NATCHEZ — By 3 p.m. Thursday, women were lined up at the doors of the Natchez Convention Center with a rolling organizer in each hand — and several more in the car.

More than 250 women have taken over the convention center until Saturday for the fifth annual Scrap-N-on the River scrapbooking conference.

Pam Frank, the conference’s founder and organizer, said conferences like the one she hosts in Natchez offer women who attend the opportunity to unwind.

“Dr. Phil and Oprah are saying we need to put ourselves back on the list, and this is our way of doing that,” she said. “For scappers, these conferences are like therapy.”

And judging from the massive amounts of scrapbooking materials, there is going to be a lot of therapy going on.

Frank, like most of the women at the convention, has an entire room in her house devoted to scrapbooking, and when conference time rolls around, the women simply pack up the room and bring it with them.

Penny Russell from Alexandria, La., used a Fatmax toolbox by Stanley to hold the majority of her supplies. She has only had the Fatmax for a couple of weeks, but already she’s “loving it.”

“With one hand, I can open it and slide it out and there everything is,” she said as she demonstrated the process.

What was revealed was a assortment of ribbons, papers, stickers, buttons and embellishments in every theme imaginable.

The Fatmax seemed to be a popular choice of organizer — there were several scattered about. But some scrappers couldn’t find a store-bought organizers to fit their needs, so since they are the creative type, they just made their own.

Such was the case for Melissa Jones of Brandon. Jones designed a nearly 5 foot tall rolling organizer that houses her collection of scrapping accessories. The case has slots for nearly 20 plastic boxes stuffed full of ribbon, thread, paint and threads.

“They are all color coded,” Jones said of her organization system. “See, here are the greens and down there are the peaches.”

At the table next to Jones, Mona Fordham from West Monroe, La., had some of her scrapbooking material organized in a binder called a Scrap Rack. But on the floor were two custom-made rolling cabinets.

“One of my scrapbooking friend’s husband makes these for us,” she said.

But despite the massive amounts of paper, stamps, markers and the like that these avid scrappers bring with them, there is always a line of people browsing the different vendor booths set up along the perimeter of the room.

“From the way this looks, you’d never know there was a recession,” Frank said. “This is the one thing, these ladies won’t give up.”

Scrapbookers come to the conference to be able to dedicate hours at a time to scrapbooking, stock up on supplies and stock up on ideas.

“You’ve heard of scraplifting, haven’t you,” Katharine Wall of Natchitoches, La. said of the art of stealing ideas from other scrapbookers. “That’s what I get out of this — a lot of ideas.”

The scrapping continues Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to midnight each day.

Lisa Bearnson, co-founder of scrapbooking company Creating Keepsake, will be the featured speaker at Saturday night’s finale event — a pajama party.