Scrapbooking in the Holy Land…

I read a great blog this morning that slammed the scrapbooking hobby as a waste of time and a clutter building frenzy.  I was laughing at how many people commented to say that they “also don’t get the scrapbooking craze.”  Some were even appreciative that scrapbooking had not arrived in Israel.

 Well, I hate to burst everyone’s bubble, but… IT HAS!  SCRAPBOOKING HAS COME TO THE HOLY LAND.  What’s more, according to Israelis who responded to some of my earlier posts, it’s been here a while. 

How unfortunate that all those women miss the point about preserving the memories they bothered to capture on film.  I mean, do they take pics of family events or cute family moments?  I’m willing to bet that they do.  And if that be true, then why bother if you’re not even going to put them together in an organized fashion for generations to look upon?  Scrapbooking isn’t just about the art, it’s about family history, it’s about passing the stories down through the generations, it’s about teaching our children and our children’s children where we came from and thereby who we are. 

The acid-free, lignin-free (aka, photo-safe or archival safe) part is to make sure the pictures and pages we create do not erode and crumble with time.  Perhaps I’m naive to think that in this day and age people know the importance of photo-safe products.  I guess I was wrong.  The crafting of a scrapbook with the colorful designs and “doo-dads” as they so poignantly put it, is just the fun part which helps tell the story.

Let’s face it, how many times have you looked at an ordinary sleeve album and been nearly bored to sleep with looking at plain pics?  There’s no caption or journalling (as we like to call it in the scrapbook world) to tell us about those photos.  Scrapbooking shows more than a picture, it tells a story and brings life to pics we’re viewing.

I guess some people just don’t get that.

Anyway, in the words of a famous super star (who shall remain nameless for various reasons), “I don’t care what they’re saying about me, as long as they’re talking.”  Translation — even bad news is good news.

So, for all the scrapbookers in Israel (and non-scrapbookers in Israel), scrapbooking has arrived.  And I’m going to help it stay any way that I can.  I’ve even got my own online scrapbook supply store to prove it.

 Happy Scrappin’!