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"Free Shipping on this item! (use promotion code THANKSEC15) Album is 8-1/2"" x 11"". Includes 20 shts of white & 20 shts of colored paper 3 sheets of printed paper 32 cutouts 4 sheets of stickers edged scissors designer template glue stick pen and 10 protectors."
Scrapbooking has quickly become one of the hottest trends
(and it appears to be a lasting one) over the past few years. In
fact, according to a recent Reuters news story, there were over $2.5
billion in scrapbook-related sales in 2003. Here's the article:
Scrapbooks
Create $2.5 Billion Industry January 01, 2005
By Nicole Maestri
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actress Lisa
Summerour counted herself one of the lucky ones.
She had appeared in several movies,
including the much acclaimed ``Philadelphia,'' where she played Denzel
Washington's wife. And by supplementing her film work with commercials and
television roles, she was actually making a living in her chosen
field. That's why her decision four years ago to cut back on acting
and expand her scrapbook business came as a surprise to her agent, her
family and even to herself.
"If someone would have said the word 'scrapbooking'
to me, I probably would have cringed and gone on with my day,'' she said. "I
just didn't see anything appealing to it.'' But now Summerour has
joined millions of Americans who are scrapbooking -- a catch-all word to
describe the activity of filling albums with photographs and bits of
memorabilia.
Today's scrapbooking is an enhanced
version of the past, when devotees might have painstakingly mounted
newspaper clippings and photos onto the blank pages of bound books. Now
they are creating sophisticated page layouts using decorative stickers,
fancy paper, photo croppers, colored markers and slick tape dispensers.
The hobby, which racked
up $2.5 billion in sales in 2003, is considered the hottest craft activity
by the Craft & Hobby Association."I've
had hobbies my entire life, but there's something really special about
scrapbooking,'' said Tracy White, editor of the scrapbook magazine
Creating Keepsakes. "It really is telling a story about yourself and
people you love.''
Summerour's change of heart came after
attending a high school reunion and seeing a former classmate's carefully
constructed photo album. Soon after, she signed on as a consultant
for Creative Memories, a St. Cloud, Minnesota-based direct-sales company
that specializes in scrapbook and photo-album accessories.
"I can work from home
and have more control over my schedule,'' she said. "It's fun.''
Scrapbookers often meet at "crop''
parties where they work on albums, buy and swap supplies, share ideas and
socialize. "We spend so much of our life behind a computer or
running the kids to soccer practice,'' White said. "One thing that's nice
about scrapbooking is that it kind of pulls you back, makes you reflect,
makes you think about your loved ones.''
The phenomenon has been fueled in part by
an interest in preserving pictures, which used to fade and turn yellow.
Today's scrapbookers
use acid-free paper to protect their albums, filled with photos and
souvenirs, and often personalized with captions and handwritten
letters. Instead of haphazardly throwing pictures together, kits are
available to help scrapbookers lay out popular theme-based books -- like
Christmas, wedding or baby albums.The
final products are usually displayed with pride and frequently given as
gifts.
The trend, which has spread throughout
the United States, is drawing international interest. Creative Memories
employs more than 90,000 consultants worldwide to sell products by hosting
parties and classes, usually at home in similar fashion to when Tupperware
parties were in vogue. Once hooked, devotees are willing to sink
long hours and hundreds of dollars into the craft.
Creating
Keepsakes runs three-day seminars that can cost up to $395. With some 600
spots available, one seminar sold out in 32 minutes, White said.
Creative Memories also sells packages to
help scrapbookers get started.
The
extensive "Memory Keepers Collection'' includes an album, pens, decorative
stickers and paper, a photo trimmer and a bag for lugging around supplies.
It sells for about $280. "You can spend as little or as much as you
want,'' said Jane Rapa, a Creative Memories consultant who works full-time
as a television producer.
Consultants -- who get up to a 30 percent
discount on products -- also earn profit and bonuses based on their sales
and on the sales of the consultants they recruit -- something that can
translate into a lucrative business.
Deanna
Caron, a New York consultant with a full-time editing job, said her
November check from Creative Memories was $1,130.
As of 2003, there were 25 million
scrapbookers in the United States, according to the Craft & Hobby
Association. And while the overwhelming majority are women, men are not
excluded. Stacey Sarnicola, a Brooklyn, N.Y. mother of two, said her
husband is supportive of her scrapbooking business, which she hopes will
make enough money so she won't have to go back to her teaching job.
And, there's another man in her life who
has taken an interest -- the UPS delivery man who wondered what was inside
all the Creative Memories boxes he was bringing to her home.
"My UPS guy even said,
'Hey! When am I getting my album?'''
