These scrapbooks are not your mother’s version

By JENNIFER SQUIRES
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

To me, scrapbooking is a form of storytelling.

I started scrapbooking my sophomore year of college at Southern Oregon University because the girl across the hall in my dorm was kind of crafty. We went through a lot of Kodak film that year going to house parties and drinking cheap booze with people we knew by first name only. Making a scrapbook that chronicled those parties helped remember people’s names, differentiated one Hawaiian or ’80s, or toga party from the next and made it OK to snip around the errant fingers and faces that tend to materialize in drunken photos.

But that first scrapbook also served a purpose larger than logging weekend outings. Gluing photos together on top of advertisements ripped from girl magazines or silk flowers snagged from the table of a luau shared the misadventure with people in a way much different than a traditional photo album would. No need to point at pictures or name faces. The scrapbook pages contextualize the moment.

I was hooked. Scrapbooks are labor-intensive and sometimes mocked — people in my office responded with “Oh, gag!” when I said I was a scrapbooker — but I’ll never go back to photo albums.

I’ve finished 14 scrapbooks in six years and am working on five others. Some are chronological. Others cover just a trip, like one recording 10 days last December I spent traveling in Ecuador with my little sister. In between compiling my collection, I’ve made smaller books for friends and my mom.

For many, especially books and magazines dedicated to the hobby, scrapbooks include smile-filled moments like weddings, baby’s first steps, holidays and family vacations. Mine include those family holiday photos, probably more than my fair share of nights out in college and good sampling of outdoor activities — hiking, camping, butterfly hunting and rafting.

But these are not your wholesome family scrapbooks.

One page includes a copy of the accident report and photos of my car after a drunk driver hit my sister and me. Others include summer jobs, moving out of apartments and gory photos from the emergency room visit after I suffered a pretty serious hand injury on my 21st birthday.

And there are pages in my scrapbooks my father hasn’t seen. One memorializes a trip to a drag queen comedy show in Portland that ended with male erotic dancers.

Each book, and even each page inside, has its own style. For one zany layout, I cut neon green paper into swirls for a background. I don’t do the prepackaged sets of paper, stickers, frames and other “accents” — buttons, colored staples, ribbon and metal tags — sold on informercials as ways to make scrapbooking easy.

Instead, ticket stubs, handwritten notes, newspaper clippings and scraps of fabric add more personality to the pages and the story than a spongepaint set ever could. For example, photos of rocks and plants and desert scenes from a geology trip to Death Valley National Park became much more interesting when I added flowers I’d picked on the trip and snippets of geologic knowledge I’d gleaned from the weeklong adventure. That book acts as primer in the park’s geology for friends who look at the pictures and read.

Scrapbooks can also save moments that are difficult to capture anywhere else. A few photos of Fourth of July fireworks and a blurry shot of three friends huddled above the camera don’t really have a place in photo frames or even an album — “Fireworks, 2005″ could look a lot like “Fireworks, 2006″ — but when dropped on a dark blue background that looks like denim with red frames around a series of fireworks shots and a light blue ribbon encircling the blurry group shot, suddenly Fourth of July 2005 has a place in time. It’s more than just a memory now.

Of course, there’s more to a scrapbook than patterned paper and block-letter titles scrawled above snapshots. Here are a few of the lessons I’ve learned.

And yes, I was the editor of my high school’s yearbook.

Colors and add-ons

Color schemes take me awhile. To me, the color of paper and accents selected needs to match the colors in the photos, as well as the tone of the event. Natural hues are good for outdoorsy activities. Bright colors can liven up dark photos from a night out or complement sunny shots from the beach. Accents should go with the paper and the photos.

For example, a strip of lacy fabric didn’t work for photos of hosting a garage sale, but the material went really well with photos of New Year’s celebrations because it matched the clothes we wore. It sounds ridiculous, but be cautious about mixing too many font styles when using sticker letters, words torn from magazines and accents you can buy with quotes and phrases on them.

Page design

Balance photos, text, accents and white space, but be careful not to overload the page with too many elements — people won’t know where to look. Angle photos toward the book’s binding so people’s gaze is directed into the action, instead of away from your scrapbook. When you get a feel for what you’re doing, try new things, like ripping the paper instead of cutting it exactly. When I get frustrated, I just throw all the pieces down on the page, hoping they’ll land just right.

Sometimes they do. Sometimes it just feels good to throw something. This is also my No. 1 reason for not using digital scrapbooking programs. It just doesn’t feel as involved.

Really, anything is fair game when it comes to making a page. This is your art, and it should feel like you’re creating something. Just remember, you’re telling a story. Make it complete.

No matter what, don’t let mocking from others deter you from getting down and gluey with scrapbooking. Chances are high they will be impressed by your handiwork and a little jealous of your obvious talent. Once they swallow their pride, they’ll ask you to make them a scrapbook and when you do, they’ll cry.

Contact Jennifer Squires at jsquires@santacruzsentinel.com.

Scrapbooking tips

Here are ideas to go beyond the color-coordinated, prepackaged kit:

Snag pamphlets from a visit to an aquarium (or other tourist attraction) and cut out blocks of text describing your favorite exhibits. Saving the free handouts can also be really helpful when traveling.
Hold on to cards or letters from loved ones. I know it’s cheesy, but I saved the envelope a boyfriend wrote his number and e-mail on for me the weekend we met and later paired it with photos of us together.
If you’re the kind of person who can draw/sketch/paint, add embellishments done by your own hand.
Steal the bar menu from your favorite hangout. Programs from weddings and concerts can be useful.
It’s OK to include normal moments, like photos from work, or even sad moments. Maybe it’s too much to snap photos at a memorial service, but save the obituary.
Also, not all pages need a lot of elements. Use one large photo or don’t use any at all — instead, save a newspaper story about yourself or your friends, an award you receive or an important letter.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/November/23/style/stories/01style.htm