Happy New Year! I hope 2011 is at least as good as 2010 if not better!
Here are the best links from the web for the week:
Each Thursday, I review a book or blog related to scrapbooking.
Today’s review is on Scrapbooking Everyday Memories, a special issue from Creating Keepsakes. It is on newsstands now and will be displayed until February 7, 2011.
This special issue is really an idea book of 58 journaling tips. After reviewing Stories in Hand and Journaling that Matters, I am a bit burnt out on the topic. I did not realize that this special issue was mainly a journaling idea book until I started reading it for this review. Yes, it says this on the cover; I just didn’t pay attention to it.
Give Me a List!
Like the other journaling books, I want a list of the journaling ideas that I can tear out and take with me to crop or hang on my wall above my scrapbook area for quick and easy reference.
Some Criticism
Each chapter is about a particular area of a person’s everyday life. I have a couple of critiques of the content in these chapters. First, Chapter 2 is about “Your Hobbies” but there was not a layout idea about scrapbooking! Perhaps this seems too obvious, but I would have liked to see a layout about scrapbooking. Second, Chapter 3 is about “Your Getaways.” This topic does not seem so everyday. There were several layouts about weekend getaways or trips to the amusement park–things that are not done everyday at all. To their credit, there were ideas for other types of “getaways,” such as escaping in a good book.
The Content
Each page with a layout has a tip of some sort on design or technique in addition to the journaling prompt.
Challenges
Each chapter ends with a challenge, which seems redundant. The purpose of reading this special issue is to be challenged. If the journaling prompts are things I am already doing, then what is the point?
Inspiration, Not Instruction
There is very little instruction. If you need instruction, you will have to look elsewhere. This special issue is for scrapbookers needing ideas and inspiration for topics for their layouts.
Good Index
I do like the index in this issue. Kudos for Creating Keepsakes for including a great index for readers.
The Takeaway
If you need journaling ideas, then pick up this special issue. If you have enough journaling ideas to last you awhile, then leave it at the newsstand.
Related posts:
Publishers and Authors
If you are a publisher or an author and would like me to review your scrapbooking-related book or blog, please email me at stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com.
Each Wednesday, I write a post that is from my dissertation.
Last week, I discussed how scrapbookers use (or don’t use) the internet to learn about scrapbooking. This week, I will tell you about how they use idea books and magazines.
How Do Scrapbookers Use Idea Books and Magazines
Scrapbook magazines are read religiously by some; while other respondents could not even recall what they subscribed to because they did not read their subscriptions. Magazines are used like scrapbookers use the internet–for ideas, inspiration, and scraplifting (copying the scrapbooking design of another).
How do Industry Workers Use Idea Books and Magazines
Industry workers are much more likely to purchase and read scrapbook idea books compared to other scrapbookers. This makes sense because they are more devoted scrapbookers and therefore, more willing to spend the extra money for an idea book. One scrapbook store, gives a subscription to one of the scrapbook magazines as their employee’s holiday bonus each year. The purpose of this gift was to provide additional education to the employees about the products they are selling.
How Publishers Use Idea Books and Magazines
Make no mistake, magazines and idea books are advertising vehicles. Most readers either do not notice or do not care, but they are designed to sell products and keep people scrapbooking so as to maintain the industry.
The Takeaway
Most of my respondents did not read or purchase idea books or magazines. They either did not realize they existed or they just did not have the money in their scrapbook budget for the books and magazines. Others just did not care for them or did not have or make time to read them. The scrapbook publishing industry has changed quite a bit since these interviews in 2008. Magazines have been shuttered. Idea books are published much less frequently.
Related posts:
Do you photograph strangers? What role do strangers play in your scrapbooks?
Reaction from Strangers
Once upon a time I went on vacation to a country that mainly contains white people. One of the members of my party was taking a photograph of a tourist attraction and all of a sudden a black man started yelling at her for taking a picture. It seemed so bizarre because she was taking a picture of the tourist attraction (I can’t even remember what it was…I think it was a building). Later, when the story was recounted again, I realized, wait a minute, as a black person in a predominantly white country, this person is probably sometimes treated as a tourist attraction–a novelty to be photographed.
Avoiding Strangers
From this point on, I have been hyper-aware of strangers in front of my camera lens. If you are on vacation is pretty much inevitable that strangers will be in some of your photographs. I remember attempting to take a photograph of the bull on Wall Street in New York City without other people in it. Good luck. Let me know if you succeed getting that photograph without people in it. Since it is inevitable that strangers will appear in at least some of your photographs, what strategies might you use to limit their inclusion in the final photograph or your scrapbook?
Strategies to Eliminate Strangers
I crop photographs before they are printed and attempt to eliminate strangers this way. Sometimes I edit the photograph so that the faces of strangers are blurred to some extent.
After photographs have been printed, you could crop the photograph. You could silhouette the photograph.
You could add stickers or other embellishments to cover up the people you want excluded from the photograph.
What about asking permission? I’ve attended play groups open to the public and occasionally another mom or dad will begin taking photographs of their kid, but no effort is made to exclude other people who might be at the playgroup from the photograph. I have never been asked permission in this context if it is okay to take a photograph of myself or my daughter. Sometimes these photographs end up on facebook. Should permission be obtained? I try to only take photographs at private play groups and ask permission first before I start snapping. At public events, I try to only include my daughter and those I have asked for permission in the photograph.
Your Thoughts
What are your thoughts on photographing strangers? What role do they play in your scrapbooks? Am I thinking about this too much or are most people not thinking about this topic enough? I haven’t even considered photographing a stranger as the subject–a whole other issue for a later date. Please comment below.
Related Post:
Ethical Photography Part I: Your Own Children
Each Monday, I discuss my Scrap Happy project based on Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
Today is as Good a Day as Any to Join Me
If you haven’t started your Scrap Happy project, yet, the New Year is a perfect time to get started. If you are like most Americans (I can’t speak for the rest of the world), but January is the time of year when many of us decide to get our lives and surroundings organized. I have talked about organizing my traditional scrapbook supplies and digital scrapbook supplies. Through the process of organizing, you might want to purge some of your scrapbooking materials, too. I’ve talked about purging physical photos and digital photos before, but there is more you might consider purging.
In my original Scrap Happy post on Boosting Energy, I said I would also:
Purging
Oh, purging…since my daughter was born a couple of years ago, we moved across the country and downsized our home. I purged a lot of items in our house. I did not downsize my scrapbook supplies.
Part of the problem is that scrapbookers (myself included) have a hard time throwing our supplies away. We believe we might need it someday. If I throw out my outdated or ugly Christmas pattern paper, they might stop making Christmas pattern paper. I have a sticker sheet of dogs dressed up in winter/holiday gear. Hideous. I will never use these stickers. They moved with me from Atlanta, GA back to Illinois. Why? I pulled them out and put them in a pile to discard. Where should they be discarded? What are my options?
The trash: I hate throwing things that might be useful to someone. I really can’t do this with most of the stuff I no longer want or need.
Sell: I could put it all in a box and try to sell it at a rummage sale or on ebay. This might work depending on what you are eliminating from your stash. Tools might sell. Unused scrapbook albums and page protectors might sell. Most paper and stickers are not going to sell very well. For me, this is a lot of work, without much return.
Donate: I have heard that social service agencies that are in charge of foster children, assist foster children in creating Lifebooks. This way, these children can have some sort of record of their life. Unfortunately, there is no real easy way to get the materials to the people who need it. You have to research to find the contact person in your area. Another option might be to donate some of your supplies to an elementary school, daycare, or even children’s hospital. I know that some Ronald McDonald’s Houses take scrapbook supplies.
Give to my daughter: The easiest option for me is to just get out a box and toss the stuff I no longer want in it and put it in a closet for my daughter. This is probably what I will do. I love the idea of donating my excess supplies, but at the same time, I feel that donations should include basic supplies (adhesive, paper trimmers, albums, etc.) so that they can actually be used relatively easily. If you are unwilling to include some of these items, include a monetary donation so that the organization can purchase these items. Or include a gift card to a photo processing business, so that they can purchase printed photographs.
Purging is Hard
Purging is often difficult if you do not know what you are going to do with the unwanted supplies. Decide this first. You can always change your mind. You might end up donating and trashing some of your supplies. Whatever you decide, keep your purge boxes handy, so you can do this periodically rather than just once a year.
Are you purging your supplies? What do you plan to do with them? Please comment below!
Related Posts:
Each Saturday, I provide a compilation of links from the week’s posts.
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Merry Christmas! Here are the best links from the web for the week:
Each Thursday I review a book or blog related to scrapbooking.
The Review
Today, I am reviewing a special issue from Creating Keepsakes called Scrapbooking tips & tricks: Stamps & Inks. This special issue will only be on newstands until February 7, 2011 (so if you decide you want this, do not hesitate to pick it up).
The Not So Good
I have mixed feelings about Stamps & Inks. The very first “article” was really just an advertisement for Club CK (an online community sponsored by Creating Keepsakes for scrapbookers).
The issue is inconsistent on providing instruction. For instance, on page 15, the reader is referred to their website for complete instructions. On page 16, the reader is given vague instructions on how to complete a portion of a layout. But then, later in the issue, there are detailed instructions. I would prefer more detailed instructions because I think most people who pick this issue up will be beginners or slightly more advanced scrapbookers who have amassed a stamp collection and need inspiration as to how to use them. Also, it is sometimes unclear as to what the written instruction is actually referring to. I need arrows pointing me to exactly what you are talking about. Or I need photos detailing step-by-step. I still have no idea where the transparency is on the layout on page 50.
It Gets Better
As I was reading, I made a note: “need explanation about different types of inks.” Finally, on page 32. I think this needed to be done earlier. The earlier articles refer to specific types of inks but there is no reference to where you can learn about why would use a particular ink until a third of the way through the magazine.
The Best Part
I got the most out of “Time-Saving Tips” ‘(great ideas) and “Stamp & Ink Savvy” (information about different types of inks and stamps). If you use stamps at all, then this issue would be worth having in your scrapbooking reference section for the “Stamp & Ink Savvy” article alone. As you can see from this review, I went from hating the issue, to finding it useful. If I were not reading it to review it, I probably would not have finished it and got to the good stuff.
Something for Everyone
Creating Keepsakes should be commended for making an idea book that is geared towards both conventional and digital scrapbookers. Unfortunately, its outreach to digital scrapbookers seemed forced and out of place. Though both groups might use “stamps,” the tools are different. Moreover, the only software program for digital scrapbookers mentioned in this issue was Photoshop Elements. What might be better is an issue for digital scrapbookers that teaches them how to incorporate a conventional scrapbooking look on their digital scrapbooking pages.
Except Experienced Stampers…
If you already know when and how to use the various inks out there, then you probably will not get much out of this book. For me, I need this information. Once upon a time, I knew which type of ink was archival, but there has been such growth in stamping that now I only know because of this issue.
Publishers and Authors
If you are a publisher or an author and would like me to review your scrapbooking-related book or blog, please email me at stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com.
Each Wednesday, I write a post that is from my dissertation.
Scrap Chat
I am not a chat room kind of person. I find them overwhelming. As an industry worker, however, I knew that there were scrapbookers visiting these chat rooms because they would talk about something they had seen on Two Peas when they came into the store. Some of my co-workers talked about visiting these chat rooms, too.
Who Visits
Industry Workers
Interestingly, industry workers overall do not regularly visit internet chat rooms or message boards devoted to scrapbooking talk. Industry workers said that they visit these places if somebody directs them to read a particular thread or to solve a scrapbooking problem. Industry workers visit for specific reasons, and not to build any sort of community with other industry workers or scrapbookers. In fact, industry workers are typically discouraged from visiting online scrapbooking forums because the comments are often just unconstructive criticism. One industry worker said that it is mainly the really devoted scrapbookers who spend a lot of money on the craft that are commenting in the chat rooms—such a small group that she should not shape her business based on their opinions. Another industry worker actually owned and operated a message board for scrapbookers so that her customers could communicate with one another because as an online retailer, her customers were not going to meet any other way.
Scrapbookers
Scrapbookers also rarely visit discussion forums about scrapbooking. Several respondents had no idea they even existed. They use the internet primarily to share their own work, for ideas for their own pages, to come up with ideas for pages through scrapbooking challenges issued online, or to research scrapbooking products prior to purchase. A couple of respondents regularly upload copies of their pages to share with online communities via online galleries or their personal blog. Though scrapbookers generally avoid discussion forums, some read blogs about scrapbooking or listen to podcasts about scrapbooking. Only one respondent visits discussion forums with any regularity—several times a day—but he works for a scrapbooking manufacturer and visits for his job.
Have things changed?
One word of caution is that these interviews were conducted in 2008. Much has changed in the industry and scrapbooking has really exploded online in the past couple of years. There are thousands of blogs about scrapbooking. There are several scrapbooking education online programs now. The chat rooms and message boards still exist and new ones are popping up all the time. As local scrapbook stores close up shop, more people will turn to the internet to fill their scrapbooking shopping needs and in the process find a scrapbooking community online. It is possible that more scrapbookers and industry workers are going to the internet now than they were when my interviews were conducted.
Related posts:
This week Paperclipping Roundtable completes its 50th episode. Congratulations!
I learned about Paperclipping Roundtable last spring. I purposely avoided the scrapbooking-related blogs and websites for the most part while I was in the midst of analyzing my data and writing up my results for my dissertation. I was at the point in my dissertation that I wanted and needed to focus on my data and get the thing done. Occasionally, I had to visit the blogosphere to make sure that what I was referring to was correct (spelling of names of scrapbooking celebrities or the exact name of an approach to scrapbooking).
Anyway, I stumbled upon Scrapbook Update in the process and began subscribing to their RSS feed because it is scrapbooking industry focused rather than scrapbooking hobby focused (more nitty gritty details I needed for my dissertation). I believe this is where I learned about Paperclipping Roundtable and listened to one episode that was brought to my attention that was related to particular topic in my dissertation. I began subscribing to Paperclipping Roundtable in ITunes. I did not actually listen to anymore Paperclipping Roundtable episodes until November. Yes, last month.
I began listening to the podcasts in my office (I am a college instructor in my 9-5 job). I finally synced my IPod so that I could easily listen to the back episodes and have been devouring them since.
In every episode, I learn something new. There is something for beginning scrapbookers and more advanced scrapbookers. There is something for conventional scrapbookers and digital scrapbookers. Go to Itunes search for Paperclipping Rountable and begin subscribing and listening to the podcast.
What I love most about this show is that it really validates my research and professional life. When I share with people what my dissertation was about, I often get strange looks. Some have been quite rude about. After they have read a portion of it they give me a backhanded compliment: “oh, that is not what I thought it was going to be about at all.” Am I supposed to thank you for your feedback? Please. Anyway, during every episode, I am sitting here thinking, “exactly, I wrote about that topic in Chapter such and such when I talked about time or when I talked about how scrapbooking fits in family life.” Scrapbooking is more than just paper and pictures or pixels and pictures. It is a form of storytelling. It connects to so many aspects of our social life. And the hosts and guests realize this and celebrate this. I feel like I could write them a “listener’s letter” or comment on every one of their podcasts because I wrote pages in my dissertation on many of the topics they discuss in my dissertation.
I should really stop rambling. My point is that if you enjoy my blog, you will most likely enjoy listening to Paperclipping Roundtable. Also, a great big congratulations to reaching 50 episodes to Paperclipping Roundtable.
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.
