After a divorce or any life changing event, we reevaluate... our lives, our relationships, our history. While the process is integral to your sanity, it's often uncharted, uncomfortable territory. But I found a hobby that makes the healing a whole lot happier.

Scrapbooking.

Yep. That Martha-Stewart-esque-photo-cut-and-paste pastime. It's a downright fun way to organize and make sense of the feelings and memories in your head.

Pull out that box of photos in the attic. Get some adhesive (glue stick is fine) and scrapbook paper at any local craft store. Put the photos on the paper and write down on the paper what the photos contain and your thoughts and memories of those points in history. In the process of remembering and writing it down, a miraculous thing begins to happen. You begin to heal your thoughts, your heart, your soul.

It's the combination of the photos and the journaling that does it. Writing alone, does not remind you of all the parts of yourself the way contemplating a photo does. Writing and making art around those photos, even the simplest kind of art, is altogether healing. It's more powerful than any psychiatrist's couch.

And ninety-eight percent of scrapbookers are women. Much like the quilting circles of generations ago, scrapbook "crops" are weekly events where women gather to work on their craft while sharing the ups and downs, sorrows and joys of their daily lives. Just gathering in a community of women regularly makes scrapbooking a strengthening experience. Throw in the actual process of "scrapping," and you have the means to heal your life.

I have a saying, "Scrap strong sistah." It means scrapbook your life fearlessly. Uncover and discover yourself. Reclaim those parts of yourself you forgot. Venture backwards to conquer going forward. And make some really good art in the process.

Scrap strong sistah. Scrap strong.

Written by FIRST WIVES WORLD

Some say scrapbooking is even more popular than Golf. Seriously! According to Creating Keepsakes magazine, scrapbooking is now more popular than golf in the United States, where one in four households has a scrapbooker, compared to one in five households with a golfer. But what is scrapbooking? As Dexter Morgan so eloquently put it, in response to his sister, Scrapbooking is the tradition of putting photos and memorabilia into a family keepsake album along with relevant journalising (Source: Showtime Drama Series Dexter, Season 3 Episode 2, Finding Freebo).

Scrapbooking can be dated back to the 15th century with the emergence of commonplace books, then friendship albums in the 16th century followed by school yearbooks in the 18th and 19th century and with the later invention of modern photography as noted in www.wikipedia.com. However, modern scrapbooking began in the early 1980s with Marie Christensen and the opening of the first scrapbooking store which she and her husband started in Utah. Yet, the hobby really exploded between 2001 to 2004 when the scrapbooking industry doubled in size to $2.5 billion with over 1600 companies creating scrapbooking products by 2003.

There are various types and forms of doing scrapbooking but the two basic types, in my opinion, is (1) the standard or traditional form of creating memory albums using supplies such as a photo/scrapbook album, photos, ruler, glue, colored paper, embellishments such as ribbon, buttons, stickers, fabric, lace and tools such as fancy scissors, dye cuts, precut mats and so on; and (2) Digital scrapbooking or DigiScrappin’ as it is known by the on-line scrapping community, which involves creating pages on the computer using software and digital embellishments which are available on-line from various scrapbooking websites.

So what makes scrapbooking so popular?

Scrapbooking has emerged as a very popular pastime, even more than golf, due to many reasons such as:

Technology

Technology has facilitated increased interest in scrapbooking with the constant improvements in digital cameras which enable people to take as many pictures as they desire, with the only restriction being the size of their camera memory cards. Many people have camera phones as well and generally there has been an increased interest in taking pictures of everyday events. In addition, there are many computer software photo editing programmes which open up a world of opportunities to improve on a photo, make changes to it and spice it up a bit!

Media

The word is getting out on scrapbooking through cable television craft shows, magazines publications and Internet websites which provide tutorials on how to scrapbook, teach various techniques, and provide ideas on various layouts and themed pages etc. These various forms of media capture a wider audience globally and aids in increasing the popularity of scrapbooking. There are also entire stores dedicated solely to selling scrapbooking supplies and situations where scrapbooking ‘hobbyists’ get together at each other homes, scrapbooking workshops, stores, clubs, scrapbooking fairs and conventions. A relatively new phenomenon is scrapbooking cruises. All these avenues facilitate scrapbooking becoming such a sensation globally.

Preservation and Keepsakes

Many people use scrapbooking as a way to preserve old photographs, organize them versus storing them in a box and presenting them in a pleasurable, colorful and interesting way. It allows us to preserve memories for future generations. What makes scrapbooking different from simply putting photos in an album is the journalising of dates, names, times and special memories for each particular photo. You can write whatever you wish, make it as simple or complicated as you like, and simply express your individual personality in your work. Scrapbooking is something that just about anyone can do, once you have the interest in it. It does not require you to have any artistic skill or even to be a crafty sort of person. All you need is a little imagination and creativity and based on personal experience, if you thought you did not possess either, you would be surprised that once you start scrappin’ it flows and becomes an expression of yourself!

Fun

Maybe scrapbooking is gaining so much popularity because it is simply fun. In the end your time is spent creating beautiful memory books which can be shared with friends and family. Scrapbooking also gives you an idea for a themed party!

I hope that after reading this article, you would feel to go give scrapbooking a try to. I do hope you enjoy it.

Written by LEANDRA SEBASTIEN

Some people look at scrapbooking and think it's just a simple hobby. These are people who have never done a scrapbook page in their life. Others look at scrapbooking and see so much more than a hobby. If you're into crafts and even if you're not, then scrapbooking is something that you should check out and here are a few of my personal favorite reasons why.

Stress

Believe it or not, scrapbooking is a huge stress reliever. It helps ease your mind when you have problems that you keep thinking about. When you scrapbook, you forget all the things that are going on around you and focus only on your page. It's actually like you get lost in your work and have tunnel vision. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing when you're stressed out and don't want to think about all the things that stressed you out in the first place.

Time Out

Another reason why you should scrapbook is because it gives you time out with the girls. Once you start scrapbooking you will find there are plenty of women who get together at certain places and scrapbook together. You will end up with an entire day planned and if you're lucky, you will find a weekend event. It's a great way to step out of your life and into something that's both stress free and fun. These events always have good food as well. So you end up with good friends, scrapbooking and good food. What more could you ask for?

Preserve Memories

If you love taking pictures, then you should want to preserve your pictures the best way you can. Throwing them in a plastic tote is not showcasing your precious memories. Take pride in your work and showcase them. I haven't found anyone who doesn't like receiving a homemade scrapbook for the holidays. They make great presents for any time of the year and it shows the gift receiver that you actually took the time to make them something that's special to their heart and yours. It also shows you didn't run into a store, grab the first thing you saw and threw it in a fancy gift bag to call it a present. Preserving your memories is something everyone should want to do. If you use the correct scrapbooking tapes and papers then you are actually making your photos last a lifetime, so they can be passed down from generation to generation. Think acid free and you're well onto the road of preserving memories.

Moving On

If you have a death in your family and you're finding that it's hard to let go, make a scrapbook. You will be surprised that scrapbooking often promotes healing. It actually helps you focus on all your good memories instead of all the sadness and sorrow you feel. When my grandfather was sick in a hospital, everyone wondered how I held up so well. I spent 15 hours a day at the hospital and then I came home and scrap booked a page or two. This helped with the healing process. Instead of remembering him sick in the hospital bed, I went through all of our happy memories. He passed away about two weeks after that, and while I was sad, it didn't last long. Yes I miss him a lot, but instead of focusing on them weeks in the hospital, I look back at my scrapbook and the several other ones that I made for family members. We forget all the bad we went through for them two weeks, and remember his life the way it was before he was sick. My scrapbook's provided healing for me and a lot of my family members.

Written by BRANDI THORNSBERRY
Yahoo Contributor Network