Scrapbooking is all about preserving history by sticking little pieces of memorabilia onto the pages of a scrapbook. Things like photos, artwork, ticket stubs, envelopes, letters – there’s so many things that you might find in the pages of these fascinating books. It’s no wonder that it’s such a popular hobby across the world, and no wonder it gets its own day of observance!
History of International Scrapbooking Industry Day
Scrapbooks have been around for a long time, and ones from centuries gone by can give us a fascinating insight into the lives of our ancestors. Around the 15th century, Englanders might make what was called ‘commonplace books’ out of their favorite letters, quotations, recipes and the like. A commonplace book was an excellent way of compiling knowledge, and it is not uncommon to find them packed with prayers, proverbs, mathematical formulas, and informational tidbits.
Then, in the 16th century, friendship albums began to appear which frequently contained memorabilia from trips and excursions between friends and family, and usually, illustrations or notes were written by them. Much like yearbooks of modern times, friendship albums would be filled with scribblings from the owner’s acquaintances.
College women around the early 1900s would frequently use scrapbooking as a way to record their lives; as cameras and photography were not readily available at the time, students would keep their playbills or their ticket stubs in a scrapbook as a snapshot.
Because scrapbooking would become something akin to writing a journal, scrapbooks from previous centuries can give us modern folk an excellent insight into what life was like in times gone by.
How to celebrate International ScrapBooking Industry Day
Scrap booking is a great way of chronicling the things that go on in your life in physical form. In the modern age, we rely a bit too much on our memory cards and phones – but having something physical to flip through is surely much more satisfying. So why not go out today and pick up a scrapbook of your own?
You could stick ticket stubs in it, flyers from gigs you’ve been to, even tags and labels from beer bottles that you think look good or cuttings from magazines that catch your eye.
Perhaps even get your whole family in on it, and create your own family scrapbook together for generations to come to flip through? Just make sure you don’t put any embarrassing photos in there for them to see!
