Christmas Scrapbooking: An Inexpensive and Eco-Friendly Way to Safeguard Cherished Memories and Celebrate the Holidays
Creating a holiday scrapbook is an excellent way to safeguard your holiday memories and record family (and friend) developments from year to year. Whether you decide to make a new scrapbook every year or to create a single scrapbook for all your family Christmases is up to you – but scrapbooks do take up a lot of storage space! I find that creating one scrapbook and adding to it every year works best for my family.
To make a meaningful holiday scrapbook with a start, a middle and an end, you must be methodical. Just like an author about to write a book, you’ll need to organize your ideas and draw up a rough outline. Before you start scrapbooking, decide exactly what kind of Christmas scrapbook you want to produce. Rather than randomly filling your scrapbook pages with a hodgepodge of photos, Santa Claus pictures, and all the usual Christmas decoration stickers, spend some time deciding how you can create a personalized Christmas scrapbook that you (or the person you present it to) will enjoy year after year.
Although it is best to come up with your very own original scheme, here are some ideas to whet your imagination:
• If you love to cook during the holidays and especially if you have unique family dishes, why not create a Christmas cooking or recipe scrapbook? You could include photos of your family eating the food, the cook in the kitchen, different family members’ dishes etc.
• Children’s Christmas scrapbooks are a great idea and can be inexpensive love-filled personalized gifts for people of any age. You can make two kinds of children’s scrapbooks: those intended for young children to enjoy and those created with grandparents in mind. Creating ABC Christmas scrapbooks for young children is a simple affair. Devote each page of the scrapbook to one letter of the alphabet and use photos and other embellishments related to that letter. This could be as simple as cutting out a picture of snowman to illustrate the letter ‘S’, or using the names of beloved family, friends or pets in the same way (G for Granny, for example). If you have the patience, you can involve your children in this scrapbooking project. This option is also a way to record the progress of their crafting talents over the years. A Christmas children’s scrapbook intended for grandparents is bound to be a successful since all grandparents love to have photos of their grandchildren. If your children contribute drawings and other artwork, all the better! For children that are old enough, writing a simple sentence about the grandparent on the scrapbook page is another thought. Some children may also wish to help create a special Christmas scrapbook for a favorite teacher.
• Christmas shopping has become a veritable annual ritual during the holiday season – enough so that you can consider creating a Christmas scrapbook devoted entirely to that theme!
• Another idea to consider is making a Christmas scrapbook with a theme that revolves around some special event in your family. This could be a recent marriage (maybe it’s your first Christmas as a couple), a newborn (fits perfectly with a manger scene, etc).
• Focus your scrapbooking on Christmas gifts received over the years.
• Don’t forget journaling. Write down your own family traditions and also invite friends and family that may be in your scrapbook photographs to write a few words.
While you do need to devote considerable time and thought to creating a Christmas scrapbook that you will be proud of, you certainly do not need to spend a lost of money:
• Before you head out to the crafts store to purchase supplies, look around your household for items that you can use: crumbled up kitchen paper towels can be used to apply ink to a page just as well as the special sponges you buy at the store; use crumbled foil for Christmas theme metallic decorations; card stock can be made out of any cardboard you have around the house (old cartons, cereal packages …); instead of the expensive store-bought bone tools used to score cards, try using an old letter opener; keep the leftover sticky sheets from peel-off stickers and use them to fix decorations and embellishments to scrapbook pages.
• Make a habit of removing buttons, ribbon and the like from clothes you no longer need. These can be used in a myriad of ways to embellish your Christmas scrapbook.
• Don’t throw out the Christmas cards you receive. Use them in your scrapbook. You may decide to use the whole front of the card, or you may want to just cut out an image or two. You could also cut out the names of the senders and use those.
• Use gift wrap you already have to line your scrapbook pages, creating Christmas backgrounds.
• In addition to old photographs, don’t forget to include things like events programs and concert tickets that will help keep cherished memories alive.
• Try using your screwdriver and hammer to set eyelets
• When you punch holes, carefully keep the punch remnants to use as decorations.
• Cut off a few sprigs from the back of Christmas garlands to create page borders.
• If, after you’ve exhausted all alternatives, you still need to purchase supplies for your scrapbooking project, don’t buy more than the quantity you need. In addition to the immediate savings, this gives you the freedom to create a variety of different scrapbooks in the future.
• Another idea is to shop for scrapbook supplies online. Online scrapbook stores offer a wide variety of supplies, often at discounted prices.
Last but not least, remember that using recycled supplies and Christmas cards is environmentally friendly. Not only will your Christmas scrapbook commemorate your holiday memories, it will do so in an eco-friendly and inexpensive manner.
Tags: scrapbook bytes, scrap book paper, wedding scrapbook, scrapbooking storage, make a scrapbook