Scrapbooking Explained
Scrapbooking is a way to preserve history, memories and information in the form of a scrapbook album. A scrapbook album is a bound album of paper and other material that brings together pictures, artwork, quotes, stickers and other decorative items to tell a story, share information or preserve memories within the album. Pages in a scrapbook album can be used to tell a story, share a memory or present information. Many people make scrapbooks with particular themes, for example, a scrapbook for a family vacation, a scrapbook dedicated to childhood photos or a scrapbook meant to commemorate graduating high school.
The history of scrapbooking
A form of scrapbooking can be traced back to the 15th century. Books called “Commonplace books” were a popular way to compile information such as useful recipes, favorite quotations, favorite poetry and letters between family and friends. In the 16th century, friendship albums became popular – these books would be passed around one’s friends, who would enter their names and draw or insert illustrations, quotes and texts for the album’s owner. Some people used these friendship albums as a way to memorialize European trips and would often insert local works such as coats of arms of countries they visited or artwork commissioned by a local artist.
In the 18th and 19th century, friendship albums became even more popular among women of middle and upper classes. These albums allowed the women a way to use their literary skills and document their own history without violating social norms of the time, which did not generally look favorably upon women who tried to extend their range beyond the domestic sphere.
In the mid 1800s, the advent of photography led to an entirely new way to use albums to commemorate events, lives or simply as an expression of art. Photographs were typically only available to the wealthy until the late 1800s, when cameras began to be affordable for the average, middle class worker. This allowed an even wider range of scrapbookers to use photographs in their personal albums.
In many ways, older scrapbooks were reminiscent of scrapbooks today. Photos would be mounted with photomounted corners, include notes about the photograph and even include memorabilia such as newspaper clippings, letters, favorite quotations, prints of favorite artworks and other decorations. One popular form of scrapbooking that many women took part in was to catalogue the fashions of the day with prints from fashion magazines and decorate the album with scraps of dress fabric and flowers. As the 20th century wore on, the world of scrapbooking began to open to an ever growing range of people who put their own unique and sometimes outrageous twists on scrapbooking.
Regardless of their style, without these older scrapbooks, the scrapbook, as we know it today, would not exist!
Modern scrapbooking
Modern scrapbooking comes in many forms. Modern scrapbooks can be as uniform or unique as the creator desires. Some people use pre-bought scrapbook albums already bound with pages, while others prefer to create their own. Some people use scrapbooks to commemorate events or simply as a way to express themselves artistically. Many modern scrapbookers are part of social networking for scrapbookers, who may swap tips, tricks or even scrapbooks with each other. Today, the scrapbook industry is bigger than ever. By 2003, there were over 1,600 companies creating scrapbooking products.
Scrapbooking materials
The art of scrapbooking is very reliant on scrapbooking materials. The most important scrapbooking material is the actual scrapbook itself. Because the modern scrapbook industry is so large, there are many different styles of scrapbooks. There are pre-bound scrapbooks with permanent bindings – that is, you can’t add any more pages to them. There are also pre-bound scrapbooks which allow for more pages to be inserted, which are more customizable. Some scrapbooks are “mini” scrapbooks, being exceptionally small in size, while others are folded accordion style for a unique look. T here are even “digital scrapbooks” for those who are interested in digital art.
The most common tools of any scrapbooker, aside from the scrapbook album itself, are as follows:
Background paper: Background paper can come in just about any color, size and texture. The most popular styles are 12 x 12 inch cardstock papers and letter size (8.5 inch by 11 inch) pages.
Page protectors: Many scrapbookers choose to use page protectors over their background paper to protect their scrapbook. Because of the nature of scrapbook, special paper protectors which allow room for raised objects on the page are popular.
Photo mounts: Tools to mount photos or other paper art are a must for most scrapbookers. Photo corner mounts are one way to do this, as well as adhesive dots or acid-free glue. Acid-free glue is necessary to keep the background paper and photograph or other piece of art undamaged.
These are just the basic tools of scrapbooking. More elaborate scrapbooks may make use of die cut templates, rubber stamps, craft punches, stencils, inks, heat embossing tools and craft scissors.
Embellishments: Embellishments are used in many scrapbooks for highlighting and decoration. The most popular and common embellishments are stickers because of how versatile they are. Stickers can be ’3d’ or raised and there are companies dedicated to producing stickers that fit almost every theme a scrapbooker could want. Other embellishments include stamps, lace, thin wooden pieces, wire, fabric, beads, sequins and ribbons.
Why scrapbook?
Some may ask: Why scrapbook at all? As in the past, scrapbooking can be about leaving behind your history and telling your story. It can also be a way to connect with friends and to express yourself artistically in a way that you enjoy.