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A scrapbook can be added to and rearranged at any time, it could be that you include pictures of photographs of birthday parties, weddings, holidays, cards from a new birth or news paper clippings about an unfortunate death in the family.  Has someone graduated or got a new job?

The school holidays are looming and as always we know that the children will bored after the first week, complaining that there is nothing to do and nowhere to go.  Creating a family scrapbook can be an inexpensive project that all the family can join in with, it can be done at home and will be very unique to your family.  Why not get all the children to do a page about themselves, each page will be different depending on what the child likes and what their interests are.  It may be that some of the pages are very bright and funky with lots of pictures and a graffiti background where as others may be very simple and elegant with only one photograph and some journaling.  They could include a scanned image of the child’s birth certificate or some school or club certificates.  The good thing about a scrapbook is that it doesn’t have to follow the same layout and theme all the way through.  Your main theme is family and that can be followed in so many different ways.  Every page can be unique and they don’t have to be for a special occasion.  It could be about a day trip to the park, your childhood, the family pets or the house you live in.

This could be the start of a new hobby for all the family that can be continued into adulthood and passed on to the grandchildren.  The materials are inexpensive and lots of people will have things lying about the house that can be used, from things such as photographs to coloured pens and pencils to do the journaling with.  The pages can be kept in a normal everyday file or folder or you could purchase a scrapbook from somewhere such as Hobbycraft.  These come with page inserts to protect your finished pages and you can get posts so the book will hold extra folders.

Scrapbooking techniques are very easy to pick up and can be tailored to your individual tastes and interests.  There is an article here (http://www.quazen.com/Recreation/Crafts/Happy-Scrapbooking.631463) with some basic techniques and information on it.  I hope you find it helpful.

You could include any number of things in your scrapbook from cards, gift cards, photocopies of certificates, (never stick originals in as you may need them, keep them somewhere safe), grave rubbings, drawings, journaling and any number of other things in.

I hope you enjoy your new family hobby and that you find new and exciting ways to remember your childhood, and important days and events of your children growing up.