We're talking about Scrapbooking!

Scrapbooking Organization

BLOG SESSION

August 1st, 2017

"We're talking about Scrapbooking!"

Good Afternoon Blog Readers, Followers & Visitors!

In today's Blog Session we are going to be talking about "Scrapbooking".

If you are an Artist or a creative & crafty person, then Scrapbooking may interest you.  If you are a Journal Writer, or a World Traveler, you may also be interested in trying your hand at Scrapbooking.

What is Scrapbooking?

Scrapbooking is a method of artistic preservation, presentation, and arrangement of personal items, family history, or any other specific area of your choice personal to you ~ in the form of a book, album, box, or large card.  For your information, Scrapbooking is a hobby that is commonly practiced in many parts of the world.  It is the extensive global nature if Scrapbooking that makes it a very interesting hobby for those of you who like to Travel! 

The typical memorabilia that a Scrapbooker would include is photographs, printed media, and artwork.

Scrapbook Albums are often decorated and frequently contain extensive journaling.  (The extensive Journaling should interest those of you who are into Journaling or enjoy keeping a Diary).

Just to give you an idea of what Scrapbooking is all about, take a look at this Scrapbook Page...

Scrapbook Page

The Scrapbook Page above is beautifully and personally designed.  At the bottom are the words, "you are the one".

Your Scrapbook Pages will be personal to you for the specific moment or timeframe when you are inspired to create them.

At the top of this Blog Page, you will see a photograph of a Scrapbooking Design Station created for the inspired Scrapbooker.

Good organization of your tools, papers, and Scrapbooking items helps when you are ready to sit down and get to work on your Scrapbooking Projects.

Having loads of storage and a nice area for your Scrapbooking Station is essential if this is a hobby that you plan to stick with.

Below is an example of a Scrapbooking Embellishment Center . . .

Scrapbooking Embellishment Center

Taking a look at the "Making Memories" Scrapbooking Embellishment Center above, you will see that it has various areas for your Scrapbooking items.  There are multiple shelves for your storage jars or tins, two dowels for ribbon organization, and the entire Scrapbooking embellishment Center shown above measures approximately 31.5" tall by 25.5" wide by 3.75" deep.  You will notice paints, and all types of items in the various jars.  The items you choose to use for your Scrapbooking Projects are entirely up to you.

There are many items and tools that Scrapbookers use, such as . . .

1)    Paints

2)    Stickles

3)    Flowers

4)    Buttons

5)    Spooled Ribbon

6)    Various tags and embellishments

7)    Glitter

8)    Embossing Powder

9)    Markers

10)  Stamps ~ Acrylic Stamping Blocks

11)   Pens

12)   Gelatos

13)   Universal Page Protectors

14)   Hole Punchers

15)   Adhesive

16)   Finger Daubers

17)   Paper Trays

18)   Paper Cutter

19)   Scissors

20)   Ink

21)   Classic Albums

22)   Scrapbooks

23)   Patterned Paper

24)   Stickers

25)   Construction Paper

26)   Card Stock

The possibilities are endless!  If you are interested in taking up Scrapbooking as a hobby, my suggestion to you is to research on the internet to find out more information, and visit craft stores to take a look at all of the various items available to you to have fun Scrapbooking!

BACKGROUND HISTORY ON SCRAPBOOKING:

Scrapbooking is rooted in the history of printed images and also in the long history of personal Storytelling.  It is the merging of these two progressions that we come to the modern Scrapbook in all of its current forms.

College women around the turn of the century used Scrapbooks extensively to construct representations of their everyday life as students.  Without photograph albums to provide images of these life events, students created unique representations through Scrapbooks in order to illustrate their lives using ephemera and memorabilia.  A Guest List or group of visitation cards might represent a young woman's visit to a party.  A Playbill and ticket stub might serve as reminders of a trip to New York to see a Broadway Show.  Solid objects such as plants, silverware, or small trinkets were also used when further visual representation was needed.

Journal Notes & Notations

PLEASE MAKE A NOTE IN YOUR JOURNAL FOR TODAY ABOUT OUR SCRAPBOOKING TOPIC:

Early Diaries and Journals played a role

Where did Scrapbooking originate?  We have to go way, way back to early Diaries and Journals.  As early as the Middle Ages, it was quite common for well-educated people to keep personal diaries or journals that recorded their thoughts on their life’s activities and events around them. Perhaps the earliest known surviving Journal is known today as Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, The Diary of a Bourgeois from Paris.  Written in Paris between 1409 and 1449 by an anonymous French Priest, the Journal’s personal accounts of 15th-century life in the French capital is a treasure trove for historians.

Commonplace Books

During the Renaissance period (the 14th to 17th centuries), it became popular for noble and educated Europeans to keep what were called "Commonplace Books".  As the printing press wasn’t invented until the later half of that period, these books had a closer resemblance to what today we would call “bullet journals” – a bound journal of blank pages that contains assemblages of notes from various sources on various topics, rather than a book that is filled with glued-in paper items.

Commonplace Book

[Photo of Commonplace Book featuring English Poetry (CC 2.0).

The owner of this original commonplace book is unknown.] 

Enjoy your day today Friends, and make it a creative one.

See you in our next Blog Session!

Peace, Love & Light,

René

© Copyright - René Allen - AUGUST 2017 - All Rights Reserved