In this week’s B&B Review, I am reviewing Full of Love by Nancy O’Dell. Full of Love is published by Creative Memories. I learned about the book from a friend who is a Creative Memories consultant. I paid for the book.

Full of Love begins with a forward by Garth Brooks. In his forward, he talks about how scrapbooking emphasizes family and in the end makes an argument similar to one I make in my dissertation: scrapbooking as a way to do family. In other words we learn our roles and expectations in our family through our family’s scrapbooks. For O’Dell, scrapbooking helped her bond with her stepsons and them bond with her.

In the introduction, O’Dell comes out of the scrapbooking closet. She talks about how other people are often surprised that she is a scrapbooker. I think many scrapbookers relate to this perspective. I remember when I would say things, “yes, I am a scrapbooker. I know, right?” How could I be involved in something so kitchy and quaint. Today, I proudly identify as a scrapbooker. One reason O’Dell wrote this book is to share how and why she fits scrapbooking into her busy life. I am glad she talks about this topic. I am also a working mom of a preschooler and make time for scrapbooking. I think outsiders and even scrapbookers themselves tend to think that scrapbooking takes a lot of time. O’Dell talks about some of the strategies she uses to make time for scrapbooking.

O’Dell emphasizes that one reason she makes time for scrapbooking is it benefits her family. In her case, it helped her bond with her stepsons and helped her connect with her mother. She interviews Dr. Kenneth Condrell, a child psychologist about how children benefit from having photographs of themselves. I agree that this is valuable, but I think the point is somewhat overstated. I think there are other ways to communicate to a child that they are valuable besides through photographs and scrapbooking. By focusing solely on these ways, it serves to make parents feel guilty for not scrapbooking.

Full of Love continues with a chapter on photography and a chapter on tools and techniques. Most of the information in these chapters is geared more towards a beginner scrapbooker, but I learned new information, too. Most of the information is also geared towards conventional scrapbookers, but there is also information on digital scrapbooking specifically. In other words, most scrapbookers are going to get something out of this book. Importantly, the tools and techniques are all geared towards Creative Memories products. This makes sense because the book is published by them but it is important to remember that they are not the only source of some of these supplies and in some instances, a tool is not even necessary to get the desired outcome.

One criticism I have of Full of Love is that it is unknown who made the scrapbook layouts published in the book. Presumably, the reader is viewing pages made by O’Dell, but some of the pages are about other people and were clearly not made by O’Dell. It would be nice to know who made the pages.

Another criticism of Full of Love, is that the backcover sets up scrapbooking as an art form but then as the book comes to a close, it is pointed out how O’Dell’s mom’s scrapbooks are more meaningful than “any fancy work of art” (p. 165). So is scrapbooking art or not? When does it become art? Maybe I am just being picky here, but I think considering art or not has real implications. Either consistently consider it art or do not consider it art at all.

Overall, I did enjoy Full of Love. I would not have picked it up had it not been for my friend’s suggestion. I think it would make a great gift for someone who is just getting started with scrapbooking because it is more the philosophical side of scrapbooking rather than just focused on instruction (though there is some instruction). I also think that more advanced scrapbookers would also get something out of the book. It serves to remind more advanced scrapbookers just why they started scrapbooking in the first place. Moreover, it does provide some tips on photography and journaling–an area that many of us could probably improve.