Make It Mondays - Ticket Stub Scrapbook

So a little bit about me - I love going to live concerts.  Music was always a big part of growing up - pretty much every memory of my childhood has music in the background.  I went to my first concert by myself when I was 15 years old, and it was a day festival, and it was AWESOME. I was hooked.  My very first concert included none other than a little known band called Blink 182, and a few others that were very popular in the 90's alternative music scene such as Space Hog and Everclear.  I even stayed late enough to get tee-shirts signed by both Everclear and Blink 182.  When I was 15, I saved everything, and in addition to those signed tee-shirts (wonder if they are worth anything to someone?) I saved my ticket stub. I went to a few more concerts that year (Third Eye Blind with Eve 6, and a very young Destiny's Child that opened for DMX) and saved those stubs as well.  A tradition was born for me.

I never really had any specific plans for the stubs, but I just enjoyed collecting them. Some people like to buy the tee-shirt or get a poster to prove they were there, my proof was my stub.  Over the years it's been tougher to save the stubs (especially when a friend might have purchased the ticket on my behalf and got the printed tickets (they are sooo not the same)) and we simply don't go to as many shows as we used to, but I've saved them, nonetheless.  I was recently cleaning out my old desk at my parents house and came upon a stack of tickets from 1998 - 2003 and decide it was time I did something with them.

That's right, I've seen Vanilla Ice - and not his 90's rap/pop

 So I didn't exactly discover a new planet or anything when I decided to take on this project, but this was my first official foray into scrap booking. While I love the idea of adding all sorts of stickers and pop up attachments to a photo album, I always think it looks nicer when someone else does it.  And now that we barely print or develop our pictures anymore, it seemed as though I may never bother to put together an album of anything. But after my mother gave me a bunch of 12 x 12 and 8 x 8 inch books of patterned paper for another project, I felt I had to use it for something.  Hence my ticket stub scrap book was born.  I had almost all the supplies, save the album itself, so I scooped up a simple black canvas 8 x 8 album at Michael's last weekend. Then I came home and started organizing.

I contemplated including pictures from certain shows, but I knew I didn't have a ton, and most of them would be at my parents.  I contemplated going in alphabetical order by band too, but at the end of the day, I just glued them down with simple Elmer's glue by date.  I separated by year, so some pages only have one or two tickets.  I'm even missing a year (gasp!) for 2000, but I simply don't have those tickets anymore (I know I saw Eminem because the tickets were a graduation gift).  I would say I've managed to find about 80% of the tickets to the shows I've been to, so there are some gaps, but overall I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I went for the simplest look, and let all the loudly colored paper and awesome performers do the talking.

 
Here are some just for fun stats:

Band I've seen the most:
Dave Matthews Band  - 14 times (but I've only got 9 stubs to prove it)

Band(s) I've seen the second most:
Phish, Jay-Z, Beastie Boys and Cake are all tied at 3

Best Show I've ever been to:
I'm going to give it a tie between Paul McCartney at Yankee Stadium this past summer, and Justin Timberlake at MSG for his HBO taping in 2007

Band/Performer I'm dying to see that I haven't seen yet:
The Beatles were always on this list, but after seeing Paul this past summer, I feel as satisfied as I'll ever feel about seeing them for obvious reasons.  I'd also love to see U2 and Britney, and even though I've seen them before, I will always try my damnedest to get tickets for Rage Against the Machine if they ever get back together again.  Other than those few I catch every couple years, I try to avoid the big stadiums if I can.  Venues of 3K - 5K are much more my speed nowadays. Clearly I mostly follow bands, but I also love a good hip hop or rap show. 

  Just for fun in the back few pages I stuck in a few stubs from sentimental Broadway shows I've been to (Spamalot was my first Christmas gift from Tom, and Avenue Q was our one year anniversary gift) but overall I'm not a huge fan of plays or musicals.  I also added a few of my favorite comedy shows (we recently saw Louis CK), and my tickets from the last games I went to at the old Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium.

I am already so fond of flipping through my little brag book of ticket stubs.  Have you immortalized your concert paraphernalia in any way? Decided to scrap book anything other than photos? Been to any good shows lately?  Got any recommendations for me to check out? I'd love to hear about it in the comments...