What is scrapbooking?

Wikipedia describes scrapbooking as “a method for preserving personal and family history in the form of a scrapbook. Typical memorabilia include photographs, printed media, and artwork. Scrapbook albums are often decorated and frequently contain extensive journaling.”

Today, a scrapbook can be anything we want it to be.  Albums filled with traditional paper layouts, albums made from digital scrapbooking kits or sites, photo books, and even Instagram feeds, Tweets, and Facebook posts can be considered scrapbooking.  You are preserving history, stories, and moments in time.

Recently, there was a video posted on the internet of three scrapbook industry ‘giants’ who were being interviewed about whether or not scrapbooking is dead.

(View full video here on KSL’s site)

I whole-heartedly agree that scrapbooking is not dead!  It has just evolved with the times and the technology.  Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram make it easier than ever to preserve moments in time and share them with our friends and family.  Do I think that traditional scrapbooking will die by way of the dinosaurs?  I don’t believe so.  There are too many people who want to see their history in book form, whether is it done traditionally, digitally, or in photo book form.

While scrapbooking is a popular hobby, there are several misconceptions surrounding traditional scrapbooking that might keep people from ever starting.

• It is too expensive.
• It is too time consuming.
• I am not creative enough.
• I am too far behind to even get started, so why bother?
• I don’t know where to start.

We will touch on all of these in future posts.  If you are just beginning to scrapbook or thinking about starting, I plan to give some tips for overcoming these objections.

What keeps you from starting a scrapbook? 

If you are already scrapbooking, what obstacles do you encounter in your process?