Family Time Can Be Scrapbooking Time

Involving kids in scrapbooking is a wonderful way to spend family time together. Depending on the age of your kids, they can help you with your album or they can create albums of their own.

Step one is going through photos. Children love to look at pictures. Young children love to tell you who the person in the picture is. Older children love to tell the story of the photo or ask you to tell the story of the photo. Both of my kids always love to look at the photos my mom has, many are in black and white. They love to see the differences between life back then, and life today. Of course my mom enjoys sharing with my kids about life back then.

Again, depending on the age of your kids, they can help you choose the color of the paper used, the stickers you use, any lettering you use and can help design the overall layout of the page. When you open a scrapbook there is a page on the left and a page on the right. Often, my kids will each design one side. If you have all of the supplies organized, its very reasonable to be able to create several pages in one evening.

The adhesives I use are all zots, or precut small squares that are double sided. These adhesives are very simple to use. Even young kids can attach one side to the photo and then when ready peel off the other side and then press into the album. I am not an artist by any means. I also can not cut a straight line. One of the things my own children most love about the albums Ive given to them is that every album has crooked pictures. We truly laugh until tears roll down our faces about how I can not even attach a photo straight onto a page. So, even if your young children do attach a photo a bit crooked, seeing the album, knowing you and child made it together will bring you great joy.

If your children are old enough to write, have them do some of the journaling. Help them write their story about the pictures they are putting into the album.

Scrapbook pages all should be in sheet protectors, so even small fingers cant smudge photos. It really is a joy to watch young children take out the scrapbook album they helped to create and watch them tell their dolls or imaginary friends all of the stories behind the various photos.

Scrapbooking is multi generational, allowing young children and even great grandparents to participate in an activity together. One thing that always makes my own children giggle are the bathing suits my grandparents wore in one photo we have. My grandparents were both born in the late 1800s and so the bathing suits were quite different from what we see today.

I was born in New York and so we have photos of me in a baby carriage in the snow. Living in California today, these photos are all of a different place and different time to my own children. They have so enjoyed my own mother telling them about life in New York. Since both of my children are older (driving age) and since we live in California, neither has ever driven in snow. Asking my mom about driving in the snow has provided conversation that would not have taken place if we didnt have the photos and scrapbooks to talk about.

Scrapbooking and photos truly are a way to provide conversation, to bridge the gap between generations and to provide a wonderful opportunity to spend quality time with your children.

Audrey Okaneko has been scrapbooking for several years now. You can reach her at audreyoka@cox.net or http://www.scrapping-made-simple.com

Secrets of Beginner Scrapbooking
Scrapbooking has become a popular hobby worldwide. Even my friends 65 year old father, Charlie, is into it. Charlie recently attended an eight week beginner scrapbooking evening class to learn the basics. When I visited my friend recently, Charlie showed me his scrapbooks and I was quite impressed. So if a 65 year old male can learn scrapbooki...

How To Choose The Perfect Scrapbook Embellishment
A scrapbooking embellishment is a wonderful way to spruce up any scrapbook page, and with so many embellishments to choose from, the choices may feel overwhelming. On the other hand, you may be tempted to jump right in and buy as many as you can because they're so enticing. This may leave you with a lot of wonderful embellishments that you don't kn...

Scrapbook Ideas - A Little Scrap (Paper) Can Go a Long Way
In the 1800s, scrapbooks first got their name from the different "scraps" (tickets, clippings, etc.) that were contained within them. These days one could make a case for scrapbooks getting their name from the amount of "scrap" paper that gets generated in the process, and before you stick that next strip of scrap paper in the trash, think about i...

Scrapbooking Made Easy
Creating a scrapbook may seem overwhelming to some, however this doesn't have to be the case. Scrapbooking can actually be a fun and rewarding activity. Scrapbooks, like people, come in all shapes and sizes. There is not a right or wrong way to make a scrapbook, so you have the freedom to make one how you wish.Scrapbooking is much easier today, ...

How to Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Website with Ezines
What is an ezine?An ezine is described as an electronic magazine.A magazine specializes in one subject, such as Golf, and is delivered by postal mail carriers. We then subscribe to the Golf magazine.Here is the difference.When you find a subject of interest, you can subscribe to an ezine that is written for that subject of your interest, online...

Does Your Business Have a Scrapbook Online
There is an old phrase that a picture can replace a thousand words. Pictures tell a visual story that words alone can not tell.When I view websites of small businesses, I almost always find an about us page. This is usually one page with the date the business started, the explanation of why the business started and often a written explanation of th...

Basics For Starting a Small Business
So you want to go into business for yourself? No boss, set your hours and do what you want to do? You might wan to look before you leap, there is a lot to consider when beginning a small business.First, what reason do you have for wishing to strike out on your own? Do you just want to be your own boss? Are you looking for financial independence? Do...