PaperCrafter's Corner

Scrapbooking: It’s In The News (& Worth Talking About)

May 17, 2013 8 Comments

Scrapbooking in the News…

Boy, it sure seems that scrapbooking has been a popular topic in the news lately.

Have you seen the article on the Huffington Post site?

It definitely got the attention of not just scrapbookers (including yours truly), but other crafters who didn’t appreciate their hobby being mislabeled or derided.

If you haven’t had a chance to read it, check it out using the link above (but be ready, there’s some ’fightin’ words’ in it and lots of “vocal opposition” in the comments!).

Then, another “non-scrapbooker” decided to get in on the action (after all, posts like the one above can be good for traffic).

Erica B. demonstrates her “knowledge” about scrapbooking by sharing these thoughts (and more):

“It’s undeniably true that a well-designed scrapbook page is a gorgeous work of art, as well as an heirloom quality keepsake that your family and descendants will treasure. There are a lot of really nice scrapbook pages out there. I’m sure there are plenty of ugly ones, but that’s true of any craft.

No, the problem with scrapbooking is everything else about the hobby. From an external, cold-heartedly realistic perspective, scrapbooking is the art of buying a ton of stuff you never use, and feeling really bad about it.

I’m going to estimate that only .01 percent of scrapbooking supplies ever actually get used in the creation of a scrapbook page. The other 99.99 percent of the supplies just take up room in your house and weigh down your psyche with the collective guilt of all the things you’re not busy scrapbooking.”

Wow! Really?

So, everyone buys lots of stuff and no one uses any of it? And, we all feel bad about it? Please share your comments if you’re so inclined.

The rest of Erica’s post?

ETA: Well, it was worth reading to see how misinformed she is, but the post was apparently removed because my links no longer work and even a Google search on the content leads to messages that the page no longer exists.

Let’s move on to the more positive shout-outs to scrapbooking, shall we?

First up: Disney’s New App

Disney has launched a new scrapbook app. It’s called Story and enables users to “…pull photos and videos from your iPhone’s camera roll.”

A little more from the coverage:

“The beauty of Story is its simplicity. The app predicts what photos and videos you want combined into a “moment” and suggests them to you. Users can then customize the order (of) photos, add captions and change the theme before sharing. Moments can have up to 20 photos and two short videos. The way Story handles moments is brilliant; it looks at where and when the photos were taken to decide how to group them.”

Sounds like something worth checking out, don’t you think?

Well, at least for those of us who aren’t horribly depressed about all the stuff we bought and haven’t used for “traditional” scrapbooking, right?

Next Up: History Lost?

This next piece is a great reminder about how important scrapbooks can be in documenting the history of our country and the lives who have defended it.

“This is a treasure that represents an important part of local history,” said Jerry Moretz of Boone, sergeant-at-arms of the Watauga County American Legion Post 130, after seeing a copy of the (scrap)book that was presented to his post.
 
Moretz, along with Stewart (the new owner of the scrapbook) and Miller, would like to learn more about the scrapbook — including who created it.

“We can’t seem to find out where it came from,” Moretz said. “Some people just don’t realize the importance of this collection and what it could mean to our county. Just by looking through these pages, you can get a pretty good idea of what Watauga gave up during the war.”

If nothing else, that statement should be a call-to-action: we need to remember to label our scrapbooks with our names and the dates they were created. We won’t always be here, and someday they may fall into the hands of someone who’s outside our family and circle of friends, someone who won’t know us and that we created this piece of history. I know this to be true because I see amazing old scrapbooks at yard sales and antique shows on a regular basis (and my heart always aches knowing they are “lost” forever).

There’s more to this story.

And finally…

A Rockin’ (and Rolling) Scrapbook

Bill Wyman’s “Scrapbook,” Bill’s newest book documenting his life from wartime child in England to now, is a recap of his life, and the stories and photos any Rolling Stones fan would love to spend time persuing.

What I liked most about reading this article is this:

“Each picture is captioned and explained in Bill’s beautiful writing.” Yet another reminder: include our handwriting on our pages is a good thing.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into “Scrapbooking in the News”  and I welcome your comments (link above).

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming scrapbooking,

Steph