Mini Scrapbook for Wonderful friends

Each of us have been reliving beautiful memories of past over and over. Those beautiful moments in past which enriched us have always been the real treasure of our lives. Some love to have them in their memories and some in pictures and some bring them all together on scrapbook. It is well said that a picture is worth thousand words, a carefully crafted scrapbook filled with pictures and little anecdotes is worth much more. It is precious.

When one of our very close family friends were moving out, we wanted to give them something they will treasure for a long time to come, something which represents the most wonderful times we spent together and something which makes them feel how much their friendship means to us. Scrapbook was the answer to that.

Like most of my crafts that I love the most, this one also was a last minute idea. I wanted to make something unique. I included some of our favorite pictures and attempted to capture special moments in this mini scrapbook. I decided on this size, because it looks cute and also due to the baggage weight restrictions of airlines.

Supplies:
-Acid free and lignin free plain and printed scrapbook paper /cardstock in various colors
-Paper trimmer
-Bone folder
-Screw punch
-Double sided tape
-Martha Stewart border punch
-Martha Stewart butterfly punch
-Archival safe pens different colors
-Scissors
-Glue-stick archival quality
-Embellishments



Instructions
1.Think of the message you want to convey: It is very difficult to decide which photographs you will use. Consider it as a storybook. Like in my case I tried to capture the beautiful time they spent with us, especially my daughter. I used butterfly as it represents the time that flew by and also that it was beautiful. Once you are sure of the story, rest of it falls in place.

2.Select pictures: This is the most difficult part as you would like to use all the pictures. Be strict, pick those which have special emotions attached, those which tell your story, for mini scrapbook one or maximum two per page is more than enough. Do not make it too bulky as then it makes it uninteresting.
The one I made has pictures of all our friends as the story is incomplete if it was only the picture of only two families. The whole experience was magical with all of us together. It became a gift from all of us to them and hence more precious.

3.Embellishments: Once your story is final and you have decided on pictures think of embellishing all the pages. You can decorate each with store bought embellishments or make custom ones using your imagination and few decorative punches like ones mentioned above.

4.Decorate Pages: Stick the photographs and decorate the pages, write a one liner or two about the page you made. Something sentimental and personal will be the best. What you write makes the whole experience more memorable.

5.Bind the Pages: Make precise holes using screw punch. Bind the pages together using a ribbon as shown. Decorate the cover page with more details.

Your Mini Scrapbook for a loved one or for yourself is ready.

Scrapbook can be made for any event in your life. It can be for your baby’s first few months, or his whole childhood or graduation, Vacations you took over the years or may be a particular vacation, friends, family etc.

Scrapbooking is a craft which has been practiced from long and hopefully will be practiced forever. There are numerous different ways scrapbooking enthusiasts practice this. Your creativity is the only limit here. Craft stores are full of different kinds of scrapbooking papers, embellishments, albums. Just let your imagination run wild and capture one of your favorite memories in a beautiful scrapbook. Every time you will look at it, believe me it will be the moment relived again.

Do give it a try if you have not already.

Tips for Scrapbooking:
-Always use acid-free, archival quality material. Wide variety of such pages is available in craft stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby.
-The glue or tape used for scrapbooking should also be archival safe quality. Double sided tapes are the best.