Each Wednesday, I usually write a post from my dissertation.
Respondents, who are better able to recognize atypical things in their scrapbooking, had been scrapbooking for a greater length of time. For them, atypical things are things they primarily did as beginning scrapbookers but no longer do. For example, one respondent inserted a blank piece of cardstock (the paper used as the base for a scrapbook page) into the left-side page protector and only included items on the right-side page protector in her first albums. Another respondent would use paper and embellishments that were completely unrelated to the photographs when she was first starting out.
Most scrapbook albums shown to me are standard albums. They are standard size and format. Scrapbookers typically insert their own paper in the album instead of using the paper provided by the album manufacturer. Some scrapbook albums come with paper already in the page protectors. Most scrapbookers replace this paper because they tend to use more colors rather than the white paper included with many scrapbooks. In some albums, the paper is not removable. In these cases, the scrapbooker may use the paper as the background or cover it up with other paper.
Most scrapbookers use different colored paper throughout the album. Occasionally, scrapbookers use other formats for their albums. The scrapbook industry produces albums in various formats and shapes that scrapbookers use to challenge themselves, to do something different, or because it works better for the scrapbooking purposes. For example, one respondent has made an album out of chipboard that is held together with safety pins.
What is typical about your scrapbooking?
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.
