A few little FYI’s about this blog.

1 – The blogger, moi, is and shall remain a mystery.

2 – Comment at your own risk. If you call someone a whore or talk about someone’s fat ass, your comment will be deleted. Keep it civil.

3 – When describing something you don’t like – try to keep your feelings out of it. Try to articulate an answer as opposed to “it’s butt ugly.” WHY is it butt ugly? Use your brain. I am certain you have one.

4 – No topic is off limit other than people’s personal lives. We are here to discuss the scrapbook industry, the scrapbook movement and the business of scrapbooking. We are not here to talk about if so & so is a whore or not. Please don’t go there.

5 – Anon comments are welcome.

6 – Feel free to suggest thread topics.

7 – Tell your friends about us – we need lots of participation to make this an interesting place to be.

AND – I want to THWART the negativity at Scrap Critic and Two Peas in My Ass – I want to show that there are people around who want to discuss this industry and can do it without making snarky remarks about people’s looks or parenting skills. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, ya’ know?

~S

Online Shopping Reviews

Post your online shopping experiences here. Stick to the facts, not your feelings.

Topic #1 – How is scrapbooking to grow and are the current trends alienating would be scrappers?

The scrapbook industry in the US is on the decline, so say some influential figures in the industry.

Do you think magazines have played a large part of this (if so – which ones)? Or is the manufacturers and the products being released? What do you think could be the factors that may stablilize the hobby and bring more people in?

I personally think the decline is a combination of factors.

1 – People have less photos. Digital photography has allowed people to slack off a bit in their photography, or accumulation of photographs. People get only their best photos printed and then have less photos. Less photos means less photos to need to “deal with”. Thus the CM argument of getting your photos out of a shoebox is sort of obsolete for new moms and younger generations. They’re like “what shoeboxes?”

2 – Too much, too fast. I think there is just too much. New scrappers feel overwhelmed. Magazines are too technique driven regarding techniques that have nothing to do with preserving photographs and how to write/record memories. A new scrapper who sees a technique on dipping papers in ink puddles (a recent Tim Holtz technique in CK) are going to be like WTF? How is this going to help me scrapbook.