A common mantra among scrapbookers that persist with the hobby is that event-based scrapbooking grows tiresome, hence the rise of everyday scrapbooking.
In a chronological event-based scrapbook, the album may move from event to event. For example, the album may move from a birthday, to Easter, to a graduation, to Christmas, and so on. Scrapbooks begin to look repetitive if a scrapbooker does yearly albums in this way. If every year begins to look the same in a scrapbook, what is the point in scrapbooking it each year? The scrapbook industry has stepped in to solve this “problem” of repetition creating nontraditional products for traditional holidays (e.g., Christmas-themed supplies now include pink in addition to traditional red and green) and producing idea books that show new ways to scrapbook common events. In this way, the scrapbook industry is no different than other businesses, such as greeting card companies or florists that provide products for holiday celebrations (see Pleck 2004).
While many scrapbookers transition from event-based scrapbookers to everyday scrapbookers, they run the risk of burnout on the other side of the time continuum. I believe that the rise of what appears to be the most common method of using the Project Life system (weekly) is unsustainable over the long run just as the event-based scrapbooking method was unsustainable for many scrapbookers. For the marketers out there, then, consider promoting a method of scrapbooking that is sustainable for your average scrapbooker. Thoughts? What method of scrapbooking is sustainable?
Reference (affiliate)
Pleck, Elizabeth H. 2004. “Who are We and Where Do We Come From?: Ritual, Families and Identity.” in We are What We Celebrate: Understanding Holidays and Rituals, edited by A. Etzioni and J. Bloom. New York: New York University Press. (Public Library)
Read More:
- I Scrapbook Chronologically.
- How is Time Measured?
- The First Year
- Child-Prompted Scrapbooking
- Time Order on Layouts
- Inspiration Rather than Time
- Scrapbooks of Progress
Stephanie Medley-Rath is a sociologist and scrapbooker who studies scrapbooking and memory keeping. Scrapworthy Lives is a blog focused on her sociological analysis of scrapbooking, with a sprinkling of posts about Stephanie's own scrapbooking projects.
2 Responses to Birthday. Easter. Graduation. Christmas. Repeat.