Scrapbooking is an addiction for 31-year-old Tanya Hanchon. When she saw flyers advertising Ball State's new Scrapbooking Club, she jumped at the chance to get together with other people who share her passion.
Hanchon, a student working on her master's degree in school administration, came to the first meeting not knowing one person there, yet she brought enough scrapbooking materials to share with everyone.
"If you have a story behind [a photo] then people really learn who you are," Hanchon said.
Every other Wednesday at 7 p.m. the Scrapbooking Club members meet to work on their scrapbooks and to socialize.
"If you are going to make a scrapbook anyway, this is the perfect place," Tracy Wagner, Scrapbooking Club president, said.
The Scrapbooking Club is one of 15 new on-campus organizations formed this semester, Stacey Myers, office coordinator for Student Organizations and Activities, said.
In order to form an official group on campus, Myers said groups must meet requirements, including filling out an "Intent to Organize" packet, finding a faculty adviser and writing a constitution for the group. The constitution must be approved by the Student Activities Committee for an organization to be recognized.
Wagner said the process to become an official organization was not hard, and it was worth the effort.
Myers said official groups are able to open a campus account for the group, utilize Student Legal Services, obtain an organization username for an e-mail account, participate in University-sponsored functions and have fund-raisers.
Wagner said she was inspired to start the club by the scrapbooking parties she and her friends held on weekends last year while they lived in the dorms.
Most people take pictures and store them away in shoeboxes, but scrapbooking is a way to show off photos, junior Michelle Baird said.
"I have so many pictures that it's a fun way to keep them organized," sophomore Lauren Strom said. "It's a lot more interesting to look through people's scrapbooks than just a little photo album."
There could be no scrapbooks without the pictures that go in them, and many members of scrapbooking club said they are inseparable from their cameras.
"I don't go anywhere without my camera," Hanchon said. "It's like a prerequisite I have to have before I go anywhere."
Baird said that when she looks at other people's photos or sees items in a scrapbooking store it reminds her of times for which she wishes she had pictures.
"You don't realize how many pictures you don't have until you do this," said Baird.
One downfall to scrapbooking, Hanchon said, is that it can get to be very costly.
"I think it becomes kind of like an addiction, so it can be expensive," Hanchon said. "It's easy to buy inexpensive stuff, but you want to make sure its good and sturdy."
Hanchon said she works for Creative Memories, a company that sells scrapbooking materials.
"I love this stuff, so I might as well sell it and get a discount," she said.
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