First, I’m going to start off by telling you about how I got started scrapbooking – about the first scrapbook that I ever made. Then, I’ll tell you how it relates to CHA.
When I was in elementary school, my father took an overseas job transfer that sent our family to live in Wales. Yes, I mean that Wales – the one made famous by the heir to the British throne and his bride Diana Spencer. We lived there from 1979 until 1983.
So in July 1981, when the royal wedding of the 20th century took place, I was a starry-eyed 10-year-old girl living at the very epicenter of it all, believing that I was seeing that fairytales really did come true. Diana was my role model, my fairytale princess. I watched every minute of the BBC’s royal wedding coverage from early in the morning, and devoured the newspaper stories about Diana and her big day.
I couldn’t bear to just throw out the beautiful pictures and stories chronicling this important event that were in the newspaper! (Although looking back now, their print quality was horrible compared to newspapers today.) I carefully and painstakingly clipped and cut…and glued…and put them into three construction paper page scrapbooks. Later, when Prince William was born, more carefully clipped pictures and articles were added to my scrapbook.
They weren’t artistic, and they certainly weren’t archivally safe. But because of a little girl’s adoration of a fairytale princess who turned out to not live so happily ever after, they were my introduction to scrapbooking.
In later years my introduction to the hobby that we know as modern scrapbooking was prompted by my love of photography (which started during my family’s European travels) and the desire to do something with my photographs.
People come to scrapbooking because of a desire to preserve or record something, and what that is is different for each person. We should never forget that as we try to figure out how to bring more people into scrapbooking. Too often the scrapbook industry tries to pigeonhole or categorize people into narrow definitions of who scrapbookers are. Instead we should be broadening our vision of what scrapbooking is and who scrapbookers are.
If we focus too hard on our “typical” customers, it won’t be long before those people are our only customers.
(How fitting that I’m using my Diana scrapbook as part of an article that calls for more inclusion in the scrapbook industry, since she spent so much of her life reaching out to people excluded by society.)
And where does CHA fit into this? If you are attending CHA next month and are a fan of Princess Diana’s like me, I have something to add to your sightseeing list while you are in Orlando. It’s just been announced that “Diana – The People’s Princess,” an exhibit of royal artifacts, will be opening in early July at Downtown Disney West Side in the former Virgin Records Megastore building. (Diana fans may remember that Virgin owner Richard Branson was a close friend of hers, but I’m not sure if that is coincidence with the housing of the exhibition or not.)
The exhibit includes one of the largest collections ever assembled of Diana’s dresses, and a large collection of memorabilia. It benefits The People’s Princess Charitable Foundation. Admission is $14.50 for adults and the hours will be 11am-11pm daily. For more information, visit The Disney Blog.
Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?
Subscribe to Scrapbook Update in a Reader
Nancy, you are absolutely right. The industry should recognize the many different types of scrapbooking, When I attend crops, I see just how many different types of storytelling there are. While most seem stuck within the confines of Creative Memories, there are also those of us that have fallen into the one pic per page. I don’t see alot of journaling and storytelling. I am definately guilty of that. My goal this year is to get back to why I started scrapping originally. I want to preserve the history of my family ( even if it is only the four of us) and tell a story. I regret not having photos of all the memories but if I can get past my phobia about journaling I can still tell our story. Thanks for your insight.
Carolyn, you took the words right out of my mouth! Not to bash CM because I do like their albums, but that’s why I stopped going to the workshops. I have few family photos but a lot of memorabilia like postcards, letters, certificates, deeds, newspaper articles, etc that tell stories in themselves. I got tired of hearing that I needed to have x number of photos on each page along with the journaling spiel. I also have a lot of pages with one photo per page. I’ve always been into clean, simple pages. And since I’ve stopped going to workshops, I find that I can get far more pages done in one session on my own.
Nancy, you make me feel so old! You were just a little girl for THE MARRAIGE.
I agree about inclusion. I know many consultants for a variety of stamping and scrapbooking companies that say their way is the only way. But I have found that while I prefer mostly one company, I still like some items from “the competition.” (To be fair, I am a consultant for my preferred company.)
And I am one of those (I think) rare people that scraps for the creative outlet. I freely admit that I rarely, if ever, actually put photos on a page. It is the opportunity to be creative and have my “art” appreciated that draws me. I have many friends that like to tease me about no photos, but these are the same friends that turn to me for ideas, suggestions, and training. I just consider myself another type of scrapbooker.
I completely agree with asby; I wish more people would realize that there are many ways to scrapbook. I too love it all, but sell for the company I love most. I also scrapbook mainly for the creative aspect, since I started scrapping long before children. But I also love journaling, although not always in a “traditional” way. There are women I know who don’t like when I show up at a crop, because “we don’t scrapbook like that”. Do they feel I make them look bad?! After all, most of their pictures are in albums while I am woefully “behind” if we look at it like that!
I am so thankful for CM, because if I hadn’t been introduced to them years ago, I might not have started scrapping. But I think luckily for me, I couldn’t afford much from them and just went off on my own with what little quality materials were available at the time. I just think we all need to open up more to each other’s ideas and remember that there is more than one way to do things; to each his own…
Sigh…princess Di.. I think everyone my age dreamed of growing up to be princess Di!
I got my start with CM and am thankful for how they opened my eyes to “safe stuff” (cause I too have scrapbooks from when I was little made on that old lined school paper) I quickly realized they might not be “for me” when at my first workshop I took the little triangles and turned them into a paper piecing.. and started looking elsewhere! But they have quality products and it gave me my start in a creative outlet I love doing!
My daughter recently inherited my old computer along with some digi scrapping software. Within 10 minutes she had more figured out than I had in 2 years of owning it and she loves it! At first I was a bit sad because I felt I was loosing my scrapping buddy, but I soon realized that she is still preserving memories in a way that is fun for her and that’s what it’s all about!
I will never forget the man that brought his wife’s ‘scrapbooks’ in for me to see one day. She was a Marilyn Monroe fan and had faithfully cut out newspaper articles, magazine photos and pasted them in several large construction paper scrapbooks. His wife had just passed and these were his most prized possessions and memories of her…her crude, no journaling scrapbooks. Each of us scrap in our own way on our own terms and though I’ve seen many wonderful scrapbooks in my day, her Marilyn books will always stand out to me.
Nancy – This is a terrific story! Thank you for sharing your very special scrapbooks of Princess Diana, they are precious.