Yesterday I taught some scrapbook classes. I so enjoy doing this, partly because I enjoy sharing the craft, but mostly because I always seem to have such a great group of women to teach! I have been so impressed with their creativity and pro-active good natures. I meet so many amazing individuals in my line of work and I feel very blessed because of it.

Yesterday, however, held a very bitter surprise. I was preparing to teach my Cosmo Cricket blackboard class, which is based around the princess album I created for Maggie. I love this album. It is one of my favorite things that I have made, and so special to Maggie because it is all about her princess dress and crown. Imagine my disgust and disappointment when I discovered that it had been stolen from the store.

Now, I don’t know what kind of person it takes to steal someone’s personal scrapbook. I don’t know if they just have no sense of collective responsibility and goodness, or if they function out of jealousy for another’s talent (jeez, just take the class, I’d have helped you make your own), or if they are just mean spirited. I don’t know if it was desperation, entitlement, or flat out meanness, but I do know that it was very wrong. It also makes it darn hard to teach a class.

Most people would agree that stealing is wrong. It isn’t a tough concept. People like to keep the stuff they have and know that it is safe. Stealing from shopkeepers is wrong because it makes it harder for them to turn a profit, and it forces them to raise prices for the rest of us. But it isn’t usually personal. It makes a shopkeeper angry to be stolen from, but I don’t think it hurts their feelings quite like stealing a piece of artwork, or a family heirloom or treasured item. It doesn’t make their daughter sad to be missing item 100634 out of isle 9 the way it might make her sad to find out that her special photo book was taken. So this is personal. That just makes it more wrong, doesn’t it?

You may think that this is a fluke thing, that it doesn’t happen all of the time, but you would be wrong. I know many designers who have had a precious piece of art taken when it has been on display. You may think that the person doing the stealing must be one of the unwashed miscreants of society, but you would be wrong again. When I attended CHA, many, many booths had their designer’s work literally tied to the booth just to make it more difficult to steal. Do you know who attends CHA? Store owners. Scrapbook retailers. People who routinely get stolen from and who you think might have the concept of how treasured a scrapbook might be to someone. Despite this fact, many, many fabulous pieces of personal artwork volunteered to be on display by people who support these companies mysteriously walk away each time. Even pieces that have been tied down occasionally disappear, meaning that people had to work to steal them. It boggles the mind.

I am trying to be forgiving. I am trying to tell myself that I must be pretty damn awesome to have people want to steal my art. But mostly, I’m just hoping that whoever took it might be willing to sneak it back into the store. Leave it in the bathroom, or in a back corner somewhere. Slip it into a basket of ribbon or onto a paper rack in a quiet corner. Just make it reappear. I really want it back.