Scrapbooking has become a new craze in Macon County. Mothers, fathers, and even children are scrapbooking their memories.

You can have a different book for different events. You may choose to have a wedding scrapbook, a vacation scrapbook, a book full of grandchildren, or a 4-H scrapbook. Anything you wish to scrapbook, you can.

Angie Sullivan has been scrapbooking for two years. She started scrapbooking because she wanted to preserve the memories of her life with her husband, Chris, and her two children, McKenzie 8, and Hunter 5. She has two family books and each child has a book. Her daughter is also working on her own scrapbook.

"These books are priceless to me," Angie said. "You could not offer me all the money in the world for these memories."

She wanted to be able to preserve pictures in a safe way that would not harm them. All good scrapbooks are made with acid free pages.

Once a month Angie meets with several other women in the community for a night of scrapbooking. They usually meet at Central Elementary School the 3rd Friday night of every month unless the weekend is a holiday weekend.

There is a fee of $7.50 to pay for supplies. You can bring your own tools or purchase new tools that night. This is not the only scrapbook event held in Macon County.

"I like to use the corner rounder," said Angie, of her favorite tool. "It makes the edges round and the pictures just seen to have a cleaner and neater look." Other tools include a cropper or you can leave the picture the original size and place a boarder around the picture or draw designs on the pages.

It is also easy to add pages into the book. Angie attempts to work with her books each night after her children go to bed and some on the weekends. She swears it only takes minutes for a person to create a book and it does not cost a lot of money for something that will hopefully last a lifetime.

"I want to pass these books on to my children some day," she said. "I want them to see how much I loved them and how proud I was of them. I show them every day how much I love them, but this will be something that will remind them many years from now."

Angie also said that she was self conscience about her hand writing in the book. She felt that it was not neat or fancy enough. "Don't be self conscience about anything," she said. "The children will love to look at the pictures and remember those times. They are not concerned with your hand writing."

She also recommends that even if you can not put a book together get a box and label the pictures so that you can work on a book in the winter months when you may have more free time.

She does have a certain brand of scrapbooks and materials that she loves to use, but she stated that any scrapbook store will have what a beginner needs.

Once you start, you won't be able to stop, she claims.

"I love making memories with my husband and my children," she said. "I also love having something I can go back and look at to relive these memories."