Scrapbooking on the rise among hobbyists locally, nationally

Felicia Kennedy is a scrapbook rookie.

She carefully lays out inch-tall white letters and spells out N-I-G-H-T N-I-G-H-T on the table beside her page. The page features three photos, different angles of Kennedy's daughter, Alysa, at age 3 asleep in her high chair with her tiny foot resting on an adjacent table. These pictures are pasted onto purple paper imprinted with yellow stars, and decorated with a white ribbon, a smaller silver star and a smiling crescent moon. These are known in cropping circles as "embellishments."

This is the fourth page she's ever done. Kennedy, 33, started scrapbooking -- or cropping -- two weeks ago after hearing about it from her co-workers at Franklin Elementary, where she's a counselor. She's come to the cropping room at Scraps 'N' More in Cape Girardeau on her day off to work on her new hobby and put together an album for Alysa, who's now 5.

"This is not just a hobby for stay-at-home moms anymore," Kennedy said.

National statistics indicate she's right.

$2.5 billion a year

The Hobby Industry Association recently estimated that the scrapbooking business has more than doubled over the past two years and is now a $2.5 billion industry. It has spread largely by way of community -- friends convening for all-night cropping parties and cross-country scrapbooking tours. There's even a scrapbooking university established by Creating Keepsakes scrapbooking magazine.

In response, national retailers, like Wal-Mart and Target, and regional craft strores, like Hobby Lobby and Michaels, have all expanded their scrapbook departments. Locally, that trend is the same.

Rona Mallard opened Stamps and Scrapbooks in Jackson almost five years ago, turning her hobby into a career. She said she's noticed an increased flow of customers.

"It's been very gradual," Mallard said. "When I opened, I had several customers immediately. Today, I have an e-mailing list of over 200 people in the area. We're as busy now as we've ever been."

The increase in local interest spurred longtime cropper Dwana Leible to open her own shop, Scraps 'N' More in Cape Girardeau, in December. In the past few months, she increased her inventory from a few shelves to several tall racks and wall displays. She has a scientific explanation for the recent scrapbook boom.

"Now that acid-free paper is more available, it is possible to better preserve your photos and things," Leible said. "The materials we use now will preserve things for a minimum of 75 years without deterioration or discoloring."

Initial resistance

Preserving memories has been and still appears to be the main reason behind cropping. That's why Mary Job of Kelso, Mo., got into it, although she resisted initially.

"I used to watch QVC all the time, and when they got to the crafts and hobbies segment, I'd tell myself, 'I'm never going to do that,'" the 69-year-old said. But one day she was sitting around, going through boxes and albums full of old pictures. She decided she wanted to organize them and display them in a unique way.

The result has been a scrapbook of her husband's family history dating back to the 1800s, one of her son's life from cradle to U-Haul, a similar one for her grandchildren and one chronicling her courtship with her husband, Clarence. She's even cut down on her bingo playing from three times a week to three times a month.

"I love it," Job exclaimed. "I go to bed at night thinking about how I'm going to design my next page."

Her current project is an album of her own family lineage.

"I went to my brother's house and brought back three suitcases full of stuff," Job said. She even found the citizenship papers of her great-great-grandfather from when he entered the United States through New York in 1861. She made a photocopy of it and plans to use it as the background for the page with his picture on it.

Job characterized her style as more of a classic approach. Her 11-year-old granddaughter, Rhea, also crops. Rhea said she takes more of a freestyle approach.

"I use blow pens and lots of bright colors," Rhea Job said. "Lots of stencils and stickers."

Few male customers

Although cropping seems to have bridged the ages among women, it has yet to breach the gender barrier.

"Usually when a man comes in, you can tell he's been sent on a task by his wife," Mallard said. "He just stands at my desk with a weird look on his face like, 'Can you help me?'"

Leible said her few male customers call what they do genealogy, probably to avoid the effeminate connotation of the word scrapbooking.

While scrapbooking is growing, Leible said, it's still a fledgling industry. She said that the retailers and manufacturers are telling her that they don't expect cropping to reach its peak for another 15 years.

But scrapbookers like Kennedy who are keeping running accounts of their young children are in for the long haul. She's been to Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby, but she said she comes to Scraps 'N' More for the personal touch. Kennedy's taken one of Leible's classes, and Leible knows her by name. As Kennedy works, Leible comes by to offer advice and aid.

After she's pasted down her embellishments, Kennedy intends to start journaling -- explaining the page by way of writing on a tag, sticker or the page itself.

"Journaling is the key," Kennedy said. "It tells the story. This isn't just pasting pictures on pages."

trehagen@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137