An excellent way to document an important event in your family's history is through a scrapbook. Why not detail a recent graduation, birth or marriage in a special album for you and your family to discover for generations to come?
Getting Started
Materials to put aside for your scrapbook are photos, ticket stubs, postcards, brochures, menus, coins, maps, receipts, invitations, a dried flower or anything else that evokes a place or time.
Tricks of the Trade
To make your scrapbook last, purchase acid and lignin free or "archival quality" paper. Acid in paper will make the pages brown and brittle over time. Lignin is found in wood fibers and will eventually make your album pages yellow.
Pick an album with large blank pages made out of cardstock. Some books come with acid-free page protectors that will protect your photos from sticky fingerprints. Look for books that make it easy to remove, rearrange or add pages.
Putting it Together
Now the fun part - the layout. Keep each page topical. If you recently attended a large event and have many photos, choose the ones that best represent the moment. Add color to the page by attaching the photo to colored card stock, and creating a border with your edging scissors. Now, add some text. Title the page, add a caption to a photo or put in a journal entry. When creating a narrative, remember to included the who, what, when and where.
You could be creating a scrapbook for many reasons. Here are some suggestions to tailoring the style of your album to a subject. For example:
Vacation Scrapbook:
You don't always have to place your photos in chronological order. Try grouping by geography.
Place a map in the beginning of book and trace the route of your journey. Or use a map as a background for your photos.
Wedding Scrapbook:
If someone close to you was recently married this scrapbook is a great gift. Arrange photos of the couple in chronological order from their first dates, engagement and to their wedding. If you can go back even earlier include baby or high school photos. Add newspaper announcements, invites, a brochure of their honeymoon destination, etc.
Leave a few pages in the back of the album available for the couple's anniversary or baby photos.
