Enjoy Scrapbooking With Kids

Scrapbooking is a popular with adults but it is just as much fun with children. It only requires photos and card stock to get started so a brilliant way to organise those pictures whilst entertaining the children.

Scrapbooking refers to the craft of making each page of an album tell and story by framing photos writing notes (journalling) and embellishing it. The same principles of adult scrapbooking apply to junior scrapbooking. It is all about preserving photos and memories. This is particularly good to do with children since you can recall a special day out, family members you may not see often or a holiday. The children can then practise their writing skills by making the notes to accompany the photos. When embellishing the page the kids can get creative but don’t let them go overboard with the decorations!

When scrapping with children make sure you are not using precious photos. Print off duplicates, scan in a photo and print a copy or go to a copy shop to make an identical copy.

Here a 12” by 12” page was made however you can use a standard A4 size if this is the card stock you have at home. The A4 card can be cut into squares or smaller rectangles to make mini album pages. They could then be placed in to a ring binder rather than a special scrapbook album. However if the children enjoy the activity you may wish to purchase a scrapbook album.

You will need:

• Photos
• Card 12” by 12”
• Scissors or paper trimmer
• Corner mounts or glue stick
• Embellishments
• Paper and card stock
• Pen

Select the photos you want to use in your album and then narrow it down to a few for each page. There is no rule as to how many per page; it can be from just one image to five or six. However don’t be tempted to over crowd your page or it will become too cluttered. Once you have chosen the photos you may need to “crop” them. This means trimming off the unwanted areas of the photos. This can be done using a guillotine for straight edges or scissors (adult supervision for younger children). The edges of the photos don’t have to be straight so here photos from a trip to the zoo are used and wavy edges cut. Then lay the images out on to the plain background paper.

Step 2

Now decorate your page around the photo. This can be with anything such as collage, stickers, punched shapes etc. Use embellishments which will compliment the colours in the photos and enhance them not distract or drown them out. Here animal print patterned paper was cut and glued to two sides of the page.

Step 3

Decide if you want to make notes of the trip or people in the photos to capture the memories; this is called “journalling”. Make sure you use acid free paper and pens. Write a title which can go across the top of the page or down one side to create a border. Here the word “zoo” was cut form zebra patterned paper and notes made on a piece of card.