Picture This
Scrapbooking has become a billion-dollar industry as more and more folks cut and paste their life’s memories
By .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
E-mail this story | Print this page | Archive | RSS
“I share techniques and teach people how to use the products,” says Oana. “It can help people learn to scrapbook in a more efficient way.”
Even though she’s always working on
a new project, Aoyagi looks over her
other scrapbooks at least one a year
For the keiki workshops, Oana (who can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or by calling calling 351-5293) usually keeps the kids for four hours and feeds them lunch. “The kids’workshops are really my favorite because they put no limits on themselves,” she says. “They’re so creative and if they make a mistake, they just say, ‘Oh, I’ll put a sticker here,’ or ‘I’ll just turn this into this.’With adults, sometimes they get sensitive if they think theirs doesn’t look like everyone else’s.”
With her own children, Oana quickly learned that all three wanted to have their own albums. Now, they scrapbook as a family.
“We do it every time we develop pictures and especially after holidays,” says Oana. “They like to add to their books and when one wants to do it, they all want to do it.”
For the adults, Aoyagi says there’s so much out there in the world of scrapbooking that people can get intimidated. But if you pick one project to start with, you’d be amazed at what you can do.
“There are two things to keep in mind,” she says. “What are you really scrapbooking for? You’re doing it to enhance your photos. And what kind of story are you trying to tell? Everything just flows after that. A page is supposed to evoke a feeling.
“You could look at what other people are doing, but it’ll never be your own. You have to create your own style. Don’t worry if it’s right or wrong.”
Even with all the embellishments you can add to make your page pretty, the photos are still the base of the crafting and everything else feeds back into it. So, industry experts advise, don’t cut up your important photos. Make a copy if need be, especially of the older ones. Don’t alter it by laminating, or stick it down to a backing where you can’t remove it if you need to.
And don’t forget the journaling. This, says Ching, is one of the most important things. Journaling tells not only who’s in the photos, but what they were doing. This becomes ever important as generations pass on and aren’t around to explain the stories behind the photographs.
“That old Chinese proverb that a pictures tells a thousand words, well, it does, but it doesn’t tell the whole story,” says Ching.
Scrapbooking can be as simple as documenting your trip to a Neighbor Island or as significant as creating a piece of history for your grandchildren to admire. It can be a way to express yourself creatively or just to socialize with your friends.
For Aoyagi, scrapbooking is a way of life. She has scrapbooking equipment all over her house. It’s on four shelves in her washroom, in three seven-foot cabinets down in her living room and sprawled out in the TV room, bedroom and dining room. Though she sometimes has “scrapper’s block” and needs to take a break, Aoyagi knows she scrapbooks to remember all the tiny little details that we all forget as time passes. Her scrapbooks unlock those moments every time she flips a page. They are special memories of love, hope and dreams that will be in her heart forever. And years from now, when her children look through those pages, they can remember too. It’s become an even more significant keepsake of someone she held so dear.
Page 3 of 3 pages for this story < 1 2 3
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
