MARCH 10, 2003

CULTURE
Scrapbooking as spiritual practice

Scrapbooking - creating albums and memory books with family pictures and decorative papers - is one of the hottest hobbies around. According to the Hobby Industry Association, scrapbooking is a $1 billion-a-year industry, a figure that has quadrupled in five years. The hobby has also quietly and steadily grown into an informal outlet for the sharing of religious faith and fellowship.

Although there have always been scrapbooks, some in the industry trace the hobby's current format - bright papers, decorative corner mounts, punches and coordinating accessories - to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), whose faith instructs members to keep personal journals and to preserve family history for coming generations. Many of the major scrapbooking companies, stores and magazines were founded by Mormon women and are based in Utah.

As its popularity has grown, scrapbooking has been adopted by members of other faith groups and is sometimes referred to as "faithbooking" - the chronicling of "the fingerprints of God" in people's lives through photographs and Scripture. There are now scrapbooking circles and clubs for Jews, Catholics, Mormons and other Christians all over the country. Many use pages and albums to commemorate religious holidays, such as Easter and Passover, and life-cycle events, such as first communions and bar and bat mitzvahs. In some places, members of different religions work side by side in scrapbooking classes and clubs. In response, many scrapbooking companies are producing religion-specific products, such as background papers, titles, cutouts and punches with religious imagery and themes.

How do scrapbookers in your area express their religious beliefs through their hobby? How do they use scrapbooking to communicate their religious beliefs to their children? And to members of other faiths? At scrapbooking parties and stores, do they talk and work with members of other faiths?

Why it matters
Scrapbooking is one of many ways that religious faith is expressed outside the walls of organized religion, in neighborhoods and communities where people of different faiths sit elbow to elbow.

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National sources

Click the map for interview sources in your state and region

• Lisa Bearnson is founding editor of Creating Keepsakes, the largest scrapbooking magazine, based in Bluffdale, Utah. A member of the LDS church, she says Mormons are encouraged to keep scrapbooks and journals to document family history and religious milestones. She has demonstrated scrapbooking on Focus on the Family television and is the author of The Joy of Scrapbooking (Leisure Arts). Contact her through Bremer Public Relations, 801-364-2030; ask for Chantelle.
• Marielen Christensen owns Keeping Memories Alive, a scrapbooking store in Spanish Fork, Utah. She is often credited with sparking the current form of the scrapbooking craze through preservation work she did for her LDS ward, or congregation, in 1976. Contact 801-798-3494.
• Sandra Joseph is the national director of Memories Expo and Memories Communities, a national association for scrapbookers. She is an evangelical Christian and frequently speaks to groups about scrapbooking as a spiritual journey. Contact 724-827-8549, treasures@pghfamily.net.
• Marni Kaner is a scrapbooker in Dallas, Texas, and an organizer of a Jewish scrapbooking circle. Her group brings together women from different branches of Judaism and includes a Christian or two. She says preserving memories of the Jewish activities in her family's life, such as holiday observances and life-cycle milestones, is a way to safeguard Jewish culture in the face of assimilation. She has also worked to inform a number of scrapbooking companies about the need and demand for Jewish scrapbooking products. Contact mkaner@gbronline.com.
• Dr. Laura Vance is an associate professor of sociology at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, Ga. She is familiar with the widespread use of scrapbooking among Latter-day Saint women and can place the hobby within the context of the faith's attention to genealogy and journal-keeping. Contact 229-931-2314, llv@canes.gsw.edu.
• Dr. Brent Plate is an assistant professor of religion and visual arts at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. He says scrapbooking is a natural outlet for religious expression because both are communal activities that commemorate rituals and involve the idea of passing on values and memories to subsequent generations. Contact 817-257-6444, b.plate@tcu.edu.
• Don Meyer, director of consumer and public relations for the Hobby Industry Association, says that scrapbooking is the third-most-popular crafting activity in the United States and that it is continuing to grow. Contact 201-794-1133, dmeyer@hobby.org.

Background

• The Hobby Industry Association estimates that 13 million Americans participate in scrapbooking. HIA statistics show that 20 percent of all crafters engage in scrapbooking.
• Read a Charlotte World story about the popularity of scrapbooking among Christians.
• Read a July 18, 2000, CNN article about scrapbooking.
• Smile New Orleans maintains a list of scrapbooking shows and events in the United States throughout 2003.
• Accu Cut maintains a message board for Jewish scrapbookers.
• Read an undated article from The Raleigh World about Christian scrapbooking.