When the Craft Stores Don't Carry Those Kinds of Stickers...

1999 was a hard year for me. Rocky times eventually led to a separation for my 21 year marriage. I determined to document my struggles and victories in my scrapbook, albeit some pages may have a limited audience. The problem with documenting these major but not happy life events is there are no obvious solutions on the shelves at Michael's or Hobby Lobby. 

But there are workarounds for this problem. Watch my video to get inspired and get some healing out of your scrapbook time.

Video: Good-For-You Scrapbooking Intro

Are There Freeloaders On Your "Property"? Scrapbook to Reclaim, Heal and Get Closure

Take back your real estate! You invested into your life. Maybe it was a marriage, a childhood, raising your own kids, a job, a dream. But then the uninvited guests camped out all over your property. That property is your investment—time, effort, love, passion, work. You invested all those elements into this Project (raising kids, marriage, dream, etc.), but someone didn't see the “No Trespassing” signs. The "trespassers" could be anything that stole from your "investment":  Ingratitude, abuse, loss, disaster, illness, poor choices made by others, unfaithfulness, bitterness, and any kind of misfortune or action of others.  The land is ravaged, trashed, desolate. 

It is robbery to allow the freeloaders to stay on your property.

“They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and his family, even to a man and his heritage.” – Micah 2:2, The Bible in Basic English

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10 New International Version.  

It’s time to take it back.  Rout them out! How?

1. Decide to. So much in life is all about our choices. Choice is the trump card in the hand of life. Choose to reclaim your real estate. 
2. Recognize and establish your real estate. Suppose it’s in the marriage realm.  Did you work so hard to have a good, marriage and your spouse failed you? Possibly you are now no longer married or your marriage is in a state of disarray.  Either way your real estate is the work and effort and love YOU put into the marriage. 
3. Occupy your land and "kick the bums out". I am not advocating any literal kicking out of any persons. This is all in the emotional realm. You can reclaim your emotional real estate by mandating: “This is mine. I worked hard for it. I will not let the disaster win. I will take what I put into this marriage and recognize it was not all for naught because what I did COUNTED even if it was not received by my spouse, even if it was rejected, and even if my marriage ended.”
4. Scrapbooking puts the Real in your "real estate".  It's not all just a mental exercise. So don't throw out those photos of him or her and all those menus and travel keepsakes. No, no. Even if they dredge up some painful memories. YOU know that you had intentions of good memories. So this stuff is yours. Claim it. Claim the good you intended. The good you tried so hard to make a reality. 
5. “Crop out” the bad painful memories after you accept what you learned from them. This is not literal. Do not cut the offending spouse out of photos with him/her and other loved ones in it.  You can maintain integrity of the memory and essentially, emotionally crop out the bad that now overshadows it. There are ways! Email me to find out more.
6. Narrate, narrate, narrate. Beyond "We went here" or we did such-and-such. Journal the work and the hopes you had. Captions also work wonders.
7. The Garden Grows-a Happy Ending. When you decide to reclaim your property with scrapbooking that is truly good for you, you are no longer dependent on people or circumstances for the goal you have of reclaiming the ravaged parts of your life. You are in charge of the outcome. The thrill of recovering the hard work I put into parts of my life (my real estate) is immeasurable. I believe it is part of God’s plan for me to get this stuff of mine back.  my favorite scripture and fully applies when reclaiming your life by god for you scrapbooking:   “All things work together for good for those who love God who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

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Why Good-For-You Scrapbooking?

Life. It's an amalgam of good and bad, and very much like a huge cardboard box full of mementos and pictures from the past, thrown in hastily and requiring a lot of sorting. The thought of sorting it all out is burdensome and so the box sits. Likewise, sorrows that are lurking and hurting as well as victories buried under heaps of defeat are in that box of Life. I avoided feelings about the memories represented in the cardboard boxes just as I avoided the actual sorting of the cardboard box contents. Then came the invitation to my Aunt Rose's 100th Birthday. I decided to make her a scrapbook for her present and that led (forced) me to sort out boxes of stuff to find material to use. While I was finishing her scrapbook, I ended up dipping into lots of boxes and got all of my Stein (Dad's side) and Boisvert (Mom's side) memorabilia and photos sorted and filed. It felt great! The process had begun and so had the healing. I continued by filing and sorting the photos and mementos from my adult life. I had left off on 1993. (Yikes! It was then 2011.) I declared that once I finished the degree I was working on I would begin my scrapbooking in earnest. Graduation came and went in 2013 and I procrastinated for a few more years. Fear was holding me back. I was afraid to face the pain I had once experienced again. Guilt held me back. I had made decisions that I had been judged on. If only I knew the healing freedom that was in store for me. I believe the Lord had been and has been leading me to use scrapbooking as a tool for restoration. I chose to overcome and God helped me.

However, just making right choices doesn’t guarantee happiness. A better commodity is joy. Scrapbooking has brought me healing but no activity, relationship, or thing can bring joy. There is only one source for joy in my life and that is my relationship with Jesus Christ. I can flail about with monumental discoveries and take great strides but joy comes from the Lord. That said, I began the Good-For-You Scrapbooking blog to share my story about how God is using my scrapbooking to restore what the enemy stole or tried to steal by way of years of struggle and pain, most from a toxic (first) marriage. He really does make all things new. 

Also, I resolved to scrapbook the good and the bad of life. I know the craft stores don’t cater to this notion, but I have ways to make it work.

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Learn more about Good For You Scrapbooking