NYMag article on scrapbooking.

Awesome! And their suggested product list is OK too.

Actually, I agree with most of those choices. Starting with a pp pad and a cs pad, in neutral colours that work together, is a good way to start. I remember being totally terrified walking into a LSS and thinking about all the choices I would have to make just to complete one page!

Not sure about the guillotine trimmer: have never gained the skill to cut a square corner with one of those. But then I have a pretty good rotary trimmer and I STILL have to retrim some pieces!

Isn't it cool to be hip? Or is it hip to be cool? Or if we think we are hip or cool, are we either?

Is it wrong when i read "refill sleeves"? Not page protectors anymore, I guess?

I cringed hard when she was all against rectangle pages, & cutting down 12x12 sheets. Is it really that hard? Harder than fussing with a Cricut?

If you have to say you are hip or cool, you most certainly are not.  

It's very nice that scrapbooking got a mention in a publication since we know it is largely a dying hobby as we have known it in its heyday. But starting with that photo of women sitting around a coffee table and a TV tray I was already rolling my eyes.

I did not agree with much of her list of products at all, except for paper pads wich is pretty much all you can get these days many places. I do not think everyone has room for 12x12 albums and that cheap album will barely hold 20 pages. I have been cutting down paper to a gasp!! rectangle for years, and I don't use a guillotine cutter either.

Glue dots as your adhesive of choice? I think not. I use lots and lots of glue dots and pop dots and all the various adhesives, but unless I am sticking a photo to glitter paper glue dots are not the way to go for a general adhesive.

I know many people say there is no right or wrong way to scrapbook, but there are ways that are tried and true and better than others. We know pleasing pages when we see them and we know those pages that need quite a bit of tweaking as well.

Here's my list of what you need to scrapbook if you have no idea what you are doing and if you will even stick with it: an 8/5x11 notebook/binder and a big pack of document protectors from Office Max or Walmart or whereever. A pair of needle pointed scissors and a trimmer that can cut 12x12. I prefer a cheap fiskars to start but if you like something else, go that direction, some kind of roller adhesive - I'd start with Tombo since it is easily found at this point in like Michaels. That's 5 things to get started.

The next 5 are the fun things: a multi color pack of 8.5x11 cardstock. A pack or pad of patterned papers. I would start with the 8.5x11 for ease of use. Then I would hit the sticker aisle and buy whatever appeals to me for the photos I plan to start with. The last 2 things are optional but a pack of precut photo mats for ease of use by a beginner, and a journalling pen or pens - at least black.

Caveat because I have done this. If you find you get into the hobby and want to try the larger real estate of 12x12, then it is very simple to place the 8.5x11 layout you have already done onto a piece of 12x12 paper. Decorate/embellish as you choose.

Not a bad start list.

Minus the photo corners for me especially black ones
And I doubt a beginner needs a cricut but maybe. I’d rather they use that money to buy a photo printer

I’m sitting here wondering why someone who had simply once attended a scrapbook camp felt qualified to write an article about scrapbooking today. Based on her recommendations, it sounds like she hasn’t actually done much if any actual scrapbooking. I have issues with most of the items on her list. She recommends a paper trimmer but claims it’s a bother to cut the paper down? And why recommend a $200 cutter to beginners? She could have gotten better information by talking to a real scrapbooking enthusiast, but it sounds like she didn’t bother.

It also looks like the photo of the group was totally staged. Who scrapbooks on flimsy TV trays like the photo shows? Aren’t we supposed to be social distancing? Why show a group setting of women gathered together instead of an individual working on her album? If the article really needed a group, she could have added kids doing their own pages with her, which would at least reflect the current situation.

IMO, it looks like it was written by someone who knows almost nothing about scrapbooking but thought it would be easy to fake it enough to write an article. I suspect that her list came from 15 minutes of “research” on Amazon after typing in the word “scrapbook” in the search line.

I know my comments sound harsh, which is a rare thing for me, but almost any scrapbooker could have given her a more realistic list for a beginner, as well as genuine advice. I don’t think she even tried to find anyone more informed. The lack of effort put into the article really shows IMO. I don’t think it would encourage anyone to try scrapbooking.