I know it is unusually mild in the northeast US and other places.   Maybe the Superbowl is scheduled for this weekend and you're hosting or going to a party.   But sooner or later the weather will keep you insides and football is almost gone.   So what are you going to do then?   We spend so little time together in a single family unti in this society, you simply must make the most of any family time you get.   So, what do you do to engender your family's sense of togetherness?   Well, here's a thought.   The next time you ponder a family game night or something else to bring everyone closer, how about a scrapbooking night?

We always run into the different sensibilities between genders whenever we try to do something as a family.   In terms of TV, boys want to watch football and girls want to watch American Idol.   Besides, watching the tube together is more like doing anything apart than it is "family time."   In terms of other activities, boys want to play certain kinds of video or board games and girls want to play others.   There is some common ground but usually the thing breaks down because somebody is unusually good at this game and somebody else is unusually good at that one.   Scrapbooking is different because it can be structured in a way where everyone wins and such that the boys and girls in your family can all have a great time.   Girls will usually enjoy the crafty part of things.   Maybe the boys don't want to do crafts but they can go through pictures and organize them or pick their favorites.

There is nothing which brings a family together as much as going through boxes of pictures.   And there is nothing which drives home the strength of parents' love for their children as much as looking through baby or other pictures of the family together at some holiday or on a vacation.   Scrapbooking need not only be about cropping and stamping.   And the finished product need not be the only aspect of the craft which the boys enjoy.   Try setting aside one two hour session on a Sunday night or the next time you get snowed in and make everyone participate.   Use your head and make sure you have something for the boys to do like going through pictures to pick good ones.   Spread out on the kitchen or dining room table and make a big project of it.   In many ways, setting out all the pictures in a place where they don't immediately have to be put away will extend the pleasure.   Think of this as a giant jigsaw puzzle, one which takes weeks to put together.

If you get resistance from one family member or another, maybe start things out not as a "scrapbooking night" but rather as a couple hours of going through pictures.   Then sneak some of your scrapbooking supplies out and start to put something together.   You'll be wanting some input from John as to what to write next to last year's baseball pictures.   Slowly but surely you'll pull the entire family into the process of putting together some scrapbooks.   You'll be glad you did this.   But don;t be surprised if your husband or sons get mad that you can't do this every Sunday night.

Primedia's exploration of the divestiture of its crafts unit is creating a stir.   The Mad Cropper worries "what could happen to my favourite mags — Simple Scrapbooks and Creating Keepsakes."   Others might wonder if this could be the death knell for their favorite titles.   I'm here to tell you there is nothing to be concerned about.

Primedia began as a cooperative venture between former executives of MacMillan Publishing and the leveraged buyout firm, KKR.   The general idea was to buy publishing businesses from private concerns, where titles could be had for as little as three times earnings, combine a bunch of these relatively small business into a larger corporate entity and then take the enterprise public at multiples of around 7 or more times earnings.   To illustrate, say you can buy two magazines for $1 million each, a total of $2 million, and then sell stock in your business for $5 million, that would be a really good investment.   That was essentially the KKR vision with respect to Primedia.

But Primedia was never a corporation which had a vision with respect to the nature of titles they would publish.   They hired a crew of Harvard MBAs to scour the landscape searching for publications which could be had at low multiples for management to buy.   And buy they did.   The result was a mishmash of unrelated titles.   For example, back in 1991 when Primedia started, they purchased New Woman magazine and the Daily Racing Form in order to complement their business directory business and a large stable of business to business magazines like "Telephony," the magazine of telephone engineers.   Later they bought "Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia," "Weekly Reader" and a business called "Films for the Humanities and Sciences" geared towards colleges and high schools.   I won't go into details about all their acquisitions because there were many but my point is most of these things had nothing to do with each other and that's the way the business developed.   Perhaps more importantly, none of these things had anything to do with crafting or scrapbooking.

Primedia often picked up publications from the founder who had built the company.   Sometimes they chopped this head off the operation and proceeded to run the company based almost exclusively on principles of financial management as taught by Harvard Business School.   That means the bottom line was continually reviewed, budgets examined very closely, and little cuts made in order to enhance the bottom line.   Very few businesses were managed in a fashion which would enhance continued development of product and brand.   Primedia presided over the destruction of many a brand.

Sometime around 1996, Primedia expanded by purchasing a new business focused on professional training.   The company they purchased had been started by a man who was essentially a "used car salesman."   He developed training for car dealerships which was in video format sent by satellite transmission to dealerships around the country.   Before its sale to Primedia, the business had expanded to include training for law enforcement and emergency response, banking, etc.   As a good "used car salesman," the seller cleaned up the business and made it look pretty for Primedia who overpaid by hundreds of millions.   That littlemisstepp cost the CEO and Chairman his job.

A new CEO was hired to plan a new vision and take the company into the next millennium.   This supposed "genius visionary" was named Tom Rogers and he made his landmark acquisition the purchase of "About.com" for around half of Primedia's overall enterprise value.   But About.com was literally a piece of junk and internet stocks had collapsed by the time Rogers' crew celebrated the "marriage" of the two enterprises.   From this time until the present, Primedia has languished and ultimately is involved in a breaking apart of its businesses to recover at least some of the value contained within the organization and pay off the huge piles of debt the company has acquired over the past decade and a half.

The sale of Primedia's craft business segment is simply a part of the overall breaking apart of the company.   There is nothing in particular to be concerned with regarding the sale of Simple Scrapbooks, Creating Keepsakes, Craftrends or any other of these businesses.   It cannot fall into a worse organization.   Whoever acquires these publications will most likely manage them better than Primedia did.   The track record of businesses which leave Primedia is pretty good.

Memorystone Publishing, Inc. announced the launch of a new service which gives internet users the ability to make a personalized memory book in minutes.

Visitors to Memorystone's website can browse through their professionally written and designed book templates. After selecting a template, the user writes a short dedication and adds personal photos and captions. You or your family and friends can then purchase a printed version of the book for as little as $49.95.

The online version of the book can be enjoyed for free.

Scrapbooking Bug has an article today talking about the hottest trends in scrapbooking including "Creative Cropping," Digital Scrapbooking, and "Mini Scrapbooks."

      Read More

A couple recently opened a scrapbooking retreat known as Michelle's Scrapbook Cottage in Fishers, Indiana.   According to USA Today, the couple renovated a three-story Victorian mansion which offers seven bedrooms, five fireplaces, a formal parlor and a ballroom.   A local scrapbook store will open a small store in the cottage.   One night packages include one nights lodging, all meals, beverages and munchies for only 150.00!   From what I can see on the business' web site, dates are booking up fast so check it out now and make your reservations soon!

Looking for some kind of event to raise money for a good cause?   Why not sponsor a scrapbooking event?   Probably a high percentage of people living near you engage in this hobby in one form or another.   Folks at the Fort Morgan (Colorado) United Methodist Church recently held a "Cropping for Food" event which raised money for an international youth movement formed to battle hunger.   Organizers were able to bring local businesses in to sponsor the event and sell supplies, teach different skills and generally make the thing a rousing success.   Another example of the type of charity performed by scrappers is the Krop4Katrina effort which raised thousands of dollars to aid hurricane victims.   What could be a better excuse to get out of the house and go scrapping than raising money for a good cause?!

Martha Stewart "Living" has an article about how to get started scrapbooking called "Scrapbooking 101".   It is rather short and really just a few tips for the uninitiated.   There are a few other srticles on the site with tips including "Scrapbook Techniques" but the topics are not well developed.   I expect we'll be hearing more and more from Martha about all sorts of scrapping topics as she rolls out her product lines later this year or early next.   In the meantime, this piece is really the kind of thing you can share with other friends and family who are less experienced than you.

Last month we blogged about a new scrapbooking retreat called Garden Spa Scrapping, that provides the cropper plenty of space and time with resort style amenities.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press also ran an article about scrapbooking retreats as the latest phenomenon in the $3 billion a year industry.

The article notes that there are already some 10 scrapbooking retreats within driving distance from Minneapolis-St.Paul, and featured a couple starting an 11th such facility, noting that croppers need more space and more peace.

Scrapbookers used to meet in their homes to crop (or cut paper and pictures), but found they needed larger spaces to work. Meetings moved to church basements and finally to hotels and church camps. But for many, a hotel or camp left a lot to be
desired.

"In a hotel, you have to go through public areas, so you can't be in your pajamas. And at camps the big complaint was that you were in kids' beds, bunk beds," said Anita Norha, co-owner of Bridge Creek Cottage in Augusta, Wis.

Hence came the scrapbooking retreats offering resort & spa amenities, access to scrapbooking supplies, where croppers can crop like crazy from morning to morning.

Getting over the loss of a loved one is a very difficult task indeed.   Human beings seek out all sorts of activities to help them deal with their grief.   We have wakes and funeral services and then invite folks back to our homes or a favorite restaurant to share a small meal and talk about the person who has just passed.   The idea is to give some final meaning to a life which has just ended and also to help us deal with our grief.   But I don't think I can come up with a better way to keep occupied while really commemorating a person's life than to pull out all your supplies and tools and put together a scrapbook with all those loose pictures you have laying around.

It seems other folks are finding the same technique helps them deal with their grief.   The Naples Sun Times reports a new trend of grieving families putting together scrapbooks as a form of art therapy.

The act of creating a scrapbook for a recently deceased person involves culling through all those piles and books of photographs, rummaging through drawers to pull out, for example, playbills or tickets for a show you enjoyed together, and piecing together aspects of the person's life you shared.   Memory fades as time passes and our memories of a person are never quite as sharp as they are immediately after they pass.   This is an excellent way to really remember all the fun times you had together.   And in commemorating the life of a loved one, you are solidifying your own memories while creating something you and your family can look back over for the remainder of your lives.   If you heal yourself in the process, so much the better!

The Sizzix Sidekick has been honored as this year's winner of the prestigious Craftrends Magazine's Award of Excellence in the category of "Best Scrapbook Tools."

In earning this prestigious honor, the Sidekick was singled out for its success as the portable, affordable and adorable companion to the indispensable Sizzix Machine (the latter of which was honored as "Best Die-Cut Equipment" three years running at the Creating Keepsakes' Readers' Choice Awards).   Petite enough to fit in the palm of one's hand, the Sidekick die-cuts in detail with all Sizzlits Dies and embosses instant elegant images with Simple Impressions Sidekick Folders.

"With this honor for the Sidekick, the Sizzix 'family' of products continues to be recognized as premier offerings to today's crafting-savvy consumer," said Lisa Corcoran, CEO of Ellison.   "Every Sizzix product was specifically designed with innovative technology to help empower crafters to express their creativity."

Queen & Co., which specializes in tags and buttons for craft projects, offers this "Wacky Assortment" of buttons and tags for general scrapbooking projects.

You get a random assortment of 50 buttons and tags for the price of $3.49.

"Love Line" is a new line of scrapbooking papers from Teresa Collins, offered through Junkitz.com.

These designs are perfect for romantic themes, and make beautiful Valentine's Day cards and layouts.

View the list of retail outlets that sell Junkitz products.

Adesso Albums announced today that next month it will launch its Digital Photo Guest Book.

It's basically a standard photo guest book, except it's meant to be used with printed digital photos. Adesso says that you can take photos with a digital camera, dock the camera into a photo-printer, print out some photos, and slip them into the guest book.

I imagine you could still use one of Adesso's standard photo guest books and still use them with digital photos.

Adesso's line of photo guest books are a great alternative to ordinary guest books in that they incorporate photos and give guests something interesting to look at, as well as preserve memories for years to come.

Scrapbook.com announces its biggest contest ever.   The official contest page is located here.   The $20,000 layout contest begins January 3, 2006 and ends at midnight on March 31, 2006.   20 winners will each receive $1000 prize packs stuffed full of scrapbooking supplies from nine different sponsors.   Sponsors are listed on the site as: All My Memories, BasicGrey, Bazzill Basics, Heidi Swapp, Imagination Project, KI Memories, QuicKutz, Scrapworks, and SEI.   Please take a read through the official rules and frequently asked questions for further information.

WINDHAM, N.H., Jan. 10, 2006 -- Triscape, Inc. has released a new edition of its popular FxFoto photography software for the digital scrapbooking market.   FxFoto Creative Edition provides a unique blend of photo organization, editing and layout capabilities with all the tools needed for creating beautiful scrapbook pages digitally.   It is designed to be easy to use while providing advanced creativity tools.   The software runs on Windows 98/ME/2000/XP and is available for $49.95 from the http://www.fxfoto.com.

This release is described by the company as an easy and cost-effective means for creating, archiving and duplicating stunning layouts without paper, scissors or paste.   A large number of talented digital designers supply beautiful and often photo-realistic digital scrapbooking kits with background images and embellishments that replace the paper elements used in traditional scrapbooking.   FxFoto Creative comes with a selection of ten digital kits and hundreds of backgrounds from top designers.

Intriguing Development has announced iRemember v1.5 digital scrapbooking software for Mac machines.   This is a free download-only upgrade that should ship by the end of the month.   The full software costs $49.95.   This is definitely the tool for those of us with less time on our hands or those of us who are way behind in our scrapping and for whom this passion is becoming a burden.   The software allows you to use templates to create scrapbook pages in a fraction of the time it takes your scissors toting friends; replace costly stickers and embellishments with reusable clip art; and store supplies on your computer, not all over your dining room table.   Check out iRemember online for more information.

Stampendous, the maker of rubber stamps and other scrapbooking supplies, has a new craft project on its website for this Hinged Valentine's Day Card.

Visit their website to learn how you can make this card.

Jesse James & Co Inc. has a new set of Valentine's Day buttons under their "Dress it Up" brand.

The new "Queen of Hearts" buttons can be purchased online from Shelly's Buttons for $1.80.

Glue Dots International will soon have a vellum version of their famous Glue Dots.

Available as early as March 2006, the acid-free Vellum Glue Dots are transparent double-sided adhesive dots for vellum papers, transparencies, glass and acrylic embellishments. Use Vellum Glue Dots for scrapbooking, card making, invitiations, announcements and more.

The compact sheets come in a resealable pouch so they store easily in a drawer or craft bin and are perfect to take to crop parties or gatherings.

A short article on ContactMusic.com says that Diane Keaton loves to scour Internet auction sites to buy up other people's scrapbooks.

"They're like visual autobiographies from the family of man, and I find that breathtakingly beautiful.", says Keaton.

Jay Moncliff writes an article in She Knows about using a simple color wheel to help you find attractive color combinations for your scrapbooking pages.

Choose one color from the photograph to be your "key" color. It may be a color from a flower in the foreground, or the color of the shirt your child is wearing. Whatever you choose, it will be the starting point for your color themed page design.

Read the full article here.

Thomas Jefferson kept scrap books.   I learned this from a little article in the Souderton Independent which traces some of the modern history of scrapping.   Among the little tidbits included in the article:

• "References to scrapbooks were made as early as the 16th century and by 1700, men and women were pasting memorabilia into books, called Common-place books."
  
  
• "The origin of modern scrapbooking, with acid-free patterned papers, stickers, die cuts, and fancy scissors for cropping pictures, was in Utah in 1976"
  

Check out the complete article for more.

Sony Electronics Inc., Park Ridge, N.J., USA, introduces PictureStation Digital Scrapbooking software for its PictureStation Digital Photofinishing kiosk.   The new software package offers 35 pre-designed layouts for creating both 8-by-8 and the larger size 8-by-10-inch scrapbook pages, which are ideal for digital scrapbooks.   The software also offers creative photo cutouts for mattes right on the photos.   The customer chooses the size, shape, thickness and color of the matte using easy to follow touch keys.   The cutout can be applied to any PictureStation print size, and even to edited photos.   The PictureStation Digital Scrapbooking software is now available at authorized Sony resellers nationwide with a suggested list price of $699.

read more

via Digital Camera Tracker

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia said Thursday it will launch a new line of crafts products under the Martha Stewart name with EK Success Ltd., a scrapbooking and other crafts products marketer.   The first products to be launched will be paper-based craft and scrapbooking merchandise expected to roll out in the fourth quarter of 2006 or the first quarter of 2007.   The companies will sell the items in major craft chains and independent craft stores around the United States as well as online.   The new line will be called Martha Stewart Crafts.

Hallmark is now selling a line of scrapbooking albums called, "Instant Scrapbooks", for beginners already pre-decorated. You just insert the photos, and write the text.

They have them in several themes, ranging from Family History, Love, Celebration, Marriage, Baby, School, among others.

Their 12x12 album retails for $50.00, while their 8x8 album retails for $36.00. You can purchase them either online, or from a Hallmark Gold Crown store in your neighborhood.

Linda Fantin writes in the Salt Lake Tribune that scrapbooking shops are experiencing a glut of overstocked scrapbooking materials.

The rapid growth of scrapbooking also has created tons of discontinued and overstocked merchandise. Big Lots! recently bought $6 million in such materials, which it has been selling for 60 to 80 percent off retail, according to TDMonthly, an online trade magazine for the toy, hobby and game industry.

Owners of small independent retailers are worried that the amount of materials sitting on store shelves might scare newbies away.

"The last thing we want people to do is walk in and say, 'Oh my God, I can't do this,' and walk out," says Kelly Mooney, spokeswoman for Making Memories, a Centerville-based company whose product line includes more than 5,000 items.

Fantin provides the following tips for newbies...

• Use the kits. It will save you money and a lot of anxiety. The only downside is that the colors may not match your photos, in which case convert the pictures to black and white at Smith's or any store with a digital picture processor.



• Start small. Create a "mini-book" of 10-15 pages, built around a theme such as a vacation or Christmas. No topic is too trivial. I recently made a 5-by-7 book from photos taken in an Omaha Chuck-E-Cheese photo booth - one stop on a long, back-to-college road trip.



• Buy an idea book. One of my favorites is clean & simple scrapbooking, by Cathy Zielske. At $25, it's a bit pricey, but well worth it no matter what your level of expertise.



• Get a scrapbook buddy. Avid scrapbookers love to share their knowledge and, in many cases, their supplies. In that sense, scrapbooking is a lot like aerobics. It's much more fun when done with a friend.