Jennifer Edwardson was always the crafty-type, so when she was presented with the idea to put together a scrapbook for her baby, passion took over.
“I was given a scrapbook to do for her first year and that was it,” said the owner and founder of Scrapbookin’‚ Adventures in Parksville.
Not only has Edwardson always been keen on crafting things out of nothing and working with her photos, she was obsessed with crafting tools as a child.
“I was one of those kids that bought school supplies in July and then looked at them every day until school went back in,” she said.
After graduating from Ballenas Secondary School, Edwardson moved to Alberta for about five years before moving back to the area. She had a successful career in fashion retail, but said her ideal career choice didn’t really hit her until she was 30.
Now, beyond working at her Parksville store, she also designs projects for three of the major scrapbooking manufacturers in the U.S. They send her their new products, she creates something beautiful, and then they use it for marketing. She’s also in demand for scrapbooking lessons, teaching regularly on the mainland and sometimes in the U.S.
Scrapbookin’ Adventures has found their niche, Edwardson explained, so instead of having a little bit of everything, they offer all the top releases from the major manufacturers, including patterned paper and all of the coordinating stickers and embellishments to create pages. Besides that they have the top basic scrapbooking tools, adhesive brands and albums, and keep up on all the latest trends, she said.
The classroom in the store is a popular place for all sorts of classes and workshops, including traditional layout, mini albums, youth classes, bridal showers and everything in between.
Edwardson said at Scrapbookin’ Adventures they encourage people to get their handwriting, personal thoughts and memories in the books. Although there are many online stores that will make your scrapbooks for you these days, Edwardson said crafting your own is for those that want to get creative and make something very personal for their family or friends.
“You have to be someone that wants to touch the paper and feel it and work with it,” she said. “For those of us that are scrapbookers and are creative, that’s part of the process, we’re creating these memories for our family and for our children.”
Visit the store at #4 – 102 E. Island Hwy. in Parksville or check out the website for more information: www.scrapbookinadventures.ca. There you’ll find links to the store’s Facebook and blogs.
