The Future of Scrapbooking

Two Peas had an interesting thread today about the future of scrapbooking. I shared my two cents there, and I thought I might put it here as well.

I think part of the reason that scrapbooking has gotten so large is because of our renewed need to slow down and create with our hands. Couple that with our need to embrace family and make our marks in this tumultous world, and you have modern scrapbooking.

Of course digital scrapbooking has major appeal in this techno advanced world, and people who otherwise never would have ventured into the realm of scrapbooking, now have a venue to preserve their own memories. But many of the future digital scrappers won't be coming into the hobby to fulfill a need to manually create art. They will be enticed by either speed or the creative ingenuity that comes into play with the digital medium. So really we are looking at two different sets of people.

Furthermore, the market is just starting to expand. Suburban housewives (a cliche example of course) may be entrenched in the hobby and find many things old hat, but younger singles, men, and people of different cultures are just starting to embrace this art form. I think the industry will try harder to market to this untapped segment. You can see it already with the interest in youth and rock/music culture in some of the newest manufacturer's lines.

I also think that the community aspect of the hobby will continue to be popular. Crafters outside of paper arts have been really getting into holding craft-a-longs, quilting bees, and stitch and bitch sessions. I think the internet has fostered this need to connect on a physical level, since many of us have been enjoying the relationships we have forged in the virtual world. So I think there will be more scrapbooking and craft clubs emerging. And I think these clubs will be in urban centers and appeal to a more diverse range of people than ever before.

Martha Stewart Crafts

Martha Stewart is the reason I craft. I started reading her books in middle school and watching her craft segments. I love her simple, clean style and I am big fan of the design of her products. So of course when she launched her paper crafts line I was ecstatic.

I went to Michaels on the "premiere day" just to check it out. What I found was a very Martha styled collection of staples and many of her party ideas from her Living magazine nicely packaged for completion at home. It was exactly what I had expected. So of course I bought. The glitters are divine, the ribbons pretty and affordable, the markers and pens are GREAT. I also bought the lady bug paper pack (so cute) and some of her glues. The 18 x 18 paper is an altered artist's dream...such a large sheet to cover your projects with. I know I will be back to stock up on some punches and that rotary tool.

Her linen organization products in robin's egg blue makes me want to rethink my scrap room decor once again. Blue and brown...that might be the ticket.

Did I mention I attended her show. I even was on TV...I should have worn black..more slimming. Anyway my sister and I were in the audience during her scrapbooking week. Very cool experience.

Shopping in my own stash

Sometimes I feel the need to play little tricks on myself to jumpstart my creativity.

I like to pack up my supplies as if I am going to a crop, and wheel my tote into the kitchen and set up shop. I think the amount of stuff I have in my scraproom gets overwhelming at times and it hinders my ability to make...anything.

So I have a new trick that I recently started playing...going shopping in my stash.

Here is how I do it..step by step.

1. Grab a few pictures and pretend you are at a scrapbook store crop. Pack a tote with all the essential tools you would take to a crop and set up in a location where you DON'T normally scrap.

2. Go into your scraproom (or whatever) and "shop" for things to use on that layout. (Be sure to give yourself a time lime to "shop" - 20-30 minutes should probably be the max amount of time.) You can even go so far as to take a plastic bag to put your "purchases" in.

3. Next leave your scraproom and go back to your temporary scrap area (this is a crop after all) and create your page.

4. REPEAT

This works well for me because it forces me to focus on a specific project with specific elements...I am out of my scraproom so I am not being overwhelmed by all the choices I have in there.

Progress

So I meant to post this last month, but frankly most days I forget I even have a blog. Yea I know...I am nuts. Since I took these pictures my room has gotten even more organized. I put all my big embellishments that don't fit in jars or in my hanging organizer in plastic shoeboxes. They are labeled - metals, alphabets, glitters, clays/modeling pastes/mediums, heidi swapp, etc. But now looking at the pictures, I see I need to make cuter labels. Ugh. Also I just bought a pottery barn wallboard system so I am going to have to reconfigure.

So far my favorite parts of my room is my counter height table. I raised my long conference table up so I can use it work while standing or sitting in a bar stool. And I love the new jars I bought to put all my embellishments in. I think it will look so much better than my hardware drawers that I am using now.



I havn't put my PB Wall system up yet. I am not sure where I want to hang it. And I really should paint the walls first...but who wants to paint? Not me. I hate decorating.



Still messy...but definitely more organized.

I wish I were an early bird

Ugh why do I keep doing this to myself? Here I am 4 hours away from having to leave for a weekend crop and I have not packed a thing. Even worse is that I am still at work for another 30 minutes...so I won't even be able to start packing for another hour, which leave me with 3 hours to pack!!!

I really was looking forward to this crop months ago, when my scraproom was a mess, and I had no place to work. But now everything is so organized, that it is almost overwhelming to try to decide what to pack...especially now at the last minute. I planned to pre-plan my pages but LOL nothing ever goes according to plan. So I was up at 5:30 this morning, standing in the middle of my room staring at all of my paper. I had no clue what to pack. And now hours later at my desk at work...daydreaming about my paper...I still have no clue.

I guess I will go with the old standby (and long overdue for completion) my wedding albums. I started working on these wedding albums to give to my grandmothers 2 years ago, right after my wedding. They still on the shelf 3/4 of the way done. This weekend will be when they are finally completed it seems. And if I get bored with all the black and red of my wedding album, I will have those Lisa B QVC album kits to put together.