Keeping Up With Scrapbooking

If there’s one thing that most people find they can’t keep up with, it’s scrapbooking. How many of us have drawers full of developed photos or hard drives full to capacity of photos we rarely look at but wish we could?

Here’s an idea that works: Give your kids a scrapbook for their birthday. I started that tradition almost 6 years ago. While it takes some effort a few weeks before each birthday, it’s nothing compared to the years it would take to catch up if I had left the photos untouched. Believe it or not, one year of photos isn’t too hard to scrapbook.

My kids absolutely love their scrapbooks. It’s rare when a day goes by and no one has looked through their scrapbook. They are, by far, the most popular books in the house. And, believe it or not, they are the most coveted and anticipated gift.

There are so many ways to scrapbook. You can do it manually and create amazing pages. If this is your style, check out websites and craft stores for ideas. I won’t be much help there. If digital is more your style, there are great sites like shutterfly.com or snapfish.com. Just type in photo book in google and you’ll find tons.

My personal favorite is lulu.com. I like to mix journaling with scrapbooking. I fill each page with not only pictures but with the stories, events, and memories that go with them. Lulu lets me use Microsoft Word to organize my pictures and write my story and then publish the book one at a time. It is more time consuming than creating a photo book (which generally lets you just drag photos into the book…lulu has that type of book, too). But, preserving the story is worth it to me. Now my kids not only have their pictures but their memories preserved for them as well.

However you do it, try giving your scrapbook as a birthday gift to keep those photos from falling into the abyss of the hard drive and photo drawers.