NSD Challenge:: Scrapbooking Your Job

Hi All! And Happy {inter}National Scrapbooking Day! i hope you're having lots of scrappy fun. My real life scrappy friend Sarah started a group over on facebook for scrapbookers in the UK and we are posting lots of challenges throughout the day to inspire and motivate people to get scrapping.

Here's my challenge to you: Scrapbook your work life.

It doesn't matter if you work, part-time, full time, run your own business, volunteer in the community or are a stay at home mum. If none of these scenarios apply to you, maybe you could scrapbook about why you don't work and what your feelings are about that (good or bad). If you have a partner who works, maybe you could create layout about their job. Perhaps you'd rather scrapbook about your dream job or where you see your career in 5 years time. This challenge is open to interpretation!

i think it's important that if you have a job, you scrapbook it. We spend a lot of time in our workplace and it's a big part of our story. People have all different kinds of jobs, maybe you work somewhere where it would tricky to take photos for privacy reasons. But there are means and ways to get around this (hello google images!). Perhaps you have a business card you can scrap (i have done this), you could scrap a page using your company logo, or you could make a page without any photos or memorabilia at all.

i happen to work in an office, luckily for me it's quite laid back and my colleagues are now used to my requests for them to take a quick picture of me! i've also taken quite a few pictures where i've been in online meetings and no-one else was around. There was a period of about 18 months where i had a lot of these meetings, so there are plenty of those pictures. Other pictures i've taken include the outside of the building where i work, the place where i have to check in and out of the building, close ups of me typing, my work mobile phone, my colleagues and i at social functions, me working in other locations such as at home, other offices or abroad in a hotel room.

This layout is about a week in which i was working abroad and doing 13 hour days to try and get things done. It was intense, but rewarding. This was a busy time in my life in which i didn't have much time for anything but work, and i'm glad i have it documented.

Perhaps you've been in the same job for a long time and want to talk about how it's changed over the years. Technology is often a huge part of our work life and how we use it daily would make an interesting topic for a page. What was your first job? Why not do a time line on your career to date. Have you recently had a promotion you can celebrate? Have you had to cut your hours back? Write about why you came to this decision. Do you have a specific daily routine? What do you do in your lunch break? What's your 'work wardrobe' like, do you have to wear a uniform? Do you have an awesome group of colleagues? Why not scrap them! Are there things you find really frustrating in your job? Are you feeling the pressure? Can you never switch your brain off from 'work mode'? Do you really love your job? Scrap it! All these things tend to change with time and will be interesting to look back on in the future.

In this layout i talk about a work project that i thought might lead to bigger things, but didn't. i am expressing my frustration at feeling stuck and wanting a change. Funnily enough a couple of weeks after i created this layout a job came up within the company which i applied for and have now been working in for 2 months!

Another thing you might want to think about scrapbooking is whether you have to travel for work, locally or abroad. What is your daily commute like? Do you, like me, have daily interactions with people across the world?

Last year i got to spend an entire month in Switzerland for my job, which was an amazing experience. i managed to travel quite a lot during my weekends which i have also scrapbooked. But i also wanted to document what the work was like because it was quite different to my regular job in the UK and not something i'm going to have the opportunity to do again.

i hope you have found some inspiration here today and create your own layout about your work life. i realise that it's not something people often scrapbook about, which is why i want to push you to try something new! The challenge is open until next Saturday May the 9th. Please upload your project to the facebook group, i would love to see them. The group is open to all UK scrapbookers, so if you aren't already a member, feel free to join! Of course, if you aren't a UK scrapper then i would still be delighted if you played along, just link me up to your layout in the comments below. Happy Scrapping!