Scrapbook mania in Pleasanton Scrapbook mania in Pleasanton (August 23, 2002)

by by Jeb Bing

A walk through last week's Scrapbook Expo at the Fairgrounds showed just how elaborate and popular it's become to safeguard the family archives. We've come a long way since my days of gluing news items, photos and fraternity mementos onto large coarse manila pages in a cardboard-like binder for future viewing. As I learned Saturday, almost everything I used, including the more advanced pages that had their own adhesive, was acidic and leeched right through those important keepsakes. That explains why many of the pages of these old albums are stuck together and others have old Kodak color prints that are as washed out as the memories.

Recent Amador graduate Jessica Meyers is among the younger generation that knows about scrapbooking, a word that appears to have become a verb as well as a noun as thousands take on this new activity. Meyers, 18, who will soon head to the University of Washington, has been placing her photos and keepsakes in albums since the sixth grade, incorporating all the specialty papers and appliques to highlight prom, homecoming and other materials that teens like to keep. She even has a Pleasanton Weekly photo of an ex-boyfriend, which, thanks to this new technology, will never fade away. She believes many teens don't take the time to be more careful, which means that 20-30 years from now when they try to recognize that date of theirs, it'll be a faded photo lost to carelessness.

Of course, scrapbooks today cost a bit more than the ones I remember buying at the old five-and-dime. Maybe that's why the hundreds of booths at the Fairgrounds show had credit card machines and personal check verifiers. A 20-page album with acid-free, plastic pages starts at $18. Refills, which can increase the album to 50 pages and more, make it more expensive. To be chic, a scrapbook by today's standards should have a decorative cover, and the contents, whether sorted chronologically or by subjects, need decorative stamps, appliques and frames. These might have themes based on Johnny's soccer years, family Christmases, vacations or Sherry's baseball championship. One album, being decorated for a family just back from Maui, had pop-up leis and miniature sunglasses to place around the scores of beachside photos.

Suzanne Slupesky of California Stampin' in the Oak Hills Shopping Center has been in business since 1992, moving from one location to larger ones to keep pace with this rapidly growing business. Like Kathy Cailteaux who owns Pleasant Memories across town in the Rosewood Pavilion, both were at the show where Bay Area scrapbookers filled the hall. It's also a business that seems to attract mostly women. The only males I saw at the show were 1-and-2-year-olds in strollers. Husbands might complain about all the loose photos around the house or in a bedroom trunk (where we keep ours), but it's the female who watches scrapbooking techniques on HGTV and other channels who are taking the initiative to upgrade the family photo archives for the coming generations.

This couldn't please Jennifer Davis more. She's the owner of Scrapbook Expo who counted over 7,500 at the Pleasanton show, nearly 2,000 more than a year ago. With four shows each year in California and shows in Atlanta, Tampa, Chicago and Austin, the scrapbook fad is expanding nationwide. She just added a new show nearby - scheduled next March 7-8 at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. For those who take a lot of holiday photos, it might be worth the trip.