Feeling a bit upset... but smiling..

 The international scrapping community got hit with news that made waves on Wednesday.

 

 The initial shock (and a quick last shopping trip) turned into a lovely walk through memory lanes... and how by finding one website changed so many things in my life.

I joined 2Peas back in October 2002.

I was fairly alone in Finland with no scrapbooking friends.

I happened across this site online and I remember it being such a trip.

So many people scrapbooking!

Sharing their stuff.

Message boards.

I was sold.

This was my first layout I shared.

Oh boy.

Well, technically girl, but you know what I mean...

In addition to everything else the site was also a shop.

It fed my patterned paper addiction for years.

 Swaps on the messageboards led me to try new things like altering postcards and making ATCs.

And declaring my love of Gil Elvgren's pin-up girls publically.

The Pub.

It's where I went every day for Sharyn's good morning posts.

People who understood this passion for scrapbooking.

Some legendary things happened in the PUB.

  

But mostly I loved 2Peas because that is how I met my TIPster friends.

Thanks Zoe!

Talent Incubator Participants.

We even had our 15 minutes of fame in print :)

Back in those days over ten years ago there was a mad rush to get your pages published.

It was the thing to do.

Submit, submit, submit.

And I have to admit I was quite giddy when I got a layout published in Creating Keepsakes in November 2003.

 Funny to see how my style has evolved over the years.

And apparently tearing paper was the trendy thing then.

 But back to these lovely ladies.

Our group took on a life beyond 2Peas, we had our own private message boards and some of us have even met up. 

And even though some have drifted apart, there are ladies in this group who I know are friends for life. We still keep up daily on Facebook.

I made an album about our group and much to everyone's delight, it got published too.

 With a bunch of other lovely ladies originally met on 2Peas, there was another blog where we gathered and we were always up to celebrating each other's achievements, like Elizabeth's book.

The Lists with Friends posts, you've seen here, is a project with this bunch of gals.

 With out the Tipsters, I would've never had the nerve to try out for a Design Team.

As it was I got a chance in Jill's A Million Little Things website/shop.

Best times.

Great DT members with whom I'm still in contact.

These are the reasons I love Facebook and Instagram, I'm in the loop on what's going on, even though we are thousands of miles apart on the globe.

During the years scrapbooking had slowly landed in Finland and through this blog and my online presence on 2Peas, fellow Finns found me, yay!

The one who timidly contacted me, is now the dearest of friends.

I even ended up on morning tv talking about scrapbooking!

Before I knew it, we had our own Get Inspired blog going on here that had us busy.

And even more local scrapbooking friends popped up.

All because I stumbled upon 2Peas.

 While I was browsing my order history on my phone the other day, a FB reminder popped up.

Sure enough, guess where I know Susie from?

Yup.

2Peas.

I know scrapbooking has been on the decline these past years, many online shops, magazines and websites closing down. Could be because of Project Life of course. 

I tried it, but found I wasn't enjoying it as much.

I still scrapbook. 

Not as much as before, but there's nothing better than getting together with my dear locals for a crop.

I still find the whole creative process thrilling.

It is relaxing.

I've let go of all the "rules" in the past few years and given myself a creative license to do just that: create.

What I love most about this hobby is that it has made me a better photographer.

Be it through the lens of my big DLSR or my iPhone.

Capturing the everyday.

#Thanks2Peas