Christmas gift idea 4: Scrapbook

I was a huge scrapbooker before I moved to Michigan, and I've started to pick it up again now that I have time and the space to do it. Since the advent of the online photo centers and the subsequent drag and drop photobooks, traditional scrapbooking has fallen off. I understand the appeal of those photobooks - choose a layout, choose photos, and they get printed and shipped- and I think they can be great gifts. I highly recommend giving these to grandparents. Still, I think nothing beats a traditional scrapbook.

There are two ways to approach a traditional scrapbook as a gift. The first would be to take my own pictures of say, my hypothetical children, and make a scrapbook for someone who would like these pictures, such as their grandparents. The other is to take the gift receiver's pictures and make a scrapbook with those pictures. For example, making a scrapbook from a friend's wedding photos. Either way is a cool gift, but my intention behind this post is to highlight the latter approach.

How to do it:
I've done this as a Christmas gift, a wedding present, a birthday gift, etc. Each time I approached the gift a little differently, but my favorite way to do it was for my friend's bridal shower. She mentioned she wanted to make a scrapbook of all the things she and her fiance had done together, but she was completely overwhelmed by the six years of photographs. For her shower gift, I wrapped an album and a few supplies - a tape runner, a couple of papers, and some stickers - and included a gift certificate that said, "You bring the photos, I'll bring the supplies. Together, we will create your wedding scrapbook."

We scheduled a day (and night) to work together on her scrapbook. First, we sorted all of her photos and then decided which ones would actually go in the book. As we sorted, we created preliminary layouts so we'd know which photos and how many could fit on each page (I have a great organizer that helped us with this step, but you can do whatever works for you). This is half the battle. Then we created the actual page layouts, and cropped the photos and papers for each page. As we did this, I had my friend tell me more about the events captured in the photographs. These stories served two purposes: I got to know my friend and her future husband a bit more, and I got her thinking about what to write about in the scrapbook.

One thing I emphasize when I scrapbook is journaling. I think preserving the pictures is important, but really, it's the story behind those pictures that most needs to be preserved. The stories make the pictures come to life. It's nice to capture the moment that I got engaged, but I think my grandchildren will want to know how their grandparents got engaged - where we were, the words that were said, the emotions that were felt. All of this can be captured through a brief description accompanying the photos (check this out for some ideas).

Anyway, we spent the day and night putting together her scrapbook side-by-side. (Really, I did most of the cutting and sticking while she did the journaling). She had input on which photos, papers, and stickers to use, but she trusted me to make the album beautiful for her. She was grateful to have someone help her overcome what she perceived as a monumental task, and I enjoyed learning more about my friend and her relationship.

I've given scrapbook supplies as gifts before, and they were always well-received. However, in the case of my friend's shower, the gift was not just in the supplies I gave her, but also in helping her finish the album so she could display it at her wedding. I gave her the gift of my scrapbooking creativity and expertise, and relieved her stress about trying to finish yet another project for her wedding. In one day, we knocked out a project I'm sure would've taken her months to finish because she was so overwhelmed she didn't know how to begin.

If you want to give a gift like this, I'd suggest doing something similar to what I did - give an album and some embellishments, maybe a bottle of wine and some treats to suggest a fun girls day out/in, and gift certificate letting the receiver know that you're going to help her get all those pictures into an album. AND SET THE DATE ASAP!

When finished, the gift receiver will have a task checked off the list, a completed photo album, and great memories of the day you spent together. Every time she looks at the album, she'll remember not only the events captured through the photos in the album, but also the time spent with you, sharing and laughing (and maybe crying) as you sort through all those pictures. Those memories are my favorite kind of gifts.