Scrapbooking preserves family memories.
Sharon Kirts was devastated when her younger son, Joshua, died in a ski accident. So was his older brother Ben, who never wanted to be an only child. Sharon, an attorney from Crystal, started working on a scrapbook about Joshua, primarily for Ben’s benefit-and discovered that documenting Joshua’s life comforted her. “This year I discovered digital scrapbooking and have finally begun to get some pages completed. I may never finish ‘The Book of Joshua,’ but it is healing to create the memorial album.” She’s since completed an album for her aging mother.
If you save your family photos and put them into albums with a few words or paragraphs, you’re part of a hot trend: an amazing 13 percent of all Americans are scrapbookers-most of those are women with children. The most dedicated of all, according to industry sources, spend more than $50 a month on their hobby. These women have their Creative Memories consultant on speed dial, know their local Archiver’s inventory as intimately as the contents of their kitchen cupboards, and dream of winning the lottery so they can open their own scrapbook store. Or, like Lori Finanger of Eden Prairie, they become a scrapbook consultant. “I wanted a discount on all of the Creative Memories stuff I just loved making albums,” she says. Today, Lori’s an active professional, a unit leader with six consultants reporting to her.
Though Lori had made a few albums documenting the marathons she’d run in, scrapbooking took on a whole new meaning when her second son was born 16 weeks prematurely. Born at 24 weeks gestational age, he weighed just 1 pound, 8 ounces. “All we could do was take pictures of him,” Lori remembers. “So I took pictures and wrote the story. I loved doing that, and it really helped me and my family-telling his life from the moment he was born.”
In the past few years, the art of preserving family memories has become a big business-a $2.6 billion-a-year one, according to industry estimates. These days you can also get your supplies at Michael’s or Target or even on QVC, like Dawn Bogg of Northeast Minneapolis. “There was some scrapbooking stuff on ‘Today’s Special Values’ and it was such a good deal that the Coupon Queen here couldn’t pass it up,” laughs Dawn, who confesses that “my living room is about ready to surrender to being a scrapbooking room.”
THE PASSIONATE HOBBYISTS
In addition to albums for each of her daughters, Dawn keeps a family scrapbook, special scrapbooks for experiences like her daughters’ basketball and volleyball camps-and one for each of her dogs. In the planning stage: one dedicated to her husband. “I try to work on scrapping a little bit each day,” says Dawn, who’s a stay-at-home mom. Some days, she can only grab a quick half-hour, but she’s been known to scrap for up to eight hours at a stretch. “[My husband] thinks I’ve lost my mind!”
A trip to China to adopt daughter Sarah got Carol Anne Wall, a technical writer from St. Paul, into scrapbooking in earnest. Like many of the women who scrapbook, Carol Anne’s children are the driving force behind her hobby: she wants to leave them a legacy of memories. “It’s all about my girls,” she says. “I always have both of the girls’ books going, plus I do special albums when we take a trip. I do two albums for Sarah every year. I’m a little behind on Rachel’s right now.” And like Dawn, Carol Anne memorializes her pets: her two Scottie dogs share their own album.
Although she hasn’t achieved her secret desire, to own her own scrapbooking store, Carol Anne has the next best thing: a steady gig teaching scrapbooking one night a week. “The Scrapbook Shop just opened in July,” she says. “I wanted to teach, so I called them to see if they were looking for teachers.” They were-and she’s been teaching ever since.
Carol Anne enjoys going to “crops”-gatherings where a group of women get together to work on their scrapbook projects together at the Scrapbook Shop, and she gathers weekly with friends to work on projects and chat. The social aspect of the craft-getting together, talking about family memories-is something many women value. With busy, rushed lives, scrapbooking can provide an excuse to sit down with friends and share funny stories and poignant anecdotes.
NEVER TO YOUNG
Rhonda Nelson’s daughter Kayla, 10, not only makes her own albums but teaches other girls how to do the same. “Kayla Crops,” the children’s class, is held one Sunday a month-at Mom’s store, of course.
Carol Anne Wall’s daughter Sarah, 6, has become an ardent scrapper, too. “Sarah’s made three of her own scrapbooks.
She was probably 4 when she made the first one, while we were waiting for Rachel [to come home from China],” Carol Anne says, adding, “Nothing warms my heart more than Sarah coming up to me and saying, ‘Mama, I want to make an album, can you help me?” While Sarah’s preserving her own memories, she’s also making some-she’ll always remember the times she sat down with her mother to choose just the right words or place a picture just so. And chances are Carol Anne will record it in a scrapbook.
A HOMEGROWN BUSINESSES
Minnesota is home to two of the biggest names in scrapbooking. Minnetonka is the headquarters of Archiver’s, the country’s largest retail chain; and Creative Memories, the direct-sales industry giant, is based in St. Cloud.
Creative Memories sells its products through the efforts of more than 90,000 independent consultants throughout the world. “Our company is larger than our next six competitors combined,” says Media Coordinator Amy Dahl. Although the company doesn’t release its sales figures, Forbes magazine estimates its 2004 sales volume at $425 million. Not bad for a company that began 15 years ago with six sales consultants.
Today, Creative Memories employs 1,200 people and manufactures its own line of scrapbooking materials. Dahl says the secret to their success is their niche as a direct sales company. “Personal attention, research, quality products, and premier customer service are the cornerstones of our business,” she says. Additionally, she adds, “After 9/11 many people are turning to family activities to feel more connected. Many people want to leave a legacy behind for future generations, telling the stories of their lives.”
The growth of Archiver’s is just as astonishing. Their first store, in Apple Valley, opened just five years ago; today, they have 28 stores in 12 states and plan eight to 10 more this year. Like many stores, Archiver’s also hosts “crops”-events that are a great excuse for women to get together with their friends and scrapbook. “Every Friday night is Scrapbook Mania,” says Brian Olmstead, an Archives founder. “From 36 to 48 people get together at each store.”
The small independent Scrapbook Shop, which opened on St. Paul’s Snelling Avenue last summer, already has a loyal
clientele, says co-owner Michelle Doheny. “We are making our niche as the only scrapbooking store in St. Paul,” Doheny says. “We really got welcomed to the neighborhood.” Doheny and co-owner Rhonda Nelson are savvy retail veterans who know where they can and can’t compete with the Archivers and Michael’s; building customer loyalty has been key to their success, as has been knowing what to stock. “When we started out, we decided not to carry the bigger items like Sizzix [die cutting] machines,” says Doheny, who knows that larger retailers can offer those items at discounted prices. “We specialize in smaller things.”
Like Archiver’s, the Scrapbook Shop has found that scrapbookers love to get together with others. “Friday crop nights are from 5 p.m. till 1 a.m.-and we have to kick them out at 1:00,” laughs Doheny. “A lot of our regulars come to the Friday crop, leave their stuff and come back to the Saturday crop.”
Getting started: tips from the pros
Everyone we talked to agreed: your scrapbooks don’t have to look like a magazine layout to have meaning – and you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on equipment and supplies to begin. Veterans suggest you:
Keep it simple. You don’t need a lot of pictures on each page, fancy papers, or enhancements; the most important thing is the pictures and words. The goal isn’t for your albums to look like magazine layouts: it’s to preserve memories.
Don’t skimp on the words. “I do journal a lot,” says Carol Anne. “I remember, ‘they’re going to read this when I’m gone.’ My words will help them make connections to the pictures.”
Start with copies of pictures. When you’re getting started, work with color copies of pictures rather than the often-irreplaceable originals. Once you get the hang of things, you can cut and crop with confidence.
Experiment with different techniques to find your own style. Going to crops and seeing how others put pages together is a great way of learning what you do and don’t like. Do you love lots of detail and a variety of elements, do you prefer a simple, clean style, or are you somewhere in the middle? Putting together pages will help you learn how to express yourself-and your albums will be just as individual as your own personality.
