Ashok Sharma
Scrapbooking is a useful and interesting hobby.It is the method of preserving personal and family history of a person in the form of a scrapbook.It is a wonderful and relaxing hobby pursued to have fun and personal fulfillment.In everybody’s life,there are moments from childhood till the last moment of life,which they will like to cherish.We have sweet memories at school, home,during picnics/holiday etc. which can be preserved and kept fresh in memory in a scrapbook.Then we have tickets, special coins,postage stamps,invitation cards, an interesting article in a newspaper/magazine or a funny/important picture in a magazine or just about anything that we hink is special .All these things can be safely stored in a scrapbook and won’t it be wonderful when we flip those pages in leisure and smile.These sweet special moments/memories of our childhood and youth can also be relived in our oldage.The children and grandchildren would also like to know what their parents/grandparents did in their childhood or what their special experiences/ interests were. They would feel proud of you for being the magnificent scrapbooker and memory keeper of the family. These wonderful moments can be preserved in the form of photographs with a little description carefully in a scrapbook.Thus a scrapbook is a precious thing and in fact,more useful than a diary. We can paste pictures and scribble our thoughts in the scrapbook. So, one ought to be very possessive about it.All the memorablia including photographs, newspaper cuttings, artworks, letters, poems, reportcards, etc should be carefully selected, preserved and protected from water or dirty/sticky fingers. Separate scrapbooks may be maintained under different themes and titles such as school life,home,friends,other memories etc.The memorablia may be carefully selected and organised. It is better to maintain an index on the first page of each scrapbook.The purpose of Scrapbooking is,in fact,to document your personal life.So it is better if you leave behind some beautiful and meaningful pages containing information only about yourself so that you can look at those pages with fondness after a few years.
So far the the history of scrapbooking is concerned,it dates back to the 15th century when people would preserve their ‘scraps’ such as love letters, greeting cards, poems, recipes, quotes and other items of importance in the ‘commonplace books’. As the days advanced, these and other things such as black and white photos, newspaper clippings were preserved in bulky leather albums.One of the scrapbookers in the 18 th century was Thomas Jefferson,the President of America,who created album after album of pages, newpaper clippings of his presidency.In the late 1800s, the well known writer and humorist,Mark Twain invented his own scrapbook called ‘Mark Twain’s Adhesive Scrapbook’,which contained prepasted pages that made scrapbooking an easy job.After the First World War, the production of scrapbooks declined but people continued to store their letters,greeting cards,photos etc in boxes.The year 1980 was the turning point in the history of scrapbooking when a lady named Marielen Christensen put together 50 volumes of her family history and shared them with the public,which drew such a huge response that she opened the first scrapbooking store named ‘Keeping Memories Alive’. Within a decade,scrspbooking became one of the fastest growing hobbies in America.
Children at an early stage are very creative and they ought to be encouraged to display their poems,special home assignments,the wrappers of their gifts on birthdays,their progress reports and the bills of their books, uniforms and dresses.They must be guided to maintain the scrapbook on the different themes such as school,parents,friends etc. and embellish the pages with stcikers,colours etc.Similarly,maintaining a scrapbook is s great way for couples and lovers to document the sweetest moments of their relationship and preserve all of their cherished memories.This scrapbook can be presented to the spouse as a wonderful and personalised gift on special occassions such as birthdays,wedding anniversaries, Valentine’s Day etc.For this purpose,right scrapbook with lined or coloured pages having favourite colour of the significant can be chosen and bought.The opening page must be elegant and should be dedicated to the sweetheart with the date on which the scrapbook is gifted.The next page should include the description of the few dates the two partners spent together,the most romantic things he/she did for him/ her.The other pages should include pictures, tickets, menus of frequented hotels and restaurants, movie tickets etc. The scrapbooker must learn to journal and write down key words and phrases that describe each item of memorablia.The partners should write to eachother on their scrapbooks explaining how much each of them loves the other and what he/she means to the other and why he/she should gift him/her the scrapbook.These pages may also include the best memories in their relationship such as the first time they met and went to a movie,the first letter wtitten and their reactions as to how much you were touched or moved when you read the letter or how you burst into laughter upon learning that you are so treasured and cherished by the one you love the most.It should also include what made you fall in love with him/ her whether it was his/ her dance or song or some other thing which captivated you.Also recall the visits to the hotel when you filled your stomachs with food and hearts with love.
Don’t fail to record your weirdest and wildest experiences.In short,the scrapbookers should pour their heart and soul into the scrapbook by documenting the long beautiful romance between you and your sweetheart.Tell him/ her why you love him her so much how you envision your future after ten,twenty or thirty years.End the scrapbook by mentioning why you are thankful to God and citing five to ten reasons as to why you love him/her.Use stickers,markers,cutouts or additional material such as flowers,hearts etc that you want to include but avoid over embellishment.In short, scrapbooking is a wonderful hobby which should be pursued for creative display and preservation of sweetest memories to be cherished for years to come.
Scrapbooking has bloomed and flourished across the world so much that it has now grown into a big industry and is a multibillion dollar business across the globe.A variety of scrapbook albums to cater to varying tastes and needs are available to the scrapbookers.There are many scrapbooking websites which offer free layouts and other ideas to the scrapbookers who can also find answers to their queries.The business of scrapbooking continues to grow with each day and it will be interesting to see how scrapbooking will impact the world in the times to come.
(The writer is presently serving as lecturer in English,Govt. Hr. Sec. School (Boys)Udhampur)
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