Scrapbooking store a haven for collecting and making memories

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/08/2010 (5769 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Marilyn Whatman wanted her new Scrapbookers Anonymous & More store to be an extension of her home.

Her new Portage Avenue store, which opened in June, features an almost-full kitchen, including a coffee pot that is always brewing.

“When I first opened my store on Erin Street, I even painted it all the same colours that were in my home just to make people feel like they were in my home,” said Whatman, who lives in Westwood.

Creating a family atmosphere and scrapbooking go hand-in-hand for Whatman, 57, a former teacher.

If the store at 1324 Portage Ave. is an extension of her house, then Whatman considers her customers an extension of her family
“You build your relationships and you build it into a family atmosphere,” said Whatman, who even cooks Christmas dinners for her customers.

“You wouldn’t believe how many friendships are developed at this store.”

One of Whatman’s best friends is Carole Bolingbroke, 74, who volunteers at the store.

Bolingbroke, who has 12 grandchildren, said scrapbooking is a great bonding experience with others and has given her a newfound sense of creative confidence.

“I feel that this place has really kept me young. I don’t feel my age at all,” she said.

When Whatman began making scrapbooks for her kids 15 years ago, she found it to be an emotional experience because of all the feelings it conjured up.

“You’re going back to when they’re little, and you cry and you laugh because it stirs up all the memories. It can be very sad or it can be very happy. It’s a very emotional hobby.”

Whatman has seen those emotions up close in many of her customers who use scrapbooking as a tool to work through and overcome grief.

“A woman here had just lost her mom, and she came here the very next day because she said she needed to be in a happy place,” Whatman said.

She said that people going through divorces and those who have lost children also find solace in the store while they’re scrapbooking.

While scrapbookers make up some of Whatman’s clientele, she says the majority of her customers are cardmakers.

“I think what happened was that letter-writing is a lost art right now because everybody emails, and it takes away the personal touch,” Whatman said.

But many people are going back and enjoying making the extra effort of creating handmade communications, she said, including Fort Rouge resident Bonnie Neil.

Neil gets inspiration from the classes Whatman teaches in-store. She says every card she makes is unique.

While her friends all enjoy receiving personalized cards because they can see the effort, the one time she ran out of her own and sent a store-bought card, she never heard the end of it.

“I will never live it down,” Neil laughs. “The expectation is that ‘you make cards and I expect a card!’”

Whatman also runs scrapbooking conventions which regularly attract more than 100 women. This year’s convention takes place in Gimli from Oct. 22 to 24.

Scrapbookers Anonymous & more is located at 1324 Portage Ave.

trevor.suffield@canstarnews.com