"I want to make scrapbooking cool."

A recent Newsday article discusses the popularity of scrapbooking among crafters in their 20s, and the tendency among these enthusiasts to create more design-oriented pages than those that used to be associated with the craft:

"Although scrapbookers of a certain breed may gravitate toward time-savers like pre-decorated, just-add-photos pages or themed accessory kits, experts say younger-generation crafters often take a far more custom approach.

...Sick of the mass market where everything looks the same, the Gen-X and Gen-Y sets practically crave the rush that comes with doing something creative and distinctive."

This article is a worthwhile read for those interested in scrapbooking. However, there is a whiff of advertorial: its secondary purpose seems to be to promote the new Martha Stewart craft line available at Michael's stores (warning: flash page). The inclusion of several other companies, like EK Success, makes it seem balanced, but the Martha Stewart line and several of the other products mentioned are all made by EK Success. (Some companies that also make great supplies are listed in the article's sidebar.)

That said, I stopped into a Michael's store after reading this article, and I don't have any complaints about the actual Stewart products.

Many Martha Stewart craft items are housed in a special display aisle. Most aren't unique in their category, but are attractive (in terms of packaging for things like glitter and glue, and in terms of the items themselves with regard to papers, ribbons, and embellishments). They seem to be reasonably priced. They are not really specific to any one application, though most of the products will be useful to scrapbookers, cardmakers, and other kinds of papercrafters. The two items which struck me on first viewing were a roll of stickers and a set of cards.

The stickers are shapes and letters that have been die-cut from a double-sided adhesive. Use them by putting the sticker down where you want it, sprinkling glitter on top, and shaking off the excess glitter, or applying the glitter before putting the sticker on a surface. The product line includes numerous colors of fine glitter. The finished stickers will be flatter than similar chipboard embellishments. However, for use in scrapbooking, crafters would probably have to make sure that the face-up adhesive is completely coated in glitter.

The cards are just large alphabet flash cards, probably around 5x7", with vintage animal art: I is for Iguana, and so on. These could be used in many ways ... scrapbooking about a trip to the zoo, spelling a child's name out on their bedroom wall, or... as very stylish alphabet/animal flash cards. There are plenty of other possible uses for them that are not as child-centric, like an "It's A Jungle Out There" theme for scrapbook/journal pages about finding a job after college, or "Party Animals" for documenting celebrations, classmates, and, well, pets.

Although advertorial tends to get on my nerves, I have to admit it: this is some cool stuff.

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