It took about one chronological scrapbook album for me to realize that I hate chronological scrapbooking! Among other issues, it ignores the fact that so many of the things we celebrate recur over time, and that change over time is often the most important thing that we are celebrating: a birthday, a graduation, a wedding, the growth of a child.
So ditch your chronological albums and embrace event/theme-based scrapbooking instead! Combining photos from different years - even different eras - together in one spread or one album, is a terrific way to highlight what truly matters: that while time marches on, the memories we make last forever.
This blog entry contains some ideas for event/theme-based albums you might want to try. And as long as you're creating a bunch of different, themed albums rather than one ongoing chronological album, flex your creativity by highlighting different techniques, color schemes, and journaling styles for each. For instance, the album I've created about my career as a teacher features fairly simple papers and organization, but the journaling playfully mimics worksheets, multiple choice tests & fill in the blank; while the album I've created about our summer beach vacation is vibrant with patterned papers, vivid colors and minimal journaling, because the pictures tell so much of the story.
Holiday Albums. Include spreads that focus less on the passing of time and more on people, favorite foods, or favorite traditions!
1. Christmas/Hannukah album. In addition to preserving your own favorite Christmas memories, this is a great place to store all those Christmas letters & family photos that you receive every year from friends and family.
2.
Halloween
album. Do a spread for
each year and make sure to capture in your journaling the significance of your
childrens' costume choices.
3. Easter album. Since Easters tend to look alike, consider focusing on the parts of the holiday that are meaningful to your family: "The Art of the Easter Basket," "Delightfully Dyed [Easter eggs]," "Easter Dinner at Grandmoms," or "An Easter Fashion Show."
4.
Birthday
album. Do a spread for
each year and make sure to include the following: venue, theme, guest list, the
cake, special gifts, and special memories.
5.
Anniversary album. Do a spread for each year and add
journaling that talks about the memories you've made together during the past
year.
Geneology/Heritage Albums. These albums are a great way to preserve not just preserve family pictures but also momentoes - brochures, tickets, napkins, matchbooks: all those bits of ephemera that turn up when you turn out the drawers and closets of your loved ones!
7.
Family
Tree album. Create an album
with spreads for each "branch" (family) of the tree.
8.
Heritage
album. Gather/copy family
documents (genealogical records, newspaper articles, letters, birth announcements, etc.) and photos and preserve them in a way that tells a story
9. Family Recipe album. Gather your family's favorite, traditional, or most sentimental recipes and collect them into a single album. This is a lovely way to preserve your family's ur-recipes - the ones written out in the original handwriting of the beloved family member who contributed them. Be sure to accompany each recipe with the story of what makes the recipe/menu special to your family
10. Family Reunion album. Pages to include: guest list, venue,
activities, collected stories, and superlatives ("funniest," "best
preserved," "biggest heart," etc.)
11. Tribute album. Have you lost someone dear? Create an
album celebrating their life and reflecting upon the ways they shaped your
life.
Family Albums
12. Wedding album. Why use one of those pre-made wedding memory books that never has spaces to record the memories you really care about? Make your own! Have fun incorporating elements from the wedding in your design (color scheme, ribbons, pressed flowers, napkins, etc.) and organizing the pages in a way that tells your love story the way you tell it to yourselves: "The Playlist of Our Courtship" (each spread is the title of a song), or "Nerds in Love," (each spread talks about how your courtship was uniquely yours), or "Happily Ever After" (each spread tells your story in the form of a fairy tale).
13. Where We've Lived album. Scrapbook all the places your family has lived. Include journaling that explains the reason for each move and memories from each home. (For historical perspective, include what each home cost so that later generations will marvel!)
14. Siblings/cousins/grandchildren album. Create a scrapbook that celebrates the
special relationships that form between family members.
15. Family Pets album. Don't neglect the fuzzy, furry, finny or
feathered members of the family!
16. Home improvement/Renovation album. Because the only thing more satisfying than finishing a major home improvement project is being able to look back at photos that show just how far you've come! Perhaps a page for each room, showing "before and after" - or a picture of each room with tags calling attention to your favorite design choices?
17. Year in Review album. Display what your family gets up to in a year by devoting a page to each month. Just remember that your album doesn't have to restrict itself to only one year: you can take a more metaphorical approach and use this format to highlight the traditions, hobbies and travels that mean the most to you. (Ex: January: Start looking through flower seed catalogs; February: snowmobiling! March: start making cross-stitch samplers for upcoming spring weddings ....)
18. Neighborhood/Community album. Celebrate the community in which you live.
Pages to include: Neighbors, favorite places, favorite restaurants, etc.
Children/School Albums
19. Baby album/book. Why use one of those pre-made baby books that never has spaces to record the memories you really care about? Make your own! Consider skipping the quotes/generic journaling and using your scrapbook as a way to document your child's journey. My baby book, for instance, is organized as a Book of Lists, with journaling that captures my son's cutest body parts, favorite toys, songs, destinations, mangled words, frustrations, challenges, bath routines, etc.
20. School Memories album. (Variations: elementary school, middle school, high school, college). In addition to pictures, a School Memories scrapbook is a great place to preserve all those ticket stubs, programs, practice schedules, class schedule printouts, report cards, award certificates, field trip agendas, race numbers, and other ephemera that your child accumulates during their school career. Consider including spreads that commemorate not just events but also friends, study habits, popular trends/fashions/fads, and lessons learned.
21. School Photo/Timeline album. Put those envelopes of school photos to good use - create a timeline album that shows your child growing up. Consider including the answers to a standard questionaire to accompany each yearly photo: your favorite friends, your favorite restaurant, your favorite teacher/class, thing you love most school, thing you least like about school ....
22. Artwork album. What to do with all those pictures your darlings haul back from Kindergarten? Give your refrigerator a break and scrap them in an album. For fun, I gave all of the pictures pretentious names and gaudy frames inspired by different major art schools.
23. Prom album. Commemorate the event with a scrapbook that incorporates both photos and mementoes, including invitations, placecards, pressed flowers from the corsage, hotel brochures, and bits of decoration from the ballroom.
24. Graduation album. In addition to including all the expected bits - pictures, the program, parties, gifts - consider spreads that focus on your graduate's future. At our grad party, for instance, every guest was asked to make a guess about what our son would be doing 10years from now; these predictions made a hilarious spread! We also asked guests to suggest the 5 most important supplies our son would need for high school/college/real life (depending on the event) and created a spread sharing the witty responses. Be sure to leave room for the grad to share their favorite graduation memories.
Hobby Albums
25. Sports album. Do you participate in a sport, either as a
player or coach? Create an album to capture your pictures, practice schedules, programs, pictures, tournament schedules, and memorabilia
26. Fan album. Are you passionate about a sports team, celebrity, band, or
musical style? Preserve and share your obsession with others via a fan album.
Include stats, memorabilia, articles, ticket stubs, CD covers, etc.
27. Club/activity album. Do you participate in a club or activity that's an important part of your life? (Variations: scouting, PTA, book club, service club, church, etc.) Create an album to help capture you memories and memorabilia.
28. Hobby album. (Variations: fishing, camping, gardening, coaching,
cooking, hunting, needlework, carpentry, etc.) Celebrate your passion!
A fishing album might celebrate all the trips you've taken and your best
fishing stories; a gardening album might contain spreads devoted to your
favorite varieties; a needlework album might create lists of handmade gifts
you've created and pictures/samples of some of your best work ... so many
choices!
29. Collection album. What do you collect? Create an album that
displays the highlights of your collection and shares stories about how the most special items were collected.
30. That's Entertainment album. Create a scrapbook to show off all the
shows you've attended. Include programs, ticket stub, reviews from the
newspaper, and your own personal remembrances from the event.
Travel Albums
31. Vacation album. (Variation: Honeymoon album) Collect your
photos, brochures, ticket stubs, road maps and other memorabilia, add
journaling, and presto ... you can relive the trip over and over again!
32. Annual Family Trip album. Does your family visit the same relative
every year? The same beach? The same cabin? Dedication like that deserves an
album. Since the snapshots you take from year to year may be somewhat similar,
consider organizing the scrapbook by "activities" rather than chronology.
For instance, if your family always goes to the same beach, consolidate photos
from multiple years to create pages devoted to best sandcastles, great tans,
sleeping in the sun, bathing beauties, muscle men, buried alive, playing in the
surf, etc.
Gift Albums for Adults
33. Wedding Shower album. Gather photos, scraps, ribbon, guest
lists, gift lists, etc. and create a keepsake that the bride and groom will treasure
forever.
34. Baby Shower album. Gather photos, scraps, guest lists, gift
lists, etc. and create a keepsake that the new mom will be sure to treasure.
35. Teacher Year-End album. Create an album that captures photos and
memories from the past school year & present it to your child's teacher.
Makes a great end-of-year gift!
36. Cookbook album. Share treasured recipes & family food
traditions with members of the family ... old and new.
Gift Albums for
Children
37. ABC album. Consider illustrating each letter with photos of objects
from your own house; for instance, instead of a generic picture of a cat,
include a picture of YOUR cat. If you really want to get creative, incorporate
tactile materials ("fur", "sticky", bumpy")
38. Colors album. Consider devoting a page to each color and
including pictures of objects from around your own house - the front door,
toys, vases, curtains, etc., to serve as examples.
39. Animals album. You can decide to include a mix of all
animals, or stick to a particular favorite category (ex: jungle animals, farm
animals, pets, sea creatures, dangerous animals, bugs, snakes, etc.)
40. Nursery Rhymes album. You don't have to include a comprehensive
list of nursery rhymes - just the ones with which your child is familiar or
that have a special meaning for you/your family.
41. "People In Your Family" album. Devote a page to each of your child's
favorite people. A great way to refresh their memory of out-of-town grandparents,
aunts, uncles, and cousins!
42. "Your Favorite Things" album. Devote a spread to each of the usual
categories: favorite foods, favorite places, favorite people, favorite toys,
favorite songs, favorite cartoons, etc.
Gift Albums/Ageless!
43. 101 Reasons I Love You. Anyone will melt upon receiving this one!
Be sure to include a mix of serious reasons, sentimental reasons, and silly
reasons, embellished with photos, quotes, and any other
keepsakes that illustrate your point
44. 101 Reasons I'm Glad You're My____________ [variations:
mother, sister, husband, best friend, etc.]. Try mixing "big" reasons (ex:
"Because you're compassionate") with more special, intimate reasons
(ex: "Because you cry at Hallmark commercials," "Because you
still pack Twinkees in your bag lunch," "Because you always wear your
lucky underwear to football games," etc.)
45. Congratulations album. Celebrate a special accomplishment or
award. (Variations: Eagle Scout album)
46. The Year You Were Born album. Create a visual snapshot of the year in
which someone dear to you was born. Include spreads devoted to music, TV,
politics, world events, advertisements, most popular baby names, inventions,
etc.
47. VIP album. Celebrate the important people in their life (variations:
Friends, siblings, cousins, grandchildren, work colleagues, neighbors, club
members, etc.)
Albums About You
48. Seasons album. Scrapbook your favorite things about each
season
49. Poetry
album. (variations: bible verses, books,
quotes/sayings) Scrapbook your favorite poetry.
50. My Favorite Things album. Pages to include: food/restaurants,
fashion, movies/TV, books, poetry, flowers, etc.
51. Career Album. Reflect upon the places you've been as
well as the places you'll go.
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