Scrapbooking with your friends is a wonderful way to connect with others while sharing a past time and stories that you love with others. But what if some of your friends don’t scrapbook, but are interested in getting started? There are several things that you can do to help ease them into this possibly overwhelming hobby and help them to experience the same excitement you have felt after completing a layout.
Start with a current set of favorite photos. Don’t have your friend spend days (or weeks!) organizing piles of old photos. Chances are that by the time she finishes with the photos, she will be too burned out to put them onto scrapbook layouts. Just have her pick a favorite set of some of her most recent photos and have her come over to put them onto a layout.
Start with the basic tools. If you have been scrapbooking for a while, you have probably accumulated several fun tools that you are anxious to share with your friend. I recommend not introducing everything at once, but instead stick to the basics at the beginning. A trimmer, paper and adhesive and really all that she needs to get going.
Give guidance only when asked. You may not think that the arrangement of the photos is the most appealing or the paper is not what you would have chosen, but don’t tell her that. Give her encouragement. The only way to explore our creativity is to try different ways of working with things so learn what works for us. If she seems frustrated, you could give her a few suggestions. Just be careful that you don’t end up arranging the entire layout for her.
Encourage her to buy a kit or coordinating products. When coordinating products are already altogether in one place, it is so much easier to come up with a nice looking page. You can check out Nicole’s article on kit clubs for a nice list of several monthly kit clubs.
Enjoy spending time with your friend with your newfound interest. Who knows? Maybe she will introduce you to one of her favorite hobbies and you can learn something new too!