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2 Scrapbooking books reviewed
Dec. 21st, 2009 10:56 amOne of the things I love doing--have loved doing for almost as long as writing, was photography. I don't talk about it much because...well, I don't know. My main subjects have been my children, and honestly, I haven't focused much on improving my photography. That, however, may change once I finally get a digital camera with a good lens and lots of options for shooting.
What I do in the meantime to feed my also long-time desire to work on a magazine designing pages (what I wanted to do when I got out of art school, alas, was not meant to be when I entered the late 80s job market when it was in a slump) is scrapbooking. Scrapbooking is, in its purest form, simply a page with photographs afixed to it, with writing identifying who the people in the photographs were/are, where it took place, and the dates. That's the bare bones.
These days, if you scan through the magazines dedicated to the (mostly) women who are dedicated to this multimillion dollar industry you'll see tons of fancy pages with oodles of stuff on them. Often the focus is one 4x6 photograph on an enormous 12x12 inch page, and a tiny amount of really hard to read writing (or computer printed writing). Other times you'll see lots of tiny photos on a page, and again, not a whole lot of explanation.
It's mainly a women's hobby. Kind of like knitting, or crocheting, or quiltmaking. What's ironic about it, as I see it, is how the family chronicler is generally invisible, all the while doing all the documenting and writing (if there is any) about the children, pets, husbands, extended family members, and sometimes trips abroad or at home. I've noticed more articles in the magazines I look at tackling that problem. After all, doesn't the Mom, the Chronicler, deserve some face-time in the books as well? Although the two books I'm going to review aren't focused on that specifically, they do bring up that lack of self-documentation.
The first book is What About the Words? from the editors of Memory Makers Books (2006). It's direct with samples and some good, diverse pages from several contributers. It's basic in its ideas--make lists; do interviews; borrow words and formats from many sources; write down the facts; make the title or words part of your design. These are all basic ideas, but it's nice to be reminded of them once in a while. I like it. I find myself referring back to it when my creative well is twirling around the drain.
The second book is Your Words, Your Story by Michele Skinner. This book is more substantial than What About the Words (larger in size) and Michele Skinner is definitely a writer. You can read the tiny print on her pages. Her message about finding your voice and WHY you're writing in the details and stories behind the photographs is a good one; I only wish she hadn't chosen the layouts that are in her book. Sure, they illustrate her points well, most of the time. But once I started reading her pages, the more I wondered how long her marriage was going to last with her husband. I suppose her point was not to sugar-coat and Disneyfy your life with sacchrine sentiments and meaningless poems and words and fluffy nothings. Not all of life is cuddly bunnies, and neither we, nor the people we live with are perfect. But OMG. Almost every single page that brought her husband into her journaling was a small whack in the head. She loves him to death and yet she cries when he does one single little thing that's nice (cutting the ends off of some pickles). She says it's the ONLY THING in YEARS he's ever done to remember what she likes. Her husband sounds like a Asperger's type, and considering how much back-handed bitching there is about him, it really cut down on my...I wouldn't say enjoyment of the book, but perhaps it shifted the focus of my reading of it from her message to what was going on between the lines in her life.
It's usually an intensely personal hobby, but there has to be a better balance. If you do read this book, take the short messages away with you, but do NOT read Skinner's pages. Seriously. You don't want that window into her marriage. Other thoughts on scrapbooking as a hobby later.
What I do in the meantime to feed my also long-time desire to work on a magazine designing pages (what I wanted to do when I got out of art school, alas, was not meant to be when I entered the late 80s job market when it was in a slump) is scrapbooking. Scrapbooking is, in its purest form, simply a page with photographs afixed to it, with writing identifying who the people in the photographs were/are, where it took place, and the dates. That's the bare bones.
These days, if you scan through the magazines dedicated to the (mostly) women who are dedicated to this multimillion dollar industry you'll see tons of fancy pages with oodles of stuff on them. Often the focus is one 4x6 photograph on an enormous 12x12 inch page, and a tiny amount of really hard to read writing (or computer printed writing). Other times you'll see lots of tiny photos on a page, and again, not a whole lot of explanation.
It's mainly a women's hobby. Kind of like knitting, or crocheting, or quiltmaking. What's ironic about it, as I see it, is how the family chronicler is generally invisible, all the while doing all the documenting and writing (if there is any) about the children, pets, husbands, extended family members, and sometimes trips abroad or at home. I've noticed more articles in the magazines I look at tackling that problem. After all, doesn't the Mom, the Chronicler, deserve some face-time in the books as well? Although the two books I'm going to review aren't focused on that specifically, they do bring up that lack of self-documentation.
The first book is What About the Words? from the editors of Memory Makers Books (2006). It's direct with samples and some good, diverse pages from several contributers. It's basic in its ideas--make lists; do interviews; borrow words and formats from many sources; write down the facts; make the title or words part of your design. These are all basic ideas, but it's nice to be reminded of them once in a while. I like it. I find myself referring back to it when my creative well is twirling around the drain.
The second book is Your Words, Your Story by Michele Skinner. This book is more substantial than What About the Words (larger in size) and Michele Skinner is definitely a writer. You can read the tiny print on her pages. Her message about finding your voice and WHY you're writing in the details and stories behind the photographs is a good one; I only wish she hadn't chosen the layouts that are in her book. Sure, they illustrate her points well, most of the time. But once I started reading her pages, the more I wondered how long her marriage was going to last with her husband. I suppose her point was not to sugar-coat and Disneyfy your life with sacchrine sentiments and meaningless poems and words and fluffy nothings. Not all of life is cuddly bunnies, and neither we, nor the people we live with are perfect. But OMG. Almost every single page that brought her husband into her journaling was a small whack in the head. She loves him to death and yet she cries when he does one single little thing that's nice (cutting the ends off of some pickles). She says it's the ONLY THING in YEARS he's ever done to remember what she likes. Her husband sounds like a Asperger's type, and considering how much back-handed bitching there is about him, it really cut down on my...I wouldn't say enjoyment of the book, but perhaps it shifted the focus of my reading of it from her message to what was going on between the lines in her life.
It's usually an intensely personal hobby, but there has to be a better balance. If you do read this book, take the short messages away with you, but do NOT read Skinner's pages. Seriously. You don't want that window into her marriage. Other thoughts on scrapbooking as a hobby later.
