A Sign of Change

A few weeks ago, I picked up the June 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes, and here's what I saw on the cover:



It was surprising to see a scrapbook page with not one, not two, but seven photos gracing the cover of the mag. I find it interesting that after years of primarily showing single photo pages on the cover, we see a page that more closely remsembles the work of many in its target audience produce.

Am I saying that single photo pages are bad? Of course not. So many of them are amazing works of art. As well, I see no point in arguing with other scrappers over the page style they like (that's something I will touch on later). What I do notice is that it's a sign of change, and I think it's high time things adapt to meet the needs of the everyday scrapper. After all, they are the ones who are plunking down their hard-earned dough to buy products and publications to help them as they create their scrapbooks.


Three great industry magazines have folded or will in the coming months, and some of that is due to the poor state of the economy. But additionally, many scrapbookers I've talked to don't want to subscribe to them. Why? Because some of the mags only feature a few scrappers with a set style. Since not everyone likes the same thing, is it plausible to publish articles and features on a handful of looks? I would say probably not. Having a little diversity in style, number of photos and products used will probably need to be the order of the day.

I think at the very least, magazines, stores, and anyone else who caters to scrapbookers will need to give equal billing to both single photo pages and multi-photo ones. I see it happening a little here and there, but not as much as I would like. After all, I think one can show how to use great products on a variety of page styles, not just one.

I recall a conversation I had with some of my online scrapping pals not too long ago. Most of them are single photo scrappers and I tend to be a multi-photo scrapper. We were talking about solutions for getting event (like birthdays, holidays, family get-togethers, etc.) and travel layouts done. Many of them were saying that there was no way they could do all single photo pages for those types of topics. They were looking for more ways to do multi-photo pages even though that wasn't their typical choice for scrapbooking. We came away from that conversation with a few ideas, but lamented the true lack of diversity shown for doing pages both ways.

So, seeing a layout that departs from the "standard" on a magazine cover is really encouraging. I hope it means that a wider array of scrapbook pages and styles will be showcased someday. Because honestly, when I see a gorgeous, yet doable and practical page idea, I'm more likely to buy publications and cool items that allow me to do so. I think a lot of other scrapbookers feel the same way.

And, in keeping with the spirit of this post, here is a layout I did that has seven photos on it:



Thanks for looking!