I am not an expert at all and you can probably find some historically accurate details about scrapping, still, I'd like to give you my take on scrapping... My grandmother used to create scrapbooks and she explained that every page was a story, a tapestry or collage of some past event.

People couldn’t afford to take many photos: they rarely got to go to the theatre: they only went out and ate in restaurants on very special occasions: they were amazed when any occurrence in the neighbourhood was newsworthy. Thus photos were precious, all telegrams announcing a birth or death were kept, as were theatre programs, train tickets, menus, newspaper clippings, and even birthday cards. She would create collages with all of these trimmings and snippings, one for each of her children and each of her grandchildren.

I think of scrap booking like quilting: a wonderful art of visual storytelling.

It is wonderful to see is the revival of this lost art form.

lia from luebeck, germany

Author of the yum yum cafe and coauthor of the Red Tent Blog.

I say do whatcha want with your time. But I do love to do post-modern deconstruction with my time, so here are some of my thoughts.

With any craft, there is good and there is horrid. I have seen some very amazing scrapbooks that convey the truth behind the subject and define the relationship between the designer and that subject. They are rare, but out there.

But scrapbooking, as a hobby, is a conservative movement that seems to feed on cultural expectations of mothers to define, unify and celebrate their families. Part of having a family that is carefully colored within the lines is that you must spend all of your free time reinforcing your family's specialness including (girls night out scrapbooking!) selecting stickers and frames to exhault your family's recent trip to Orlando or Bethany's gymnastic classes.

Scrapbooking is also an interesting phenomenon of this country's perpetual devotion to the juvenile aesthetic. Many of the paper, sticker, frame and font choices in supplies are cutesy, feminine, diminuative, and downright vanilla. It looks like afficiandos or the corporations that produce the materials would like to prolong infancy for their spouses and themselves--to have big ol' baby books that last until a wedding albumn is needed. They are hoping with every snip of confetti that they will never have to "scrap" scenes from a divorce or Christian's arrest for middle school drug possession.

Any time I see a throwback (scraps of paper and ribbons during a time of technological leaps) I have to think that cultural fear of change is at play.

But knock yourself out. Sniff glue all you want, what do I have to say about it?

Deb,

Just checked out your blog... you DO rock, girl! (I will also be stalking you on Twitter, so's you know..)

So where is some of this post-modern deconstruction on your blog??

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

My best friend's mother did scrapbooking for awhile and made her a couple of scrapbooks as gifts. One was photos following my best friend's life up to the end of university. It is a very nice keepsake but to me is more of an "album" than a "scrapbook". But then I don't craft so what do I know?

I think I know what you mean about the "cookie cutter" aspect of it. Have you seen the children's books that are sort of like scrapbooks - Pirateology, Egyptology, Dragonology, Wizardology etc? I think part of their appeal lies in the little notes and letters and pop-ups that you can take out and read that makes it feel like you are discovering treasures and dipping into someone's past.

I have a box of things I'm saving for sentimental reasons - cards, ticket stubs, ballet programs. Maybe someday I'll put them all in a scrapbook. Because if nothing else I really need to find a way to preserve that postcard that my friends sent me from Spain of Red Ridinghood kicking the wolf in the balls, ;)

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

When my mother retired, she plowed through 60 years of photographs and put many into scrapbooks, "memories for the nursing home", she called them. At the same time, she created scrapbooks for her grandsons, "gifting them with memories", she thought of it.

And then.

In the winter, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and given six weeks to live. One of her projects was to start a scrapbook for me, culling through my own years of photos.

In the fall, after a 'life is normal' summer, the cancer moved into her brain and she started radiation. Our routine became radiation in the morning, lunch out somewhere fun the home to scrapbook, Mom at one end of the dining room table, me at the other. We had different scrapbooking styles, I usee fewer photos, embellished (to my mind) judiciously, she used lots of photos and yes, loved! her stickers. Mostly it was about chatting and remembering, but with purpose.

In the spring, then, just a few days before her death, when the cancer had erased much of her memory, my Dad and I sat with her between us on the bed, paging through her life. "This is the house you and Dad moved into the day you were married" and "Here is the school where you taught for so many years" and "This is Matthew, he is your first grandson" and "Look, here's Alex when he was just a cute little button." We returned to her childhood home and wandered through her flower gardens. We said hello to old friends and petted dogs long gone. Peering through the lens of memories condensed into scrapbooks, it was a slow flashback through a life well lived.

When she'd had enough, with cancer-garbled words but ever the mother and the teacher, Mom managed to convey "not so many pictures". She was giving scrapbook advice!

So I hope this will help you "get" scrapbooking. It's the record of our lives, in a few pages, with a few pictures. And those once little-boy grandsons who are now strapping teenagers? They still love to page through their scrapbooks ...

It really strikes me from your comments that scrap booking is closely tied to family and memories. With no family and no photos from when I had one, makes sense that I don't connect with the trend.

And Sassy, though I've never seen the children's books, I devoured the Griffin and Sabine series when it came out. Loved peeking at the letters and postcards. THAT part of old-fashioned scrap booking I completely understand.

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

Scrapbooking seems to be mainly about shopping and belonging to the latest trend. There's such a focus on making things look "perfect," i.e., just like something turned out by a commercial company, that I don't get the attraction. Photographs are so fascinating purely on their own, unembellished, that I see no need to obscure them with a lot of manufactured trinkets. Scrapbooking isn't a real craft, like knitting or beading or needlepoint, and my prediction is that it's going to start dying out in a few years because there's no "there" there to sustain it. It's purely commercial.

I used to scrapbook--alot. I don't do it as much as I used to, since now most of what I loved about scrapbooking (telling a story) I do on my blog. In fact, I wrote a blog post about how I got into scrapbooking:

http://glenniacampbell.typepad.com/silenti/2006/11/scrapbookers_an.html

Glennia
The Silent I
Silicon Valley Moms Blog
Kimchi Mamas

Deb,

I have a big family and still don't quite get the appeal. For me I think that my artist side objects to the cookie cutterness of the pages. The cuteness doesn't appeal to me.

But if that is your thing, go for it.

Most of my photos in this digital age sit on my hard drives.

Do we not have memories to contribute to the future? Just asking.

How would a single women re-define the images she holds dear? Or is blogging/vlogging our scrapbook?

Gena - Out On The Stoop

I just wanted to come and say thank you for opening this discussion. Very cool! And thank you for the quote and the link above! I think scrapbooking fulfills lots of needs - the feeling of not only making something with your hands, but something that is tied so deeply to your identity - your memories, is a very fulfilling thing. And let's be honest. There's a need for us to collect pretty things, and this deep-seated, inexplicable love for school supplies in there somewhere, too. ;)

I consider myself to be a visual storyteller. My format is paper and pictures and Photoshop (I do digital pages, too) and words. I use mainly cardstock and few embellishments, and for me, it's as much about the therapy and healing that comes from celebrating good things as it is about shopping or collecting or socializing, or any of the other, smaller reasons. The beauty of scrapbooking is that I get to relive these stories while I create the pages, and then relive them again every time I go through an album. It's proof of my great, but humble, ordinary life.

There will come a day when all our voices go silent. When the basket of photos that you have sitting out (do they have names? dates? places on the backs of them, at least?) will be only so much paper, and not the stories that surround them. Perhaps you could record yourself talking through the stories as you look at your pictures, rather than sitting down to make an album. And don't forget that everything you write (including blogs, absolutely!) is part of your own personal legacy. So long as they are honest and heartfelt, and those memories and stories don't die with you.

-J
(http://spraguelab.squarespace.com).

I was hoping you'd see I found you. And what you say makes incredible sense to me.

Yes, (most) of the photos I have do have identifying details on the back, and when I find one that's blank, I fill it in with what I remember. As for recording something else... why? When I die these are items that will go to GoodWill or some second hand shop where the photos themselves may hold someone's interest, but I doubt a recording will.

Maybe it's unfortunate that we do not have more "personal story" libraries where these items can be donated and stored for future generations, but I know of none at the moment.

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

Ali Edwards (http://aliedwards.typepad.com/) actually has a book coming out in October called, "Life Artist", that talks a lot about the scrapbook lifestyle (i.e. we are artists with our own lives as our subjects). She has a graphic design background, is an editor at Creating Keepsakes magazine, and is incredibly thoughtful and grounded in her approach to scrapbooking. Oh, and she's one of my favorite people. :)

As to your other thought (about personal story libraries), you might check if there's a chapter of the American Folklore society nearby (http://www.afsnet.org/index.cfm). If anyone has info on this type of program (local or national), it would probably be them. :)

My mother always told me that when she retired she would go through her boxes of pictures and put them into albums. She dreaded the task and kept procrastinating. Soon after she retired, she died kayaking, never having organized the photos.

I inherited boxes of photos...Many if not most of the photos and family history are a loss.

For instance, there was one large b&w 8 1/2 x 11 of someone in the Navy, like my husband and I wondered who he was. Luckily, I was able to find out through my great aunt that he was a great uncle who died before I was born.

I'd like to say that since my mother passed, that I've been an avid family historian with all my albums up to date... But for me, I had no idea how to create the pages featured in the magazines that seemed to take hours to create, so I didn't even try. Mostly I simply put pictures in an album with a bit of journaling but I haven't kept up.

Despite good intentions and getting good deals on scrapbooking kits and collecting tons of things to do scrapbooking, I've not done it. During the same period, my husband bought me a digital camera as a surprise. Frankly, it's not been a good thing because like most people, I never get prints and the pics reside on the computer.

I've gotten to the point where I've given up on the idea of paper scrapbooking and am learning how to do digital scrapbooking with Jessica Sprague since I work on the computer all the time anyway.

I am ready to let go of much of my collection of craft supplies on ebay. I'm ready to simplify and downsize. To be honest, I think I bought much of it because I thought it would make me happy when my husband was at sea and it's taken me years to realize that was behind my scrapbooking collector-mode.

Because I know this about myself now, I think I'll be able to keep myself in check with digital scrapbooking and not go overboard. I think I'll actually be able to get down to the nitty gritty and actually scrapbook instead of just collect for someday.

I do feel it is artistic. It is self-expression and as long as I keep in mind my audience, our daughter, then I think it will be a wonderful gift to her and not a cookie-cutter expression. The stories will be told and she will be able to remember through pictures many experiences of her young life that she may otherwise forget. The stories are a gift to her and the reason I am putting my mind to do this.

In addition, I think learning new skills makes you young and the digital scrapbooking is not for the faint of heart. It definitely can be learned but you do need to put some effort into it. Keeps your brain on it's toes!

I'm married, with no children and I scrapbook. I do it because I enjoy re-living my life with my pictures. Yes, I could just put them in a basket or a plain album, but I choose to embellish lightly. I like to include a lot of the background story about the events, places and people that I do pages or mini-albums on. That's not something that I can do if I place my photos in a basket of slip the photos into photo sleeves.

I'm not really scrapping for anyone other than myself and my husband. While he doesn't scrap with me, he does take mini albums that I do about his activities to show our family and friends. I do make him record his part of the story in his own words. It's a way for us to share parts of our lives when we visit our family 16 hours away. Does our family enjoy the scrapbooks? I really don't know. I don't ask. We share them and get onto the story. The scrapbooks are a starting point for us to start telling them what we've been up to for the past year.

I don't scrap every picture. I usually take 10-20 from a trip or event and make a mini album. My pages are usually small. Since I work pretty fast. I can take a few hours and make an album. I include memorabilia, photos, journaling and embellishments. Then those mini albums are kept in a basket on my coffee table. I rotate albums in and out of the basket. I am also in the group of scrappers, that thinks anything that adds journaling to photos can be a scrapbook. I don't think you have to fit into a certain mold to call yourself a "scrapper".

Many may say that I'm wasting money and/or time. But I don't see it that way. Many of my friends go out and buy tons of clothes and shoes. I don't. I choose to spend my hobby money on a hobby that includes photos.

It's funny the friends that say the most unkind things about scrapbooking, are also the same ones that have husbands that golf. They never question the money that their husbands throw away on golf. I see scrapping in the same way. It's a way to spend time. At least at the end of the day, I have photos and memories that should last my lifetime. And that's all I care about.

Do I think that some people can take scrapbooking to an extreme? Of course, you'll always find people in any group that go over board. But you can't judge a whole group based on the fringe element. You have to realize that most people are in the middle ground.

There are types of scrapping that don't include "cute". There are tons of styles in scrapbooking. Just like we have tons of styles in clothing. If you look hard enough, you'll even find scrappers that are brave enough to scrap about the bad things in their lives. It's not all just the good. One of the "hottest" designers in the scrap world right now is Kristina Contes and she does a good job of scrapping her entire life. Here's a link to her blog.
http://soundsofscience.blogspot.com/
She's real. Nothing fake or cutesy about her. She's just documenting her life and having fun creating. Having fun...that's what life should be about
Connie

Great thoughts! And, yes, Jessica's and Ali's blogs are great reads on the subject. I've been scrapbooking for 3 years now and I do traditional paper pages and digital pages. Why do I do it? A couple of reasons - it definitely fulfills that creative side of me and lets me play with my pretty papers and embellishments, much like sewing enthusiasts ooh and ahh over fabric and knitters love to find new and exotic yarns. It's also been a lot of fun to become involved in the publishing end of the industry.

But, really, it's always been all about the stories to me. I've always loved to write and always had a journal and, in recent years, a blog. Writing is so incredibly fulfiilling to me and it's something that I love to do. I love to write and scrapbook about many things in my life - my kids, my husband, my friends and my feelings on many subjects. I do many layouts that do not go into my family's albums - they're just for me and I really don't even go back to them much after they're done. It's the writing process that really fulfills me.

So, it's all about the stories. Scrapbooking ls my visual journal. And then there's all the pretty paper and digital products that just make it a little bit more fun. :)

Steph
http://stephpea.typepad.com/stephs_stuff/

I got directed to your blog from Jessica S., and I have to say, she sums it up pretty well. I got into paper scrapping when my first was a year old. And I fell hard. I mean hook line and sinker. But I had to admit, learning the proper techniques and what to add, not add ... well, it took some of the joy out of scrapping. I remember my grandmother's awesome journals and scrapbooks - that I would touch and read and handle (which now is a no-no) all the STUFF. So I scrapbook for myself. I add weird things and have all sorts of crazy keepsakes.
(Though now I do digital - so I am a little removed from the textures)
However, why do I scrapbook?
When I am old and 'feeble', I want something to remember how it felt to hold my newborn in my arms as a first time mother. A visual memory - and the written journaling of how I felt. I use paper, ribbons, doodles, etc to convey the feeling I want to convey. So my scrapping is *for me*. A way that I can be creative (which does help me keep my sanity!), a way to remember and a way to show my children, husband, mom and dad, brothers and sisters how I feel about them and what I may be going through.
It is like me asking you "why do you quilt? isn't one enough? and you could just buy one in a store!"

What motivates me to scrapbook? My great-great-great grandmother Mary. She was a pioneer who walked across the plains and lost everything and every family member she had - her story is incredible and for years I had nothing but the story - passed down through generations.

In 2000 I was given several letters handwritten from Mary to my great-great grandfather in the late 1800's. They gave me insight into her life and that, combined with the one picture that we have of her,t is such a treasure.

I think scrapbooking is about recording our lives - the stories behind the photos - we scrap what is most important to us - whatever it is. For some it is family, for others it is pictures of things they love - flowers, favorite books, travel, thoughts, etc. The point is that it is part of your legacy - a record of your life. If you ask me I think that Blogs are scrapbooking!

Someday - even if you don't have family - someone is going to want to know your story. Scrapbooking is a way for all of us to leave behind a record of who we were - how we viewed life and what was important.

Scrapbooking doesn't mean you have to drag out the photos and paper or combine your photos with elements - I was reading Cathy Zielske's Clean and Simple Scrapbooking, The Sequel and loved what she says...

"For some people, scrapbooking is a way to add pizazz to what would otherwise be an ordinary photo album. Some people don't want to journal endlessly, or come up with clever ways to display and embellish their photos. They want to highlight their photos simply. End of story. And I love these people."

" Narrow definitions just can't apply to this hobby. There are more ways to document the bits and pieces of your life than you can imagine. That's the truth. Even if you were only to create photo albums and write notes in the margins...guess what? I believe that is scrapbooking. Think about it: if scrapbooking combines photos and words to tell a story, then all expressions of this very fundamental definition apply. Scrapbooking is not exclusive. You don't need a special club membership card to get in. And you don't need to scrapbook all of your photos either."

Scrapbooking is an art form that allows me to express myself creatively to preserve my life and the things that matter to me for generations to come - whether they are in my family or not - scrapbooking is a way to say that my life matters- when you scrapbook essentially you are saying, "I lived here! I was! This is my life!"

I like the discussion you have started here. For more of my ramblings you can check out my digital scrapbooking blog - www.thelegacylady.com

I was one of the people who didn't get it. I wanted to...I've got several friends who are avid scrapbookers and I enjoyed looking at their albums and reading their stories, but I just didn't get it. I was overwhelmed by all of the supplies and nervous about the actual cutting of paper and gluing of things.

Then I found digital. I'm now a digital scrapbooker, and I'm beyond addicted. I'm not scrapping for anyone else (though i do hope that my pages are appreciated and enjoyed by others, especially by my family). I am trying to capture my memories and my thoughts. Sure, I focus on my children and my family, but these people are the core of my life.

When I scrapbook, I try to let the photos rule and do my best to add poignant journaling. In that journaling, I try to capture serious thoughts and emotions. I also try to catch the funny moments and the silly parts of our day-to-day lives. My kids are growing up, and I'm excited to see their progress, but I also want to hold on to a part of their childhood. My 3.5 yr old daughter has the funniest way of expressing her ideas and viewing the world, and I want to remember some of these things. I want to be able to tell HER kids about the silly things that she did and said when she was little. Digital scrapbooking helps me do that.

I come from a family of artists. My dad is a textile designer and has an amazing eye for color and design. My brother can draw almost anything. My sister is one of those funky people who can do anything and make it look creative. She is able to create "art" from crazy random pieces of stuff lying around. I suppose that I have found my own little art place with digital scrapbooking. I'm not sure others feel like what I do is art, oh well. :)

At heart I'm a crafter. I have so many unfinished craft projects wandering around my house (quilts, sweaters, cross stitching...you name it, and I've probably tried it). This scrapbooking phase of my life might be yet another craft trend for me, but somehow I don't think so. I think that I've found a hobby that captures both my need to express myself and my thoughts and feelings. I've also found a way to hold on to some of the sweet and special moments that I've been lucky to experience with my kids, so for me, scrapbooking fulfills many needs.

I've enjoyed reading this discussion! :)

I am single.
I scrapbook.
Why? Because I'm a journalist and a photographer.

I scrap pictures I take for work and for fun.
I scrap pictures of my friends kids, and my niece and nephew.
I scrap to tell stories.

Everyone has a story to tell. We just have to listen. If we're smart, we'll write it down.

Photographs have stories to tell as well. Sometimes we capture memories and sometimes we record history.
The pictures capture the "non verbal" words, while the journaling/titles capture the memories and tell the details.

Sometimes I create "traditional" type pages, using digital scrapping resources, other times, I "think outside the creative box" and create more artsy pages.

Either way, each page is an extension of who I am, and my creative spirit.

I love Ali Edwards' attitude. She calls it being a "life artist."
That's me.
A creative, scrappy life artist, who always seems to look at life through a camera lens.

I scrap/create layouts because it feeds my soul.

My blog: kaytebug2002.blogspot.com
K.

"Do you scrap book every photo? Or just the best ones?" Just the best ones. Sometimes I take hundreds of pictures in a month...it would be impossible to scrap them all. Usually, it only takes a few good photos to tell a story.

"If only the best ones, then what happens to the less than best? Where can people find those?" Stored in regular photo albums in chronological order.

For me, this is "WHY?"
I began scrapping in 2002 shortly before the birth of my only daughter, Kaitlin, because I couldn't find a baby book that I liked.

I thought, "Well, I'll just make my own." Little did I know that making a baby book for her would turn into a HUGE OBSESSION...

I enjoy the whole process…taking pictures of the people and places that I love, finding new and beautiful product to showcase those photos, and preserving the stories and feelings behind the photos through journaling.

It makes me feel fulfilled that I am recording memories that I might have forgotten completely.
It makes me feel fulfilled that my daughter will have a better record of the portion of her childhood she is not old enough to remember for herself as well as a testament to how precious she is to me.

It makes me feel fulfilled that one day her grandchildren will not have to wonder what their grandmother looked like or what her life was like as a child (as I do of my grandmothers). They will be able to relive it together through her scrapbooks…and maybe even learn a little bit about me, too, in the process.

{a lot of scrappin' and a sprinkling of other random things}

I have two small children and I take many many pictures of them. I could just keep the pictures on a disk or print them out and put them in an album but I prefer to scrapbook them. I scrap the great pictures, the so so pictures and sometimes the not so great pictures. Along with the photographs and other embellisments I add the story of the picture or time I am hoping to capture. One day I won't be here and who will tell my stories, sure my husband know some of the stories behind the pictures I take but not all. My sons are too small to remember much of this time in their lives so I am the only one who can tell the stories from this time in my life. My Grandmother has a big pile of photos in a box many don't have names or dates and I don't know many of the people- who will tell the sories when she is gone? I do like to be creative with my pages and don't really like them to look like everyone elses but sometimes the cookie cutter approach to scrapbooking is all a person has time or the know how to create. They are still sharing a bit of themselves for future generations and to me that is what scrapbooking is all about.

I scrap, but my reasins are mainly family related.. I do know a woman though. She very rarely scrap people she knows. Instead she scraps vacations and the beautiful pictures she has taken inAfrica, India and China where the culture is SO much different to ours. With every picture she adds a story. She tells about the markets and the chickenfeet and the urinals and the people in the street. She's so good at capturing the ordinary in a stunning way. To most of the pictures she has brought home various acessories that match the story she's telling.
She doesn't make the pages for people to look at a hundred years from now. She makes them to relive the vacation again and again, and shares it with others. I feel like I've been there just from looking at her pictures.. :)

And yes.. As someone else wrote.. It is a way of remembering, and maybe a way to hold on to what once was.. BUT it is also a way of letting something go. A kind of self therapy to overcome grief and go on with your life.

Appart from that, there are two kinds of scrapbooking (and a combo) You can either scrap with paper or do it digital. The digital way u obviously won't get the 3D fell that comes from finding secret notes and embellishments. But u can publish them in your own private book or even make several albums for grandparents etc to look at.
The paper pages often take longer to make, and make A LOT more mess but then u also get something unique. An exciting page to look at both for the eye and for the touch.
F.ex. i made the classic newborn page when my daughter was born. I added everything from that period, and made hidden journalling and everything.. It turned out great, although it was my first scrap page ever! But I also put alot of thoughts into the details and the LO's take me several days to put together..

I guess I never really thought there was a question as to why some people scrapbook... but obviously there are those who do question the reasoning.

I started scrapping when my husband was deployed to Iraq and I was 7 months pregnant. I thought if I could put pictures with each story as it happened, I wouldn't forget things to tell him. That's when I figured out that paper-scrapping was *NOT* my thing. 2 months later, I had only finished 2 pages and was frustrated with supplies and printing out photos, etc. (And add a newborn to the mix... scrapbooking took a back burner) My husband came back and I had pictures to share, but just like I had thought, there were so many stories I wish I could have shared with him through layouts and scrapbook pages. A year later, I found digital scrapbooking~~ AWESOME! I can get a page done in less than 30 minutes and I can use as many digital photos on my computer without the hassle of printing them out, cutting, etc. Now I just get my pages printed and can frame them or stick 'em in an album!

Ok well that went off onto paper vs digi, but just to clarify, I feel like there are MANY different ways to actually "Scrapbook" whether you make albums, pages, art, etc... to do what you love creatively for future generations to find and learn about our "time" is inspiring to me. I wish my grandparents, great-grandparents, etc would have scrapbooked... I love finding old pictures, but if there is nothing written on the back of it, I might not even know WHO the people are... why not take the time to share silly stories or describe what you were doing that day, why you wore that outfit, and so on... I think it will be fun to read in just a few years as well as 50!

I wrote a post on this awhile back. True confessions I guess. I appreciate this post you wrote Debra. I think it's a great conversation and enjoy being a part of it.

Mandy Steward
MessyCanvas.blogspot.com

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman

Well, I've always wrote in journals, taken lots of photos, and puttered with collage, so this was a natural, logical end-product. lol Also, I'm adopted, and I actually started journaling and everything as a means of documenting my life for my possible someday future family. I hated that I had no way to reach out and touch or search or find my past, my heritage, and have always been determined to leave my family a messy, beautiful pile of personal detritus.

But ultimately, I do it for myself and my sanity, and to enhance my life, and if they toss them, they toss them. I won't be here, what do I care??? Everyone chooses how to spend their time and money. And just b/c the hobby as a whole is a bit oversaturated and money/product-driven right now, well, geesh, what isn't? LOL I get to make choices for myself, and I choose to be creative with what I have and don't feel compelled to have the latest and greatest...

But I have to disagree with the poster who feels scrapbooking is a conservative movement only for moms. I'm not a mom, never have been in my 3+ years of scrapping... Probably won't be for quite some time forward, either.

I think Ali Edwards' blogs about this with passion and precision--she is very articulate about her why's, check her out: http://www.aliedwards.typepad.com/
(she is a mom, lol, but her philosophy is amazing)
Especially look for her stuff on daily somethings, one little word, and life art...

And as far as the "conservative" movement of scrapbooking, check out Kristina Contes' work: http://soundsofscience.blogspot.com/

or Elsie Flannigan's stuff
http://www.abeautifulmess.typepad.com
(kinda' funny she has baby shower pics for her friend up right now, in light of what I'm using her for) Neither of the last two is a mama, and for sure have lots to scrap...

And finally, I have one, but it's just not the same. :-) http://vexedangel.blogspot.com/

The 3 other scrappers I've linked are well known scrappers, and it's no surprise that all 3 of them also have some product--two books and a product line among them--but meanwhile I get a whole bunch of that stuff by reading their free blogs! :-) So hopefully that brings that concern full circle for you, too. ;-)

Ann Marie

As a side note, I love to use my "worst" photos, fun to sometimes--Kristina Contes is a good reference for that, too, she just uses fun ones... As does Ali E.

For me personally, if I don't scrap them, they're either still in a pile of photos somewhere (I'm a piler, too, OP), on my comp, or they get tossed once I tell the story to my liking. I have a friend who feels compelled to get every single photo she took on a scrapbook page, even if it's three posed shots in a row of her with her son among 10 other pictures that tell the story just fine without them...and it makes it so stressful for her. I don't want that.

Ann Marie

I love to write, and journal and take photos and blog and remember little things. Scrapbooking means so many different things to me. The above are just five of many reasons I scrap.
Mainly the remembering. The perspective of watching my now 12 year old enter middle school, but the opportunity to flip open a book and see him 11 years ago and keep these fleeting years in perspective. To photo my now 3 year old pumping on a swing and recording her delight with her words and mine, or I will just plain forget how sweet, precious and simple that was in 4 years from now.
My mother can't share with me one of my birthdays...not because she is ill and too old, but she just does not take the time to remember...and I hate that. My girls (I have three of them) and my boy already almost weekly take time to pull out their books and look at them and ask questions and enjoy their story.
We all have a story. We all are incredible creations and we have important stories to remember and re-tell. My job as mom is to help my children remember their story during the days of their lives.
But it's more than that. I have thoughts, emotions and dilemmas too. To journal and photo through them can be healing. As well as a point in time that I can look back and and say, "hey, I HAVE matured a little, who knew?"
The fun embellishments that go with it can be over kill. Sometimes it is just a retail-racket. But as many have said before, I am not a clothes or shoe horse. I don't do every latest movie and eat out every week. I earn a small little income of my very own and I usually use that to add to my stash, which many times ends up being a gift album or sorts for someone else who appreciates the time and effort and creative manner in which i scrap.
I don't overwhelm my pages/stories with the latest ribbon or chipboard. But I do like to play with paper and elements that can add to the emotion of the story with my added additions. For me some of the best pages are those with the minimalist embellishme nt. As I continue to journey in this hobby, my pages show less and less embelly all the time.
Just like some people appreciate hiking, or quilting, or gardening, those of us who do scrap appreciate that and don't judge others who do not do the same.
So glad Jessica added her thoughts on here as she is so very well spoken. She also alluded to Ali E who is awesome at her art. (And yes, it is an art form, all things beautiful and telling can be art.)
Thanks for letting us share on your blog.

I did a layout about this not long ago:
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=205213&...

I scrap to make the photos and the memories MORE. The colors, the elements, the fonts I choose all work together to make the memories as real 10 years from now as they are right now. It's not just photos and cutsie elements but a complete memory, waiting to be re-lived anytime I want. The good, the bad, the everyday, the special moments. All there. Scrapped in a way I find artistically pleasing. In a way I want to remember them. It's a very powerful medium that I honestly didn't get 3 years ago and now I can't imagine not doing!

Thank you all for registering and commenting here. I've got my work cut out for me this weekend checking out the blogs you listed and your own blogs!!

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

There are only a couple of pages and projects in my arsenal as I write this, but I agree with many previous respondents that I see my pages as visual stories.

Pictures typically refered to as "less than perfect" are those that I find myself drawn to as a represenation of movement and life. I agree with you and like hand written things, little bits of articles, programs, etc. and intend to include that memorabilia though I have no examples of such just yet. I am a quiet, private layout person. I have seen the group crops and I know that women enjoy the commaraderie very much, but I get more satisfaction just doing my thing at home.

As the youngest of five, my siblings are always relating these great gems from our childhood that I would otherwise not recall. I think I was too busy somewhere in my imagination while growing up. So it helps to put things down to share them later. After completing a recent page about my small son I remarked that I don't think there a six pictures of my entire youth, let alone from one day.

Having a father and favorite aunt who have passed has also had an impact on my desire to document. I was feeling badly that the excuse of the so-called business of life had kept me from giving them any part of my mind lately. So during a trip to visit my mom, I dove into out old family albums - just photos for the most part and one "book of scraps." This helped me feel grounded, part of something bigger, it helped me remember little things and refocus. I used that as research to form guildlines for myself, and blogged about it here:

http://mollyirwin.typepad.com/mollysjournal/2007/08/learning-from-h.html

My layouts are an extension of my graphic design background, with myself as the client. While some off-the-shelf products are fun, I use them minimally, not only because they are costly, but because I want my memories to be the focus.

You need to see Ali Edwards work. Her books and blog are not to be missed. I'm sure I won't be the only one to mention her. Also, see Jamie Waters work for a fresh, "get real" journaling approach. With examples such as these, I found there is a place for me in this hobby. Their blogs are here:

www.aliedwards.typepad.com
www.watersfive.tyepad.com

You have already quoted the other person that I would suggest:

http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/

I'm new to her work, but am so happy to have found her, as she offers some great practical advice.

Also, if you sincerely want to read/see more about why people scrap, one of the big sites, two peas in a bucket, ran a contest recently about the very subject. You can see the results here:

http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/why_do_i_winners.asp

Thanks for an interesting discussion. I look forward to reading more and I'm glad to have discovered your site.

I scrap for me because I have always been extremely artistically challenged. I can draw silly fish and smiley faces and that is where it ends. I am a digital scrapbooker and what this has brought into my life is the ability to create my own art. It is an expression of who I am and my view of the world. This has been powerful.

I scrap for my family simply because when I share my pages with my children or another family member I get to have that all important conversation of "I loved you on this day because..." I know I won't have that worry-"Did they know I loved them? Did I say it enough? Did I show them enough? Did I make too many mistakes? Did I let them know that they were special? Do they know how much joy they created in my life?" They will know because I will tell them and they will know because it will be documented on a glorious 8 x 8 page that I created and printed all by myself!

Maybe the question should be why don't I scrap?

Well, first off I'm not a great writer so bare with me as I put my thoughts together. Jessica is a wonderful person and she is very elequant in her thoughts and they are spot on.

I love to scrapbook, basically it is fun! Plain and simple. It is a way to connect with your own life and a great way to connect with others. So many people nowadays are so removed from the people around them that when you actually scrapbbok with other people you are sharing your life with others, finding out that they're are others going through the same experiences as you- connecting! This can happen when you are at a crop or online. In my experience I have made some great and close friends through scrapbooking that without this original shared hobby I never would made. That goes for friends in my home town and the ones I've made online. Well enough on my sappy stuff.

The reason I think that many who are not in the craft don't "get it" is because of what they see online at blogs or scrapbooking websites and even scrap magazines. These places are selling scrapbooking so of course the pages will be product heavy and have perfect photos, that is what sells. Many of the popular blogs for scrapbooking are selling their brand- the individuals have a vested interest, i.e. books, products they produced, classes they are teaching, or the manufactuers they are currently working for. Not that that is bad but that is what is going on, IMO. I'm sure it works the same way in other crafts as well.
Most of what I have posted on line is work that I have done in the past for different manufactuers, it by no means represents what I have in my personal albums. Some stuff might be simple and quick and some might be extremely elaborate and there is certainly more stories included in my personal albums. I don't really care to put out a bunch of personal information, just me.

Scrapbookers have also been sterotyped which is sad. We are all not lazy women who sit around with nothing better to do. And for most it is something that we do occasionally not 24 hours a day. When i began scrapbooking over 8 years ago I was a fulltime professional working for the Governor and frankly got a lot more done than I do now that I'm home with my children. I suppose for me it is like knitting for others when I have a few down moments I go and work on a few pages for my albums.

For the posters that mentioned that scrapbooking is a fad, I have to respectfully disagree. I work the Craft Industry trade shows and when 2/3 to 3/4 of the show floor is scrapbooking companies it may have some staying power.

Oh and one other thing, many people are probably drawn to it because there is really not a big learning curve. Like many have said all it really takes is some pictures, paper, pen and glue.

Well thanks for letting add my 2 cents, I hope it helps others to understand.
Thanks,
Jenn

WHY do I scrapbook?

to tell our story, to re-live the moment
so I can remember just how they were at
each stage. I never want to forget, I want
them to understand who they were and
where they came from. I want to leave
a part of myself for my girls.
and also, it's my creative outlet, a time
to have for myself, something that's all mine
but also for them............
I don't want our stories to die with me,
I want them to go on for my grandchildren etc.
I wish I knew more about my past generations,
this is my way of changing that for my girls!
I think ali edwards does an amazing job of saying WHY>>>>>someone already gave you her linK!
tara pakosta

Here is an excerpt from a recent post on my blog (http://janconnair.wordpress.com), in which I explored one of the main reasons I scrapbook. The original post begins by introducing my friend Karen, and then moves on from there. Perhaps it will give you another way of looking at why scrapbooking is such a passion for many people.

"Karen’s been an avid scrapbooker for years, and after I got interested, we began getting together once a week to scrap together. She completes about 10 albums to every one I finish, but she doesn’t seem to be bothered by my idle chatter, while I plod along at a snail’s pace watching her whip out layout after layout.

This spring, she asked me to help her on a special project. One of the teachers at our local middle school was unexpectedly diagnosed with terminal cancer. Robyn was only 40 and had been feeling great, except for a nagging cough. When she got up one morning and noticed that the whites of her eyes seemed jaundiced, she went in for a checkup, only to find out that she had cancer throughout her body. Within a week or two of this diagnosis, Robyn passed away, leaving behind a husband and 5 young children.

Our community was stunned at the sudden loss of such a dynamic educator and all-around wonderful person. My own son Ryan remembered Robyn (who had taught the gifted classes at Ryan’s elementary school years ago) as one of his favorite teachers of all time. She was universally loved and admired by everyone she touched.

Someone who knew that Karen scrapped asked if she would put together a few pages, using photos that Robyn’s husband and sister would provide. Karen agreed, asked me to help, and we began trying to sort and group the photos, hoping to make at least a small album that Robyn’s kids could have to remember their mom by.

It’s actually fairly difficult to scrap another person’s photos, especially when you don’t really know the stories behind them. And we ended up with many more photos than we had anticipated. But Karen is not one to be discouraged by adversity, let me tell you! By the time the album was finished, it contained 50 (12″ x 12″) layouts, 4/5 of which were made by Karen in her spare time (you know, just the “extra” time she had between her full-time job as the school’s Media Specialist, planning her daughter’s wedding, and a few little things like that).

Last night we worked on the final page. No photos, just a quote that Karen found, which we both thought expressed the idea of the album perfectly: “Memory is the power to gather roses in the winter.” That’s what this album felt like to both of us. We know that for Robyn’s family, it’s going to be a long, long winter as they try to get through the days without her. But we hope that the album helps a little to heal their hearts. Robyn won’t be physically present to her children anymore to tell them she loves them. But she looks out from almost every page of this album, and that message shines in her face.

And that’s why Karen and I love scrapbooking: every album is really just a big love letter to the recipient from the maker. It preserves their stories, their memories, the evidence that they were here on this earth, and that they were loved. Behind every scrapbook is the message “Your life will not go unnoticed, because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed, because I will be your witness.” And what could be better than to be the hands through which that message is conveyed? Sure, I scrap because it’s fun to play with the papers and embellishments. But that’s secondary to the true reason I got started doing it: I’m really gathering roses for winter."

Why do I scrapbook?

Why do musicians put down into melodies what they can easily say in plain words? Because it’s a much happier way to express what you need to say. (If you have a fretful sleepy child, try saying “Lullaby and good night” and then try singing it, and then tell me which was more effective in getting those eyes to droop contentedly). I scrapbook because it makes me happy. I scrapbook because it’s a much nicer way for me to express what I want to say, even if what I celebrate on a layout is actually the most mundane event of the day. It helps me to see the world with a singing heart.

Why do historians write history? Everyone wants to understand what happens around them. And having understood, they want to pass on the insights they’ve gained. Scrapbooking allows me to do that for my children, to leave them with a lasting legacy of my view of our lives as well as lessons learned. Scrapbooking allows me to write my own history, to record what is important to me, for myself and for the generations that will come after me. Others may easily say But who’s going to care in a million years? My answer: who can tell that they wouldn’t? We can convince ourselves that it’s a silly and sentimental trip, but really, if Anne Frank had said Who would care whether I put my thoughts down in this little tattered but highly treasured notebook?, would we have had a wonderful glimpse into the poignant life of this little girl living in the midst of a very real and terrifying war?

Why do authors write? Everyone likes to listen to stories. Everyone likes to tell stories. I scrapbook to tell stories. My scrapbooks are my way of passing on to my children (and perhaps they will want to pass on to their children) my life, their lives, our family’s lives, the little ordinary things that, taken altogether, make up a genuine uniqueness that can never be duplicated elsewhere. It is my way of making sure my story and their stories get told. It is my way of ensuring that they will always have visual evidence of how much those whom I love mean to me. My mother passed away when I was eight, and though I know instinctively that she loved me as any mother would her child, I had nothing written down, no letter, no note, nothing visual that I could go back on during those times when memory just failed and there was a need to at least read that she loved me, since I could no longer hear it. I want to make sure when my kids have to go through that, they will have something to hold in their hands, a powerful visual message made of photos and my own words, to tell them over and over again, as often as they care to look at the pages, how much I truly love them.

Why do poets write verse instead of prose? I love to write, always have and always will. It is, to me, as essential as living. Writing allows me to tell my story in my own words; and who of us has no story to tell? Every day is a journey, and every journey is rife with stories waiting to be told. The cavemen passed on their stories by mouth–they too had that need. It’s primitive yet real. I scrapbook because I want to satisfy that same need that has existed since time began.

Why do photographers take photos, when every split second the scene changes and then it’s gone? Ah, but see, that is precisely why. Photographers and I, we love taking photos. We like to hold in our hands the power to capture a moment from our own viewpoint and preserve it forever on tangible paper. It’s freezing a moment in time so that you can come back to it again and again. It’s sort of like being able to bottle up happiness and being able to sniff a little of it every now and then, whether it’s because you need some upliftment or because you just want to float in its overflow.

Why do painters paint? Every artist wants to share with others his view of the world as he sees it. Painters have their own choices of media: brushes or fingers or palette knives, oil or water color, canvass or paper or walls. Scrapbookers have their choices: digital or paper, sweet or grungy: we all have different styles. And we all choose what fits us best in our quest to record our view of life. I scrapbook because I am an artist at heart. I love drawing, I love painting, I love creating. I love taking something and making something more out of it. It’s pretty much like my desire to leave this world a better place than when I came into it. It’s leaving my mark, my individual contribution to what is already there. Scrapbooking allows me to express myself and release my creative juices using brushes, paper, photos, my computer, my printer (oh yeah, technology works for me big-time!).

Why did Alexander Graham Bell invent the telephone? Why do we write letters or emails or telegrams? Our makeup as human beings dictates the need to reach out and touch someone instead of living on an island separate from the rest of creation. Scrapbookers are a wonderful community to move with. There is real support and real friendship, none of which requires parental consent and all only of the positive, clean, uplifting kind. To be sure, this can be found anywhere; it is not exclusive to this large group of people who go crazy about the latest brushes or papers or wordart or screws and brads. But it is wonderful to be a part of a larger, worldwide community whose bridges are built strong, transcending differences in race, color, creed and geography, because of a shared love and appreciation for what each of us holds dearest to our hearts, because of a certain courage that allows us to put our heart out on a piece of paper and trust that no one will trample over what we’ve just shared from the deepest recesses of our very being.

Why do I scrapbook? I have a passionate desire to express myself in a combination of words, art, and photos. I want to record my world the way I see it. It’s really a matter of self-expression. I am a living being and I want to celebrate life, mine as much as the lives that belong to those around me. I am a wife and a mother of five sons, and I treasure the look on my boys’ faces when they see me celebrate them through my scrapbook creations. I have struggles and triumphs and pains and joys, and putting them down in my choice of art form allows me to taste and savor these experiences over and over again, and perhaps learn a bit more each time.

Without scrapbooking, my life would be sorely lacking the beauty of art, the celebration of joy, the declarations of love, the amazement with the ordinary, the wisdom and insight gained as one gazes at past events, the poignant recall of memories, the release of pent-up emotions and creative rushes, the friendships that transcend all boundaries.

I scrapbook because I like to live, laugh, and love fully… and then be able to experience all that over and over again, alone or with those who matter, as we leaf through the pages of my creation.

This is why I scrapbook.

In a nutshell, because I value my story. I value all the little things that make my family tick, and all the big things too. Although written in a more quirky style than typical for me, this little blurb below won me a prize at www.twopeasinabucket.com. A HUGE scrapbooking site, where you could spend hours learning why, seeing why, people scrapbook. As for getting caught up in the paper, the design, the products, the industry related blogs...all of those things have enriched my life. I have been touched by stories and learned so much that it has made my home a better place, and certainly taken my photography, as a bi-product, to a whole new level. Here is my essay:
Jo