Scrapbooking with a Celebrity
Lisa
Whelchel
The Facts of Life star is
a busy mom these days, but she still find time to capture
her family's moments in scrapbooks
By Lori Elkins Solomon
Most people remember Lisa Whelchel as Blair Warner from
the NBC sitcom The Facts of Life . Since the show's
finale in 1988, Lisa has been devoting her energy to other
roles: Married to a pastor, she's a mother of three and
the author of books on parenting, homeschooling and religion.
For her, scrapbooking is a creative endeavor and an expression
of her faith and values.
Q: When did you start scrapbooking?
A: My mom bought me a scrapbooking kit about seven years
ago. I put it on a shelf and left it there for a year until
a friend suggested we go to a party and learn how to use
it. Well, I went and learned, and I've been obsessed with
scrapbooking ever since.
Q: Why is scrapbooking important to you?
A: I want to preserve our family moments for my kids.
We've had such a blessed life—it would be a shame for their
memories to be lost. It's so wonderful to see them take
the scrapbooks off the shelf and look through them and
enjoy those moments all over again.
Q: What are your favorite subjects?
A: Mostly I focus on the family. Each of my kids has their
own scrapbook, although I'm really behind on those. I made
a heritage book for my in-laws' 50 th anniversary. And
when we filmed The Facts of Life reunion a few
years ago, I took pictures at the shoot and made albums
for each cast member, the director and producer. There
were definitely some tears flowing. I also enjoy making
faithbooks, which are scrapbooks that focus on expressing
why faith is important to you.
Q: Tell us about the retreats you host.
A: They're called MomTime Get-A-Ways, and they offer moms
across the nation 24 hours of refreshing and pampering.
Mothers give so much and often feel guilty about taking
a little time for themselves. We've been doing faithbooking
classes at the retreats, which are great because they're
more about the message of the album than about making perfect
pages. There's no pressure to make your album look like
a work of art, and the women who attend our getaways really
appreciate that. It's all about creating a “work of heart.” For
MomTime 2004 we're going to have crops from 4 p.m. to midnight
so that people can bring all of their cropping supplies
and just have a party.
Q: What's your next scrapbooking project?
A: In July of 2001 my family and I set out in an R.V.
to discover America. We traveled more than 77,000 miles
across 44 states for an entire year. It was the ultimate
field trip Every night I journaled what we had done that
day and uploaded it to my Web site. I have all of these
journal entries from every day and all of the pictures
and I've bought all of the supplies. Now I have to go away
for a week to get it all done. |
