Joseph Parish asked:




At one time my wife and I had a thriving coffee shop. Over the years we had amassed a considerable sum of memorabilia from the coffee shop ranging from a multitude of photos to certificates awarded to us from the city.

For the last couple of years my wife has been getting involved with scrapbooking and had some supplies and scrapes to use up. It was then that she decided that it was high time to organize the coffee shop data and to use up some of the scrapbook supplies she has been purchasing.

She really enjoyed the times we had with the coffee shop and looking at all the memorabilia from it would tend to bring joyful tears to her eyes. When not having the shop would hit her the most she would glance through many of the boxes of photos, menus, etc that we had saved. She proceeded to put together an interesting scrapbook of the years we had our coffee shop. Here is how she went about this time consuming but easy process.

As with any scrapbooking project you must start out by deciding two important points. What kind of book you want and who will be featured in it. For our project this was easy. My wife wanted a book that would convey a timeline of our business so give a look back in time when our grandchildren would someday see the binder.

There are several approaches to scrapbooking that you can take. You can set it up as a photo album with associated comments or you can include various valued items. My wife chooses to include items such as flyers for the singers during our open mic sessions, poetry clips from some of our poets who frequented the shop and various little treasures of that nature.

Normally you should know how many pictures or memorabilia you plan to include in your book. This is a hard call and if you are like my wife you play it by ear. She knew how she was laying it out however the exact number of pages was a mystery. She did know that she would need a large book so filling it was not a problem she encountered. Keep in mind that the amount of items that you plan to include in your scrapbook determines the size. Sizes of book are in the range from small to the very thick books.
My wife shops around for her supplies going to not only craft stores but also the Dollar tree. She continually seeks out various stickers that she can use on the pages she creates.

After she has gathered all her supplies she proceeds to sit down and sort through all the photos and the memorabilia. She follows the principle that once you know what you have available it is much easier to organize not only your thoughts but your pages also. In stead of making her own borders and artwork for her pages she purchases them already made.

Generally each scrape book has its own theme. Hers is current our previous coffee shop, however yours could be someone’s graduation or even a birthday. School trips or complete grades are popular subjects. Cropping in scrape booking is as important for your pictures as the subject itself. Don’t let the viewer be distracted by an unnecessary background. After your photos are properly cropped, you can then secure them to the page using either glue or tape. The point here is that you do not want your photos to move. At this time you can add comments or additional artwork as you deem appropriate. You have your choice as to whether you use one side of the page or both. In my wife’s case she choose to use both sides as she had a considerable amount of data to include in the book.

After you have completed a page you will want to contain it in plastic protective covering. I would recommend using the slide off variety as opposed to the permanent ones in the event you wish to make changes to a page.

If you are including things such a hair or a tooth as some people do you can insert them into pockets which attach to you pages or you can obtain pouches to hold these items.

After the various pages have been successfully completed it is time to place the pages themselves into a book. As we had mentioned previously these binders come in several different sizes and many of them are adjustable.

Many scrapbooks have a page dedicated to who the book is about as well as the date it was finished.
As your final task you will want to give the scrapbook to the person that you created it for. In my case it is still a work in progress. Scrapbooks are gifts that are appreciated for years to come. Fee people would turn down the opportunity to own a memory book about themselves or some aspect of their life. Making scrapbooks is a very rewarding and positive experience. It will allow you to relive those lost memories.

Copyright @2008 Joseph Parish

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