By Darlene Bowers

Three baskets sit atop the refrigerator. Jamie Wills of Ada sits nearby and lays out the process;  one basket for each of her children - Mackenzie, Miranda and Macormick. Each basket temporarily holds mementos, school papers, library story-time keepsakes, ticket stubs, treasures from her family’s everyday life. The contents are then revisited piece by piece at year’s end relishing each and deciding which to include in memory albums (scrapbooks).

Jamie, a Creative Memories consultant for 14 years, is passionate about scrapbooking and her heart is in the timeless and traditional style; the pieces that allow one to look at an album and see photos and handwritten journaling in lieu of trendiness of a certain period.

Timeless pieces make it impossible to tell if an album was created one year ago or 25 years ago so you focus on the memories themselves, explains Jamie.

Jamie’s heart is also in her annual weekend crops; scrapbookers gather to create pages for their albums and share their lives in the process. Some complete many pages during the crop, others barely get started.

“It’s become more about the connections with each other and our families than about the scrapbooking,” according to Jamie. Young and single, newlyweds, new parents and the whole spectrum through seniors attend the weekend crop. They’ve grown very close over the years, welcomed new additions, bemoaned losses, celebrated and really connected. They gather to reignite and reconnect and to scrap.

“It’s infectious,” says Jamie. “When you hear that genuine belly laugh over and over you know it’s working. It takes you out of your ordinary routine. You get to focus on a different purpose than you do most other days of the year.”   

It’s also a time to reflect and recall the heart of things, seeing things you didn’t see when the actual event you are scrapping took place. Jamie points out that it wasn’t until a recent crop that she saw the expression on Macormick’s face and how wide his fingers were spread in a gigantic hug around a character in one photo.

You get to reflect upon and revisit and maybe see fully for the first time as you pull pieces together on a page that can then be shared with others.

And speaking of heart, Jamie shares her biggest scrapbooking tip; journaling. Journaling is recording on the page the details of a photo in your own words, but really it’s whatever comes from the heart. And use your own handwriting advises Jamie. Maybe back in grade school or even high school you drew hearts above your i’s. 

Then later the heart became a simpler, small circle and later still just a tiny dot, and now maybe you skip dotting your i’s altogether.  All of that is important; a record of the progression of our lives.

As the three basket contents await their destiny, you can be sure Jamie will be creating pages that capture that progression and make her heart come off the pages and fill yours.