History of Scrapbook Trends

I can't relate to that idea very well. That seems like way too much work for unsatisfactory results so I would need to see the result.

Now I do recall Memory Makers magazine back in the day had a few issues with decades in them and it showed what colors and items reflected a particular decade. I'm sure the 70's for example included avocado and orange, smile faces, peace signs, busy patterns. The 50's probably included pink and aqua, silver and polka dots, for example.

But I don't think that's what you have in mind, is it?

For anyone who wants to read up on the history of scrapbooking (granted, not the trends from the late 20th century until today), here is an academic article that is very enlightening.

I have been scrapbooking since 1996, twenty years. I think I could re-create any trend over time. As a post above mentions, many thing come around again, which is why I do not purge my stash. Even the "dated" papers can be used in small amounts if the colors are right, or in mixed media projects. I too scrap haphazardly, but then I put the finished pages into chronologic albums.

It is fun to look back on those trends like the color blocking, foam stamps with acrylic paint, chipboard, fibers, torn paper edges, eyelets, brads, monochromatic color schemes, metal embellishments, serious vintage, grunge, etc. The only trend that makes me cringe is cutting the photos into shapes (fortunately I thought it was not such as good idea at the time so I don't have too many pages with those). I also am not a fan of one tiny photo on a page surrounded by tons and tons of product.

I actually have all of my old Memory Makers, Creating Keepsakes and PaperKuts magazines, so I could certainly take a trip down scrapbooking trend memory lane.

I started scrapping about 15 years ago. Most layouts were done with card stock and maybe a little patterned paper

I remember that it was popular to cut photos into shapes-usually ovals or circles. Or some people would crop photos by cutting around the subject's head or silhouette kind of like a paper doll.

Another trend was heritage pages. These were layouts done with photos of a person's ancestors or copies of old family documents. The layouts were done in dark grays or sepia tones. Embellishments were usually silver or brushed gold.

And Tim Holtz  is releasing a new range of foam letter stamps!!
Everything  old is new again!

not being a digital scrapper, I didn't realize there were trends in that, too- although it stands to reason, doesn't it??

I like the phrase 'coughing up diecuts' lol!!

It seems like now the trend is to layer embellishments and papers, which is something that wasn't around before. I don't even do that MUCH layering, and some places on my layouts are probably easily 5 layers, if you count the background papers + photos + embellishments altogether. I'm sure that someone like mercytiara or shimelle would have closer to 10 (or perhaps more) since they layer a LOT.

anonrefugee you should keep updating your original post with different years.

1996- only 8.5x11 paper, giant die cuts, sticker sneeze, cut and paste die cut art,
2005-2007- I remember those being the years of very simple pages. Simple scrapbooks magazine. I think it was the backlash to cutting out photos in shapes.

I can't remember the years so much, usually the trends like the heritage look on most layouts, acrylic stickers (that later turned yellow), paper dolls (from my minds eye), big chipboard letters,...

Maybe  Mid 90's-2000
2000-2005?

Or break it down when the SB industry was really active into just 1 year? I'm not sure I should look through my scrapbooks to see what trends I tried at the time. I'm usually 6 months-1 year behind whats popular.

Oh yessssssss....chalking .......I did that too!

I still have my set of chalks!! I think a couple are broken, and a couple more colors are almost gone, but I do still use them from time to time!

serendipity squares... when you adhere strips / pieces of paper down next to each other and then cut that resulting sheet of 'decorative' paper into pieces? I think?

scrapbooking memory lane- ahhh, good times!

what was the era of distressed / almost grungy everything?? mid-2000s?? All the patterned paper almost looked 'dirty' it was so distressed-looking.

My aunt sent me a scrapbook my dad kept in the 1940's that is all about Babe Ruth. I never had any idea my dad was into Babe Ruth or even baseball really. It is brown tooled leather with those cream pages and nothing but newspaper clippings. So if she has pics from the 1940's seems like that is a good example of a scrapbook. My mom kept one in high school - she graduated in 1952 and I few years ago I sprayed all of her papers and clippings with archival mist and reattached all the things she saved with acid free adhesive. It basically looks exactly like she made it. The cover is printed cardboard with records and poodles and other 50's iconography. Again, cream pages.

I forgot about those!  They were fun.  I loved to stamp and gold emboss on them!