Scrapbooking provides creative outlet for hobbyists’ memories

Eric Leake

Friday, Feb. 11, 2005 | 3:25 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

February 12 - 13, 2005

A memory is something Bobbi Hale puts double-sided tape to and sticks in a book. Lately she's been sticking books full of them.

Tuesday night at the Johnson Community School scrapbooking workshop it was the memory of a daughter's birthday party that Hale was fixing to the page.

"I was brought up in a family of photographers and they just displayed photos in albums," Hale said as she worked to ink a rubber stamp. "It's fun to find new ways to display the memories."

Hale and the other women in the workshop made birthday pages and cards during Tuesday's session. The workshop is one of several regularly held at community centers and scrapbook shops across the Las Vegas Valley.

A scrapbooking club meets at the Robinson Community School, 4794 Harris Ave., every other week. At the Johnson Community School, 340 Villa Monterey, scrapbooking is a once-a-month event.

Hale said the hobby she started a year and a half ago has turned into something more -- she now tries to do a page a week. And in every city she visits, she checks out the scrapbooking stores.

"You're always looking for something more. It's very addictive," she said.

Part of that addiction is fueled by the toys -- er, tools -- that Hale and her friends have spread across the workshop table: There is the Coluzzle cutting template, Sizzix die cut, a heat gun embosser, paper trimmers, and various markers, rubber stamps and ink pads.

The women talk about new products and new scrapbooking techniques as they work.

"There are so many techniques and fun ways to do something," Hale said. "For somebody that likes to be creative, it's a neverending hobby."

Workshop instructor Jennifer Lipkin has been scrapbooking for five years. She now has 15 books filled with memories, and her oldest child is not yet 4.

Scrapbooking can be a consuming and expensive hobby, she said, but does not have to be. People can dedicate as much or as little time as they want and start slow.

"I would take a couple classes first to see what stuff you like before you buy," Lipkin said. The other women added that part of what clubs do is share.

Karri Payne owns a scrapbook store, Pebbles in My Pocket, 7650 W. Sahara Ave. She is also a scrapbook instructor and designer. Payne said the hobby draws all types of people, from grandmothers to Playboy Playmates, to her store.

"But, generally, I would say it is associated with family values," she said, adding that the bulk of her customers are mothers of young families.

The popularity of the hobby has noticeably grown, Payne said. When she started her store five years ago, she estimated, there were 250 vendors of scrapbook supplies. Now there are more than 1,000 and it is a big industry, she said.

People enjoy the hobby because, "it gives you a creative outlet but at the same time you're doing something wonderful by preserving memories," Payne said.

Most scrapbooks are composed of pictures, writing and embellishments, but any memento may be included. Payne once saw a positive pregnancy test stick scrapbooked.

Like many scrapbooking stores, Pebbles in My Pockets offers workshops and open studio sessions because scrapbooking is often best done with others, Payne said.

"That's the social aspect of it, people love to come with their friends," she said. "It's like the quilting bees of old. People come and work on their scrapbooking and get their girl-time in."

Back at the Johnson Community School workshop, the women are enjoying catching up as they press rubber stamps of balloons against their pages.

Hale's page is not yet finished. She will later add pictures, maybe of her grown daughters when they were still children.

She said she'll pick the photos out of stashed old boxes because those are memories she wants in a book.