50 Scrapbook Pages in 1 Day

For years now I have had the argument with friends and family members about how overwhelming and time consuming it is to scrapbook. My side of the coin has always been that scrapbooking isn’t necessarily an option if you want to keep pictures of your children forever. Now that the world has gone digital pictures are being taken at an ALARMING rate. One source states that there are 23,019,003 pictures taken every second on this little world we call earth. I have no proof as to whether or not this number is accurate but I DO know that we take so many pictures we can’t possibly keep track of them all without some serious dedication.

One of my biggest fears in life is being 50 years old and watching my children have grandchildren and being unable to remember how my life was when my own children were born. I love having kids, I love being a mom, and I love love love little babies. Today is my youngest child’s 1^st birthday and I am sick with the realization that she is already so big. One year is just not long enough for people to be little. I already miss her baby soft skin, her silky hair, her wrinkly feet, her paper thin fingernails, and her wobbly little head. I miss wrapping her up tightly in a receiving blanket and rocking her to sleep. I miss watching her sleep peacefully with an innocent and pure expression of complete dependency and trust. I miss, I miss, I miss….

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When we fail to print our photographs and organize them in a way that allows us to review them frequently and treasure them eternally we lose so much of what makes us remember the things about or children that we fell in love with.

Technology has done wonders for our ability to document and record our daily activities but I feel a great sense of loss when I have nothing physical to hold in my hands for review.

Keeping a personal blog with photographs of your family and activities is great for sharing with the friends and family in your generation. However, if you intend to share your stories with future generations you must print your blogs into books. (I use blurb.com)

One of the challenges I was having in preserving my memories was the professional pictures that I hang on my walls. Every year we get pictures taken a few different times for different special occasions. I purchase a CD from the photographer, pick a handful of my favorites and have them printed for the frames scattered throughout my house. The next time we get pictures taken, I rotate the new and the old. The question always comes back, “what do I do with the old ones?”

I am already years behind in scrapbooking my printed photographs (notice I said PRINTED, I may be one of the stubborn last who still prints pictures) so adding my professional pictures to my pile of snapshots seemed very overwhelming. I was anxious to get them taken care of ASAP. So, I set out to create an entire scrapbook in one day here is how it worked.

Prior to my one day scraping marathon I gathered all of the professional quality portraits of my children (except the ones still on the wall). I dated the back of them and put them in chronological order. Also, prior to the big day I purchased a 12×12 scrapbook with 50 page protectors. I then bought about 70 pieces of white polka dot scrapbook paper, being sure to get an even amount of each color.

When the big day arrived I armed myself with a computer, M&M’s, ice cold water, some good music and an empty house. Because I had all of my pictures already neatly stacked in order they were ready to go. I gathered my polka dot papers, some black and white card stalk, tape, and my Cricut machine (a printer would work just as well).

Step 1: was to cut (or print) 20 title shapes. If you don’t have a cutting machine you could make your shapes all rectangles!

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Step 2: Begin assembling each page, keeping in mind that the left side of the page should be the same color, and preferably the same time period as the right side of the page.

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There was to be NO CROPPING, NO EMBELISHMENT, NO DISTRACTION. Each picture was mounted on white or black paper, a title (name and

date only) was printed from my computer or hand written and taped to the title shape and the page was assembled.

Because each page was basically the same and I didn’t have to dig for information about what the date was or take the time to write a long description of the picture so every page went SO fast. I completed 6 years of pictures in 1 day (about 8 hours total). Because this was so quick and so easy I will continue to save my dated pictures in a file and add to the book every few years. No more searching through boxes of photographs looking for the 3^rdchild’s 4^th grade picture. So quick, so easy, so classic looking!

Scrapbooking doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming but putting forth a bit of effort will be greatly rewarded. When I am 95 years old and sitting alone in a nursing home I will be sure to have this particular book sitting by my bed to help me remember the loved I had for my very small children.

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Scrapbooking

Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks

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