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Over the years, I have dabbled in a number of crafts - loop rugs, toll painting, stenciling, ceramics - but scrapbooking is the only one that stuck.

It's not hard to figure out why. I hate to throw things away and scrapbooking gives me a legitimate reason not to. There is an endless supply of cool stuff to buy. And whenever I feel bad about spending so much money on my hobby, I can usually count on my scrap buddy, Tribune columnist Rebecca Walsh, to spend even more than I have.

Lately, however, my motivation to scrapbook seems inversely proportional to the size of my stash, which is ironic considering that I shop, in part, for inspiration.

I can only imagine how intimidating it must be for a newcomer who wanders into a scrapbook store and sees the dizzying display of papers, adhesives and embellishments. No wonder the number of new scrapbookers has plummeted in recent years.

Only 9 percent of scrapbookers classified themselves as beginners in 2007, according to the latest Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking in America survey. In 2001, it was 34 percent.

Not only is scrapbooking attracting fewer novices, those who are already hooked (myself included) are shopping less. In a separate survey by Craftrends released in December, scrapbooking was the only category in which the percentage of participants who purchased supplies in 2007 decreased from the year before.

The good news is that we - OK, you - are spending more time scrapbooking. In 2007, only 27 percent of crafters reported spending less than 1 hour on their hobby in any given week compared to 36 percent the year before, while the percentage of those devoting more than 30 hours a week was up 2 percent.

Still, craft trends are like congregations; they need new converts to thrive. And industry evangelists have a number of cautionary tales.

"The parallels between scrapbooking and cross stitch are frightening," says Mike Hartnett, publisher of Creative Leisure News.

Cross stitch was the "it" craft in the 1980s and early '90s, spawning thousands of independent shops, small publishing and manufacturing businesses, numerous consumer magazines - even its own trade show. But the craft became too

involved and complicated, discouraging beginners, Hartnett says.

"Chain stores jumped on the category and soon were selling at low prices; that helped push many shops, who were the category's teachers, out of business," he says.

Today the shops, the small vendors, most of the magazines, and the trade show are gone. In July, Wal-Mart announced it, too, was dropping stitchery.

There are differences, Mike notes. Scrapbooking produces one-of-a-kind projects; cross stitch, if done correctly, produces projects that look just like the model. Plus, scrapbooking provides a social outlet for consumers through crops and classes.

Still, he says, retailers can and should take steps to make their stores, and scrapbooking in general, more attractive to newcomers. For example:

* Always have a beginner scrapbook class on the class schedule.

* Give hospitals store coupons to hand out to new mothers, an obvious pool of potential scrapbookers.

* Contact women's groups who need speakers for their luncheons and get-togethers, and offer to give a primer on how simple scrapbooking can be.

* Expand inventory beyond scrapbooking to attract new customers.

I, for one, pledge to do my part to keep scrapbooking alive. I resolve to introduce at least one relative, friend or coworker to scrapbooking in the new year. I promise to shepherd them around a scrapbook store, picking out the scrapbooking essentials and not-so-essentials. I will even provide the alibis and trunk space for hiding purchases from a spouse, if necessary.

I do this in honor of Rebecca, who nearly 10 years and $10,000 ago, did the same for me.

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* LINDA FANTIN can be contacted at scrapbooking@sltrib.com. Send comments about this column to livingeditor@sltrib.com.

Scrapbook Solutions Paper Storage Cube System, $49.99

You don't need to spend $10-$20 for tools to set an eyelet. Cut a small X in the paper using an X-Acto-type knife and push the eyelet through the hole. To spread the eyelet, place the tip of a Phillips-head screwdriver into the eyelet and hit the handle with a hammer. Flatten edges of the eyelet with a hammer if necessary.

Designing pages around those tiny, 2- and 3-inch archival photos can be difficult. But using a photo's original size and scale gives an added sense of age and character to heritage scrapbooks.

Here are three examples of layouts using photos from the 1940s. We grouped photos in twos or threes to create horizontal and vertical lines of interest. In the "Play" page, we attached photos to Daisy D's tags and tucked them into a vellum pocket. On the "Moment In Time" page, we used We R Memory Keepers' Restoration paper and a variation on a design from All My Memories teacher Amber Packer. And strips of ribbon and a row of tags accent a line of snapshots - a design borrowed from Jennifer Jensen in Making Memories' Decorate Life book.

- Rebecca Walsh