The Tools That Took Over Scrapbooking...

No, I'm not making suggestions for a sequel to the new Transformers movie set to hit theaters next month. I'm pondering the absurdity of the tool market in scrapbooking and why it exists on such a large scale.

Remember when all that was needed was primarily a pair of scissors (deco if you feel the need)?

Then remember when all that you needed was an eyelet setter, a hammer, scissors and a paper cutter?
Oh!Then remember when you needed a silent/quick eyelet setter, scissors , paper cutter, some punches, a cutting board and creative cutting templates (coupled with an xacto knife)?

Some where down the line, all you needed was a top of the line 12" paper cutter, eyelet setter(the quieter/quicker the better), precision blade scissors, acrylic stamp mounting blocks, embossing heat gun, die cutting machine, color wheel, corner rounding punches, a digital camera w/ killer zoom capacity and adhesive machine.

I pretty much gave up the fight when I discovered that I needed a precision, 12" rotary paper cutter, silent eyelet setter, precision titanium blade scissors, magnetic stamps, acrylic stamp mounting blocks, a die cutting machine (preferably electronic), an artist quality color wheel, adhesive applicator machine, a brayer, a wheeled paper press (for making your own corrugated paper), embossing plates, special rubon applicator sticks,paint brushes, notch and die cutters, centering ruler, sewing machine, spring loaded metal die press, layout templates, edging rulers, a digital SLR camera, wide format printer and an Ott light.

Nowadays, the savvy scrapper adds the elusive tag curler, pink irons, mini conclave type ovens (for those shrink works), paper distressing razors, an eyelet setter than can punch a hole through 1/8" of galvanized steel, 12" electronic die cutting machines, glass cutting board(s), professional grade, multi-purpose, 12+" paper cutter system, light box, Digital SLR camera (with enough bells, whistles, and lights to create a studio with), layering tools, doodle stencils, and the list, unfortunately goes on and on and on.

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What the heck is the industry playing at? Or better yet, why are we playing at it with them?

Has anyone else noticed that as the industry reveals new, funky ways for us to snazz up our layouts, they inevitably, without fail, introduce a process that would require a specialty tool to execute? Perfect case in point: The new Making Memories Tag Curler. I'm sure that when the brain storming event at MM netted the lovely cured metal tag, there was somebody pulling up the rear with the formidable Tag Curler in response to the "how the heck do you get the tag to curl like that?" question.

The question is, do we really need it?

Maybe you do. Personally, I don't. Is the idea cute? Yeah, of course it is! Is it something that I would use in my paper crafting? Yeah!...maybe 3 times before I realised that it is much easier, less costly, and probably safer to simply take my galvanized steel punching eyelet setter and make a hole through which I could quickly route a piece of ribbon that would serve to securely attach said tag to said paper project.

Clover has been making mini irons for quilters for quite some time now. Unfortunately, the mini hot plate received little fan fare until someone ingeniously added pink to it's color scheme and slapped a scrapbooking label on it. The beloved travel iron was slated to a mundane existence that only seemed worthwhile during the infrequent occurrence of that thing called uh...travel. That is until someone thought it would be groovy to make it pink and, once again, slap a scrapbooking designation on it's chassis.

Here's another question. While the new tools that come out for men (and their testosterone laden hobbies) are marketed with the idea of getting your money's worth of use out of them in mind, the tools that are slated for the fidgety scrapbooker rarely take that efficiency route. Why is this? Don't believe me? I have 4 words for you: Basic Grey Notch Tool.

Need more proof? Making Memories Tag Maker

In essence, what is happening is that all of the manufacturers are running out of places to stick the money that they are making hand over fist and we are rapidly running out of scrap space real estate in which to store this stuff!

I thought we'd learned our lesson from whole rubber/acrylic stamp thing. I guess I was wrong. Though I don't blame myself for that. I don't buy rubber stamps anymore. I bought 6 of them once and it quickly dawned on me that I would probably use each of them 3 or 4 times before they became annoyingly repetitive. I once aspired to have a wall of stamps like you see in the mags. My mil has one of those...and most of them are covered with a fine layer of dust. Seriously, how many times are you going to use that Bee Happy stamp? I don't care how cute the darned bee with the hat is, I'm not going to use him enough to get my money back!

I know my comment about the portable rubon sealer got a few chuckles, but mark my words, if HS doesn't come up one to combat her less-than-stellar-quality rubons, somebody will!

The question is...how many people are going to fall for it, hook, line, sinker and pole?

I get that the industry marketing industry is working hard at keeping things "new" and "fresh" for the scrapbooking spirit. I get that lots of progress can be found in change and innovation. I guess the question is, does scrapbooking really need the type of change and innovation that results in wasted dollars and space?