About Heidi Swapp
Hello! My name is Heidi… people ask me all the time how I ‘got into’ scrapbooking… and I can tell you, that I am not sure if there was ever a ‘beginning’ – I think it was always there.
As a young girl, I used to look through some of the scrapbook albums that my mom had around our house; I remember that we had a 4 foot space between the wall in the Living Room and the back of the couch and it was there that the tall (and heavy) scrapbook albums were kept on the bottom shelf of the wicker table. I can remember that I spent hours and hours laying on my belly, propped up on my elbows looking through the pages of those albums over and over again.
I loved all of the photos and memorabilia from my mom’s ‘semester abroad’ to Austria. I used the photos and ephemera to take a “virtual trip” to all the places inside the book where my mom had been with her friends, looking so happy and sophisticated. I was sure of one thing: I wanted to travel…to collect maps, train tickets, send myself postcards, and hold foreign money in my coin purse. This was not just a scrapbook to me; it was a window to the world and I was seeing it through the eyes of my young, hip mother and I loved it!
And travel I have done! I have been to many of the places captured in her photos… I have gathered the maps, the money, the photos and the memories from my own travels – so naturally, I wanted the scrapbooks to put them in! I didn’t worry much about the materials or the style of my scrapbooking – I just did what I liked! I remember when I first realized there was a magazine for this hobby and how quickly I began devouring everything I could learn about the craft.
When we moved to Arizona, I was delighted because there was a really amazing scrapbook store! A real scrapbook store! (Memory Lane). I started planning a ‘monthly’ visit to the store, and allowing myself an hour with NO KIDS! On one of these visits, I accidentally left the album I was working on, and trying to pick papers to ‘go’ with photos, there at the store. I remember being SO mad I left it cause when I got home, all inspired… I had nothing to work on! I called the store, and told them it was mine, and when Debbie Crouse answered, I told her not to let ANYONE look in it!
Imagine my surprise the next morning when the owner of the store called my house, and asked me if I would teach classes at her store. –teaching at Memory Lane for the next 4 years filled me, pushed me and inspired me so much!
the rest is history!
I love to design new products, plan classes, compile ideas into books and articles… but above all, even in the beginning, I have loved to be able to share! I hope this website will motivate and inspire you to document your life, no matter how you choose to do just that!
