Scrapbooking

When I was a little girl, my mom put together a "scrapbook".

Now, this is a scrapbook in the literal, old-fashioned sense of the word. It's a book of scraps of "meaningful" things in my life- awards, programs from performances I attended, pictures of my church Sunbeams class when I was four, etc. It's truly a "scrapbook".

I also have a baby book with some pictures and entries. My mom wasn't very diligent about keeping up with it. I never wanted to compare my book to my sisters (older and younger). I believe with each child she became more preoccupied and spent less time documenting milestones, etc. She got the important stuff, tho'. (birthdates, newspaper publications about the birth, names of the physician who delivered me, etc.)

I have kept my own "scrapbook" as well, since college. It is also a SCRAPbook, with not many pictures. I didn't keep up with the journaling in it, but I did put lots of things in there that were meaningful (although looking back over it, I wonder of what importance were some the napkins and candy wrappers that are glued in there). It's fun to go back and look through it.

When my (then, soon-to-be) mother-in-law gave me some cardstock, plastic sleeves and binders, I knew what to do with them- put all my pictures in and start scrapbooking (in more of today's sense of the word). This progressed as the fad took hold and the materials became cheaper and easier to access.

Then I got a digital camera. What to do? Pay to print? How do you choose which photos to scrapbook (remember, I took over 20,000 pictures in one year!)? And, how do I justify the expense of the paper, the embellishments, etc?

So, if photos got digital, it was inevitable that scrapbooking would go digital. First, I started "scrapbooking" online, on a personal webpage. That was AWESOME! Not only could I find fun backgrounds and accents, but it was free! AND, I was able to share the "pages" with ANYBODY, which was of particular importance since all my family was hundreds of miles away.

I then met a friend who not only made digital scrapbooks, but she made them in a format that was printable. I thought, "Wait a minute! That's just getting back to increasing cost!" There was the expense of purchasing the papers and embellishments, but then you had to PRINT the thing, which was also expensive.

Well, when Zoë was not quite a year, I decided that I wanted her to have a baby book, too. I didn't like the ones that were in the stores- too much writing, and I wanted to use the pictures. But I didn't want to pay to print them off. So, what did I do?

Using my handy computer software, and finding free digital scrapbooking materials from scrapbookbytes, I designed my own little baby scrapbook of Zoë's first year. It has pictures in it from almost every week of the first year of her life, a family tree going back to her great-grandparents, and then has "milestones".

I still haven't printed the book.

When I was pregnant with Miranda, I was determined to finish Megan's first year scrapbook as well. I succeeded! She had the same general format.

And, now that baby #4 is on her way (in a matter of 25 days, but who's counting?) I've got Miranda's first year babybook almost finished! Whew!

Although, I have to sheepishly admit that I actually purchased the digital papers and embelishments this time around... Although I forgot that I had the same background paper for both Zoë and Megan, and just changed the font. Hmmmm. Maybe I'll have to go change Megan's background... or Zoë's. I'll think about it.

Anyway, here are some comparison pages from their scrapbook (click on them to see bigger size). They may not have much of a photoalbum* after their first year of life, but they certainly have the "same" for their first years! Oh, and I am still wondering what to do about PRINTING these books. Zoë's and Megan's are finished, but I haven't figured out where/how I want to put them on paper- At home? WalMart? Snapfish? Blurb? I haven't figured out yet what would be best....







*I have also kept binders of their artwork and another binder of their schoolwork. There are also the photobooks I've made, but I'm not sure how they'll get extra copies of those- unless the digital format online is still around in 20 years when they might want their own copy. I just can't afford $30+ per book to buy them each their own copies right now!