By Sabrina Manganella Simmons
Coastal Parent

Sabrina Manganella Simmons photos
Jayme Danford of Savannah Scrapbooking, laughs about the myth that scrapbookers are eccentrics. "We are extremely cool people," she says.

Remember art class in elementary school when you could express yourself creatively with your friends, cutting, pasting, and joking around. Fast forward to mom status...dishes, diapers, photos stuffed in drawers, baby books woefully empty, and an endless supply of laundry that still has to be put away. Now combine the two.... mom status and fun with cutting and pasting (with no computer in sight).

Scrapbooking is not just for young mothers, but the appeal to young exhausted moms is definitely there, especially to women who aren't usually into "that kind of thing."

"My friend is a domestic goddess and I am not crafty at all. She took me kicking and screaming to my first scrapbooking class. I thought it sounded hokey. But after my first class, I was addicted. I've been die-hard ever since," says Kim Hendrix, the owner of Scrap Happy on Wilmington Island.

Jayme Danford, who owns Savannah Scrapbooking, said that after her beginner class, she was hooked. Intent on disproving the myth that scrap-bookers are solitary eccentrics, Danford explains, "We aren't the type of people to pull out some needlework. We are extremely cool people."



Scrap Happy owner Kim Hendrix says the camaraderie of scrapbooking helps fuel its popularity.

Making scrapbooks has gone way beyond gluing theater stubs into a big maroon book. There is a constantly changing inventory of supplies to buy, including archival paper, special scissors that make designs, embellishments, archival sparkly pens, and on and on. The latest craze is metal eyelets. They have eyelets in the shape of baby feet, Easter eggs, anything.

Another perk is that you start scrapbooking by going to scrapbooking school.

Scrap-booking school consists of classes that tend to be as much about learning new scrapping skills, as about chatting. And you must get out of the house without children to go to classes.

"Guys have hunting. We don't have that," says Danford.

Stores sponsor "crops" where every one comes and pays a set fee for 12 straight hours of scrapbooking. "They pay to get out of the house," says Hendrix. "It's the barbershop for women," says Danford.

The barbershop is open for more then young mothers. There are grandmothers, women making wedding albums, kids making high school or college albums, men making family heritage albums.

"People come in to talk. People tell me about their aggravating daughter in law and I am happy to listen. I try not to give advice. It's a calling," says Danford.

Julie Lauper-Cooke is the mother of two daughters under five, and an instructor at Savannah State University. She also holds scrapbooking classes and sells scrapbooking products from the Creative Memories Co.

"Women multi-task. All of their time is so precious. Scrapbooking is a social activity, an artistic outlet, and it benefits the family. It is productive...," she says.

Lauper-Cooke sees making an album as a way to validate motherhood.

"People will say 'just a mother' but the album makes family life significant because it highlights family life in a beautiful way."

She says that it feels good to create something beautiful. She also includes journal entries in her scrapbook pages, telling stories she hopes her children will one day enjoy. "I don't know what I was like as a kid. And I was one of 6 so it is hard to trust my mother's memory."

Adults often need an excuse to be creative - some purposeful reason to play with the left sides of their brains. Scrapbookers have those guilt-inducing piles of unorganized photographs to motivate them towards grade school joy de vivre.