When I was born, my mother started a scrapbook for me and continued with one for each of my four younger brothers. The whole family – four generations – enjoys the memories captured in the albums. Now that Mom can’t keep up the scrapbooks, I’ve continued the family tradition by adding pages to her granddaughter’s books and starting a new book for her great-granddaughter. Thus, the scrapbooks become a precious family heirloom and everyone appreciates the work she did to record the family memories.
Even if you’re not much into crafts, you can still enjoy scrapbooking which is a lot of fun and very easy. The scrapbook can be just a simple photo album or an elaborate work of art. Everything you need to know to make an enjoyable scrapbook, you learned in kindergarten.
You only need to get started arranging the photos in a meaning sequence so that people can enjoy them. The goal is to create the story of your child’s life. You can add or insert other pages as things come up and you have time.
You will need some supplies to get started: a scrapbook, various types of pages, good scissors, glue, etc. Be careful about the pages. You need acid-free, archival pages for any precious or heirloom photographs. You can buy everything you need online or at your local crafts’ store.
Don’t get overwhelmed with choices here. You’ll see a lot of adorable stickers and other things, especially for baby scrapbooks. But you can always buy them later after you see what you want for embellishments or something special.
There are many ways to start a new scrapbooking project. I just start putting the photos into piles by date and subject. I’m relentless about eliminating the duplicates and really bad photos at this stage. Spread the photos from the first pile out on the floor or a big table so you can see them. Select the best photos and arrange them on the page so that they tell a story. Leave room on the page for a title, and what was happening, who everyone is, and the date. You’d be surprise how much you’ll forget, if you don’t write these things down now.
Continue the story of your child’s life by including other significant items. Start at the very beginning with shower invitations, a copy of the birth certificate, birth announcement, thumb and foot prints. As your child grows up, you can include other memorabilia such as newspaper clippings, school athletic letters, ribbons and awards that are especially meaningful.
As long as you make the scrapbook for your new baby with love, it’ll be a perfect keepsake that he’ll treasure his whole life.
My mother started my scrapbook when I was born, and I have been hooked on scrapbooking every since. For more tips and ideas, visit my scrapbooking blog.
