After 5: Professionals by day, scrapbookers by night

By day, Amy Frizzell navigates numbers. By night, she frames family memories with borders, playful prints and embellishments.

For the supervising adviser with BKD Wealth Advisors LLC, scrapbooking is a hobby with a purpose.

"I think it's different for everyone," Frizzell says. "For me, it's about my children and family."

She started scrapbooking five years ago when she moved to Springfield from Oklahoma City, and a friend invited her to a scrapbooking party. Being new to the area, Frizzell accepted the invitation and discovered she enjoyed it.

"I wouldn't consider myself to be naturally crafty," she says. "It's something that's therapeutic. ... You can sit back and listen to music."

To Frizzell's delight, her 5-year-old daughter, Piper, enjoys getting crafty with mom.

"I think it's good mother-daughter time while she still wants to be around me," Frizzell adds.

As with many scrapbookers, her interest extends into other areas of the paper arts. Frizzell also makes handmade cards, from birthday and Christmas cards to the cards that go out to clients of Fitness Together, the business Frizzell co-owns with husband Jeff.

For all the fun and relaxation scrapbooking offers, it holds a deeper meaning for Frizzell. After surviving a serious car accident outside West Plains when her 2-year-old son was just 6 months old, Frizzell turned to scrapbooking as a means to connect with her kids.

"I had the moment of realization that if something happened to me, I wanted my kids to have memories," she says. "At the end of the day, I don't think I should have made it, and what if they didn't have something (to look back on)?"

Gloria Baker, of Ozark, can't remember how she got started in scrapbooking, but it's a passion to which she has devoted a room in her house. The hobby is often more about giving to others than creating something for herself, says Baker, a district manager for Richmond, Va.-based Evergreen Enterprises, a home, garden and gift wholesaler that lists Silver Dollar City among its clients.

Many of Baker's scrapbooking efforts go into books she gives as gifts to family, friends and co-workers.

"I'm a very family oriented person," she says. "Scrapbooking is a way to document family experiences and share a piece of yourself."

After her stepmother died shortly before Christmas, Baker made five scrapbooks about her stepmom for family members. Shortly after that, she likewise made a scrapbook for a co-worker coping with her own mother's death.

"It's not all about me," Baker says. "It's about the person. If I happen to have a gift, it's part of my obligation in life to share it. God has given me the gift of art."

While she does a lot of solo scrapbooking, Baker also enjoys the craft's social side. She and a friend recently drove about 90 miles north of Springfield to Lincoln to attend a "crop," where fellow scrapbookers gather to assemble books, exchange tips and learn from others. Sharing ideas is big among scrapbookers, Baker notes.

Helping others get creative is most of the fun for Debbie Burks, owner of paper-arts store Forever Memories in Ozark. She opened Forever Memories five years ago - only six months after she took up scrapbooking.

"Some of our girls ... met here," Burks says. "You get involved in everyone's life, and you care about what happens to people."

Whether you're self-taught or take classes for inspiration, scrapbooking isn't about creating a perfect product, Baker says. Experience brings confidence and creativity, so don't be afraid to try something or use nontraditional embellishments, such as buttons, bottle caps or copper washers, she says. She once used gold leaves cut from fabric she bought on sale.

"It's something that you can reach out as far as your imagination can go, and sometimes the things that aren't expected ... make the better pages," she says.