What is a Scrapbook Party?

A scrapbook party is a party where guests put together or work on scrapbooks. Scrapbook parties may be held with a specific theme in mind, like travel, and they can be attended by children and/or adults. Some people enjoy organizing scrapbook parties because they can be novel social events which encourage activity while offering entertainment to break the ice.

There are a number of ways to organize a scrapbook party. Some companies offer to bring what amounts to a scrapbook party in a box to a private home or business, with attendees simply showing up with the things they would like to include in their scrapbooks. Other party organizers may pull together the tools needed on their own, or ask guests to bring their own scrapbooking supplies. Because scrapbooking materials can be expensive, in cases where such materials are provided, guests may be asked to pay a small fee.

A scrapbook is a collection of mementos which are preserved in a semi-permanent to permanent way. At a minimum, people will need photographs and other mementos to mount in their scrapbooks, along with mounting tools like glue, tape, and photo corners. Scrapbookers also often include decorations in their scrapbooks, requiring things like pens, paint, glitter, ribbon, stamps, novelty papers, and so forth to customize their scrapbooks, making them more visually interesting.

Scrapbooking has been a popular pastime in some form or another for centuries. The Greeks, for example, kept wax tablets with accounts of their lives, an early form of journaling, and once paper and printed materials became readily available to average citizens, the concept of scrapbooking exploded. The desire to keep reminders of important life events is certainly understandable, and a surprisingly wide assortment of people from Presidents to grandmothers have been known to keep scrapbooks.

Scrapbooking became especially popular in the 20th century, when it expanded radically thanks to an explosion of affordable craft supplies and the rise of digital scrapbooks. Many scrapbookers turned their skills into an industry, producing scrapbooks by request for clients and leading scrapbook parties for people who wanted to learn scrapbooking skills. Thanks to the rise of scrapbooking as a pastime, scrapbooking kits are readily available from many craft stores.

A scrapbook party can be held on any number of occasions. Some people like to add a scrapbooking aspect to children's parties, to give the children something creative to focus on so that they don't get bored. Adults may also hold scrapbooking parties, exchanging various finds like interesting fabrics to decorate each other's scrapbooks. A scrapbook party can be a fun way to share stories about travel and other life experiences.