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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Scrapbooking is just cutting and glueing

46 replies

knittynoodle · 07/02/2011 12:15

Im going to be flamed for this Im sure, but I have a friend who is really really smug about her creations. We are a fairly crafty lot and she never took to any of the crafts we all tried - we try to give most of them a go even if we are rubbish or we find the craft rubbish. Shes more analytical and was fine as she was, until she found scrapbooking.

And now its simply the best thing ever, she does ever so many a week, she has a room dedicated to it, spends loads of money on it, goes to weekends away for it.

AIBU in thinking its just cutting and sticking. Most of the creation is done for you and you just add the detail.

(I also dont think hobbies like this should cost alot of money. I go to a free knitting group and we have teaching sessions among our group of friends)

OP posts:

Mammie81 · 07/02/2011 12:22

Aw, but it looks pwetty, Knitty

MillyR · 07/02/2011 12:23

YABU.

I would like to scrapbook and don't because it seems difficult. DD was bought a child's scrapbooking set for Christmas and I can't even even manage that.

You underestimate how incompetent some people are at artistic taks.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 07/02/2011 12:23

YANBU. I knew someone when we lived in Bangkok who set up a scrapbooking group. I could never see the point TBH. A lot of fannying around with sparkly bits and exclamations over finding the perfect coloured foil to set off a piece of baby hair.
[doesn't even have photographs in albums]

Original poster

knittynoodle · 07/02/2011 12:24

True! But she buys pre-made sets, with pre-designed layouts and just sticks the stuff down! Its not a craft, its prison work!

OP posts:

MissJanuary · 07/02/2011 12:24

So she's found soemthing she likes, what's the problem? And what's it to you whether she spends loads of money on it or not?

TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 07/02/2011 12:25

WTF IS Scrapbooking anyway?

I thought it was just a diary type thing that you could stick stuff in as well.

Itsjustafleshwound · 07/02/2011 12:26

But then ripping good fabric into rags was called 'make-do' is now patchwork!

Scrapbooking is a load of pants and an expensive one at that!!

Original poster

knittynoodle · 07/02/2011 12:27

Quilting is another one I dont get, but my friend does make some lovely stuff. It just seems so boring!

OP posts:

MillyR · 07/02/2011 12:28

But surely the point is that you start off on preprepared sets and then progress on to deviating from the design, and the eventually don't need any preprepared bits at all? Everyone has to start somewhere.

I'd far rather receive a scrapbook than a bit of knitting as a gift.

agnethafaltskog · 07/02/2011 12:28

at prison work!

YANBU.

TheProvincialLady · 07/02/2011 12:28

It certainly looks hideous and tedious to me, but then I know people feel the same way about my hobbies. Each to their own, etc. A whole room devoted to cutting and sticking as a bit OTT though.

Onetoomanycornettos · 07/02/2011 12:28

Who looks at the scrapbooks when they are done? I don't mind whatever craft people engage in as long as I don't have to admire them for hours (whilst secretly thinking, what's the point of this?)

Mammie81 · 07/02/2011 12:29

I know a woman who runs classes and seminars, blogs about it, makes something everyday, and still only uses premade sets.

TheProvincialLady · 07/02/2011 12:30

If I did this hobby I would worry about all the scrapbooks my DC would be obliged to clear out when I was dead, and the guilt and trauma it would cause them when they threw the lot away. FIL makes model trains, very expertly, but goodness knows what we will do with them when the time comes

SoupDragon · 07/02/2011 12:31

LOL. It is basically cutting and sticking but its also about the design. I"ve done a couple, just small ones. Two were A-Zs of a particular year, so there were 26 diffieren photos kind of commemorating that year. I also have what we call The Birthday Book (which is a little out of date, I have been lax) where there is a page for each of the children's birthdays.

They're just fancy photo albums really. Nice to look at and much better than digital photos on a screen.

bubblewrapped · 07/02/2011 12:32

all sounds a bit poncey to me... great if you have loads of spare time on your hands, a bit sad if it takes over your whole life...

its a bit like people who rave about how lovely their home-made greeting cards are, yes they are fine...but it doesnt mean you can run a successful home business either.. as many have found out to their cost...

SoupDragon · 07/02/2011 12:32

It's no different to having to clear out photo albums.

Original poster

knittynoodle · 07/02/2011 12:32

Also, i have never seen a finished article. I had a son last year and she got me a store bought card, despite making cards "all the time". None of us saw her home made xmas cards either! Perhaps because they cost her a mint to make and she wont finish them until next christmas?

OP posts:

MillyR · 07/02/2011 12:32

I'm consumed by envy Soupdragon.

SoupDragon · 07/02/2011 12:34

The DCs love looking through the birthday book actually. It's nice having a photo taken of them on one specific day each year too.

Bathsheba · 07/02/2011 12:35

My Mum makes cards....she has a room dedicated to is, she spends hours and hours doing it, and a LOT of money on it...

While I'm mostly underwhelmed with what she created (she can't help but make things frightfully busy - "I just thought that corner looked awfully plain, so I used my corner punch, embossed a wee thing on it, added some decoupage and then some quilled paper..."), I figure it keeps her brain active and keeps her out of mischief.

Mind you, my Mum is almost 70 and needs her brain kept active.

I know another girl who crafts (uses kits to make cards) but she always seems to be a victim of it - in the run up to Christmas it was as if there was someone standing holding a (glue) gun to her head and forcing herto stick bits of paper together..."I jsut have so much to do and I'm so stressed - I have all these cards to make..."

it underwhelms me I have to say.

BuzzLightBeer · 07/02/2011 12:37

its just seems a bit ladies busy-work, doesn't it? But if she likes it, she likes it.

Original poster

knittynoodle · 07/02/2011 12:38

I just dont see any personality in those prebought sets...

OP posts:

MillyR · 07/02/2011 12:39

It is things like Soupdragon's birthday book that make me feel like a bad parent. I am unmoved by all SAHM/WOHM, feeding babies from jars debates and so on.

But this kind of family loveliness really does make me feel like I have failed.

SequinsAndSparkles · 07/02/2011 12:42

I think there is a difference.

If it's all from a prebought set, then it's a bit pointless as they can be impersonal.

But if you've taken the time to source the materials yourself and put things in which are prvious to you, and you have created the whole thing yourself, then I think they can be really, really nice!

I have made one for every year of DD's life. I build them up as the year passes, and then hopefully when she's older she'll love looking through them.

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