|
Making Baby Memories
Make your baby memories (or someone else's) even more special with
a personal scrapbook.
1|2
Managing your memories
Most parents and grandparents are camera-happy, especially with their
firstborns, and will pull out their cameras at any moment. The first few
minutes after birth, the first smile, the first bath… the opportunities
are endless. But what do you do with these snapshots afterwards? With
hundreds of prints to choose from, suddenly the idea of compiling an album
can seem like another duty when you're already pressed for time.
Digital cameras might be great for deleting those hundreds of hopeless
images you take but storing precious pictures on a computer doesn't have
the same effect as a lovingly created album. Plus, if your computer fails,
you could lose part of your life quicker than you can shout 'hard drive!'.
The scrapbooking craze
 The
latest craze to hit the arts and crafts world is scrapbooking, in which
aficionados record key events or moments of their lives in a blank book.
The mementos can be anything, from personal photos to newspaper clippings
and travel stubs.
The dictionary Websters dates the origin of the word 'scrapbook'
back to 1825, so it's clear that people have been enjoying this hobby
for a long time… and if recent evidence is anything to go by, they will
continue to do so.
Creating your own album or scrapbook can be immensely rewarding as it
enables you to choose the moments that matter, the amount you wish to
write, and the way in which you present your pictures and words. Scrapbooking
these days doesn't just focus on adding images; it also places high importance
on the writing that accompanies them. Perhaps a better way to think of
the practice is as a sort of pictorial journal.
Ready-made albums
Designed with the busy parent in mind, the pages run through all the
milestones, from the first ultrasound picture to the first birthday.
Thumbs up: There are spaces to write key information such as first
words uttered and when, first steps taken and reactions to weaning.
These can be a great way to record your baby's first year as all you
have to do is remember to stick the photo in once developed, or add another
important memento such as their hospital name tag.
Thumbs down: they aren't flexible for the moments, over and above
the normal ones, that matter to you. Also, once your child has
reached their second birthday there doesn't seem to be much choice available
in the high street.
Not much choice in design they're mostly cutesy designs of bunnies and
bears galore, pastel pinks and blues!
DIY albums
This is where scrapbooking shops, most easily found online, can provide
an ideal solution, selling, as they do, everything you need to compile
your very own album.
Thumbs up: the sheer range of products available!
Thumbs down: some of these albums can be quite pricey. Admittedly,
their product looks very good and impressive but if you do not have a
lot of money to play around with, the cost could be a deterrent.
However, there are still plenty of other options. Why not look in a stationer's
for a traditional scrapbook, which costs under £10 typically? Or a budget
bookshop for notebooks and photo albums? In these you can add photos,
clippings and mementos plus add your text, with no tricky binding to worry
about.
Themes
The joy of creating your own album is that you can choose whatever theme
you wish instead of having to make do with what retailers believe we want
to cherish. The following are a few ideas for albums:
- Father's or Mother's Day
- Christmas
- Holidays
- Grandparents
- Friends
- Anniversaries, weddings, celebrations of life
Get them involved!
If your little ones are old enough to at least hold a chunky crayon,
you could get them involved in the creative process. Perhaps give them
a picture to colour in or glue onto the paper. If they are budding artists,
they could draw a picture of their daddy or grandparents, or add sparkle
to a page.
If you are a perfectionist, try to relax when they do this as chances
are they won't colour within lines or glue items on straight: but this
is part of the charm of a child's artistic contribution!
If it really bothers you too much perhaps involving them isn't the best
idea!
Find out more
If you get the scrapbooking bug, why not learn more about it so you can
start producing your own books from scratch?
Sites such as UKScrappers
provide helpful introductory information and there are various books on
the subject if your interest is piqued.
1|2
| 
