By Liesel Enke
After 69 seconds, all 700 available spaces were filled in online registration for Provo”s second annual “Creating Keepsakes University” scrapbooking conference, which runs August 8 to 10.
The interest that has made scrapbooking a billion-dollar industry comes from more than a desire to preserve memories and cultivate creativity, it is also a way to foster social interaction, said Angie Bristow, events coordinator for Creating Keepsakes University.
“Scrapbooking is the quilting bee of the 21st century,” Bristow said. “Women are forming scrapbooking clubs and groups.”
Although some associate scrapbooking in Utah with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the conference members come from all over the world, and are not predominantly church members, said Paula Kraemer, events director for Creating Keepsakes magazine.
However, Latter-day Saint culture has helped the industry to grow, Bristow said.
“We find that the same people who do genealogy will also scrapbook,” she said. “They will do the same thing with scrapbook pages that they did with ancestral pages.”
The conference offers classes from prominent scrapbooking artists who will speak on everything from photo design to wire use.
“If it”s in the scrapbooking industry, we”ll have a class on it,” Kraemer said.
In addition to providing information on the artistic side of scrapbooking, the conference also provides classes for scrapbooking retailers.
“Utah Valley has, per capita, the most scrapbooking stores than any other place in the world,” Kraemer said.
The conference includes a store tour, where participants will be able to take shuttles to various stores in the area.
Conference directors have enlisted the help of BYU students to help run the conference.
Janell Coulson, 19, a sophomore from Connell, Wash., majoring in biology, has been working this summer in preparation for the conference.
Although Coulson has been scrapbooking since she was in junior high school, she feels she has benefited from working for the conference.
“I”ve just seen a lot more equipment you can use to scrapbook,” she said. “I”m excited to attend the conference to better learn how to preserve my memories and scrapbook along with the best of them.”
Creating Keepsakes is pleased with the local interest in scrapbooking, Kraemer said.
The company has planned four conferences for 2003. Although all locations have not been determined yet, the company has plans to always come back to Utah, she said.
