DIY Life

Mainstream scrapbooking has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade, developing a much more sophisticated look than the one initially associated with it when it emerged as a major hobby in the mid-1990s. Nowadays, I hear a lot of my friends talk about how scrapbooking appeals to them, and how happy they are to have discovered "alternative" scrapping.

Until pretty recently, a lot of people felt neglected and unwelcome and in the scrapbooking scene, based on the products that were most readily available -- which can seem boring to them. Many of those people tend to be young, single people with full-time jobs and no kids, though they may have a pet who is like a child to them; they're hipster types who would rather do a layout about an indie rock show that they went to -- or that they performed in! -- than one about a two-year-old making bubbles.

(That layout is probably adorable, but it's likely that however cool she is, the mom in question didn't have much trouble finding paper and embellishments for it that she didn't find bland or embarrassing: she is the market's target customer.)

Of course, it's not true that hip, youthful scrappers were unwelcome, and since this demographic is a hungry market, plenty of products have come out for them in the last couple of years (though, even now, many ostensibly "youth-oriented" scrapbooking products actually seem to be aimed at the parents of teenagers, in a "we'll look back on your rebellion and laugh" sort of way). Today, I'm writing about some of the coolest scrapbooking stuff I've ever seen. Read more about it after the break.

There isn't a single "mainstream scrapbooking style," but if there were, the general look these days would be probably somewhere between Hallmark and Martha Stewart, a sort of comforting elegance. In comparison, the cutting edge of the scrapbooking market is arty, sometimes avant-garde, and strongly influenced by contemporary graphic design. There's occasionally a fluidity between the styles, which I think we'll see increasing in the future.

Bam Pop! is a company that makes very different supplies for scrapbookers and rubber stampers -- well, "very different" if you're accustomed to associating these hobbies with the gift-shop prettiness mentioned above.

According to the statement on their site, BAM POP is a young publisher of products designed for the fun kids. BAM POP is bubblegum, robots, monsters, and comic books. It is ideas scribbled on the notebooks of open minds. It is imagination. It is freedom. It is love. JJ and Jen are BAM POP and this is their heart.

Their papers feature things like dancing robots, stars, unicorns, and the word RAD repeated over and over in different hand-drawn fonts. Their stamps depict "furry birds," friendly robots, cartoon dinosaurs, and more adorable unicorns. There are picture frames and word balloons, and most of their designs have a hand-drawn feel. Basically, they make amazing, totally modern paper-craft products for children of the 80s, some of whom may have kids of their own.

Cartoon dinosaurs are nothing new: look at any scrapbooking store's area of "little boy" papers. It's the style of illustration that I haven't seen in similar products before. All of their work has an aesthetic similar to what you see in indie comic books, the most popular Etsy shops, cool CD and book cover design, ads for stores like Urban Outfitters, shirts sold by Threadless, cute stationery from Japan and Korea, and so on. In comparison, even other great cutting-edge products, like those by Basic Grey and 7gypsies, might look slightly tame.

The only bad news is that Bam Pop doesn't seem to sell their supplies directly to the public: at their website, you can look at the catalog and at a list of suppliers. Visit suppliers' sites, like Ally Scraps, Your Scrapbook Stash, or Two Peas in a Bucket, or do a search for "bam pop" at Etsy or eBay.

To be honest, I suspect some people won't like these supplies: not all scrappers will see them as tasteful or mature enough for regular use. Even so, they might try using Bam Pop's stuff for layouts about kids, teens, and college students. Others who like the motifs might not care for the color schemes that have been released so far in the paper sets, but they could always try the stamps with the ink of their choice.

The paper-craft market could use more products like this.

(If you enjoyed this article, you might also enjoy checking out Scrap Time's video podcast about Bam Pop. Alas, the contest that she mentions at the end is over.)