Crazy For Keepsakes

By Kate Novack

Right before we walked down the aisle, my father turned to me and said, 'I am so happy I had daughters,'" recalls Darcy Miller, editorial director of Martha Stewart Weddings. "I spend my whole life telling people what the perfect bouquet is, but to me that was the most precious moment--and I probably would have forgotten it because you only remember the big-picture stuff."

Miller isn't likely to forget. She has been filling leatherbound albums with photographs, letters, invitations and other keepsakes since she was 4 years old and went on a family vacation to Disneyland. Now Miller brings her expertise on nuptials, her love of scrapbooking and her whimsical illustrations to her first book, Our Wedding Scrapbook (HarperCollins; 64 pages), due next month. Couples can commemorate everything from the first date to the first anniversary on the album's spiralbound pages. Miller offers guidance and ideas along the way--ask your friends to put toasts in writing, mail yourselves a postcard from the honeymoon--but lets newlyweds do the rest.

Cutting and pasting may seem archaic when it's possible to tote around 25,000 of your favorite snapshots on an iPod. But the good old-fashioned pastime of keepsaking is taking off in the U.S., making scrapbooking big business. Last year Americans shelled out more than $2 billion for albums, stickers, ribbons and other scrapbooking supplies. Some 2,000 stores around the country are devoted to the practice, up from just a few hundred five years ago. Diehards attend scrapbooking cruises and gather in online chat rooms to trade advice on overcoming "journaler's block" and remedying puffy eyes. There are magazines and even a "master's" program dedicated to the craft. "People are seeing that life is short, and they're preserving family memories for their children," says Marianne Madsen, managing editor of Creating Keepsakes, the industry's largest magazine.

Our Wedding Scrapbook is just one of the latest entries in the growing market. Aficionados eagerly anticipated the recent release of The Journaler's Handbook by Creating Keepsakes editor in chief Tracy White. Andrea Grossman, the woman behind the Mrs. Grossman sticker empire, gives readers a peek inside her own journals in Designer Scrapbooks with Mrs. Grossman (Sterling Publishers; 144 pages). Next spring, designer April Cornell will offer tips on using layered fabric, jewelry and found objects to create lavish albums in Designer Scrapbooks with April Cornell (Sterling Publishers; 144 pages).

And there may be more to come from Miller. Her latest personal project: a baby book for her 16-month-old daughter.