It’s not every day that neighbors actually ask to view each other’s vacation pictures. Or photos of baby’s first haircut. Or maybe snapshots of the family pet.
But something just that out of the ordinary is happening when women get together to “scrapbook” (yes, it’s a verb)–that is, to sort, crop and paste onto a page their family photos or special documents–and “journal” about them, often in a communal setting. It’s one of the hottest hobby trends right now, combining elements of sociability and creativity with the desire to preserve family history down to its most minute details.
On a recent Thursday evening in northwest suburban Kildeer, 10 women gathered at the home of Sally Monday, 44, for just such a ritual. Wine, hors d’oeuvres and spiced candles formed the backdrop for an evening spent lingering around tables strewn with an assortment of tools most of their kids would have loved–markers, stickers, adhesives and paper–all specially designed to keep their memories in tip-top shape for generations to come.
Parties like these are called “crops,” and the yield is not only those few completed pages of a scrapbook, but for many, a cornucopia of shared stories and memories that have bound millions of women across the country. Crops have been likened to a modern-day quilting bee, bringing a sense of community to a mobile and often fragmented society.
“It’s like cheap therapy,” observed Patrice Lindberg, 38, seated at one end of a knotted pine kitchen table amid some of her scrapbooks and a stash of photos from a recent trip to Jamaica. “From doing this, we’ve developed these really close friendships,” since this group, which meets biweekly began, four years ago.
“There’s always camaraderie,” said Deanna Carew, 35, as she settled in with her laptop computer at the other end of the table, where she was toying around with different fonts for her journal entry about a family trip to Hawaii. Stacked up on the table were several completed, or mostly completed, scrapbooks, with themes ranging from favorite pets to baby books to family vacations–and still more vacations.
“Most of the time I write [on the pages] what I do,” Carew said. “But sometimes I want it to look different, so I type it and then I cut it and I put it in. It’s just something different–I get tired of the same thing.”
Nearby, from the formal dining room someone was singing a ditty to the tune of “Camptown Races.” Tiffany Shuster, 34, was pulling out a stack of photos from a recent outing to the Route 66 Raceway in Joliet: “Guess what pictures I have? Race Day, Race Day,” she sang, template in hand and poised to crop.
Just looking at the cache of supplies on hand that night, much of it hauled to the party in overstuffed canvas bags and plastic bins, one could guess that scrapbooking must be a pretty healthy business these days.
Indeed, this simple–and for many, relaxing–process of cutting and pasting photos onto acid-free paper adorned with acid-free decorative paper and stickers, and then writing down remembrances–with fade-proof ink, of course–has become a $1 billion-plus annual industry, with participants in at least 15 percent of U.S. households with a family member who crafts, according to the Elmwood Park, N.J.-based Hobby Industry Association.
That translates to about 13 million or more women in the U.S. who are “scrapping” at some level.
According to a survey by Creating Keepsakes magazine, two-thirds of scrapbookers spend at least $25 a month on supplies, while the most hard-core fans will own an average $1,584 in supplies and spend $50 or more a month to keep their memories current.
According to the hobby association, scrapbooking has become the country’s third most popular craft, behind the typically more solitary activities of cross-stitching and home decor painting, which includes stenciling and faux finishes, and it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. That’s becoming more evident as scrapbooking retail outlets continue to pop up in malls, shopping centers and on the Internet.
Don Meyer, director of consumer and public relations for the hobby association, said that though scrapbooking has been around for years–in the form of standard photo albums or friendship books–the hobby’s current incarnation began to sweep the country about five years ago, with more widespread availability of materials designed not to degrade, and with an aging Baby Boom population moving into the prime crafting age range of 40 to 60, though many scrapbookers tend to be on the lower end of the group.
The typical scrapbooker, he said, “is female, 40, married with kids.”
Everyone has a story
While most scrapbookers are white, Meyer said the craft is finding its way into the Hispanic and African-American communities, and his organization is preparing to conduct surveys in the next two years to find out how best to meet their craft needs.
Tracy White, editorial director of Creating Keepsakes magazine, says she expects the popularity of scrapbooking to continue to grow, especially in light of the hobby’s universality.
“It doesn’t matter who you are; we all have an important story to tell,” White said. “There’s an amazing intrinsic value to scrapbooking. This is something we are creating to be able to pass on. [And] everybody can do it.”
Heather Warstler, a 31-year-old art teacher and mother of two from Reston, Va., describes the process as “you learn as you go.” She has actually been preserving her memories since she was a child, and recalls “stealing all my mom’s pictures” from vacations and combining them with restaurant menus and brochures to create her first scrapbooks.
Today, Warstler spends at least one evening a week scrapbooking, preferring to assemble the pages by herself rather than at a large crop.
“I personally like to do it by myself,” she said. “I get a lot more done.”
Certainly, one needn’t have a party to get in on the fun. Scrapbooking goes well beyond “crops,” having made its way into many other corners of life.
Some women have rooms in their homes dedicated to the craft, with specialized filing cabinets, long work tables and abundant storage space.
Other women might choose a more passive approach, simply learning about the latest trends and techniques on TV.
Still others have encountered the craft in such out-of-the-way places as hospital newborn units. Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago has incorporated scrapbooking into its special care nursery as a way of helping parents of premature infants record their children’s milestones, such as a first bath or a first day off a ventilator.
The most avid scrapbookers will go to great lengths to get their fix. Some women in the Chicago area may head to seminars and workshops at conventions, such as the Memories Expo 2003, scheduled for April 4-5 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.
Others will venture beyond the comfortable setting of an in-home demonstration offered by a Creative Memories consultant to retreats, cruises and such weekend getaways as the Scrapbook Inn in Lake Geneva, Wis., or the Scrap & Spa in Union Pier, Mich.
Getaways and seminars
Gina Will, 36, a longtime scrapbooking enthusiast from Arlington Heights, has visited the Scrap & Spa three times and says it provides just the right balance of hobby time and relaxation.
“One of the things I loved about that place was that you could actually get massages, pedicures in between,” she said. “It’s hard for me to sit in one spot [and scrapbook] for 12 hours. I’m really good for three hours, and then I need to do something else and then come back. So I always take time out to do that.”
The getaways, retreats and seminars are all familiar to the women at Sally Monday’s home. Back at the Kildeer crop, things started winding down before 10 o’clock.
Shuster was the first to call it a night, as she still had to pack a suitcase. She and five of the other women were headed to Galena, Ill., early the next day–to scrapbook for the weekend.
