by Vera Raposo

If you are creating a photo album for your baby for the first time, or are unsure where to begin in creating a scrapbook of your baby’s first year, here are some tips to make it quick and easy to preserve your photos and memories:

Rather than including every photo you take of your baby, organize your pictures according to the month they were taken and chose a few of your favorites from each month.

You can make single page or several pages from each particular month and stage of development without having to spend a large amount of time gluing every single photo into your scrapbook.

Be sure and include birth announcements and baby shower invitations as a special touch.

Keep a notebook or calendar within easy reach to record milestones in your child’s development. You can then coordinate the events on your calendar with the month-by-month photos.

It is always a good idea to keep an ongoing journal of special times in your baby’s life so that you can include those moments in your scrapbook. It does not have to be elaborate or detailed, just a few special dates and events that you can include as text next to your pictures.

Include a special folder or sleeve behind each page of your scrapbook to place the unused photos and mementos. This way you can keep them within easy reach and add pages to your scrapbook easily at a later time. Make sure you write the date and place the photos were taken on the back of the picture or on the folder.

When creating each page of your scrapbook, remember that you can add extra pages containing amusing notes or special occasions as you see fit. There is no right or wrong way to make a scrapbook of your baby’s first year.

Include the photos and events that are the most special to you and keep extras handy in the event you want to add to your scrapbook later.

Vera Raposo has been scrapbooking since her oldest child was 5. With tons of scrapbooking tips and ideas, Vera is now sharing some of her best scrapbooking ideas for your new baby in her newsletter www.baby-scrapbooking.com

Article Source: www.ladypens.com

This is a great article I found by Rachel Paxton of CreativeHomemaking.com. Her website is chock-full of awesome information.

By the time your teen is in high school, you probably aren’t taking as many pictures of them as you used to. I have to keep reminding myself that I only have a couple of years left and no time to waste trying to capture fleeing teenage memories.

You might be thinking that I’m really organized to be already working on scrapbooking my daughter’s high school memories. To be honest, I have a shoe box full of pictures of my daughter waiting for me to get to someday.

But if I wait until “someday” to continue taking pictures because I already have so many pictures I haven’t done anything with, then my daughter’s teenage years will come and go while I try to catch up.

I don’t want to chronicle every detail of my daughter’s life (nor would she want me to!), but I was trying to think of some memories that she might want to laugh about and maybe even treasure someday. So how do you do that without ending up with pages and pages of memories?

I decided to do two large (12×12) pages (facing each other in the album) for each year of high school. I will challenge myself to use this space creatively to tell the story of each year. When I started thinking of all the the possibilities, it really inspired me to start getting organized and collecting some great memories. And don’t limit yourself to just photographs, your scrapbook pages can really be accentuated by other types of memories. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Photograph Ideas:

High School Dances
First Date/Boyfriend
School Building
Church Events/Retreats
Braces (the day they’re removed)
Hair Styles
Clothing Fads
Learning to Drive
First Job
First Car
Best Friends
School Plays/Concerts
Family Vacations
Favorite Family Pets
Babysitting
Sports/Band/Cheerleading
Musical Instrument Practice
Other:

CD Covers (scanned)
Favorite Song Lyrics
Drivers’ Permit
First Pay Stub
Programs from Play/Concerts
College Brochures
School Newspapers
ASB Card
Awards/Certificates
Ticket Stubs (concert, movie, sporting events)
Report Cards

You can be creative when you’re arranging your layouts. Don’t be afraid to cut pictures down or cut out portions of play programs or school newspapers. Just cut out enough to accentuate the other items on the page. You will create the overall effect from the entire page, not necessarily from an individual item.

Have fun and don’t worry if you don’t get it done all at one time. I figure if I can do one every summer for the previous school year, by the time she finishes high school (she’s a freshman this year), all of her high school memories will be recorded in the family archives.

About The Author

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For more inspirational articles and tips for everyday living, visit her web sites at http://www.creativehomemaking.com and http://www.crafty-moms.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

My friend Susie Cortright wrote this article.

Memories are priceless, but the cost of preserving them can be high.
Here are nine tips for making the most of your scrapbooking budget.

1.
Be on the lookout for scrapbooking supplies everywhere you go.
I once made the cutest shabby chic card with the corrugated cardboard
liner in a light bulb box. Another example: you can buy 100 brass brads
for less than a dollar at the local discount store and then customize
them to match your layout with acrylic paint and/or sandpaper. Or
look in the clearance bin for ribbon, fiber, and fabric remnants - or
bouquets of silk flowers, which you can take apart and attach to your
cards and layouts with brads, eyelets, bottlecaps, or button. You’ll
find all kinds of treasures at office supply, hardware, and dollar
stores, as well as flea markets and garage sales.

2.
Keep your supplies organized. When your papers and embellishments
are logically arranged and easy to find, you’ll always know what you
have, which means you’ll buy fewer duplicates. And you don’t need
expensive racks for storing your paper. The large 14″ Ziploc bags
are perfect for storing 12×12 paper. You can even hang the labeled
Ziploc bags from skirt hangers to maximize your space. A few
inexpensive baskets or plastic containers can hold your adhesives,
pens and trimmers. And a common tacklebox is great for small
embellishments. Or use resealable Ziploc bags to organize brads,
eyelets and other small embellishments by type or color and store
in a shoebox.

3.
Here’s a little known secret. You can join a scrapbooking direct
sales company, simply to get the discount on your own supplies. Of
course, you’ll need to make sure the monthly minimums are low enough
that you’ll be able to meet them with your purchases alone. Here is
one such company with monthly minimums of just $25 wholesale per month.
Details are here:
http://www.momscape.com/scrapbooking/wholesale-scrapbooking-supplies.htm
4.
Use your scanner to create a unique patterned paper, perfect for your
layout. Scan items of clothing, for example, that match the clothing in
your photographs. Print the paper and use as part of your background or
as a tag or other embellishment.

5.
Do a google search for “free fonts” and “free scrapbooking.” You’ll
find thousands of free templates, fonts, and other free resources for
scrapbookers.

6.
Check your local paper for 50% off coupons at large discount
crafting stores. Save these coupons for your larger purchases.
Subscribe to Joann.com’s email newsletter at the store’s website:
http//www.joann.com. This store frequently offers special
discount codes to newsletter subscribers. But keep in mind, when you
are shopping the sale aisle, a good deal is not a good deal if you
never use the product. Buy only those things that you love - and
know you’ll use.

7.
When shopping for tools, keep quality and versatility in mind.
Investing in quality tools will ultimately save you money, because you
won’t need to replace them very often. You’ll also want to look for
trimmers and cutters that allow you to replace only the blade - and not
the entire cutting system. The Coluzzle, by Provocraft, is one of the most
versatile cutting systems available. It takes a little practice, but
once you get the hang of it, you can cut a huge variety of shapes and
alphabets, as well as envelopes and tags - all with very inexpensive templates.

8.
Save and organize your scraps. It’s amazing when a small scrap is perfectly
suited for a card of scrapbook. And you can always use the backside of
white-core cardstock or patterned paper when you need white. Or give
your scraps to your children. My kids are constantly making friendship
cards out of my scraps. They each have a basket on the family scraptable,
and at the end of a project, I divvy up all my scraps in the three little
baskets. They love the new art supplies, and I love to share my love of
scrapbooking - and my time spent scrapbooking - with them.

9.
Network with other scrapbookers for more low-cost ideas. Arrange a
supplies swap with your scrapbooking friends. And read through the scrapbooking magazines for more money-saving ideas. In the last few issues of Scrapbooks, Etc. and Memory Makers, for example, I’ve read (and then used) the following ideas:

(1) Take photos of interesting signs and cut out the letters for fun, eclectic
alphabets.

And (2) make your own stamps from your favorite font or images with a
computer printout and some foam board.

You can subscribe to these magazines at significant discounts online.
I’ve compiled the best deals on the industry-leaders here:
http://www.momscape.com/scrapbooking/scrapbooking-magazines
or see if you can check out current issues from your local library.
Scrapbooking magazines often feature sweepstakes, drawings, and layout
contests, in which you can win free supplies, as well.

You can also save on scrapbooking idea books and techniques books by
shopping online. Overstock.com often has these books at an even greater
discount than amazon.com, and their shipping is usually much less, too.
http://www.overstock.com

Copyright 2005 by Susie Cortright

About the Author:
Susie Cortright is the founder of momscape.com - http://www.momscape.com and
Momscape’s Scrapbooking Playground - http://www.momscape.com/scrapbooking - devoted to helping
visitors record and preserve their cherished memories. Susie also trains and supports new scrapbooking instructors with a new and rapidly- growing direct sales scrapbooking company.

Find out how to join her team here: http://www.momscape.com/scrapbooking/business.htm

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/