Get Real

Are you as addicted to scrapbooking magazines as I am?  I actually had to cut down on my subscriptions recently because it was getting ridiculous.  I still subscribe to Creating Keepsakes, Memory Makers, and Simple Scrapbooks.  I keep saying I’m not going to, but I pay cold hard cash at Barnes and Noble or Michaels (lovin’ that 40% off coupon) for Scrapbooks, Etc. and a couple of the British/Australian mags.  I did finally give up on one SB magazine which shall remain nameless – because it was lame.  I also quit buying every single idea book that hits the shelves.  I still buy them, just more selectively (anything Becky Higgins or Autumn Leaves is a must have).  Luckily, I’ve gotten many idea books for “free” at scrapbooking events.  For example, I got a bunch at CKU and for the low price of a $2,000 CK scrapbooking cruise, I got free copies of idea books from Lisa Bearnson, Ali Edwards, and Becky Higgins.  The coolest thing was I got my December 2006 issue of CK during the cruise, which was in October.  See how obsessed I am with this?  It’s sick really.

My mom – also a scrapbooker – canceled all her SB magazine subscriptions about a year ago.  She said she was tired of all the ads, and I’m like, “The ads are the best part!”.  Okay, actually I like the articles the best but ads are second.  I like them even better than page ideas, which I know makes me very unpopular in the wider scrapbooking community (isn’t just about everyone but me trying to get their pages published??).  Memory Makers recently underwent a revamping which, according to all the Letters to the Editor they have published in subsequent issues, was not well received.  I mean, ladies across the country, nay across the world, are canceling their subscriptions in mass protest.  I can’t figure out why they are publishing these negative letters – that shows some huevos.  Personally, I like all of the changes except the new Memory Makers logo on the front cover.  When the first new copy arrived in the mail, my first thought was, “What kinda’ cheesy free magazine is someone sending me now?”.  The font they used looks 1960’s, and I don’t mean that in a retro-cool, hip way.  I mean that in a bogus, dated, cheesy kind of way.  What I do like are the addition of more articles at the expense of page ideas.  I think I’ve been reading SB magazines and looking at idea books long enough now that I no longer need such a plethora of page ideas.  I have enough of those to last me until I’m 94 (that’s the age I plan to live til, by the way).  I would rather read articles, look at ads for new products, see other people’s scrap spaces and organizational ideas, etc.

In fact, this is what I’d like to see at least one of the popular scrapbook magazines do:  get real.  By that I mean have a magazine full of real scrapbookers (nothing against scrap-celebs, but let’s share the wealth), and the real issues we’re facing, the real questions we have, the real things we all talk about in our blogs and on the message boards.  Okay, here’s a for instance.  One issue I would love to read an article on would answer the question “What effect will our scrapbooking have on our kids when they are grown?”.  This generation of children are the first ones who will have grown up having every move they make, every event, every embarrassing moment, every private detail photographed, displayed, and discussed.  I think there will mostly be positive results from this, but I also believe there are some negative aspects to it.  I would LOVE to read an article about that someday.  Here are some other article ideas I have:  Speak with several  experienced direct-sellers of scrapbooking supplies (CM, CTMH, etc.) and compare/contrast their experiences.  Talk about the retail explosion of scrapbooking in 2005, and why it downturned in 2006.  Instead of just mixing in a few articles and page samples of digital scrapping, talk about why people choose to digi-scrap or not digi-scrap (at crops, I hear vehement discussion against digi-scrapping!).  How about scrapbook obsession (ummm…) and whether we are becoming clinically addicted to it, how to keep it all in perspective.  I don’t know, I just think the articles are so cookie-cutter and often just rehashing the same old stuff.   I know why they do it, I just wish they didn’t.

All that being said, I still love my scrapbooking magazines.  On the CK message board, everyone was checking in from all over the country regarding whether they had received their “Top 10” issue yet.  I have never SO wanted to live in Michigan because that bee-otch got her issue like 8 days before me!  I’m happy to report that I received my Top 10 today, along with my new Memory Makers.  Guess I will have to give my new Oprah & Bob diet book (www.thebestlife.com) a rest tonight, so I can catch up on my scrap-reading :)