Memory keeping has long been a love of mine. In the 90s, I became “a scrapbooker.” There was something in the designing, the planning and in the shopping at a scrapbook store! When digital scrapbooking came on the scene, I embraced it wholeheartedly. It combined all the things I loved, plus no mess! That was a serious bonus for a woman with a baby and a toddler.
Now I am sad to say that, 4 children later, I have hard drives full of photos but simply do not make time for scrapbooking. I transitioned to telling stories on social media and on a personal blog. This has worked fine for me, but I realized that my kiddos were missing out on the experience of holding photos in their hands and learning what stories I valued.
Last summer I decided to fix this. I really wanted to involve my children in the process. I knew what I did needed to be simple, something I could mostly prepare ahead of time so that when things got busy I didn’t neglect it, and inviting for my kids! This is my how-to for an easy summer memory book!
Supplies Needed:
3 ring binder – 8×8, 9×9, 6×8
Page protectors sized for your binder
Journal Cards/Embellishments
Pen
Photos
***A note on supplies – any office supplies will work, but there is a great line from Becky Higgins, a well known scrapbook designer, called Project Life. I used them last year and it really made everything easy!
Additionally, and this was the critical part for me, I needed a quick and dirty photo editing and printing plan. There are countless (and I do mean countless!) apps for this sort of thing. I wanted to stick with 2 photo sizes, the 4×6 and 3×4. To that end, I used PicFrame. (Its available on both iTunes and Google Play) You are able to select a frame with two images, set the aspect ration to 3:2, remove the borders and print them side by side on a 4×6 print. After you get your prints, simply cut them in half! I printed through Walgreens because their 4×6 prints are ready in 1 hour.
This turned into a simple, yet fun project that everyone in the family had a hand in. Remember to involve children in the recording of their own memories. My kids love reminiscing over our summer flipping through each memory book!
