Scraplifting – Friend or Foe?

As I look through many of my recent scrapbook pages, I’ve come to realize what a scrap-lifter I am! For those who have never come across this term, it is a cute way to say “copy”. Most crazy scrappers, like myself, have occasionally scraplifted a page from a magazine, a friend or a website. I guess occasionally may be a little far fetched. I must confess that most of my pages are in one way or another scraplifted. Isn’t that what you get all those great magazines for? Isn’t that why you go out and spend $29.95 each time a new “special edition’ is released? Inspiration? Here are some different examples of how I’ve scraplifted this year . . .

Here is an example of a page that I almost completely copied – except the flowers were suns on the original page, I used a totally different color scheme (which I often do).  But I used the same layout and used step-by-step instructions on how to make the flowers.  So, even though I love how this page turned out (mostly because it has pics of my son and I together which are rare these days) I really can’t take any credit for originality here.

This page, I actually only stole the title “Quite possibly”.  The page I lifted this from looked nothing like my page, I just loved the title and found my own story to fit.  In addition, I was looking for a way to use this photo.  The was no real story behind it, just Wyatt being Wyatt.  So I did what I often do, wrote about what was on my mind at the time. I find that most of the time, pages that do NOT revolve around an event such as birthday, holiday,etc. are my favorites. The everyday moments are often the ones that count, right?

At the beginning of each of Wyatt’s “yearly albums I write a short letter to him and then the rest of the album is journaled from his perspective.  So of course, I always get a bit teary eyed while doing this page, but it must be a good one – because it starts off his album each year.  On this particular page I used the idea of cutting a perfectly good photo into four pieces.  My conservative side screamed “NO! Don’t cut the picture!”  But, with shaking hands, I did it and actually loved it! ( I have this weird fear of over cropping my photos, even though I print all my photos at home and can easily reprint)

I found this really cute scrapbook page in a magazine titled “hooked” with a picture of a kid holding a fish. I tore this page out of the magazine (which I rarely do) and saved with the intention of taking a picture of Chris and Wyatt fishing this summer. (Yes, I take pictures around scrapbook pages I have planned in my head)  Of course, I never got that picture, but did get these great pics from the lakes.  So, instead of copying (AKA scraplifting) the title and picture, I ended up lifting the idea of squares in the background framed by thread. So in the end, this page also turned out nothing like the original . . . so can I call it my original yet?

Wyatt loves doing anything his dad does, so you can imagine my amusement when Chris taught Wyatt to dunk his oreos.  I, myself, have never been a “dunker” for which I have received much criticism over the years.  When I saw the title of this page in one of my magazines, I knew I must scraplift it.  Although the page layout and concept were completely different, I did copy the idea of using die cuts in the title. Now, I have never been one to scrapbook with diecuts of any kind, but upon learning how to use my cricut expressions machine a little more, I have discovered that diecuts can be FUN!   Really, the only thing I “stole” here, was the title and diecut idea.

So, although I started out feeling a tad guilty for scraplifting so many page ideas, as I looked further into my albums I began to realize that while I may have stolen bits and pieces from other people, my outcomes were generally VERY different. See? Scrapbooking doesn’t have to be hard,  I just need to pick up a good idea here and there.