Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Is scrapbooking sad?

The notion of spending hours and effort on making elaborately decorated books of family photos always seemed to me to be a past-time for people with too much time on their hands and not enough future to work towards. Image-wise, I would have rated it along with quilting, needlepoint and line dancing. These activities seemed somehow uncool (that's just my personal opinion so no hate-mail please!).

The library stocks quite a few scrapbooking books and magazines, an indication of just how popular a hobby it is, for the locals at least. I found myself leafing through a stunningly-illustrated book on scrapbooking travel photos and seriously considering giving it a go:

- I have a thing about books, especially beautiful books. A good scrapbook is a little like an artist's book.
- I have a ton of photos, including about a thousand taken during the year I back-packed all over the place, travel journals and scrapbookable mementoes.
- It's a creative outlet which might be as satisfying as writing a memoir (and has more chance of being looked at, even if only by one's mother).

Perhaps if I stick to travel themes and avoid cutesy stuff (like baby photos) I could produce something to be proud of. It'd also be an excuse to unearth my yellowed travel journals and re-read what could be embarrassingly poorly-expressed thoughts.

Or maybe it'd be too time-consuming and cost too much in fancy acid-free paper and decorations.

If only I had the time to find out (sigh).


2 comments:

DaisyBoo Blacksheep said...

Oh gosh... I've been meaning to put together my holiday photos. But as usual, it remains a deed to be done. I too collect sheafs of brochures, receipts, tickets and even napkins to add to... but they always get thrown out at my next spring cleaning session.

Violet said...

If I were a scrapbooker, I'd be a minimalist one and only include my favourite pictures and the best of the souvenirs. I probably wouldn't go to the trouble of sticking bits of fancy paper and buttons all over the show.