Martina turned a childhood pastime into a seven-figure career
Martina Calvi turned what started as a childhood pastime into a seven-figure career.
It was all thanks to a little nudge from her mother on an international family trip when she was eight.
"My mum really wanted to make sure we'd actually remember it, so we had just one requirement, which is to do a page a day in our travel diary," she told Nine.com.au.
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Martina Calvi's love for scrapbooking began on an international family trip when she was eight. Supplied
"I wasn't always keen to write, I got tired. So, I would collect things and just paste them in, and that would be my page done, but that was good enough for her."
Scrapbooking became a habit Calvi kept up throughout her life.
The now 30-year-old self-described "sentimental and crafty" artist from Sydney started consistently sharing pages of her scrapbooks on social media about three years ago.
Martina Calvi Petrina Tinslay
She didn't realise it would captivate hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
"I've dabbled in all forms of creation, but since sharing my journals online, my career has completely shifted," she said.
It wasn't long after her posts took off on Pinterest and Instagram that she received an offer that some people wait decades for.
A publisher had reached out about turning her love of scrapbooking into a book.
"When I first got the message from my now-editor, it was sitting in my message requests on Instagram, and I literally thought it was a fake message, like I thought it was spam," she said.
"I'm so glad that I opened my message requests and responded."
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Calvi published The Art of Memory Collecting in October 2024 and completely sold out.
She grew to having more than half a million followers across social media platforms, created her own stationery brand and released her second book, A Year of Junk Journaling, which won the 2026 Creative Book Awards.
Calvi said she "never dreamed" her scrapbook pages would lead her to the career she has today.
"It's something I've always done and never really thought so deeply about, but when I saw how much it resonated with people and inspired them, I just thought, wow, this is actually quite a good thing," she said.
"It's nice to have that kind of positive influence. I couldn't believe how well it took off. It's actually been crazy."
Calvi attributed her acclaim to the analogue trend, or the "crafty renaissance" as she likes to call it.
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Martina Calvi has turned her love for scrapbooking into a seven-figure career. Petrina Tinslay
Many have dubbed 2026 the "year of analogue" as digital fatigue leads an increasing number of people to intentional offline experiences like journaling, puzzle books, reading and knitting.
The trend has taken off with several social media users also suggesting swapping out modern technology for older technology (an iPhone for a camera, Spotify for an iPod and AirPods for wired headphones, etc.).
"I think especially because we're seeing so much AI-generated imagery at the moment and we're questioning what's real, we're a bit fatigued by manufactured and quickly processed imagery," Calvi said.
"There's something really refreshing about scrapbooks. There's something so tactile, so authentic and human.
"The messiness and the imperfections of it are what really tickle our brains and make us feel connected to another human being again."
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