Scrapping for emotional release

This is a guest post by Kelly-Ann “Kiki” Halbert. Kiki sells lovely kits with a touch of sparkle at Inspiration Lane and Scrapbook Elements. I love the lesson here as well her example choices! – JSW

As you are browsing the online galleries, you cannot help but smile or laugh at some of the pictures in the layouts, the joys being remembered, and the happy memories being documented for future generations to read about and smile about later. Births and birthdays, weddings and anniversaries. Yes there are lots of wonderful memorable events to scrapbook.

But what about the layouts when life throws you a curve ball? What about the times when you feel like pulling out your hair, or crying for hours, going back to bed and starting the day over? Are those memories to scrapbook? Well maybe they aren’t memories that you will wish to recall later, but you can still scrapbook during these times, as a way of venting, a sort of therapy if you will.

I’ve sometimes found myself wanting to purge myself of emotions that I feel I don’t want to burden others with, or perhaps I feel like others won’t understand. I’m not a big fan of writing diaries, or keeping journals, but when times like that hit, I turn to scrapbooking. I talk out how I am feeling as if the page is a friend who will just listen. Often times I don’t use a photo, just some elements and papers that reflect how I am feeling at the time.

When I do manage to vent my emotions through scrapbooking, I feel a release, a sort of calmness overcomes me, because I’ve talked about it. I’ve released that emotion on a scrapbook layout. And what feels good to me to is that I haven’t burdened anyone with these emotions, or left someone with the concept that I am venting because I need a solution from them. I’ve vented purely to vent, and sometimes that feels really good.

Take a look at how some fellow scrapbookers have expressed their strong emotions on the pages below.

So next time that you feel such strong emotions that you are going to burst, why not try scrapbooking about it, whether the emotion is good or bad. No one needs see it but you, and you may be surprised by how you feel once you are finished.