Name: Lisa Sanford
Business Name, Location: Author of Ethnic Scrapbooking, the first culturally inspired idea book from Bowie, Maryland
What is Ethnic Scrapbooking? Ethnic Scrapbooking is an idea book created to inspire scrapbookers and non-scrapbookers to look at their photos, memories and traditions from a cultural perspective.
How long have you been in working on this project? I have been seriously working on this book since 2004, ever since I quit being a consultant for a direct-selling scrapbook company.
How did you get started? I started creating ethnic designs in the year 2000 in order to have some embellishments and designs that would compliment my sister’s photographs from Africa. This exercise led me to teach ethnic design classes which shaped my Ethnic Scrapbooking philosophy.
What is the best part of writing a book on Ethnic Scrapbooking? The best part of writing was the research. It was fun to go into a scrapbook boutique store and ask if they had any ethnic products and hearing the response, “Oh we have nothing like that, or I didn’t know African-Americans scrapbooked”. Every time I did this, I’d leave the store with close to $100 in cultural specific products. I really loved the challenge of looking at products and seeing what cultural connection I could make to them.
Tell us a little about your scrapbooking background: I created my first scrapbook in second grade. I was responsible for the sports section of my high school yearbook. I made my first “creative” scrapbook in college with wrapping paper and “non-archival” construction paper. After getting married, I resorted to just sticking photographs in photo album sleeves. In 1999, after the birth of my third child, I recommitted myself to scrapbook our lives with lots of journaling. Scrapbooking is in my blood, it’s part of my heritage, you can read the story of how my life changed when I inherited my great-great grandmother’s scrapbook in Chicken Soup for the Scrapbookers Soul.
How much time do you spend scrapbooking? For a number of years, I routinely scrapped every Friday night. Now, with five kids, a two-year grandson and three pets in the house I usually scrap in 12 hours stints every so often.
Where do you get your ideas/inspiration? My ideas come from magazines, advertisements, and research about different cultures. Pier 1 catalogs are my favorite source of inspiration. My inspiration comes from within, scrapbooking is a lifestyle. I’ve created a lifestyle of cultural awareness and preservation that has spilled over into every phase of my family’s life which I frequently blog about.
Favorite Technique: Inking and paper tearing are my favorite techniques…usually used together.
Favorite Quote: “Each one, Teach one”, I’m not sure where I heard this, but I think every scrapbooker should share the joy and importance of scrapbooking even if it’s what pen to use to write on the back of photographs…nothing pains me more than to see baskets of unidentified photographs at a flea market.
Where do you see Ethnic Scrapbooking in the future? I’d like to see it take on a life like, Angie Pedersen’s book, The Book of Me. I believe that Ethnic Scrapbooking is a unique and different way of scrapbooking, a break from the typical who, what, where, and when with a lot more emphasis on why.
How can we get a copy of Ethnic Scrapbooking? You can purchase Ethnic Scrapbooking on line at www.ethnicscrapbooking.com. There are plans to have the book available through Amazon.com and National bookstores in 2008.
Anything else you want to say to Scraps of Color readers. I’d like to encourage the Scraps of Color readers to give a few of the techniques in Ethnic Scrapbooking a try and share some of the ideas in the book with others, especially those who have never given scrapbooking a try.
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