I started scrapbooking when the kids were small and absolutely love it. However, I knew that my personality is such that all enjoyment would be squashed if I tried to scrapbook everything. I devised a plan that would help me to keep my scrapbooking hobby fun and not an overwhelming project on my list of things to do. You can check-out how I manage my scrapbooking in this previous post: Creative Memories: Scrapbooking for the Busy Mom.  One of the books that I created is a Family Christmas Album.

Scrapbooking Christmas:

This scrapbooking album is strictly Christmas layouts. I love that you can flip through the pages of this album and see the growth and changes in family members through the years with the simple flip of a page. Of course, what makes this so easy, is that I only do one double page layout per year. I use a 12″ X 12″ album and with the book open, both pages capture that particular year. The very first page in the album is a single page (of course), so I decided to make it a title page for the album. I find it really funny to look back through the album as it not only reflects how we looked so many years ago, but also what a novice scrapbooker I was. You can see how I have progressively gotten somewhat better over the years.

Here are a few shots of our album.

My advice to anyone taking up scrapbooking is to keep it manageable. For me this meant, letting go of the desire to scrapbook every event and sticking to more of a general focus. Picking the 5 to 10 best shots from that year and capturing it in a layout. Here are some simple guidelines that I use:

• keep it more general than specific (ie highlights from 2013 to create a layout for each child)
• make one album for each child
• make event scrapbooking something you do for fun, not a “must do”
• create a Christmas album or even a Halloween album if you are big on Halloween (I love having all of the memories in one book)
• stay on top of it
• purchase the online photo books to capture the memories from a trip and do it as soon as you get home. (Within about 3 to 4 hours, you can choose your layout, pictures and even journal the whole trip. Well worth the time and money.)

Happy scrapbooking!

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