Valentine’s Day is one of the occassions where one should be inspired to “scrap” pictures of their loved ones.

Now, I don’t mean “scrap” as in abandoning or getting rid of them. It’s actually the opposite of that – it’s more about presenting their pictures as subjects in your scrapbooks or digiscraps. Since scrapbooking is about chronicling an event in your or your loved one’s life, and Valentine’s day is all about your loved ones (not just the romantic kind, mind you), shouldn’t the two things naturally join together?

I enjoy scrapbooking… A LOT! When I do find the time, I can probably whip up about 3 to 4 page layouts in a span of the whole afternoon. Or I can do a lot more when I do digiscrapping. I love going through my collection of photos and picking up one or a set of pictures to use. I spend a lot of time choosing the paper, just the right elements and materials to go with them and looking for a quote or a song that will go with the photo. Sometimes, words aren’t even needed with some of them. Just the emotions that exude from the pictures are enough to tell the story.

But don’t just scrap families, tho. Scrap about your friends and their loved ones, too. It’s really a discovery adventure for me to scrap about them and the people they care about because I try to come up with the feelings they have for each other. I try to scrap about mothers and their daughters and see the light in their eyes that seem to say, “I love her so much”. Or about a fathers and their sons where you imagine him saying, “he makes me so proud.” Scrapping about sisters is one of my favorite subjects. I guess it’s because I have two of my own and the way we care about each other is something I will always cherish for a lifetime. So when I see my friends’ daughters being gooey-lovey or even just being playful with each other, I try to snap that photo and imagine what kind of layout I can do with that picture.

So scrap your loved ones for the whole month of February. Feel the love you have for each of them. Your scraps don’t have to be perfect. It shouldn’t be, if you ask me. You don’t need to buy the most expensive materials around. It’s not about that. I don’t scrap to be published or featured in a magazine or a book (altho that would be nice, I won’t deny that). I scrap for myself. It’s therapeutic for me, it’s a way of continously discovering the feelings I have for them, it’s a means for me to tell my loved ones, “I love you. I have you here in my heart.”

And even when Valentine is over, scrap some more. Life goes on and so do the memories. So keep snapping at those cameras, go on and continue to keep those photos nearby. There’s so many stories to tell, so much love to show the world.

(All digital scrapbook materials are from “She’s Full Of Scrap” online store.)