![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/923246_10200751056166441_611174575_n.jpg\" "\\"Sir")
<\/a><\/p>\nScrapbooking is predominantly a female hobby. But every once in awhile, a man stands up and declares, “HEY! I like to do this stuff, too!” Our stand-up guy is Aaron Morris, aka Sir Scrapalot, a fixture in the digital scrapbooking world. We sat down and discussed what it was like to be a dude in a chick’s world.<\/p>\n
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Me:<\/strong> So Aaron, one might expect an engineer brain as a math teacher, but you’ve chosen an artistic hobby. Do you see yourself as left or right brain in relation to your hobby?<\/em><\/p>\n Aaron:<\/strong>\u00a0I use a lot of my right brain to get my scrapbooking going, and when I cluster and do some artistic style layouts. However, I always really love a nice, linear, grid layout. I think that’s one of the reasons Project Life is working for me.<\/p>\n Me:<\/strong> Then what brought you to scrapbooking in the first place?<\/em><\/p>\n Aaron:<\/strong>\u00a0I wanted to start a hobby that would give something positive back to my family, and I have always been crafty and artistic. I guess I never really thought of the fact that it would be predominantly female. Growing up, my dad was really artistic, and I think I took that from him.<\/p>\n Me:<\/strong> Your life obviously can’t be all about scrapbooking. What other hobbies do you love?<\/em><\/p>\n Aaron:\u00a0I love music, and I am pretty well versed in all things pop culture. I like to read sometimes, but not all of the time. \u00a0I am more often listening to music.<\/p>\n Me:<\/strong> Since this hobby is typically seen from a woman’s point of view, does your wife participate in your scrapbooking at all?<\/em><\/p>\n Aaron:\u00a0My wife, Stephanie, does not scrapbook at all, and she leaves the journaling mainly to me. I write all of it from my own perspective as opposed to a shared perspective. Stephanie does a lot of the photography for me, however. She’s much better at composing a shot, so she takes the pictures and I scrap them.<\/p>\n Me:<\/strong> Now that we know the why, tell us the how. Take us through your process of creating a page.<\/em><\/p>\n Aaron:<\/strong>\u00a0I start by opening a template or the page set up I want to use. Then I go in and place all of the pictures I want to include. After the pictures, I work on layering in papers and journaling cards\/spots. \u00a0Next I do my journaling, and go through and drop shadow what I have on the page. Once that’s done, I go through and add any embellishments I want to use and any title work that I need. I shadow that as I go. Lastly, I date it, and it’s good to go.<\/p>\n Me:<\/strong> Like any proud dad, your daughters are the focus of your layouts, but do you scrap much about yourself?<\/em><\/p>\n Aaron:<\/strong>\u00a0I never did, but then I went through an album and saw myself a total of 6 times. Since then, I try to do more scrapping about me so that my kids will know who I was and what I was about when they go back through the albums.<\/p>\n Me:<\/strong> Not everyone knows that you used to also be a designer.\u00a0When you were designing, did you find yourself viewing creation for a business differently than creation for yourself?<\/em><\/p>\n Aaron:<\/strong>\u00a0I loved designing. Picking colors and creating a full kit was the best thing. However, I always found that when I was done creating a kit I never wanted to use it\u2014I had already spent too much time with it. What ended up happening was that I would create kit after kit and never use them for myself . . . and it was taking up all of my time. I wasn’t scrapping anymore, and I wasn’t ok with that.<\/p>\n Me:<\/strong> What are some things that could make this hobby more appealing to men?<\/em><\/p>\n Aaron:<\/strong>\u00a0I think that focusing on capturing the memories makes it a bit more interesting to men. My friends are more likely to do that than think about creating an art journal page or something. I also think that if it’s something that you can do together, it makes it even more meaningful.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n