Interactive scrapbooking appeals to women — and men
Memories are an extremely vital part of life, he says. "Everybody wants to remember the important things — the happy things, even the sad things, the things that change your life."
But he thinks that remembering shouldn't be a passive occupation. You shouldn't just remember, he says, you should be able to interact with your memories.
And that's why he and his wife Saria have a scrapbook company that specializes in interactive scrapbooking. They produce background pages with inset wheels that turn around. They produce clear plastic photo holders that can layer one on top of the other so you can include lots more photos on a page, and flip through them.
He thinks that "scrapbooks should be more than just pictures and journaling. They should be something you can play with instead of look at passively. That's the guy in me. I like things that are more hands-on, where you can touch things, flip things, play with the page."
Not only that, but his designs all feature woodsy, outdoorsy themes. "That's who we are," he says. "My wife and I both love being in the outdoors during any season of the year. Saria loves to take pictures every chance she gets. So, we do things we like." Their designs, he says, are "not cutesy."
Children, too, love the Moving Memories pages, he says. And at the annual Craft and Hobby Show in Anaheim last February, Digital Scrapbook Magazine chose them as the "most innovative product."
The Butlers call their company Outdoors and More. It's really a cottage industry, he says. "We do it out of our home." He is a recent MBA graduate; Saria is still in school. "We were looking for something to do, and this fell into our laps. It's perfect for us."
Butler grew up "in a crafty family," he says. "My Mom did a lot of crafty things, with wood, with sewing. There were always projects around. So, I think I've got a lot of crafty blood. I love being creative. I love to say, 'Look what I can do,' even if I sometimes drive my wife nuts."
They currently have six Moving Memories kits, with themes such as camping, astronomy ("we love to look at the stars when we're out at a campsite") and watermelon ("my wife loves watermelon, so we did that for her; it's been one of our most popular ones").
They will have several more kits by the end of the month. He's working on one that has tools and a handy-man theme. The kits come with the wheel and background as well as accents, diecuts, letters. So, they are pretty much just add your photos, he says. But there are lots of creative ways to do that.
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