Whenever I see the warning signs for addiction, I can’t help thinking about my relationship with scrapbooking. Not to minimize the challenges people face in overcoming their demons, just to acknowledge the similarities between all kinds of fixations. As I talk to my students about the secret codes groups develop in their communication, I use scrapbook lingo and insider knowledge as examples. When I mention photo split squares fluttering out of your clothing and a few students non-verbally react with knowing glances at their friends, I know I’ve found a scrapping sister (or maybe brother someday). When I tell the story of seven year-old Keilana dragging a friend back up the stairs to slide down again in sleeping bags because “you can’t make a decent page with only two pictures,” the croppers 
get it. But the biggest connection seems to come when I admit to having staged my kids’ activities to match stickers or paper I want to use. Sad, but true. Also very common in scrapbooking circles. We’ve tried to get our children to eat popsicles adorably. We’ve draped our babies over pumpkins. But more than anything, we’ve dumped our kids in giant piles of leaves raked just for picture-taking occasions. I don’t think my kids have ever spontaneously played in the leaves, but I have many pages of pictures of them doing it--because there’s lots of really cute autumn paper. In Betsy Franco’s Fresh Fall Leaves, the kids are having fun. I wonder if it was their idea?http://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Fall-Leaves-Betsy-Franco/dp/0590962965
http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Betsy-Franco/1941168
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