Trends you wish would die or are glad are long gone

26 posts / 0 new
Last post
Trends you wish would die or are glad are long gone

I'm sure that I'm not alone in this, but there are certain things I could live the rest of my artistic life without seeing.

I hope I never see another heritage photo wearing a dunce cap with fairy wings. If you were doing any kind of art journaling/ATC art back in the early 2000's you couldn't swing a dead rat on a string without hitting one of these layouts. They were cool at first, but quickly got monotonous.

I'm pretty over "zettiology" layouts by anyone besides Teesha Moore and even she's started moving in other directions in her art. It's just too distinctive for so many people to be doing. It doesn't feel fresh anymore.

This one hurts a little to admit, but as much as I love Ali Edwards as a person and her innovative projects, I wish that not every single person who does a "week in the life" or a "December daily" used all the exact same products that she does. It feels like 99% of those projects use her handwriting font too.

And I'm sure you guys remember when Elise Larson had her Love Elise scrapbooking line. I still think it's cute in small doses, but for a minute there it seemed like I was drowning in a sea of twee.

Were any of you scrapbooking back in the 90s? Do you remember how every layout involved cutesy country themed themes, tons of stickers, and pictures cut into shapes... like we're talking hearts, stars, or even like a palm tree? I remember. That was pretty much every single page in my first album. I remember being so dang excited to find a specialty scrapbooking shop that had literally rows of papers with plaid papers or the ones that are just blown up muted photos. And the stickers... omg. And every layout was 8.5x11. The first time I saw a 12x12 I was so confused.

Anyway, yeah... 90s era scrapbooking should never ever come back. Not even in that whole "the 60s are cool again" nostalgia cycle that seems to happen to clothes every 20 years or so.

Anybody else have any tends you'd rather would die a quiet death?

Your post made me smile! I started scrapbooking in 1991, and I have to say, I would be hard pressed to go back to Mrs. Grossman's stickers and decorative scissors! I look at my layouts from then and cringe a bit. But like 90's hairstyles, they reflect the times, so unless I ever get COMPLETELY caught up on all my scrapbooking, those pages are done and will stay the same for hopefully generations to come. They show who I was and what the trends were.

My 90's pages also contain a lot of stamping, colored with markers. Oh, mercy. I almost hate going back and looking at some of those pages. But I agree with Susan, they are a reflection of the times.

When I saw this topic, I jumped to other trends, not scrap-related, most especially SAGGING PANTS. I work with teenagers. I'd be so happy to never have to tell a boy to pull his pants up ever again, I can't even imagine! smiley

I wish the trend of large flowers, and flowers as the majority element would go away. I'm not a huge flower person, and I hate when I look at a kit, and love it, but 50% of the elements are flowers.

I really wish instagram-seventy-bajillion-filter style photos would go out of style... I've had some folks bring me things to make them wedding albums, and either they or their photographer went through the digital "negatives" and retouched the hell out of them... Fuzzy sides, grunge sides, sepia with antiquing... oh god, make it stop, make it stop!

I wish the 8.5 X 11 size would come back and the 12 X 12, not go away because so many love it, but at least go away enough to make room for 8.5 X 11 again.

I loved the "simple scrapbooking" idea. But when I look back (mostly at books because I read lots more than I created) they are too simple. I don't like pages that are loaded with embellishments. But pages with no embellishments are...well boring? At the least I like the use of patterned paper. Not sure I'll ever get tired of that trend.

I have not yet braved looking at my old scrapbooks. I haven't seen them in 5 years, since switching to digital, and I'm quite nervous about it...Good to know there's support here when I finally take the plunge!

Paper Scrapping: My first few albums all had those shapes made using acid free markers and those plastic stencils which now I think are so dorky!

Digital Scrapping: Although some scrappers and some designers can totally rock this trend and make it their own, I tend to dislike it when a layout using a template like a project life template with just plain rectangles or squares for their photos and one paper in the background with no elements, embellishments, except maybe a journaling card in one of the template spots. To me, that's a photo album, not a layout. I know I may sound harsh but I crave creativity!

I didn´t live this 90´s scrapbook trends you´re all talking about. Here in Brazil, the scrapbook market is really new - It has only around 10 years now, and is a really restrict market in two ways: It´s an expensive and an unknown hobby.

But, well, about trends... I guess the only one I really hopes to die, and, fortunatelly, is more common in fashion than in scrapbook is animal print. IMO it´s so ugly...

The first albums I ever saw included amoeba shaped pictures cut with decorative scissors. Yeah, I'm glad that trend is over!

I don't know if there is a trend that I want to die, per se. If I don't like it I don't do it, but I get the point that it gets a little out of hand when everybody is doing it. I don't know, I still love, and use, my deco scissors all the time. Some of my first scrapbooks are hideous, but we all have to start somewhere. I used what what popular at the time. Its kind of like hair styles. You look at the old pictures and say to yourself, "what was I thinking?" smiley

@Lorien: I may be working on a kit that involves animal print....

I agree with Peg! Both about papersizes and embellishments. I´m such a darn coward when it comes to embellishment - I´m so afraid that it will be "too much" and instead it turns out boring.... Is there a class (or a pill?) I could take to be more courageous????

@Marisa: I bet you can make it become cool XD

@Cat - I hear you....I definitely have pictures that I look at and think just that....what was I thinking? smiley

So funny, I feel like I have used ALL of these trends at some point or another. I'm just chalking it up to juvenile ignorance. I can't believe the craft stores still sell stamps and ink though and that people still buy them. I always thought that it was WAY too much effort for the appearance of the final product.
Wren, I totally agree about Elsie Larson. Heidi Swapp too.

I guess I understand the draw of project life, but I'm just not into it. It looks like soccer-mom baseball card collecting to me. Does anyone else think all the matching kits and the small workspaces limit creativity? This is only an observation from someone that doesn't participate.
I can see the draw of the QUICK layout though. Digital isn't saving me as much time as I'd hoped, but I still like it better than paper.

Does anyone remember the Me and My Big Idea's stick figure kids and all of their antics? I'm still sad I couldn't find those kids partying down on the dance floor and boozing it up for my college scrapbook pages smiley smiley smiley

Is the trend of stamping-and-coloring too old? Well... here in Brazil I still see dozens of cardmakers, and even scrappers, using them... They spent hundreds of reais with Magnolia stamps and COPIC markers.... I never had money to spend like that, but likes to use some stamps to make tags when paper scrapping... well, I don´t consider myself as "abandoned paperscrap forever", but have to admit that I haven´t done any paper LO this year... and tired of cards with stamped and coloured stamps too... Now, when I do them, I use Silhouette Cameo shapes...

omg it was the early 80's when I had all these visions of being able to do scrapping in my head! I had been to several weddings and wanted to make super special albums. omg you couldnt even get anything you could use as a background paper back then! Except maybe being clever and using gift wrap! And the albums had to be scrapbooks lol. Even in the eighties it wasn't around. It's only just taking off here in the lsat 5 - 10 years or so, because retailers have discovered its a little bit of a gravy train! Still you have to buy things as you see them because they are so expensive and once they're gone ...they're gone and don't get restocked smiley So digital is the way to go! Even though I still buy heaps for real scrapbooks I never get to use them hehe

I wasn't into the paper scrapping so I don't know those trends. As for digital I'd say none. Do what YOU like. I do what I like. Simple!

I love animal print, especially wild cats, but there are a LOT of kits out there that don't pull it off
Most of the kits go way over the top and use nearly everything covered in animal print smiley
I think the print should be used as an enhancement
to compliment plain coloured elements or something like that

As for flowers, I agree
I would rather get a kit with less in it rather than buy one thats half full of flowers
A lot of the flowers are pretty, but we dont need so many in one kit
why not just do a seperate element kit thats JUST flowers that will match several kits
then people can download it if they want it?

@Michelle: Not to toot my own horn, but did you see my Mix and Match kit? (I'll be putting it on the site soon) I like to think I did a good balance of animal print. The true test I guess is if Lorien liked it...

Ouch, I was called in! LOL

I followed the hunt but didn´t even had time to unzip. Will, hopefully, take a closer look on it next week...

I LOVE the sprinkle of animal print in that one. There are so many fun bold prints and elements that the animal prints don't feel a bit over the top. I guess nobody but me used the little stick figure people?!

I did see a funny thing driving the other day though. You know how so many soccer moms have the stickers of the stick figure representations of their families with the mom, dad, kiddos and pets on the back windows of their mini-vans? (They're ALL over the ATL suburbs), well I saw a big pick-up truck with a sticker of a stick figure dinosaur eating one of those families on the back window of his car. Stick figure people parts were flying all over the window!
It was hilarious! I still can't help but chuckle every time I think about it.

I like the zombie family decals that say something to the effect of "our zombie family ate your stick figure family". smiley

I actually really like the project life stuff - not because it's very creative, because imho it really isn't - but because it's quick and simple and can fit in a pocket or purse, and it means that I actually record things instead of getting lost in the designing for days. Lol.

Have you guys seen Julie Balzer's Project Life? She actually makes it seem appealing to me in a way that most people don't. I like the idea of a low commitment way to track life. I don't scrapbook or even art journal very regularly and PL seems like a quick way to record life, but I've never taken the plunge. Mostly I'm worried that I won't follow up if I go the paper route. It's so restrictive to have to put in the time in my studio, but I haven't really found a way to convert the digital versions into something I could use on my iPad which is my primary digital art making tool. Maybe someday I'll sit down and figure out a way to make it work for me.

"I wasn't into the paper scrapping so I don't know those trends. As for digital I'd say none. Do what YOU like. I do what I like. Simple!"

^^^This! smiley
I did paper-scrap for awhile, and I did try some time-consuming techniques, but I don't cringe when I look at my albums. It's all part of the process. Finding what you like.
I don't personally like using flowery elements, but I don't think I want the "trend" to die. LOL Other people like it. smiley