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History of Scrapbooking

Hi you're my favorite part right here on dh the reason for that is because this's what it's about it's you and it's me we're all just regular people going through regular ups and downs in life and trying to figure out how tio amongst it all preserve my memories and do something so I am honored honored that creative life asked me to be here but this is kind of the funny thing about when they asked me I said ok I will teach but you have to know that project life takes about thirty seconds to explain so you want me to do this for how three days okay um all right so that was kind of my initial reaction is how do you take something that is so simple which is project life which it sounds like all of you here with me live in the audience are at least familiar with if not already using you know what I'm saying where I'm like it takes thirty seconds how do you stretch that out and then something happened that's remarkable I started working on this content and I started work figuring out working...

through what I would be sharing and I realized nothing has changed project lifestyle takes thirty seconds to explain but this is such a beautiful opportunity that I have to for the first time ever and working this industry for fifteen years I've never had the opportunity to really share scrapbooking from the beginning all the way through to the end what I mean by that is just starting from the beginning where it all came from how even got going as an industry and what it means to us personally I've taught lots of scrapbooking classes over the past years but it's usually techniques and let's do this project and that's all cool too but this is our opportunity to discuss together and tow learn particularly aside from you guys we have thousands of people watching who have not started they really they haven't doubled in scott booking they don't really know what it's about they're interested in getting started and I'm excited about that but it really takes some time to go through this process of wrapping their heads around it if I if I threw somebody who wanted to learn scrapbook into a class that was just about making this one project are learning this one technique I probably lose that person after a few months or a few years because they did it they're done that's nice I have it but what I'm hoping for is that we all really are able tio resonate with ourselves with our goals with where we've already been and where we want to go in this process and in this hobby and so for that reason I then was able to take my what thirty seconds to explain three days of eighteen hours of education tio okay finally we have a place in this one course that will walk us through the whole thing so a special thank you to the eight of you sitting here with me you're gonna be my comfort okay all right so you're my my real life people with real life stories and we're just having a conversation for the next three days so we're going to go ahead and jump in and talk about probably the most obvious part and that is we're going to talk about what a scrapbooking and what this project life the name of the course is scrapbooking with project life and so those are the two main components and it seems obvious what's koppel keenness however there's a lot of people watching you think they I have an idea of what scrap mccain is and unfortunately scott looking gets a really bad route because they just immediately have this image of what they think it is I'm gonna break that apart um what is scrapbooking ok just so you know scrapbooking and memory keeping would you guys agree that it's in their changeable people use that kind of same simultaneously when I was first getting into scrap booking I remember using that term scrapbooking scrapbooking and thinking it sounds cheesy I didn't like the sound of it and so I wanted to fight against it for myself not not for other people but for myself I'm like it's not scrapbooking it's it's memory preservation you know I just wanted to romanticize this term for something that was such a special hobby but kind of had this fru fru sound so anyway scrapbooking memory keeping the same thing it's used interchangeably but let me dig a little deeper let's back up to what memory making is ok memory making is what we do every day we just were living your life it's the big stuff it's the little stuff that's everything that we're doing we together right now are making memories somebody getting their child ready in texas this morning was making memories somebody in italy right now who is fixing a meal for their family is making memories okay this is just living life is making memories I want to point out that that doesn't mean that I think that memory making means that we have to preserve every memory that's not possible nor do we want to wait do not want to preserve every memory they're not always all happy memories are they but along with this we need to keep in mind that what happens with this term of scrapbooking it's used so often in this idea of what people have about it is a lot of people tend to think that scrap booking is about the big things it's the trip it's the birthday zits it's the weddings having a baby you know these air these air big events and important events at happy and exciting memories but it is about the little stuff we're going to talk about that sprinkled throughout the next three days, but I want to make sure to emphasize that straight away because scrapbooking and what we do to preserve our memories really should be even more about the little moments the everyday stuff then I think most people think that scrapbooking should be about and that's not to overwhelm you, I promise we're going to break this down. I'm not asking anyone to document their entire life from a dizzy from morning to evening that's not where we're going with this. I just want to make sure that we all understand little stuff little stuff, everyday stuff you get that in your head, all right? So that's memory making memory keeping is obviously a form of keeping your preserving memories in a tangible format. All of you sitting here have touched this in some way some of you are really involved, some of you a little less, but that's to keep our memories is to actually take pictures and stories, anecdotes, memories, occasions, special things, and we put them in some sort of a tangible format so that we can enjoy that and and when I say tangible, I don't want to discount digital because that's tangible also in terms of being able to sit at a computer or on a phone or some sort of some sort of device and be ableto flip through pictures social media on our phones we can see stuff that's a tangible experience so I don't want to discount that doesn't have to be in an actual physical book but certainly certainly we're going to go there because I have opinions about why you do what things in books but the idea of memory keeping is that with all the memory making that we're doing keeping those memories just here and here is not we're not maximizing our life experience to its fullest if we can't pull from and draw from those really special moments big and small and that's by memory keeping is something that has really really reached a lot of people a lot of people you're just a few we are just a few there's a lot of people who have been touched by actually doing something with their pictures that's why I'm excited to talk about this now memory keeping is not just scrapbooks memory keeping remember is still kind of a bigger term a bigger idea and it doesn't always have to be that it's in a book this is memory keeping having pictures and frames in your home you know even if you're sitting in a cubicle at work and you pent up something by your computer you're keeping that memory of that loved one that trip that whatever specialty that you put up so it's not just in a scrapbook it's also it's also what you're displaying or you think about anything that's not even picture related to be able to keep memories threw a homemade quilt and maybe grandma made a quote with all of your reading t shirts from high school, which happened to my brother grandma made stephen a quilt that had all of his running shorts because running was his thing that is memory keeping also I am not a coat maker I will not be addressing this topic specifically, I wish I were so keep that in mind. So so when it comes to memory keeping scrapbooking is a very specific part of memory keeping, and now you can see why they're often entertained changeable because scott bookie memory keeping seems like the same thing and that's because scott mcinnis probably and we can probably all vouch for this the main way of doing memory, keeping its the main idea no matter how your scrapbooks look or what style they are, what type of books there in memory keeping scrapbooking it's still it's still this idea taking bits and pieces of your life, whether it's photos or the little you know memorabilia, we're going to get into all of that later and putting them into a book and this is a this is kind of a cartoonish, you know looking idea of what a scrapbook is that's what we think of of scott books sometimes way to a quote from wikipedia scrapbooking is a method for preserving personal and family history in the form of a scrapbook. Typical memorabilia include photographs, printed media and artwork scrapbook albums are often decorated and frequently contain extensive journaling scrapbooking is a widely practised past time in the united states and I know everybody watching his nine the united states is going well wait a second it's huge in the u k it's huge and candidates huge in australia and new zealand I mean it's it's definitely a worldwide happy this is just I'm pulling from a reference here but the idea is what we all know and this is what we think of it like that little image I just showed you we think of the stuff pictures and and stuff so um let me go into a little bit of the history I promised I would of scrapbooking some of you who are diehard scrap bookers may not even really realize where it came from it did not start in nineteen ninety so I want to go way back and I wasn't there I wasn't there at the beginning none of us were because it happened that long ago um happened a really long time ago there wasn't a moment it just over many hundreds of years probably longer there were efforts to preserve life you know, to preserve memories and things and it started in that essence of taking books of some kind even before books there were I am not a cave woman assed faras I know and so I can't go back further than none of us really, really know but I could go back as far as they were bucks okay? People who had books who really treasured and cherish and valued greeting cards that they would get I'm talking pre photography case scrapbooking goes before pictures were invented, photography was invented we have a lot of photographers watching and this is a fascinating topic for photographers because this is their life these pictures and a lot of them ironically aren't, you know, doing a whole lot with their pictures and that's why I'm so glad they're tuning in but think pre photography pre that industry previ invention of this device that captures light in a way that that gives you an image that you can have forever it's pretty phenomenal this industry that invention itself I'm not going to get we peaked okay history when you think about what they were doing they were taking cards and pieces of their life little paper based pieces of their life and putting them into a book because they were special to them that's where it began what's really cool is that's why we're still doing it I love that that's the whole point ok, so then things evolved and time went on and photography was invented and we don't want to cry about that when you really think about it think about it if we didn't have pictures, if we did not have this ability to capture images, we don't know any different. This is the world that we live in, we have pictures, we take it for granted, we all know that, but I love to just help us all remember that there used to not be that I'm so glad I live right now. I'm so glad so in this effort of of taking pictures that now exist, putting into the book, I'm going to share with you a little bit from my own personal experience of what I have been exposed to in my own direct family history. Okay, so this right here is a scrapbook that excuse me, that, um, came from someone on my mom's side of the family, I don't actually know who put it together, but I know that this book is was treasured, it is treasured by me and it contains in it it's not even put together you can see that at some point it fell apart, and I don't care, you know, mess with that, at least not yet, but straightaway, I recognize these faces, I know who they are because they're my my great great acts that are twins. And I've loved learning about them as I was growing up, but look at these you khun probably hardly tell but they are so fragile I'm sure you can imagine super fragile and I almost feel like it's going to fall apart just handling it but look at these pictures and without knowing the stories of them you can see they they were so special to whoever put this together that pretty pictures was not cheap I mean you guys were printing pictures at five cents twenty cents whatever it is wherever you're printing cheat that is cheap, it was not inexpensive to print pictures back then. This is a funeral program they're sections to this bug more fragile pages I'm really sad that pictures may have used to be on here but are no longer as I flip through I'm seeing even more okay even more pictures now this stops me in my tracks this is my grandma and he's no longer with us this is esther when she was a little girl it probably looks to me like a teenager and you know it doesn't mean something to you like it means to me because it's my grandma but we all have the opportunity to tap into pictures like this that really make us go well that's that's me that's my blood that's where I came from this is my history right here and I love that there's a caption and it probably was her because I know my grandma and she wrote way well I'm sure I'm not learning a whole lot from that but I treasure this picture I would have loved to know more about her life right now when this picture was taken flipping through this even more pictures and you get the idea here there were going back a few generations now seeing people that these air faces that I've learned about my parents and my husband's parents are all very good about family history and understanding and learning more about our ancestors and that certainly has something to do with my own roots of this hobby is really learning to appreciate where we came from and that's not just about blood either you know there's a lot of people who have adopted are adopted and there's other ways that families come together and family still family is still family you know and so learning about your past and your story is certainly instrumental and helping you to understand why you're doing this so moving along in history that was kind of this is just a glimpse of of some of the earlier beginnings when it comes to photography so fast forward a little bit and and and go into uh eighty easley eighties nineties okay, so at this point scrapbooking is becoming something okay and we won't go into the specifics of how it started because I went there either you know, I just I was a consumer in the beginning just like everybody else he was like oh paper stickers memories I can put this all together but certainly there was there was so much growth that happened in those early those early days and I think what happened is people started realizing that pictures can go on paper and you can add your stickers your embellishments and your stories and you have more of like a life story here that's interesting and of course a lot of this is due to the fact that the popularity of photography was going because it was becoming more convenient so let me kind of take you through my own first scrapbook okay? So I showed you one from a really really long time ago this is history for me you know, talking about ancient this is definitely for me this is ancient and I have shared a glimpse or two over the years but I've never shared this I've never really shared this we're not going go through every page I will not bore you about my teenage years although maybe it's not that morning but this is really special to me this is pre scrapbooking industry as we know it as we think of it okay think pre you know, when it was card stock and and page protectors and binders and putting it all together this was me really going ok love I love my memories. I love pictures. I love personal history of family history and just kind of it was just running through my veins. So this was my first effort. I got a little black book from who knows who knows where. Then I taped taped guys tape like full of acid. Really? Not archival e safe surprise it's. Not yellow anymore, but I take some school pictures in here. I cut pieces from magazines of very goal oriented, you know, self motivated type of person today I'm going to do this today and you know I was motivated motivated by this from some magazine I love quotes I clearly love starburst and chocolates and my return out just label and confetti somehow confetti was important to me. I also love to doodle so I took the combination of doodling and writing quotes and, um and you know, this was from a race pictures of some friends, more chocolate. Clearly I have issues with chocolate more doodily how grateful I am I that I have this I don't doodle like this anymore. I still do tow nothing like this and it's fun for me to go back and see my style and what spoke to me always color lots of color I clipped pieces from newspaper and a latin was a brand new movie okay, that date that dates this really well, I love anything that dates us. The stickers data as well. Friends quotes you get the idea there's no there's more this history there's history, you know, headlines from a newspaper what was happening in somalia at the time, which this would have been in them in the young nineties, you know, ninety two, ninety three anyway, so I'm not going take you through the whole thing, but you get the ideas I flipped through here that there's a lot of stuff in here that was special to me, and I did this as a teenager. I say that because as a teenager, I wasn't thinking about what really mattered. I wasn't thinking about long term, I wasn't thinking my kids could enjoy this. One day I was just being a kid who took my stuff and stuck it in a book, and I think that's why this book means so much to me is that I was not there's nothing pretentious about this. This is not show and tell I was obsessive fingernails on, but clearly x rays and j crew and I'll totally go together. I mean, right this and this makes sense thiss tells a story about who I was then I'm still me I haven't changed, but I've evolved and I can tell you that I do not like wacky wafers anymore you know and I don't I don't necessarily have the same things of interest you know I've evolved is a person that's what we do know I even had friends sketch in the book okay, so I show this to you because scrapbooking was before scrapbooking you know that we've always we've always as a people as a human kind had an interest in leading our mark and doing something with what matters to us so that's what happened kind of pre uh pre scrapbooking industry now what happened with that is in the industry as we were figuring out this whole idea of taking paper and plastic and putting all together is this is what scrapbooking look like to a lot of people at that time I graduated in nineteen eighty four from high school at that time is when I discovered and found out that paper plastic pictures it all comes together it goes in a binder that's when I discovered that now look at the colors what's going on here I am not saying good or bad I'm just saying well, well, well, well ok, so that was my style that was the style of the time graduations where I started and I'm flipping fast only because you know you don't really need to see the details you I just want to give you the idea that I did glitter I did ask her right that's what? It was called you guys remember that term astra bright card stock? It was all the rage stickers. This was this kind of stuff is is what I was when I was doing, I continued putting my pictures into a book or just in a new format. So that's where scrapbooking went okay, plastic slipping the photos in and hearing them. Then this industry exploded and there was a huge amount of growth and, you know, I started this way. Not everybody started this way. Some people were using different products. They have different kind of nuts and bolts of putting it together. But it's still a buck pictures in a book. Okay, so that's that's kind of where it went in terms of in terms of decorating pages. Then we got a little bit more decorative and we got more involved as an industry and creating product that was fun for people. And the reason for that is because everyone was saying, hey, photography is no longer this, you know, exclusive thing it's available to everybody. We all have pictures let's get into bucks. And so what happened was all these companies started popping up out of nowhere and all this product was created so everyone could have fun with this hobby and not just gluing things to paper, but really really decorating now again I'm not going to stop and pause and some of these layout you are seeing a scrapbook from two thousand four we're talking just about ten years ago this is what I was doing now I flip through this and I think I love this ok, I love this I am so glad I did this there's a lot of treasured memories treasured faces treasured people in my life that are mattered in this scott book dear friends dear family fun experiences yes, this was a wet not to wear makeover that needed to happen to my husband and myself there's a lot of very, very fun memories of so much in our life that we wanted to put into a scrapbook and so I did and so you're going to see stickers and you're going to see embellishments and you got to stay cool layout designed and fun ideas and creative things ok, so you get where scott bookings going now there's a focus there's a focus on on the stuff of scrapbooking not necessarily a bad thing because you know what motivated a lot of people and got a lot of people really excited about this hobby and got me excited so I love I told you earlier I love personal family history and and I haven't mention this yet, but for those of you who don't know love organizing s I loved organizing my memories but I also love being creative. I love that I never want to discount the beauty beautiful thing of being creative. We're all creative people in our own way, it's different our talents or manifested in different ways. But this I spoke to me this idea of laying a sow and using embellishments and cutting and pasting and lining things up perfectly. This spoke to me, and this was certainly something that spoke to a lot of people. So we saw a big boom at the turn of the century, a big boom and scrapbooking. And from what I understand what my memory is, it was about two thousand five. That was the peak of this complicate industry. Multi. Who knows how many billion dollars oven industry? Huge. Because a lot of people are going okay, my picture is special, and now I can do something with him and it's fun and go to the craft store. And I could just buy all these fun things that just, you know, makes my memory keeping even that much more coal. So and I mentioned stores not only stores, but also magazines, and some of you know what I'm talking about because you subscribes right from you getting just the way I did. Magazines, books crops okay, let me explain what crop means because you guys know what it means I'm sure some of some of you watching at home don't ah crop is what it's a gathering of people first scrapbooking not sure where the word crop comes from other than we crop our pictures and so we're going to a crop another one of those words I'm like really guys we couldn't come up with something different but it's a crop we all know what a crop is now and now the worldwide audience who didn't know that part of scott booking now understands what a crop is it's a scrapbooking gathering a gathering of people who get together and do their memory keeping their scott looking ok so there is in short everything I'm showing you serious popularity happening why was scott looking so popular? Why did it become such a multibillion dollar industry thank you why did it resonate with so many people you know because when you think about it's expensive it can add up and and there's a lot to it so why was it so popular? I would say there's two main reasons we all take pictures we've got him we got to do something with them we have pictures technology has allowed for more people to take more pictures easier, cheaper faster so we've got these pictures go do something with them and we are we are in an age now now different than ten, fifteen years ago that this whole digital we don't even have to await to develop a picture we see it instantly on our camera and in our phones our computers everything is instant ok, we have pictures. The second reason is that our memories are important to us this isn't just about what we have in front of us but what it means to us what I was just flipping through and my old scott books and my more recent scrapbooks this is special stuff to me these air really fun memories for me and for all sorts of personal reasons and and I and I don't go into that we all have different reasons why it means something to us but the bottom line is is that we all think that our memories air special and we know that there's something there's something about preserving them there's something to it um if this is why it's so popular we take pictures are memories are important to us then do you remember what I said about the peak of this industry? Because it's not right now is it happened in two thousand five why am I here talking about something that already had its peak? Two thousand five was a peak in terms of dollars that came into the industry and, you know, data showing you know, how many people were doing this um but there has been a decline I'm going to talk about it there has been a decline sense why is that several reasons the main overriding thing that I would say a scott bookings overwhelming scott bookings overwhelming? I can say that from my vantage plane I can say scrap booking is overwhelming scrapbooking can be overwhelming there's ways to break it down that's why you're watching that's why you're here we're going to be talking about that but this is why I think we're seeing decline is that there was a down economy cave that the economy started doing this we all know we were all there we're all we're all here that affects people affects budgets and finances of course, but it affects a lot of things in your life as we all know whether it affected you really hard personally or somebody close to you that you know scrapbooking when you look at the you know, the bread and water of life and what were you know we got to get by without a surviving we got to do our thing and feed our families and really make sure we're doing the most important life surviving type skills scrapbooking really that important okay that's up to you guys the answer in your own mind but that is an explanation for why we were seeing this two thousand five and then what? Okay, it became less of a priority because it's expensive it can be expensive it could be time consuming it could be overwhelming families were getting stressed families were not able to spend as much I totally get it I totally get why the decline happened. Some people I've heard or like scrapbooking is the most how could you want? Well, I mean really look at what what you've really got to do to survive in life excuse me um scott begins believed to be all about a lot of product hence the image you see here lots of product and that's what could be overwhelming and it's also gained a reputation for being also too time consuming and it takes up too much space guys get when I'm talking about it's expensive it's time consuming it takes up space and what else? I have to be creative some of you watching throughout the world are thinking this cop bookings for people who are creative in fact somebody mentioned that one of you mentioned it and before the show about creativity uh no, no, no no everything I just showed you yeah, that was that was created that was my creative like and fusion in my hobby it does not have to be that it does not have to be time consuming or creative or expensive that's why we're here that's why we're talking about this but let me focus back on the positive ok, because I don't want anyone thinking, ok? Scrapbooking? Yeah. Why am I here? It is all of these things. It is overwhelming. It's overwhelming. Let me tell you, I remind you that some of you already really get this and know it of what's so awesome about scott looking first of all, it organizes your photos. And for those of us who appreciate organization, which really is like all of us. I mean, we do better and we fried better. I think generally, when we have at least some of our life organized in some way. But to be able to have our pictures organized in one place is super important. And and it feels really good. Ok, that's one thing. Another thing is that there's a social aspect to it. I have eight strangers here in the room who are now new b f f s. Okay? Why? Because we all have a common interest in a common love for what we're doing. Scrapbooking is a very can be a very social experience. Have any of you been part of scrapbooking circles or groups or crops, sir? Yeah. Ok, so most of you have experienced this, this idea of getting with other people and doing this so it does have a fun social aspect. And I didn't put my slide up alright another thing is that it's a creative outlet and how many of you experience that if you've done this kind of stuff you know non talking about it's fun you know the kids are in bed it's late at night I'm feeling like the creative juices are flowing and and I outcome my embellishments and I play with the paper and it's fun and we're you know most of us watching our adult it's where adults and most of us are mom's parents and working for that matter so to be able to have something outside of the hard work that happens every day whether you're employed with a dollar sign attached to it or not we work hard every day and so to be able to play a little bit is what scrapbooking feels like for a lot of people would you guys agree with that? Yeah for sure at least is like for sure for sure and also it's a meaningful hobby there's a lot of hobbies is that every hobby has meaning to make that clear people are fighting that was scrapbooking it's so meaningful because it's very personal to go fishing our teo you know do crafts you know there's you infuse your personal stuff and every hobby that you d'oh but when you're talking about your physical actual pictures and memories there's something really, really personal about that that makes this hobby even more meaningful