Scrapbooking - Alive & Well

In 2003 Leisure Arts published "Alphabet Doodles", a book I had written about creating fun and simple alphabets for scrapbookers by combining a variety of markers.  Here's a condensed version of the forward I wrote for the book:

    "Over the past six years or so, photograph albums, scrapbooks, and even diaries have combined and the word "scrapbook" has evolved from a noun to a verb.  Without doubt, scrapbooking has become one of the most popular creative pastimes for the new millennium."

So popular, in fact that capital investment companies took note as they started to see small family businesses grow into multi million dollar enterprises seemingly overnight and decided that buying and consolidating these liitle companies was going to be BIG business.  Now, another six years later the scrapbooking industry has a completely different face.  But, we still scrapbook.  Influenced by digital cameras and online products,  we don't necessarily scrapbook the way we did in 1997 for example, or even 2000, or 2003, but scrapbookers still create scrapbooks

    "showcasing the very essence of our lives".  A scrapbook becomes a perpetual record and helps us to remember those special moments we might otherwise forget."  Whatever your style, scrapbooks are important.  Years from now they will make you laugh, smile and maybe even shed a tear or two, but, most importantly, they will be worth every second you took to put them together."

There are so many industry polls about whether scrapbooking is on the rise, or decline.  Independent scrapbooks stores are now few and far between, each one vying for customers, trying to hold on to their niche in spite of competition from the chain stores and more recently from online stores.  There is constant discussion about why this is happening and who's to blame and there are polls that show this, and polls that show that and "no, you can't borrow my axe because I'm making soup".

Things change.  People change.  The baby in the photos that were painstakingly scrapbooked in 1997 is now 12 years old and we are scrapbooking in different way - sometimes, sometimes not.  We are taking more photographs now than we ever did because we have digital cameras and our biggest challenge today, is to print them!  I, for one, admit to having over 6,500 in iPhoto on my desktop.  Now that's different for a start.  But, I still scrapbook.  I chronicle the important events in our lives because whatever the polls say, it's still all about me and I will always take photos and, even though some of my scrapbooks are a mere iPhoto library on my desktop, they are there for all of us to see and enjoy and are just as important.

Yours truly,
Julie :)