Share your Favorite Hobby with a Friend

By Christina VanGinkel

Sharing your favorite hobby with a friend can sometimes be as much fun as the hobby itself. I love to scrapbook, and I find myself talking about it a lot. I even go so far as to give scrapbooks and supplies to people for gifts, even if they do not necessarily participate in scrapbooking (Yet!). For example, I gave a friend a scrapbook this past Christmas, with several layouts completed of her four-year-old daughter. She had been at our house to play with my young grandson on a few occasions, and I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of them together. One of those play visits turned into a layout about snow angles. I also had taken photographs of her daughter at a dance recital, and of her catching a big fish at their family's pond.

She surprised me the other morning by bringing over the very scrapbook that I gave her with more of the pages completed! She has grasped onto this fun hobby with full gusto. Then, last night, she came over for what amounted to a play date, with me showing her all my 'toys' that I use when scrapping, such as my heat gun, my Punch n' Bind, embossing tools, paper trimmer, stencils, Wishblade, and much more. We also went through my growing supply of scrapbook magazines, which she then borrowed a few of to get some ideas of other products, and papers that are available. My husband just sort of watched, having a private chuckle at two grown women oohing, awing over paper, scissors, and punches, and such.

Not every hobby is made to be shared, but when one is so perfect for it, as is scrapbooking (just look at all the crops and get together that people do all of the time when scrapping) it can add an whole new element to the fun the hobby already rewards you with. I love nothing more than choosing a new photo and papers, adding embellishments, and then choosing if I am going to add journaling, and if so, what exactly I am going to say, but I also realized last night that I had just as much fun just sharing my toys.

When this same friend asked me not that long ago if I would come into her local church one evening for a women's get together to share my favorite hobby, I will be honest and tell you that I hesitated. Actually, I at first said no, that there was no way I wanted to get up in front of a group of women I only slightly knew, and I also thought what in the world could I talk about for half an hour or so, on the subject of paper and embellishments. However, after last night, and realizing just how long I could talk on the subject, and share with her why I like this tool, but not so much that one, and how my daughter explained to me that the edge of the Fiskars Stencils are for tearing paper to make unique borders and trims from, I realized that I actually do have a lot to say on the subject. It also gave me a chance to look over many of the supplies that I might have actually forgotten I had bought. Anybody who scraps knows just how easy it is to be carried away with buying this tool, and that pack of paper, and if you do not keep a good organizational system going right from the start, it is very easy to lose track of what you do have! With all of these thought running through my head, I went on to think that if my enthusiasm could entice even one other person to get involved in the hobby that I find so rewarding, so fulfilling, and fun beyond any other hobby I have ever partaken of, either now or in the past, then how could I say no?

If you have a hobby that you love, share it with a friend today. What better gift could you ever give them, than a bit of the same enjoyment you reap each time you take part in the hobby you love so much?