If you ever doubted that scrapbooking was a hobby reserved exclusively for women, then you must have missed the episode of HGTV’s “House Hunters” where two guys were searching for a home that included the “perfect craft room,” so they could scrapbook their hearts out.
Scrapbooking is no longer a passion shared only by grandmother’s with extra time on their hands or Martha Stewart wannabes looking to one-up fellow PTA moms. Scrapbooking is a hobby that does not discriminate. Rather, it invites men, women and children to exercise their creativity and preserve memories for future generations.
Interestingly, Redbook magazine recently published a survey revealing that the number of male scrapbookers in the United States is on the rise. The magazine’s research shows that more than one million men regularly participate in scrapbooking activities. Redbook also cited information culled from the nation’s most popular scrapbook supply stores which indicated that between 10 and 20 percent of their customers are men.
While scrapbooking among men is on the rise, it certainly isn’t a new phenomenon. If you look through our nation’s history books, you will see that there have been a number of prominent males who have shown a passion for scrapbooking. For example, founding father Thomas Jefferson is said to have kept detailed memory albums filled with newspaper clippings and other memorabilia related to his presidency. In addition, studies show that world-famous author Mark Twain was also an avid scrapbooker. In fact, research shows that Twain was so enthralled by scrapping memorabilia that he invented a one-of-a-kind pre-pasted book designed to keep newspaper clippings and other papers secure.
In modern times men scrap some of the same subjects as their female counterparts, including hobbies, family and travel. However, men, who scrapbook as a hobby, typically focus on preserving more tangible items they’ve collected from sporting events, concerts and adventure trips, as opposed to women, who feature more journaling and sentimental items as part of their layouts.
Do you know men who scrapbook?
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