Saturday, June 10, 2006

Finding My Niche in the Scrapbooking World

Finding My Niche

As a card carrying member of the AARP and a baby boomer (give or take a few months) I am now trying to find my place in the scrapworld.
Only a very few of the magazines seem to have a place for me. Those of us who are retired and empty nesters are actually in a position to buy more things ...more disposable income than we ever had before, but we are wiser in our buying and more selective than we were before. We have been there and done that with fills, fads and fanciful things are are interested in things that reflect our values and remind us of home, hearth and family.
As I look through magazines with "I Hope You Dance, Dream, Hope, Cherish and Inspire. I have already danced, dreamed and had hopes realized and dashed.
No one would be interested in my pages on " I Hope You Do the Mash Potato, Twist or Riverdance, My "Pieces of Me" page wouldn't go over too well with swollen ankles, wrinkled knees and double/triple chins... and my best swimsuit photos include a parasol and gingham checks... My missing tooth page would not be well received either.
Where once I would not post and submit a photo of my chubby little self, now as an empty nester with no grandkids, I find those photos, along with photos of hubby and scenic views of the area, make up the most of my photos. Will someone please find a place for people like me to share? Perhaps a senior section in your reader's gallery?
My cute kid photos were taken in the 60's, 70's and 80's with those tiny little cameras which produced the square photos with the nice white borders. I don't even want to mention all the backgrounds with Harvest Green and Autumn Gold or whatever it was. My kitchen photos included bright (you say guady) wallpaper and back then my slacks had a bell bottom (and I didn't).
I am past the stage of doodling on my pages and I want albums that I will be able to lift and take with me to the old folks home.
I have so many memories and have learned so much. I have shared these things on my journaling pages and submitted them in hopes that someone would
consider them publish worthy, Fortunately, I can share some of these bits of 'wisdom' in my poetry.
I enjoy the magazines and would love to be included more in them...but for who I am now, not who I once was 40 years ago. I wish I didn't have to borrow photos of other people's kids to get pages published. I know other folks my age do the same thing.
Scrapbooking is a wonderful way to share our memories and record them for generations to come. But the modern world has offered us a way to share them in the printed media of scrapbook magazines and of course, it is more fun to gather and read them if we feel we might be able to have our page showcased in one.
So, I'm trying to find a niche where I can fit in, a place where I can share who I am and what I've learned and do it in the way that I will still be able to enjoy ten years from now.

9 Comments:

Blogger Owl at Home said...

Interesting thoughts, Thena! I would like to see a bigger variety of pages - when I was married but didn't have children yet I found pages by and of people like me were few and far between. Someday I'll be an empty-nester too (God willing) and I'd like to know that my pages or pages by people like me will still be featured.

10:40 AM  
Blogger mitchsmom said...

You wrote "Will someone please find a place for people like me to share? Perhaps a senior section in your reader's gallery?"... why don't you propose that idea to one of the magazines? (You could be the editor for that section!?)

Thanks for the boy poetry!

4:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, so well said Thena! I'm trying to find my place in the scrapbooking world, too... I'm single, childless and in my late 20s. It helps that we're seeing more published childess scrappers out there (although they all seem to have cute husbands)! The layouts that speak to me in magazines almost never include children... they're about other important things in life... careers, family and friends get-togethers, hobbies, communities and travel. I LOVE Brenda Arnell... she is one scrapper who definitely inspires me... she's not "in my age group" and I've never seen her scrap photos of young children. I know I can't be the only one inspired by her! She's not scrapper status-quo, but to me she produces the type of work that sells magazines. I think there's a place for all ages, backgrounds and both sexes in the scrap community. Like you, I hope to see more diverse work displayed in the publications. Afterall, you can only get so much inspiration from the "I Hope You Dance, Dream, Hope...' layouts.

2:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Thena, have you visited Diversity Designs? www.diversitydesigns.net - not a magazine or anything, but a community dedicated to making scrapbooking truly for EVERYONE - I'll bet you'd find a lot of interest there, and maybe even people with ideas of how to get your pages (about YOU and your generation instead of your friends' kids or whatnot) out there...good luck! We're ALL heading there...I guess you could say you're leading the trend :)

7:21 PM  
Blogger Francine said...

Hi Thena, I remember when you posted this on 2peas, and I agree wholeheartedly. I second LynnAnne's suggestion to check out diversitydesigns.net :)

2:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Although I'm still sbing 16 y/o dd, I sure understand where you're coming from. I miss having a 2 or 4 year old to do so many varieties of LO's - I think there's a niche and we have plenty to fill it with!

Thanks for your thoughtful and sincere words.

Colleen
Chi-Girl
Pea-ticular

8:38 PM  
Blogger Ande said...

Very much with you on this one - I am 34, divorced, work in construction, and fight fire as my other hobby! I am unmarried and childfree - I can only take so many pictures of my boyfriend's granddaughter before it creeps him out and thinks I am going to want to adopt. :) We all need more niche, hopefully we can sway the market a little more in the future. I am doing my part, I convert as many firefighters and construction folks as I can!

Keep it up, Thena, love your enlightened thoughts.
a

9:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This blog was delightful and boy did it hit home for me. I'm a baby boomer too and have been scrapbooking since the early years of "the new scrapbooking". Not only does our generation have more disposable income but we also have more time. My daughters are always fighting to get free hours to scrapbook while, now that I'm retired from work, I'm free to scrapbook every day or totally immerse myself in making pages for a few days. Yet, as your writing put it so well, we older scrapbookers are largely ignored by publications.

6:49 AM  
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