I met Scrapbooking the other day and its pretty cool.

I had known about scrap booking for some time now but thought oh that's cute. It's a nice pass time for ladies with an artsy crafty leaning to while away their spare time. How wrong was I? The industry is huge and has evolved from simple cut and paste paper, letters, pictures to sophisticated pieces of artwork in both real or hard copy and lately digital form and there are 1000's of people doing it.

For those of you unfamiliar with the hobby you need to understand a bit about it. Here's a brief description from http://www.scrapbooking101.net

What is a Scrapbook?

A scrapbook is simply a decorated photo album that also preserves the stories behind the photos (called journaling), it can also hold memorabilia (tickets, certificates, letters, etc.). You might have a family album as well as smaller theme albums for vacations, home improvement or a baby’s first year. Some scrapbookers create an album for each family member.
By using acid-free and lignin-free papers and adhesives, photos can be preserved beautifully and safely. The papers and accessories available now give us lots of creative options for doing more than just filing photos in an album—scrap booking is a creative hobby!
It’s really all about getting those photos out of shoeboxes and attics and into albums where they can be seen and shared. Best of all, no experience or expertise is required—it’s as simple as cutting and gluing.
Are you looking at those big boxes filled with photos, wondering how you’ll ever get around to all of them? Where to start? It’s best to begin with your most recent photos.
If scrapbooking seems like a monumental task, don’t worry—it’s really not. All you need are a few basic materials and some ideas.

I believe its much more than this. It is an avenue to let your creative juices flow, armed with all manor of tools and resources that are available from craft houses, shows and conferences, other scrap book fans and on the internet of course.

By Mathew Anderson

I was introduced to it by Marlie, one of my daughters, who has been participating for a number of years. She is big time into digital and now my grandson Mathew has taken it up as well. He's into music in a big way and expressed that interest by creating this piece on the right.

Marlie has done some really cool stuff and has one entered into a contest to see who of the designers gets to stay in a virtual Granny's Attic Survivor. She did a beauty about autumn. Hope she gets to stay in. You can find more about it at http://forums.gingerscraps.net/forumdisplay.php?485-Scrapping-Survivor-Season-3-*Grandmas-Attic*

Another cool thing I found was that there is a local celebrity living not far from where I am in north-eastern Alberta. Her name is Jackie Ludlage from Elk Point and she's a co-founder and editor in chief of the magazine Canadian Scrapbooker available in hard copy or online. http://www.canadianscrapbooker.ca She and her co-founder partner Kathrina Doyle who is the publisher have an amazing resource for anyone who scrap books or is contemplating getting into it.

In fact, here's a web video from the folks at Canadian Scrapbooker about using rub ons featuring Jackie Ludlage. Enjoy.

Over the next little while I'm going to bring you examples and contact links that will provide you with a huge list of resources so that you can experience the fun and creativity of scrap booking or scrapping as many call it. Hope you'll find it interesting. Enjoy. Oh, by the way, I'm hooked on scrapping now.
Dave