Scrapbook Made Fun

The ideas are endless for doing a scrapbook. After the birth of my daughter (my third child) I decided to make her one. I kept up with the boy’s baby book and made a journal for them. My daughter had third child syndrome, I was lucky to write down what she weighed at a check up. So I thought this would be a neat way to capture her first years and beyond. From getting the room ready, sonograms and all the firsts. 

I captured these all on film and made a scrapbook for her. Beside pictures I was able to write little sayings and names. I have a section for each of the holidays (Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving and Birthday). This is a way to capture a little bit of each year without lugging out all the photograph albums. 

I got so into doing my daughter’s that I had to go back through my sons’ pictures and make them a scrapbook too. Since they are older and into sports included a sports section and school days section from the first day of preschool and up. Which will be added to my daughter’s when she gets to that age.

Just think of scrap booking as a way to organize and display photos and preserve items that you may choose to include in your scrapbook. I found it special to include beautiful poems and special sayings. 

I first thing to do when scrap booking is to pick an album. Choose a sturdy album with removable and addable pages. Choose one with page protectors to cover the album pages. Page protectors will help prevent photos from becoming dirty and guard against fingerprint smudges. Look for materials labeled “photo safe” or “ acid free”. 

These products will keep your photos protected from deterioration. Become familiar with the types and sizes of scrapbooks available. The type of album you choose will determine he ease with which you can rearrange, add and remove album pages. Mount your photos onto acid-free and lignin-free cardstock paper. 

You can also use this type of paper to make decorative cut outs for your scrapbook pages. Use acid-free and photo-safe writing equipment to add text to your album pages. Trim pages and photos with decorative or straight scissors. 

Practice your scrap booking skills with the basic materials at first. With each project you complete you will want to go way beyond just basic. Using sticker and other decorative paper punches, die-cuts and stamps will make a very creative and memorable page.

I had purchased two different kinds of scrapbooks before I realized that I like the three ring binder type better. The first one was the spiral-bound album. The spiral-bound one was set and cannot be removed to add additional pages or rearrange existing ones.

For my nieces graduation my sister had wanted to make up something special for her. I showed her my scrapbook I had made. She decided to make one up with all of her school years and special times in her life. 
We tried to remember the best we could of what went on at the time of the picture so we could put a caption beside it. This took quite some time to fully complete but when it was done it was the hit of her graduation party. With scrap booking you can go so far beyond just a picture in an album. Be creative and have fun.