h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Surviving a Scrapbooking Retreat - A4094255
Author: Mikey the Humming Mouse - A1355195 Hitchhike your way into the Edited Guide! - U99875

This ended up rather longer than I'd anticipated. I'm thinking of chopping out the 'jargon' section and making that part of an entry that's just on scrapbooking in general - do you think that would help, or do you think it's better how it is?


Mikey

Hi Mikey

Well, firstly, may I say I think this is a lively and informative read and could be a shoe-in for the Front Page as it stands, .

Having said that, you ask the question as to whether it'd be better to do an entry 'just' on scrap-booking, and I think that would be a good idea; just not *this* entry!

What you *could* do is separate this off into two entries: one dedicated to scrapbooking (you don't really cover the basics as well as you could here, and I think this would be mostly new material); and one (basically this one with a few adjustments) that covers the rather intriguing (and new to me) concept of a 'scrapbook' retreat.

Just my .

btw, "While male scrappers do theoretically exist, they are rare enough to be considered nonexistent for all intents and purposes."

Well I may just try to become one of those 'nonexistent' male scrapbookers in the not-too-distant future, after feeling inspired by your entry. Ta!

Spiff

Hi, Mikey!

As it stands, I found it a very easy read about something I'd never even heard of before. If you wanted to split it into two entries, that'd be fine too--I'd be happy with it either way.

There are two main things I think you could add: as a communal activity, is this a purely American hobby? I've certainly never seen any reference to it in the UK or Ireland. And I think it would be good to give some idea of how many women are likely to attend--if you're talking about having sales people there, I take it that it's more than just a group of 6 or 8 friends?

And my idea of a 'male scrapper' is of someone pugnacious

Azara

Absolutely fascinating: I had no idea that such a subculture could grow up around this hobby.

The entry is excellently written, and could go in as-is without any cutting, pasting, emebellishment, fancy coloured card....

OK, I've added in a sentence about how widely the group size can range. As far as I can tell, this is definitely not an American-only thing -- I've been able to find plenty of ads for Australian scrapbooking retreats, and for British scrapbooking stores, clubs, and crops (like this one http://www.cotswoldkeepsakes.co.uk/show_content.asp?pageID=30016&usrID=E937753A-94DE-434A-8BD0-F125920E3AC3 and these places http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/boards/sponsors.php)

Myself, *I* had never realized that all of this existed until I receieved a phone call from a friend on a Wednesday night, asking me to leave with her for such a retreat on Friday afternoon.

Just in case people thought I was inventing some of the especially odd bits....
http://www.croptime.com/photo_album/photo_album.pl?page=3

Glad people are enjoying the entry, though -- this is one of those entries that I let flutter around in my head for a few months before putting it all down on the page.


Mikey

I don't see why such a hobby should be viewed as an eccentricity: after all, there are enough 'oooh, look at my wonderful family!' websites, many of which look like they've been knocked together as an afterthought. And no-one raises an eyebrow at this.

on my two points, Mikey!

This is the kind of entry I love about the Guide: an insight into something that has been going on under my nose and I never even noticed...

Azara

Wow I knew some people took Scrapbooking seriously, but I had no idea...

One thing...

The supplies to bring list doesn't need to be in form. form is fine, because it's just a list of things, without full sentences.

Oh what great timing!

When my grandmother died at Easter I 'inherited' her copy of a family tree that goes back to Tudor times. I've been out and bought some supplies and I intend to scrapbook it - it's in a plain beige folder stuffed in A4 plastic wallets, and I want to add photos, and even the wedding invitations of my parents generation that she kept. I bought my first magazine too, and you've just explained some of the jargon that I've been reading and not understanding because they expect readers to have more knowledge than I do.


One thing I am wondering - I keep seeing references to 'acid free paper', and don't put acid near photos, but I've no idea why. That might be a bit too much into 'what is scrapbooking' though. I would find an entry about what is scrapbooking, and what can it be used for useful though, layouts etc if you want to keep this one just as about the retreat.

I disagree with Jodan about the list of supplies - they look like sentances to me, so they should be treated as proper sentances with punctuation etc and . If it just said

scrapbook
paper
scissors

then it should just be .

btw, I hope that I've answered Azara's question about is it a USA only thing - it's big here too apparently - the magazine I mentioned is a new one out this month, so it's clearly taking off. There was mention of it on one of the boards I hosted as part of my new job after leaving the Beeb - it's a quiet board, but there are people talking about it there.

"a scrapbook - the expandable 12x12 inch ones will give you the most flexibility" sounds like an item in a list with a bit of clarification to me.
<./>SubEditors-GuideML</.> says that s should be short, snappy items and should be self contained sentences. It occurs to me that there is some middle ground here. There are not so short items that aren't in sentence form.

Up to Mikey in that case, I reckon.

I had originally had that list without the , and it looked odd to me, so I added in the .

As far as all the acid-free stuff, Mina, it's about protecting the longevity of your scrapbook, and especially of your photos. The acid content in many photo albums, paper, stickers, adhesive, etc, can eventually cause photographs to start breaking down. This page here describes it all rather better than I can:

http://learn2scrapbook.com/definitions.htm
http://learn2scrapbook.com/safety.htm

It looks like there would be some interest, so I'll start thinking about how to do an entry on scrapbooking in general.

Yeah okay trust me to start picking over words I know, sorry.

"Maybe you see this title and are thinking to yourself"
I see...and then am thinking...I am seeing and thinking? Sorry I'm not entirely sure what I feel is dodgy about this clause, but I feel something is.

Maybe you see this title and think to yourself?

You've used double inverted commas

Is scrapbooking usually done with friends or is it okay to go on these things just on your own? If they are done specifically for groups can you tag on? I don't have very many friends you see...

"one the prime factors"
one OF the prime factors

" you spent two dollars a page on"
Are we allowed to say that? I'm being pedantic in the extreme, but I'm checking for future reference really.

Oh there's the who will I meet section...I reckon that would be better above the vocab bit personally, you know?

"sexy pajama pageant"
"Elivs karaoke tournament"
Don't we all always forget to spelling and typo check our own entries?

"forever and ever?"
for ever and ever
You never actually saw this done did you??? You never told me about that! Then again...it spared you seeing my face as I read it.

"pricy"
pricey? pricy? ummm?

"do you really need to spend $10"
"dropped well over $1000 on the experience"
Same question as the 2 dollar one. Besides I haven't got any dollars left, I left them by the sofa.


Can't remember where, but coworkers I guess needs to be co-workers? I don't have any so am not sure. Also I SWEAR it's pyjama not pajama. This has been driving me nutty for weeks because I keep seeing pajama Oh and I'm attached to the tags...but you know that already.

And I was delighted at your scrapbook and...yeah okay I found it knicker-wettingly funny but very interesting to look at, especially the turtle of course.
And yes people, Mikey is the kind of person who can't leave a half-finished scrapbook alone...there are sekret skrapbook nites!

I reckon this is a really good entry. Yeah I can see what you mean about it being a bit long but I never shy away from a long entry so I couldn't really say. I found the vocab useful, although you're right in saying it could be a separate entry and then linked. Whatever you feel is best. HOWEVER I do not now wish to start putting my own together...not even having seen the cool letters and stickers you can get for it

Kat

It just told me that it can either be pagent or pageant...I apologise You never know though! Vigilence!

Yup. And those things you sleep in can be either pyjamas or pajamas. And coworkers can be with or without the hyphen. And pricy and pricey are both acceptable spellings.

And yes, we're allowed to mention how expensive things are -- why wouldn't we be? What you don't want to do is say "This album cost $13.99," because that sort of info wouldn't be accurate everywhere, and would soon be out of date. But general examples of costs are much less sensitive to that sort of change, and are definitely important pieces of information for people to know.

I will work on the other bits, though.

I am enlightened. Thank you

Hi Mikey.

I've seen magazines on scrapbooking when I was in the States. I think it is very much an American pastime, although it does take place in the UK. I've never heard of Scrapbooking Retreats, though.

You talk about scrapbook paper being only printed on one side. This suggests to me that you are talking about something very different from what we get here. In the UK and Ireland, scrapbooks are normally made from very rough paper which is usually grey in colour although it can occasionally be other dark colours such are purple, blue or brown. It is far too rough to print on.

The correct British English spelling is 'pyjamas', not 'pajamas'. The latter is only acceptable in America, and is also used for a type of day clothing that Indian people wear.

Hi mikey.I started out with card making,encouraged by my daughter and grandchildren,then progressed to scrapbooking.I have started with great ,great aunts and grandparents,and am now on to a page with my grandchildren as babies,,,and i enjoy every minute of it
The last page will have the family tree on it,as far back as i can go(1780's so far),and i have included mums favourite poem on her page.It's been a pleasure to do,and i'm looking forward to adding to it ,and hope my grandchildren will do the same eventually!

Ahhh I knew I couldn't be completely nutty about the pajama pyjama thing. I just looked it up in two dictionaries whilst I was playing Scrabble and definitely says that 'pyjama' is the British spelling.
I did, by the way, win the game of Scrabble by 87 points

Oh and Mikey's a bit sicky at the minute so who knows when she'll get around to poking all of our things.

OK, a few things at a time.

From the research I've done, and the people I've talked to, it really doesn't seem like just an American thing, Gnomon -- I don't think there would be all those stores and clubs *just* for scrapbooking across England if it was. Australia has just as many scrapbooking retreats as the US does -- and I've heard from someone in Sweden who's been on one as well.

When you talk about the paper, it sounds like you are talking about a very different type of scrapbook, more like the type young children use than what adults would be working with. The scrapbooking we're talking about here, each page is basically a clear plastic folder that you insert your own scrapbook page into -- the most common set up is that the plastic folder has a piece of cardstock in there already, and then you slide one page into each side. And yes, this type of scrapbooking is done in the UK and these supplies are sold there -- like I said, there are stores that sell nothing but this stuff.

Hmmmm.... I have always strongly disliked the spelling 'pyjamas' -- would the slang term 'jammies' be ok, then? Is that used on both sides of the ocean?

Glad you're enjoying the scrapbooking, Smurfles!