((((BOWING TO MELISSA)))
Most if not all what Melissa wrote I will not plagerize here. However I will say that I am a digital scrapbooker as well as a hybrid scrapbooker in addition to my first love of traditional scrapbooking.
Although I only use digital scrapbooking for quick gift items, I do pay attention to details and give it the love that I would if I were to make it the traditional way. Each choice from background color to frames to accessories are chosen with care and if necessary changed to complement the picture(s) involved. I find that digital scrapbooking is more cost effective for me and at times much quicker than doing a whole traditional album. I was sick for awhile last year and digital scrapbooking was an outlet that I could utilize while recovering. I use Hallmark Scrapbooking Studio 3.0 as my medium and Microsoft Picture It as the editing software.
In the traditional arena, New York City isn't big scrapbooking town. I live in Queens and the nearest "crop" is either on Long Island or somewhere in the Bronx which is out of the way for me. I work Tuesday to Saturday which cancels most crops that are held at my local AC Moore or Michaels.. However, this board is like a little crop and they are very inspiring. I grew up in a family of Printers and I have a college background in Art History so the tangible feel of traditional scrapbooking is what makes me excited. I saw a scrapbook once from the 1890s in a museum in Newport Rhode Island and the love and attention to detail this woman put into her scrapbook detailing her life and her hobbies (she was an avid gardener and world traveller) she was into was fascinating. It wasn't a just photo and a postcard or embellishment here and there on the page but so much more that historically it was precious. Although none of us will most likely impress social historians in a hundred years (except maybe a few of us who scrapbooked events like 9-11) but to our future generation families they may be priceless.
Traditional scrapbooking is also extremely expensive. Between the papers, stickers and tools the cost of supplies alone can total hundreds of dollars maybe thousands. The cost can also be judged by the size of the album, 6x6, 8x8, 8 1/2 x 11, or 12x12 can also change the price. However the love, time and patience put into the scrapbook has no monetary value because each piece of paper, each cut of the photograph or embellishment, the layering of stickers or embellishments, the handwritten journalling cannot be given a cost because of the thought and care put into the page.
What also can determine a scrapbooker is the level of creativity. There are scrapbookers here that are beginners who are talented but like the clean lines of a few photos and corresponding embellishments and then there are the experts who can make a very busy very cluttered layout look effortless and have the air of being really simple when they are not.
Message boards such as this one "sees a need, fills a need." It is a meeting of the creative minds who inspire and challenge the best in each of us. We may cyberly tease that Dave has bought yet again another case of paper on his trip or MC is enabling us in oohing and aahing over the newest tools she saw at a convention or if one of us is having a problem figuring out how to work a layout the ideas are endless in how to fix the page and to encourage the line of thought one of us is heading.
Good luck with your article and if you could, provide us with a link of your article so we can see it.
Kate