You think you know what a scrapbook is, right?

It’s pictures attached to paper with personal stories, all gathered together in a book, right?

Well, yes and no.

Yes, scrapbooking is still the traditional scrapbook, with its acid free papers and embellishments and photos, but it can be so many other things as well.

We are going through a digital evolution, and it has changed scrapbooking as well.

Photo books with pictures and a few captions printed by someplace like Shutterfly or Snapfish? Yep, that’s a scrapbook.

Completely digital pages, that never get printed? Yep, those are scrapbook pages.

Blog posts with family stories and pictures? Yep, that’s a scrapbook

Short and sweet posts on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram that capture a moment in words or pictures or both? Yep. You’re scrapbooking.

There are so many people scrapbooking, who just don’t realize it. They think it has to look a certain way in order to be a scrapbook, but really, it can look like anything at all. A real scrapbook captures personal stories and pictures and ties them together. If you’re doing that in any medium, if you are documenting life, you ARE scrapbooking.

What do your scrapbooks look like? How are you saving your memories?

Have you noticed all the fun new trends hitting the scrapbooking world lately? Gold foil, pretty planners, hand lettering, even faith scrapping. Stamping has become more popular again (about time!) and party supplies are everywhere. Watercolors and variations on Pantone’s color of the year are popping up as well.

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What do you think about all the new trends? Do you love them or hate them or do you just not care about them?

For me, there are certain things that I’m loving — hand lettering, for example — and others I could do without. (I just want a simple planner that works for me. I don’t feel the need to make it pretty.)

The thing about trends is that while they are fun to be aware of, you don’t have to follow them. The best thing to do with new trends and ideas? Make them your own.

How do you go about doing that? Start with what you have.

If you don’t have any gold accent items on hand, but have lots of mirror cardstock, use that instead. Embossing powder, leafing pens, and golf leaf are also good alternatives.

Uncomfortable with hand lettering? Try stamping instead. Uncomfortable with stamping? Use a pretty font from your computer, and print something out.

The point is, you have options.

If there’s a trend you want to use, but can’t get it for whatever reason (hello spending freeze!) find something in your stash to substitute or alter.

If there are trends you don’t love, don’t use them. You can make your pages look timeless and up to date without having to follow all the trends.

There are so many trends that passed me by. There used to be a time when every page you saw was pastel and shabby chic. So not a good fit for me. And before that there were the days of paper dolls and sticker sneezes. I delayed beginning my scrapbooking life because that were what everyone was doing, and I was never a fan.

Fifteen years ago, stamping was a big deal, with more stamp stores than scrapbook stores. It faded though, as scrapbooking became more and more popular. Now stamping is back, with lots of new designers and companies leading the way.

In short, trends come and go. Personal style is the glue that holds your crafty life together. Whether you prefer a graphic look, or lots and lots of embellishments, you can make trends fit how you create. You may be bored with how you create pages, and think they all look the same, but trust me, they don’t. And, you can use the latest trends to freshen up your style, without compromising the parts of memory keeping that you find important.

If there are trends out there that you want to try, do it! But don’t feel like you have to in order to stay current in the world of scrapbooking. What’s hot and trendy now will be yesterday’s news in a year’s time. Find what works for you, and make it your own.

Now to figure out what I can make that’s inspired by current trends, and with what I have on hand. That spending freeze I’m on is certainly a motivator for creativity!