Scrapbooking: The evolution of a hobby – The News Herald

As the scraps of life's memories printed photos, newspaper clippings, ticket stubs increasingly become less tangible and more electronic, a longtime hobby has evolved to keep up, with scrapbooking moving into the digital realm.

At its most basic, scrapbooking is as simple as it sounds: assembling scraps of one's life into a book.

But as those scraps printed photos, newspaper clippings, ticket stubs increasingly become less tangible and more electronic, a longtime hobby has evolved to keep up.

For as long as the materials have existed, people have compiled things they wanted to remember.

It's been going on for decades and centuries, I should say. Back to the cave people, documenting their stuff on the walls, said Joanne Coleman, a scrapbooking consultant and instructor.

Since then, of course, modern photography, upgrades in papers, color, tools and other small machines and in the 20th century the Internet have expanded scrapbookers ability to record and preserve history in myriad new ways but some people still stick to the original.

Coleman, as a consultant with scrapbooking company Close to My Heart, teaches classes, sells supplies and frequents crops, scrapbooking get-togethers in which participants bring their photos, their materials and their stories for a day of all-out crafting.

Crops are social events that are more about having fun and relationships, said Coleman, who attends larger crops and hosts them at her home. It is about home and sharing family memories.

Attendees range from teens to grandparents with their children and its not just for women.

There are a handful of men, and there are actually men that are consultants with the company, Coleman said. Sometimes it's a husband and wife that come together, and that gives them something to do together.

The materials also change with the times.

Scrapbooking follows home and fashion trends, she said. All the major companies go to the trade shows to keep up with the new colors, new stripes or chevrons and the new trends.

Local craft stores also offer all the supplies scrapbookers need, some with occasional classes. Pam McVay at Panama Citys Hobby Lobby said though the hobby has been changing over the years, it is not dying.

Yearly planners have become popular now, she said. They decorate and embellish them in the same way as their scrapbooks. They bling them up and personalize them.

For others, digital scrapbooking is a simpler way to file away memories. Marion Ginn of Gulf Breeze is a prolific producer of photo books through digital scrapbooking tool Picaboo. In recent years, she has compiled a monthly book on the Santa Rosa Womans Club's activities, her Winnebago clubs escapades and her family life.

What I do is I take pictures galore, and if we go to a district meeting or something, I'll save the program and a copy of the nametags, special things like that, and I'll scam them onto my computer, Ginn said.

From there, Picaboo makes it simple, offering hundreds of layouts, backgrounds, colors, crops, fonts, stickers and more. For Ginn, the end result is a book multiple sizes are available though the site also offers prints, cards and other personalized items.

You can pretty much do whatever you want on that site, she said. You can make your photo the background of the whole page, you can make it a photo on the page, you can stretch them, make them larger or darker ... It's really user-friendly, and they've got a lot of options that you don't have if you use Walmart or Walgreens.

From there, its just a matter of printing and waiting for the mail to arrive.

Ginn has become so adept with the site, she even went back and made a photo book for each year of her marriage to husband Leo all 52 of them.

She shares her results with the people in her clubs and her family. One recently won her first place in digital scrapbooking at a Crestview arts and crafts fair.

The other thingI like about it is once you've done it, you can share an online version of it, so if someone wanted to order it, they could or if they just want to look at it, they can, she said.

Coleman acknowledged digital options are the right fit for some people but still prefers the old-fashioned way, saying the hobby is all about the people, and that is what will keep it viable into the future.

Kids are online now, she said. They are doing digital photo books online. But they are starting to want more hands-on experiences. Early teens are really enjoying scrapbooking more and more. As they get older, that will continue.

Diana McQuagge is hoping to instill the hobby in her granddaughter. Emily, 8, scrapbooks with McQuagge when she comes to visit.

Shes got Grandmas table half full of coupon book scrapbooking supplies, McQuagge said. We went to a store and got her supplies to do a little book. But shes got her own ideas and she wanted to make a coupon book.

Emily has decorated each page and has multiple categories for all her coupons.

For Coleman, those kinds of interactions are priceless.

The grandmas teaching the grandchildren, that's giving them some together time, she said. I really like seeing that because to me, it's more about the connections and the people sharing their family history with each other and documenting, because we're so into the digital age that this is a fun way to tell about your family and keep those stories going.

The News Herald's Steph Nusbaum contributed to this story.

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Scrapbooking: The evolution of a hobby - The News Herald