CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA - GUEST SCRAPBOOKER AND AUTHOR MOLLIE COX BRYAN

Today we welcome back Mollie Cox Bryan, author of the Cumberland Creek Mysteries featuring freelance reporter Annie and the ladies of the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop. After years of working as an editor and writer for nonprofits and corporations in the DC area, Mollie gave it all up for the "glamorous" life of a stay-at-home mom and part-time freelance writer. Read more about Mollie and her books at her website. 

Mollie is offering a copy of Scrapped, the latest book in her mystery series to someone who posts a comment. Don’t forget to either leave your email address or check back on Sunday to see if you’ve won. – AP

Reflective Scrapbooking

When I look over the pages of the old scrapbook I most cherish, my young grandmother stares back at me from the black-papered pages. Photos were obliviously taken on special days. High school graduation. A dance with a beau I don’t recognize. Gram holding her favorite dog and guinea pigs. If she had only journaled along side those photos, I'd know exactly what was happening. What kind of a day was it? How was she feeling? Who was that young man? What were her hopes and dreams?

Notes and labels are scattered here and there, but not any that were reflective, giving me a more personal glimpse. But one of the notes makes me smile every time I think of it. There is a photo of what looks to be a skinny but handsome young man with his leg propped up on a car. The note says William Snowwhite, Jr. On a closer look, it's my grandmother dressed up as a boy. (Yes, Snowwhite was my Gram’s maiden name and her father's name was William.) What was that all about? Why was she dressed (so well) as a man? She was obviously enjoying herself. But I'll never know the circumstances.

These days, scrapbookers have co-opted the term "journaling" as a way for people to write a little about the event in their lives that’s happening on the page. Often, it’s a simple description of the person or of the event. What I like to see and read are more personal reflections.

Where should the scrapbooker start to add in personal reflections?

Begin with some of the questions I ask in this blog post.

What kind of a day is it? Not just weather, but was there excitement, pride, sorrow in the air?

How are you feeling? Not just your health, but are you hopeful, joyous, longing for something? How about the other person in the photo? Ask them how they are feeling, what they are thinking.

What are your or the person’s in the photo hopes, dreams, goals?

After all, one of the reasons we paste photo to paper, is deeper than simply making it look pretty. It's to leave behind a legacy. Let's not leave our descendants wondering why we are wearing that tacky dress and donning a silly grin, or why we have a photo of that particular pie, or God forbid, why our otherwise very traditional grandmother is dressed like a man in the 1930s.

When you scrapbook, do you journal? Please leave me a comment and you'll be entered to win a signed copy of the my latest book Scrapped (Cumberland Creek Mystery #2)

About Scrapped (Cumberland Creek Mystery #2)

The ladies of the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop are welcoming an eccentric newbie into their fold. A self-proclaimed witch, Cookie Crandall can whip up a sumptuous vegan meal and rhapsodize about runes and moon phases with equal aplomb. She becomes fast friends with her fellow scrapbookers, including freelance reporter Annie, with whom she shares shallow roots in a community of established family trees. So when Cookie becomes the prime suspect in a series of bizarre murders, the croppers get scrappy and set out to clear her name. Annie starts digging and discovers that the victims each had strange runic patterns carved on their bodies - a piece of evidence that points the police in Cookie's direction. Even her friends begin to doubt her innocence when they find an ornate, spiritual scrapbook that an alleged beginner like Cookie could never have crafted. As Annie and the croppers search for answers, they'll uncover a shockingly wicked side of their once quiet town - and a killer on the prowl for another victim.

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Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Scrapped. And don’t forget to either leave your email address or check back on Sunday to see if you’ve won. – AP