Fighting over scraps

What a scrapbooking scandal says about human nature | Janie B. Cheaney

Carolyn Cole/© 2008 Los Angeles Times/Reprinted with permission

Lying, cheating, cover-ups. What did they know and when? It was such a scandal, it made headlines in the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, plus a feature story in Newsweek. But most of the coverage barely concealed a smirk, for the scandal had occurred in the soft-focus, buttons-and-borders, female-dominated world of scrapbooking.

First, a little history: In 1980, the Christensen family of Utah caused quite a stir at the World Conference of Records by presenting their family history in loose-leaf binders with cutout embellishments. Reaction was so positive the family soon produced a how-to book and started a retail outlet for stamps and acid-free paper. At first this style of artistic archiving confined itself mostly to the Mormon community, owing to their doctrinal interest in genealogy But in 1987, it crossed over with Creative Memories, a company founded in St. Cloud, Minn. Growing rapidly on the "consultant" model, Creative Memories was soon selling supplies and offering classes through shops and conventions all over the United States. In the 20 years since, scrapbooking has grown to a $2.6 billion industry.