Scrap City: Scrapbooking for Urban Divas and Small Town Rebels

by Paul Gambino

The face of scrapbooking is about to get a youthful, cutting-edge makeover!  Despite the craft’s popularity, all the books flooding the market focus on the same images of weddings, baby showers, and Little League. So where’s a scrapbooking rebel to go? To Scrap City of course. With its edgy and artistic points of reference, it fills the gap to reach those urban hipsters, downtown secretaries, big city divas, and small-town nonconformists. Along with a basics section and scrapping tips, is the pièce de ré a gallery of real-life scrapbook pages from people of all stripes, from the single mom to the skate kid. These contributors celebrate their panty collection; reveal why single is fun; list their tattoos; and, yes—even redefine the baby shower.    Paul Gambino has taught screenwriting at the School of Visual Arts, was a production consultant and writer for NBC, and was Creative Director for the magazines Gener8 and Ultra . He has spent endless nights in NYC’s hottest clubs; years as a punk on London’s King’s Road; and college days with Keith Haring and Jean Michael Basquiat. Now a father, he has a special appreciation for time’s fleeting nature and how important it is to preserve memories for yourself and others.

Genres: Art, Crafts, Nonfiction

168 pages, Hardcover

First published April 28, 2006

About the author

Paul’s first book, SCRAP CITY: SCRAPBOOKING FOR SUBURBAN DIVAS AND SMALL TOWN REBELS (SOHO Publishing, 2006), was a semi-finalist for the Independent Publisher Book award in the Hobby/Crafts category and was touted as giving the craft of scrapbooking a youthful, cutting-edge makeover.
Paul has been an avid collector of the bizarre for over 20-years with an extensive collection of Victorian memorial photographs, antique funeria, mug shots and vintage religious items (including a life sized St. Sebastian and Virgin Mary salvaged from a 19th century church in Pennsylvania). The past two decades of serious collecting has allowed Paul to gain the trust of some of the world’s largest macabre collectors. These relationships have allowed Paul to have his second book published, MORBID CURIOSITIES: COLLECTIONS OF THE UNCOMMON AND THE BIZARRE. Amazon sums the book up like this; Morbid Curiosities is an insight into the strange world of collectors of the macabre. Centered on 18 collections, with extensive interviews with each collector and specially shot imagery detailing their objects, this is a fascinating showcase of bizarre and intriguing objects.
Included are collections of skulls, mummified body parts, occult objects, and various carnival, sideshow and criminal ephemera. Detailed captions tell the curious stories behind each object, many of which are being shown outside the private world of their collections for the first time.
Included are collections of skulls, mummified body parts, occult objects, and various carnival, side-show and criminal ephemera. Detailed captions tell the curious stories behind each object, many of which are being shown outside the private world of their collections for the first time.

Reviews

[Sonya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book at the Dollar Tree and I think it was a great and exciting find. I will be honest; I was not a huge fan of the introduction and did not know how the book would turn out. I felt that in an effort to separate itself or define the book as a “new breed of scrap bookers” and to make it witty it could be offensive to people who love traditional scrap booking and have done it for years. It would be a great book to expand your horizons with and step out of your scrap book comfort zone. I say there is enough of the pie to go around. The funny thing is some of the unconventional, “new breed” of scrap booking ideas presented look a lot more like art journaling and mixed media artwork to me vs. actual scrap booking (traditional or new).

What I loved about the book were the narratives by the artists of what they created and why. I do tattoo work and found the scrap book pages and altered book/scrapbook ideas with tags and pictures included wonderful and I know that there are ideas I will probably use. Again the price could not be beaten and the pictures are great. I like a lot of the altered book ideas and again while I am not a scrap booker and never really have been most of these finished products as well as the ideas the book gives you remind me of wonderful mixed media or handmade book ideas. That said I would recommend the book and I really like the art that was created in those pages.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half the reason I didn't want to go near Scrapbooking, even though I've always had a talent for it, was the cutesy kids-pets-church-summer vacations-kids-pets pages over and over and over, presenting families as these flawless Leave it to Beaver situations. My history was nothing like that and the things I want to communicate through paper arts are nothing like that. This book was a breath of fresh air - people scrapping with dark colors, from dark places, and meeting their problems head on, using the craft medium as a means of transformation and understanding. That's the kind of art I can get behind. Bravo, Scrap City!

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book to look for inspiration. I would not suggest it to a newer scrapbooker, but still I think anyone can get ideas from it.

[Dana]

this book rocks on so many levels. Not the traditional form of scrapbooking, pushes the limits and again I feel it's a must have

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This ROCKS! If you're sick to death of the religion-driven scrapbooking empire, pick this beauty up! I LOVE this work for its rebellion and its honesty. I hope it'll inspire you to be different, too.

[Amy Lyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice to see not all scrapbooking has to be by the numbers.