Scrap Booking 101
Scrap Booking: A Fun & Creative Way to Re-invigorate Family Memories
By JAN ASHBY
People do appreciate hand-made gifts – especially someone in your immediate family (or a close relative). So here’s a notion – use your own inspiration and creativity, and design/create a loving picture album – or “scrapbooking“, as it’s frequently called.
You will have so much fun – especially if you CREATE a theme – for example, your family may have had an elaborate wedding with TONS of photos taken. So you could make a scrapbook centered around that one event.
Maybe get some ideas from the bride – find out what particular colors she would prefer for this album; and maybe she can provide a few mementos from the wedding [you know, her garter ..or something else from the wedding or reception] to give you Ideas/inspiration.
As an example, if you design a page around the gifts she received .. well, you could buy some STICKERS to represent some of the plates, or china, the new bride received (or tea service etc.); or if the Event in question is a special VACATION your family members experienced together … well, you would purchase stickers representing that occasion, and paste these onto the scrapbook page.
Here’s an example – Hobbylobby.com sells both Fishing stickers and Vacation stickers .
So if you do a search at their site, you’ll find a number of cool stickers – in the vacation category alone, I noticed there were stickers for Vegas, Mexico, Hawaii, or Disney vacation.
You may also want to check out Martha Stewart’s site – she has a section dedicated to “scrapbooking“. She even has one on Pet scrapbooking.
Scrap Booking: The Fun is in The Creating
Scrap booking is really a method to organize all those pictures, postcards, programs, menus, matchbooks, pressed corsages and other pieces of family history into a lovely album that can be looked at and treasured for years to come. Bringing all those things together in an album typically comes to mean as much to those who create the gift as it does the recipient.
Scrapbooks are an extremely warm, personal, and sentimental gift. They can light up anyone’s eyes – or be used as a special surprise at a birthday, a baby shower, a confirmation, or some other joyous celebration. Once the gift has been opened, you’ll find everyone spending hours going through the book – and recalling all of the wonderful times.
Photos that bring back memories of weddings and birthday parties, graduations, the program from your daughters very first ballet recital, the matchbook from the restaurant where you and your future husband had your very first dinner. All these things make the scrapbook a gift that can be cherished.
Scrap Booking Tool: Cricut Expression Machine
Putting together an album has come a long way from the days of slipping the pictures under a plastic sheet or, for those of us old enough to remember, sliding the edges of the pictures into the small, black paper corners. Modern scrap booking is an art form. Scrapbooking and “making memories” doesn’t take any unique skills. With a little patience (along with the proper tools), like the cricut expression machine, you can construct a scrapbook that you would be proud to give as a gift.
Scrap Book Creation: Make it a Family Affair
With attractive decorative papers, stamps, unique scissors, and other cutting tools for decorative edges and designs, you’re ready to go. Scrap booking is a joy; the entire family can partake. Even a young child can enjoy helping. Just the memories alone make it worthwhile.
You will discover websites that will walk you through the basics; & you can find community classes for scrap booking. Also, you’ll find people through your local paper, or on the internet, who will be glad to help you.
Another option is to gather all of the photos together, put them in some semblance of order, and take them to a place which will put it all onto a video tape or DVD, unless of course you’re lucky enough to have the knowledge and skill to do so yourself. This also has the benefit of keeping your pictures safe from deterioration.
Copyright 2016 Healthy Kids