Scrap and Spa opened in 1997 to provide place for scrapbookers to relax and spend time scrapbooking without everyday distractions. Since that time, hundreds of scrapbookers have come through their doors. In 2003, they moved to their new home, a cottage nestled in the woods ¾ of a mile from Lake Michigan beaches. The cottage needed a lot of TLC leaving a blank canvas for their vision of a permanent scrapbook retreat. The house sleeps 12-14 with seven charming bedrooms and a room devoted to spa treatments.
The crop room (see photo) that was added at this location is a huge space in a separate building, just a few short steps from the door of the main house. This private crop room allows peace and quiet for those who would like to sleep at night and plenty of space, light, and equipment for those who want to crop all day and night. The crop room has space for each person to have his or her own crop table with a comfy, rolling chair. In this massive space, you will also find four Cricut machines with almost every cartridge ever made, computers and printers for journaling, and a small store with paper, embellishments, and adhesives for your last minute needs. One of my favorite features of the crop space are the skylights, which during the day let in added sun light for true color selection.
Diane Anderson, the owner and hostess of Scrap and Spa, and I sat down to have a chat about the changes she has seen in scrapbooking and challenges for the future.
What are some of the biggest changes that you have seen in scrapbooking over the last 13 years?Electronic tools is a big one. Most of the scrapbookers who come to Scrap and Spa bring their own electronic die cut machine, even though we have four of them available.
The return to a more simple style. Scrapbooking went through a few years of extreme embellishment, but now scrapbookers have returned to a more simple, clean-lined style.
Buying less and using their stash. This is bad news for scrapbook stores, however it seems like scrapbookers are spending less money on supplies and focusing more on using up what they already own.
Packing fewer supplies. Along with buying less, scrapbookers are also packing lighter when they come for the weekend. The combination of using up their stash and creating simplier pages seems to mean that they have less stuff to cart around with them.
No pressure to “get a lot of pages done.” The previous mindset of trying to get 50 scrapbook page layouts done in a weekend has been replaced with enjoying the process of scrapbooking and taking some time to getaway and relax.
More mini books and altered items. Smaller projects that you can finish in one sitting or one weekend have continued to grow in popularity. More scrapbookers are working on altered or mini books when they come to visit Scrap and Spa for the weekend.
What do you see as a future challenge for scrapbooking and where it is going? The biggest challenge is to bring in teens and 20 something's to carry-on scrapbooking. A bright spot on the horizon is that Mother/Daughter scrapbooking weekends are some of the most popular special events at Scrap and Spa. The Mother/Daughter weekends are already booked solid for 2011 and I am looking at adding an additional weekend.
To read my original article about Scrap and Spa that I wrote almost 10 years ago, you can visit Scrap and Spa: A Scrapbooker's Paradise.
How has your scrapbooking changed over the years? Share your perspective with this new Reader Response article and see what other scrapbookers see has the major changes in scrapbooking over the last decade.
Visit the Scrap and Spa web site to read more about Diane's retreat.
And, if you are looking for a retreat near you, check out the Retreats and Scrapbook Getaways listing here on About.com Scrapbooking.
