Renaissance For The Scrapbook

(CBS)  As the holiday season winds down, you might find yourself cleaning the house, returning gifts, eating leftovers and figuring out what to do with all those holiday family photos.

Sure, you can shove the photos in a drawer or stick them in an album, but that doesn't do them justice. The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler reports that, to really capture the moment and preserve your memories, you might want to try your hand at the newest hobby craze sweeping the nation: scrapbooking.

Zoraida Bozza has been documenting her son's life in scrapbooks. She has added pieces of Michael's life in a book since before he was born.

"Right after I got pregnant, I just started scrapbooking the sonogram pictures," says Bozza. "This is my third album, and he's a two-and-a-half-year-old. They're pretty cool"

Bozza isn't the only one who scrapbooks her memories. She is just one of millions of Americans scrapbookers or "croppers" – as they like to call themselves. They are passionate about pasting their photos, mementos and journal entries.

The hobby has become so popular that cropping clubs, such as the one at Scrapbook Alley on Long Island, N.Y., are cropping up all over the place. Syler joined in for a pajama-themed party to see what all the fuss was about.

"It's a feel-good thing. When these women get together, they talk -- not just about scrapbooking, but they talk about their families," explains Allison Connors, the owner of Scrapbook Alley. "They talk about their lives. It's an avenue where you can develop a relationship that is just so heart-to-heart. It's definitely more than a hobby. It's a way of communication."

"I want to leave something for my children," says Delores Morakkavi, a scrapbooker. "Let them remember all the fun times we had."

"It's really fun. You're not only putting your memories down in a book, you're also getting to relive those memories as you do it," says Amy Bennett, another scrapbook enthusiasts.

Scrapbooking is not only fun, it's big business.

According to Creating Keepsakes magazine, scrapbooking has grown by 600 percent over the past five years into a billion-dollar industry.

"There's a whole drive towards family-oriented activities," says Silvana Scotto-Zangri, a scrapbook supply distributor. "This is something that women can do with their children. They can do it with their girlfriends. It's a way for them to do what we've always been doing. You know, we've always been putting photographs into albums. But now we are incorporating the get-togethers."

Unlike the more time-consuming and complex art of quilting, scrapbooking can be a hobby for anyone.

"All you need to know to scrapbook is what you learned in kindergarten: cut and paste," says scrapbook instructor Connors. "And now there's so many products around that are pre-done for you that you really don't even have to be that creative."

It can be an easy and a fun activity for the family.

Syler says she had no idea how evolved the hobby had become and how intricate some of these designs were.

It took her about an hour to lay her pages and pick out supplies. It cost about $150 to buy the needed supplies, and an hour to build her four pages.

Note: You must use acid free paper for your scrapbook. Unless the paper is acid free, it will deteriorate over time and ruin pictures.