Creative Scrapbooking

Oct 18 2011

Scrapbooking Today

Marielen Christensen is often credited with revolutionising scrapbooking from what was once a simple hobby into what is now the a major Industry. She began creating pages for her family’s photo memories. By the early 1980′s, she had assembled over fifty volumes and was invited to display them at the World Conference on Records in Salt Lake City at which point her and husband authored and published a how-to book, Keeping Memories Alive, and opened a scrapbook store shortly afterwards.

Not only is it great for preserving memories, the hobby is popular for the strong social network that scrapbooking can provide. Enthusiasts known as “scrappers” or “scrapbookers,” get together and scrapbook at each other’s place of residence, local scrapbook shops, scrapbooking exhibitions and retreat centers. Each of scrapbookers share tips and ideas as well as enjoying a social aspect. As a matter of fact the term “crop,” was derived from the reference to cropping or trimming printed photographs.

The scrapbooking industry grew in size between ’01 and ’04 to $2.5 billion with over thousands of companies creating scrapbooking products. Creative Memories, a home-based retailer of scrapbooking supplies founded in 1987, turned over $425 million in retail sales in 2004.

Over 4 million people in the United States alone consider themselves to be avid scrapbookers.
Over 4% of all women in U.S. have been involved with traditional scrapbooking. With millions of others who do various aspects of photo books but who are not scrapbookers.
Scrapbooking is considered to be one of the largest categories within craft and hobby industry and as a matter of fact considered to be the 3rd most popular craft in the United States. From ’96 through ’04, sales of scrapbooking products increased dramatically across the US. Then in ’05, annual sales flattened at $2.5 billion for the first time after many back to back years of considerable growth. From ’06 through ’10 traditional Scrapbooking sales have been on slight decline while digital forms of scrapbooking have grown. Traditional scrapbooking sales for 2010 have declined to about $1.6 billion in annual sales.

A number of people believe that it is an outlet for those interested in photography and graphic design.