Family Craft Boutique

Genealogy, or the practice of tracing your family tree, is a great way to teach children about their ancestral roots. I started just such an ambitious project a few months ago on a rainy afternoon. My two sons had been asking questions about their family heritage with more frequency, so it seemed like a good time to fill them in. We started by naming all the relatives we could think of and sketching out a rudimentary tree.

After that, I dug out a pile of old photo albums and went to the attic to search for any old family paperwork. My sons retrieved some scrapbook paper and began to create pages for each family member. We eventually filled in each page with photos, handmade drawings and small kitsch items that could be pasted to the paper. It’s a project that might occupy many rainy days to come.

When we age, we often like to reflect on our past memories, and we also want to ensure that all our favorite memories are preserved.  Scrapbooking is one hobby that can preserve a lifetime of fun memories in one place.  Scrapbooking has existed for centuries, long before there were even photographs, but as technology has advanced, scrapbooking has become much more popular.  For those who might not know, scrapbooking involves taking pictures, papers, clothing, and other objects that bear some significance, and placing them in a book.  This often involves cutting, pasting, and more than a little bit of design.  However, the end result is a scrapbook that preserves memories of past and present and makes a wonderful conversation piece for others to look at.  The best part about scrapbooking is, anyone can do it. 

You can find all kinds of scrapbooking tools at retailers that sell arts and crafts supplies.  But the best part about scrapbooking is discovering a personal preference for compiling all the most precious memories. 

When it comes to family memories, there’s no better place to showcase your pictures, special letters and heirlooms, than in a family scrapbook. While it may seem a challenging task to organize all these items, it’s well worth the while. Imagine how fun it will be years from now, when you and your family members can discuss old times while perusing through the scrapbook. Before you get started on your project, however, you will need some basic scrapbook supplies. These basic scrapbooking supplies will be a necessity when starting on your new scrapbook:

~ Scrapbook album: Choose one that contains acid free pages, or buy acid-free, PVC-free sheet protectors and slide them into a three-ring binder. The size of your scrapbook will depend on your personal preference.
~ Adhesives: These will be used to secure everything to the album pages. Photo corners, photo tape, double-side adhesive strips, and glue sticks are a few options.
~ Scissors: Pick from the straight edge or decorative edge variety. Scissors can be used to cut your photos into decorative shapes, and to crop out any unwanted areas.
~ Journaling pens: Use acid-free permanent markers and pens for writing down important names, dates, and family memories, and for adding designs and pictures to your scrapbooks edges.

You spent a lot of time and resources to create your beautiful wedding.  The church was perfect and the reception was well attended.  Even the food got raves from your guests.  Now, your gown is in storage in your closet and you are back from a glorious honeymoon.  You are relaxing on your comfortable sofa and reviewing the proceedings of the occasion. Wow! You never really noticed the beautiful tulips in the church or the bouquet of orchids you were carrying as you walked down the aisle.  And your guests, weren’t they the most fashionably dressed lot?  Everything seems to have been just a blur then but all the details are coming back through your pictures.

Fortunately, photographers were working hard that day.  You have a lot of pictures and you decide to keep it all in a wedding scrapbook.  It is really simple.  You can buy a scrapbook kit that will contain an album, pens, punches, stickers, scissors and a collection of wedding scrapbook paper. Scrapbook paper for wedding photos comes in various designs that will coordinate with stickers and embellishments.  Choose your favorite photos and arrange them creatively on a sheet of wedding scrapbook paper.  Add a funny or sentimental note and some stickers.  Do this for all your chosen photos and you will come up with an album of memories that will be fun to review from time to time.

Scrapbooking is a wonderful way to preserve all your family’s memories. It is certainly more time intensive, however, than throwing all your photos into a standard photo album. Still, many people consider the time and energy worth it, since the finished product is so beautiful. Additionally, scrapbooking offers people the chance to be highly artistic and creative.

But after all that precise gluing and cutting, trimming and arranging, the last thing you want is your scrapbook to deteriorate over time. Working together, acid and lignin can cause both deterioration and yellowing of your photos and your scrapbooking paper.

If you’re unfamiliar with lignin, it’s one of the components used in newspaper. If you need proof of how well lignin holds up over time, just check out old newspapers. They are extremely brittle and yellow, and that’s how your scrapbook will look if you don’t choose lignin-free options.

Make sure any item that goes into your scrapbook is clearly marked as acid-free and lignin-free. This includes any paper, glue, tape, or stickers.