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| Scrapbooking goes high-tech |
 Scrapo.com a Web haven for photo craft enthusiasts
A new Middletown-based Web site gives scrapbookers — those purveyors and arrangers of creatively adorned photographic memories — a way to feed their obsession online.
Scrapo.com is housed in a modest, windowless office in the four-story building at 6730 Roosevelt Ave. There, Adam Lewis, senior Xponex Web & Media Services program engineer, and Joshua Rountree, Xponex senior graphics artist, and their colleagues have worked long hours to bring the site up.
The work has not gone unnoticed. In the barely two weeks since users could register at scrapo.com, the site already has drawn 200 members, including a few from the Philippines, Australia and Canada, Lewis said. Most members so far live in Ohio.
The concept is simple: Put the power of servers and computers to work for scrapbookers.
"Anything you can do with paper on your home table, you can do with our Web site," said Lewis, 19, a Middletown High School graduate.
"That's the ultimate goal anyway," said Rountree, 21, another MHS grad.
Up to 25 photos can be stored for free, arranged and decorated with clip art and accompanied by an online journal. Space for another 10 photos can be purchased for a one-time $5. Another 50 photos are $15, and more space is available for one-time fees.
Users control access to their photos through a "friends" list or anyone who has a password - or they can open their books to all the world.
Sharing photos might be the best part, Lewis said.
"If I make a scrapbook at home, my grandma lives in California, how do I share it with her?" he said.
About 6,000 pieces of clip art are available on the site. The art so far has been drawn by "hand," Lewis and Rountree said.
"It took a little while," admitted graphics artist Randy Bowling.
Site operators hope to boost that clips count by 18,000 pieces within a month through a partnership with a Russian company they declined to name.
The site is funded through Xponex, Lewis said. CFR Corp. - "No one really knows" Lewis said when asked what "CFR" stood for - is the parent of Xponex and CSN1 Technologies, also at 6730 Roosevelt.
Contact Thomas Gnau at (513) 705-2833, or e-mail him at tgnau@coxohio.com. |
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