Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is a great way to have fun while preserving family memories. One in three households have someone pursuing this popular hobby.

Cut, crop & die : a Kiki Lowenstein scrap-n-craft mystery
by Joanna Campbell Slan.
Woodbury, MN : Midnight Ink, 2009.
Tainted icing triggers a rare allergy, and a hobbyist croaks at a scrapbooking crop sponsored by Time in a Bottle, the store where Kiki Lowenstein works. When it comes out that someone swiped the victim's emergency medication, the scrappers realize they have a murder on their hands, and the entire community jumps to point the finger at Kiki and her coworkers. Suddenly, the one anchor in Kiki's stormy life is on the verge of sinking beneath a ruined reputation. But who wouldn't want to kill Yvonne Gaynor? The nasty woman had enough enemies to fill a memory album. Once again, Kiki gets sucked into a mystery that should be left to that dreamy detective, Chad Detweiller -- who hasn't tried to kiss her yet. With anti-Semitic threats coming in at the store, a quarrelsome teen daughter at home, and constant financial pressure, Kiki needs to keep her cool if she's going to set things right.
     
The scrapbooker's handwriting workshop : 20 unique fonts to practice and play with
Crystal Jeffrey Rieger.
Cincinnati, Ohio : Memory Makers Books, c2009.
Handwriting can make all the difference in adding personality to your layouts. However, most scrapbookers are unhappy with their own handwriting and avoid using it on their pages. This is why the Scrapbookeras Handwriting Workshop teaches you to make the most of your own handwriting. Learn 20 different handwritten fonts that can be used on your pages. Plus, the bonus gallery of 50 layouts provides plenty of inspiration for altering the fonts and ideas for using your handwriting in your scrapbooks.
     
Paper, scissors, death
Joanna Campbell Slan.
Woodbury, Minn. : Midnight Ink, c2008.

This first book in what appears to be a series finds the rich-but-down-to-earth Kiki learning that her husband George has died naked in a St. Louis motel room.  The reader knows it's murder and not something as lurid as a heart attack during an afternoon delight, but Kiki doesn't.

Kiki not only has to deal with George's two-timing death, but he's left her without a penny to her name.  She has to sell her gold Lexus and find a way to support herself and her daughter, Anya.  It doesn't help that there isn't enough money for the staples, but Anya's private school costs more than Kiki could possibly make in a year.  George's mother is willing to do anything for Anya, but she despises Kiki.

Kiki, a scrapbooker extraordinaire, turns to her hobby for income.  She gets a freelance gig at the store she frequented when she had money.  One of her first jobs is as the instructor at a bridal shower.  Kiki makes a supposedly cutting remark to one of the shower's guests.  When the guest, also an old flame of George's turns up dead, Kiki is the primary suspect.

Nonetheless, Kiki not only has two murders to solve, but someone has broken into the shappby place she and Anya now call home.

Annotation by: St. Louis Public Library staff.

     

Today's 'scrapbookers' or 'scrappers' do more than date family photos and paste them haphazardly in albums. Time is spent gathering the stories about the people, places, and events in the photos. Telling these stories, or journaling, is as important as organizing the photographs.

Advances in photographic preservation, the number of discount and craft supply stories stocking scrapbooking materials, and classes for new scrapbookers make this hobby is an easy one to start. Scrapbookers get together at events called 'crops' to exchange ideas.

Digital scrapbooking

Computers, scanners, & digital cameras let scrapbookers supplement traditional techniques.

(P. Jones, avid scrapbooker, talks about digital scrapbooking)

To get started:

  • Explore materials and tutorials
  • Organize your photos--select the best ones to use
  • Choose an album--consider size, binding, and safety
  • Gather tools--scissors, acid free markers
  • Add stickers and other embellishments
  • Add journaling--include'who/when/what/why'
  • Select a layout--look at what other scrapbookers use
  • Begin scrapping

Every scrapbook is different. Each scrapbooker learns from the works of others, yet develops their own distinctive style of capturing and displaying cherished memories.

Article by: St. Louis Public Library staff.