Bring Your Scrapbooks to Life

Scrapbooks are not meant just for photos.  I tend to often date myself with my scrapbooks. When I was in high school, I had a scrapbook (of sorts). It was huge, and of course back then it was made of newsprint, now the pages are yellow and I used glue to stick everything down. However, what’s important is I remember the events behind the contents of that scrapbook.

I kept movie ticket stubs, concert ticket stubs, love letters from boys I liked, essays with an A+ on them, sports ribbons, music certificates and many other items.

Today, we can still preserve those memories by adding these extras to our scrapbooks (keen scrapbookers call them embellishments, I call them memories). I always recommend making copies of everything. Sadly, unless the original paper is acid free, it will yellow and crumble with time. So include the original in your scrapbook, but also keep a copy.

What types of “memories” are fun to put into scrapbooks?

    • School Reports (the good and the, well not so good)
    • Essays from school
    • School newsletters
    • Sports ribbons and certificates
    • Birthday invitations
    • Maps of cities visited
    • Plane, train and bus tickets from special holidays and trips
    • Greeting cards
    • Post cards
    • Decorative napkins (I've saved them from family weddings and special birthdays)
    • Place cards from table settings
    • Pressed flowers
    • Receipts from a favourite restaurant
    • Play and concert programs
    • Sporting event tickets and programs
    • Magazine and newspaper articles
    • Old drivers licenses
    • CD covers

These items can be added to individual pages or they can be left in tact and put into a sheet protector alongside photos of the events they represent.

There is no limit to the items you can put into your scrapbook. Extra items can help tell the overall story and after all, telling the story is the reason I scrapbook.