The history of 12x12 paper size?

What I used to dislike was when scrapbook companies made paper that was just short of the 12x12 size like Creative Memories who stuck to the 11 3/4 size between jeeping for way too long.

I thought it was something to do with how they cut the paper at the paper factory, and 12 by 12 ends up with less waste, but I have no idea if that's true or not...

My first scrapbook was a Susan Branch kit that came with the album and paper and it was 8.5 by 11 (in 2004) but I was buying 12 by 12 "Slabs" at Michael's in 2002.

That's a really good question! It makes sense to connect it with the 4x6 photo size, except if you put the maximum number of 4x6s on a page you can't see any paper at all! So actually 13" square would make more sense. I'm going to guess that it's something to do with paper manufacture but I really don't know.

I'm also not sure why Letter sized paper is the size it is either. A4 is similar, but slightly different in its ratio of height to width. At least the A3 A4 A5 systems make internal sense. A2 folded in half is A3, A3 folded in half gives you A4, A4 folded in half is A5, etc etc. Metric, man. I miss it.

omg....those Slabs and Stacks!  i can't believe how many of those i owned. almost every time one came out, i had to have it.    truth be told, i still have a few of the solid colored sheets but the patterned and photo ones are have been gone for many years now.  

I began scrapbooking in 1996. Creative Memories had 12x12 albums even back then. I think it was because it was suited to 4x6 photos. They didn’t care if patterned paper showed much. They were more about “get the photos in the albums, and get them journaled.” My former sister-in-law got me started scrapbooking. She had once been a Creative Memories rep, but wasn’t anymore by the time she got me hooked. She switched soon after to Close to My Heart, who also offered 12x12 albums. Her pages were gorgeous works of art. I think that’s one reason why she left Creative Memories. Anyway, both companies offered 12x12 albums back in the mid to late 1990’s.

I started scrapbooking in 1996 and paper was mostly 8.5 x 11. I remember when the 12x12 started taking up more racks in the little local scrap store.

I started scrapping in the late 90s, and my introduction was through CM. What a PITA it was having to trim every sheet of paper!!

And then there was the added complication of being in Australia with our metric system. (Or should I say, the complication of the US not following the rest of the world with metric!  ) The first Australian companies decided to go with 30cm x 30cm...... close but no cigar! The papers were just a bit too small, because 12 inches = 30.48cm. I can't remember how long it took for Australian scrapbook paper manufactures to give up metric and move to 12x12.

I've been "scrapbooking" since back in the dark ages , I used albums of various non-standard sizes that had hard covers, 2 holes, bound with a string (so you could add pages) and the pages where a heavy cream color construction-type paper. (My grandmother and mother's were mostly black pages.). I mostly scrapbooked Ephemera - cards, invitations, newspaper clippings, school memorabilia and some pictures. (They were really more "Books of Scraps"). I loved that style of album. They are now considered taboo because they are not archival, plus if you want one, you will need to search for "vintage scrapbooks". LOL

As a teenager, I used a Kodak Instamatic. I think that both the 110 and 126 film Instamatic film when processed resulted in a 3-1/2" x 5" print. By the time scrapbooking morphed into what it is now, I had a ton of 3-1/2" x 5" prints that spanned decades! That size was perfect for 8-1/2" x 11" scrapbooking.

So, here's my theory:

Scrapbooking appears to have started based on standard 8-1/2 x 11" paper that fits a standard 3-ring binder. That worked great for 3-1/2" x 5" photographs. With the explosion of modern day digital cameras (and then the iPhone!), photos were being printed in the 3:2 aspect ratio, which means a 4x6 print. I think the scrapbooking industry realized that the larger 12 x 12 size scrapbooks better accommodated the 4” x 6” photos.

That's my theory. I'm probably wrong.

We had imperial till 1970 and did just that, changed everything. Four years earlier, we switched from pounds to dollar currency. We went the whole hog, lol. So it might just be that we’re ok with lots of radical change like that, though. 😂

I get imperial, and I can basically convert if I have to - but I hate it. Metric is so much easier to break down. It’s all in units of 10.

Yes, that is true. I’d forgotten that little detail, but they were still close to the 12x12, and better than the other options available. The 8.5x11 doesn’t allow for as many photos.

I hated trimming card stock and patterned paper to fit the CM pages, but since photos were often (shudder!) cropped into shapes, you could fit a lot of photos on that 12x11.75 page (along with a good CM sticker sneeze). I didn’t stay with CM albums. They were a pain. I was a customer, not a rep, so I had no reason to be loyal. I switched as soon as my ex-SIL told me about the Close to My Heart albums (which I still use, but I’m not a rep for them, either).

There may have been 12x12 magnetic albums prior to the CM albums. If so, it probably had to do with being sized to fit up to 6 (4x6) photos on a page, which was what the OP’s question was about. I think that the 12x12 format has been around for a longer time than most people realize, but it wasn’t the industry standard till the scrapping stores and magazines made it more popular. I think the manufacturers were the ones who pushed 12x12 to become the standard, but I don’t know if it was due to customer demand or the manufacturers and LSS trying to sell more products.

I went to my first scrapbook store in 1995 and not a 12x12 paper to be seen!

So when I started scrapping (around 1995/96).. scrapbooking wasn't anything I heard of before. I had 'scrapbooks' but not what we are referring to. I would say I was a accidental scrapper. I had a bunch of my mom's old pictures of her and her siblings growing up in the 30s and 40s and so forth. I bought an old time type scrapbook, I then on my own found 'pattern' paper.. which was really paper that was for stationary or writing or typing letters on.. 8 1/2 x 11.

Then one day RIGHT by where I lived there was this little store that I thought was an antique store. A place I know I always wanted to go in, but never found the time. One day I decided to finally stop. I look in the windows and I am thinking this isn't an antique store...but I walked in and I think my eyes grew as big as my face.. PRETTY paper, stickers, die cuts.. I was really confused what the heck this store was. I don't even know if there was 12x12 paper. At some point between that first visit and my first scrapbook there was 12x12 paper... That was my first book. A post bound kind that literally fell apart and I just converted it into a 3 ring type book. I still can remember that day like it was yesterday. What joy it brought me.. and still does.

Oh the name of the store was All My Memories... and at some point they had their own line of pattern paper.

AND there you go.. no answer .. just my trip down memory lane. Sorry!

I had some All My Memories paper! So cool to have them as your LSS.

I was looking through my old CM albums the other day and I do like the album style. I use 3-ring WMRK or Project Life albums now, but it is nice how the CM albums lay flat with the pages close together, and all of the pages were edged with white, like a frame. I like being more creative now, with all of the embellishments and fun techniques, though, so I'll stick with 3-ring binder style..