that get your cuts real straight-like, and then I borrowed some of Midge’s kid’s wavy-gravy edged scissors. Those were super fun, but I tell you, if you thought cutting out a heart shape was tricky before, don’t attempt it with a scallop edge! I threw away (I mean, recycled) more oddly shaped hearts than the day before Valentine’s at a singles’ bar. At this point, I was considering throwing in the towel. I mean, come on, this was embarrassing! I nearly hot glued my hair to the page at least four times, and all my fingers were colored different colors like a tattoo artist had run amuck with some Sharpies.
I was pretty good with the stickers though. Never let it be said that I can’t strategically place stickers. Usually right over top of something I misspelled … oh well.
Some of those embellishments you get at the crafts store (or the dollar store, let’s be honest) are freaking adorable, I gotta say. Cute, little footballs for the guy in your life, cups of coffee with steam rising, rainbows, unicorns, cars, you name it, they’ve got it in sticky embellishment form! Since I’m making mine for Mr. Wonderful, I got oodles of hearts and flowers. He’s so totally gonna be crushing on it. I decorated the front with a huge pink bow and put our initials inside a heart. Seriously, my heart is all aflutter just looking at this thing.
I kept the last few pages blank. You know, for the future. Parties, dates, holidays, engagements … ahem. Did I say that out loud? A big ol’ rock, a wedding, babies … you know the drill. Stuff like that. Doesn’t hurt a girl to be prepared, I always say, and nothing says preparedness like a scrapbook.
