Hershberger, right, helps Joyce McLarty design a scrapbook page during a class in Raleigh, North Carolina

Designing elaborate scrapbooks catches on as popular hobby

July 18, 2000
Web posted at: 1:40 p.m. EDT (1740 GMT)

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RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- Fingers flying, Susan Hershberger crops photographs into circles, hearts and squares and then starts on embellishments with the zeal of an artist splashing paint on canvas.

Flashy stickers. Stencil designs. Borders -- multi-colored, zig-zag and scalloped. Computer-generated captions. Hershberger, a new fan of scrapbooks, is showcasing her family's beach vacation and her daughter's 10th birthday.

These are not your parents' scrapbooks. There are no photographs neatly pasted on plain white pages.

Scrapbooking has leaped from the kitchen table into the mainstream and now is one of the nation's most faddish crafts, says Susan Brandt, spokeswoman for the international Hobby Industry Association. According to its most recent survey, 1 in 5 U.S. households has at least one scrapbooker. And it's usually a woman.

"A lot of it has to do with today's too-busy, too-stressed, strung-out female," says Brandt. "Keeping scrapbooks and keeping chronicles is to some extent guilt assuagement. It is chronicling your child's life."

Retailers have opened special scrapbooking aisles and companies are adding new products -- fuel for a $300-million-a-year industry, Brandt says.

Tips and products for scrapbooks are available on Web sites, in craft stores, magazines and even homes.

One of Hershberger's scrapbooks

Creative Memories, of St. Cloud, Minnesota, has 50,000 representatives in seven countries who hold living-room demonstrations similar to Tupperware or Mary Kay cosmetics parties. Two women founded the company in 1987; it is now building a manufacturing and distribution center south of Richmond, Virginia, to meet demand, said spokesman Mike Nistler.

It's hard to trace exactly how scrapbooking caught on, but credit often goes to the Mormon church. Scrapbooking captured how important families and family history are to Mormons and became "a natural result of adding art to their journals," says Desiree Tanner, who helps develop products for Provo Craft, a manufacturer and distributor based in Utah.

Hershberger, a business analyst for Caterpillar, has discovered others who share a passion for scrapbooking since she took up the hobby in October. She recently taught a class at one outlet of a chain of craft stores.

Her gear, kept in a tackle box, includes hundreds of pieces of colored paper, stickers, cutting and cropping tools, adhesive applicators and glue, stencil templates, markers and pens, punches and scissors with several kinds of shaped edges, like waves and scallops.

"I am overwhelmed, but also inspired," said student Jill Pike after a Hershberger demonstration. Pike wants to make scrapbooks for three sons.

Hershberger, 46, has already finished two volumes of her daughter's life. She expects to add another before Angie's high school graduation.

The birthday page -- announced in a fancy computer font -- features four pictures of cake eaters and game players. Red scallops border the blue background; a candle sticker anchors each corner. Captions, known as journaling, explain who did what.

McLarty of Wendell, North Carolina, decides how to lay out her photos

Depending on details, a page can consume up to four hours -- "but it doesn't have to," Hershberger says reassuringly.

Experts trace the popularity of scrapbooking to photos -- and the penchant to stash them in envelopes undated. "Don't just take the 10,000 photos and throw them in the box," Brandt warns. Instead, she advises, rely on scrapbooking and acid-free products to capture memories forever.

How to organize the mess? Classes are popular, especially for those who haven't dabbled in crafts. Hershberger, who makes quilts, didn't have trouble. But others, she says, can get frustrated. They think their handwriting isn't good enough or they can't cut straight.

"I couldn't get the page the way I wanted," admits Carla Torrey, who attended Hershberger's class to get help with a scrapbook of her son's prom.

There are drawbacks beyond the mastery of an oval cutter: Scrapbooking can be costly. A sheet of stickers may cost a dollar, but a large paper trimmer may run to $40.

To Brandt, it's worth it.

"You are buying something that is for your family."

Copyright 2000   The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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