More than just a hobby...

Interview with Lisa - about Ethnic Scrapboking
If I could have a dream job, it would be to interview people (--sorta like Oprah!) and craft with them (like Carol or Martha). Since no one is knocking down my door with a job offer, I'll take matters into my own hands right here at The Card Castle. And just for the record, I won't get to scrapbook with Lisa...this time (wink), so my Martha/Carol dream will have to be deferred.

I was blog surfing and found Lisa Sanford's blog, Ethnic Scrapbooking. I was fascinated by her post about Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is a holiday that I don't know much about, but was enlightened by her blog. I also read that she had written a book called Ethnic Scrapbooking. Once again, my curiosity got the best of me and I purchased the book. Wow!! The scrapbook layouts are fabulous, but for me the message was unique and essential.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jacki: Hi Lisa, I want to get started by letting you know that I loved the book. Not only were the layouts beautiful, but the messages are important --- and I need to add, close to my heart. So many people take on scrapbooking as an art form or just another chore. My scrapbooks are biographical so the journaling is most important.
Like you, I have 5 kids, so I think I can imagine how busy you are. Taking on a project like this must have been very important to you. By writing and putting together Ethnic Scrapbooking, what message are you trying to send to the world?

Lisa: My Message...has been an evolving message. Initially, I wanted the manufacturers and magazines in the industry to be more inclusive, to take note that people of all races and ethnicities take photographs, and have memories and scrapbook too. As I worked on the pages in the book, I wanted to show my kids how many different ways we connect to different cultures on a daily basis. This is something we do quite easily living in a metropolitan area where there are over 29 countries represented in their schools and our church. Around year two in writing this book, God laid it on my heart, that each and every human being is unique and diverse in God's eyes. If he can love each one of us, why can't we learn to love one another and embrace our differences? It is through this embrace that we can begin to break down the walls of prejudice and discrimination that we/our ancestors built around our lives. Changing our perspective allows us to be more receptive to connect people & cultures.

Jacki : What have you learned as a result of creating this book?

Lisa: What I’ve learned by writing this book is that how you journey through life truly revolves around your perspective. I believe that if we are open to looking at every component of our lives in great detail and questioning the origins of the ritualistic or traditional things we do, we’d gain a greater understanding of our authentic selves.

Jacki: How do you think your children’s lives are enriched by your scrapbooking?
Lisa: Since scrapbooking is so much a part of our daily lifestyle, my children are much more aware of cultural influences and “every day” memorable photo opportunities. One downfall is that they want to save everything, so I have a drawer for each kid where they can stash stuff. When the drawer gets full, they have to go through it and purge or take a photograph of what they want to keep.
Jacki: How did you find the talented contributors to your book?

Lisa: Some of them were my scrapbooking friends and some were sisters from design teams that I served on. Most of the contributed pages were not created specifically for my book, they just happened to fit the themes and philosophy of Ethnic Scrapbooking nicely and I asked the artist to share them with you, the reader.

Jacki: Are you finding that there are many others who share your philosophies?
Lisa: I’m finding that many don’t quite grasp the concept until they see the examples and read the book, then the “wheels” start turning as to how they can connect their memories/traditions to different cultures.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm honored to have had this opportunity and I want to thank Lisa Sanford for taking time to respond to my questions.

Want to know more? I'm including the following links for further study of Lisa's book and concepts she calls Ethnic Scrapbooking.

Ethnic Scrapbooking (the website)

Lisa's blog

More Examples of layouts

Book Reviews