Today is the 6th Annual D-Blog Day and in some ways, I'm stymied by the topic: Gina has proposed we all do a 12" x 12" scrapbook page. Growing up, a scrapbook was a shoelace-tied book of heavy vellum-colored Manilla paper to which one pasted telegrams, newspaper clippings, greeting cards, and the like. In theory, one scrapbook could last a lifetime; in reality, the pages started falling out about five years in, and we always had to be careful not to lose either the pages or the stuff glued on to them. My mother's scrapbook has telegrams of congratulations from relatives who couldn't make her wedding and a guest-card with the lyrics to "Bei Mir Bist Du Shane", telegrams of congratulations when my sister and I were born, and newspaper clippings from every time one or another of us was mentioned in the local newspaper. I'm pretty sure there's even a copy of my first published piece -- a book review for the April 1972 All-By-You issue of American Girl magazine (the original one, published by the Girl Scouts of the United States of America -- not the current one by the expensive doll company) and all the write-ups about it -- some four times as long as my review!
Today, scrapbooks to me are mostly photocollages. Most of my "printed" words come to me through my computer screen and are saved in file format. So, too, are most of my nonverbal visual images -- including photographs. The idea of a page with three photographs, a newspaper or magazine clipping, and the headline -- or a pull quote -- splattered across the lot read as half TV newsmagazine, half anachronism. Still, it's a fair chunk of work in Photoshop to get more than a few images layered in a reasonably artistic manner. I'm more used to printing out photos one by one as needed. Meanwhile, the old grandmotherly "brag books" of 3.5" x 5" photos have morphed into print-on-demand hardcover books of digital photos.
"Scrapbooking" is now a high-cost hobby that includes the selection of acid-free papers, ribbons, nailheads, and and three-dimensional stickers, Cricut designs, and custom page punches. Go into any name-brand craft store chain and you'll find aisles of the stuff. Between the papers and the trims and the event-specific stickers, it can easily cost $20 or more to design a scrapbook page, with nary a photo or newspaper clipping to be found. Just what I need, when we're struggling to pay the rent.
On the other hand, my local craft chain had a selection of open stock papers for about 2/3 off retail, and there's nothing diabetes-related in their stock of sticker-y, trim-ish stuff.
The blue background and blue rings represent World Diabetes Day. The large circle reminds us that diabetes is a global condition, and the Diabetes Online Community includes people from all over the world. The roller coaster and the wavy striped section represent the glucocoaster of uncooperative blood glucose levels; the stripes are also roughly the color of OneTouch test strips. The repetition of argyle, punctuated by Bayer Contour and Lifescan OneTouch test strips remind us of the inexorable routine of testing, just like clockwork -- and a clock is represented by the Freestyle Light test strips in the upper left corner. Of course, we have a couple of glittery pegacorns representing the DOC, because sometimes diabetes is a matter of rainbows and glitter and unicorns. The cupcakes, however, are missing: the stickers would have cost $8.00 and quite frankly, I'd rather spend that on stuff to make real cupcakes. Or cookies. (Come to think of it, I did. Now I just need to bake and decorate those sugar-laden, buttery unicorns, pigs, and World Diabetes Day logos)
