Scrapbooking in Germany

I did a fair amount of scrapbooking back in Georgia, where there was a Target and a Michael's craft store within a 5-minute drive of my house in case I needed to replenish supplies or find that something special to complete a layout. If I chose to drive 15 minutes, I had a Walmart and an actual scrapbooking store at our nearest mall. If all else failed, there was always the myriad of scrapbooking sites on the internet to order from. Even when scrapping in a very basic style, like me, more supplies are always needed!

Several months ago, I decided the time was right to scrap again and I was outfitted with IKEA bookshelves, a desk and chair for a scrapbooking corner in our family room. As I looked around at my supplies, I said to myself, "OK, I really need to just use what I have. No more buying materials for a while."

I'm a few years behind, but the first layouts I decided to work on were from our trip to Disneyland Paris in the Spring. But how to do Disney layouts without any Disney items? There are such charming Disney materials in the U.S., but when I asked for scrapbooking items at the stores in Disneyland itself, people looked at me funny. Scrapbookeeeng? What eez theez scrapbookeeeng?

I quickly forgot the vow to forgo any new supplies. And so began another quest. I have yet to find a shop like Michael's (I had been forewarned that there were none in Germany) and once a year or so, some stamps or letter stickers appear in a store, but they're gone a few weeks later. There just weren't supplies anywhere.

I found a Disney kit on the Creative Memories direct sales American site that I swore I could not do without. Nothing else would suit. Good news! There is Creative Memories in Germany! Bad news! They don't carry all the materials, including this particular kit. We ordered it and had it shipped to one of David's colleagues in Atlanta who brought it to us on his next trip here.

OK, so scrapbooking is not the popular hobby here that it is in the America (according to some sources, scrapbooking is more popular than golf) and finding supplies here in Germany has proven to be problematic. But, surely there are websites I could order from? Time and time again, the European websites I visited seemed to be connected to American sites and I would need to pay a hefty amount to have items shipped to me (from the U.S. after all).

Then, a friend told me about a huge craft store on the Zeil, the main shopping area in Frankfurt, that just began carrying loads of scrapbooking supplies. Just this past Wednesday, my friend Kathy and I ventured on a rainy morning to downtown Frankfurt and found the Idee, the huge craft store.

Huge? Huge by German standards, not by American. And their meager scrapbooking supplies were fine, if you weren't looking for something specific and if you weren't used to cruising aisle after aisle of supplies in a Michael's. I made myself buy some paper and matching accessories, and I did find a great dragon punch I can use on a few castle-visit layouts. But I realized that this was just not going to work in the long run. Scrapbooking may have arrived in Germany, but it will be a while till it catches on.

So, I've decided that I will use the supplies I have, unless there is just something I absolutely must have. Then, I will have one of David's colleagues bring it over, or wait until the next trip to the U.S. and load up on items at the Michael's or Joanne's. Next trip home, all you women in the Michael's scrapbooking aisles, clear out! Desperate shopper on the loose!