Keep Beautiful Memories - Make a Scrapbook!

If you're anything like me this will be familiar. You go to a family function (or party, or other event) and think you'll never forget it. You take some photos. You gather a keepsake or two. You're sure it's a day you'll always remember. Unfortunately the photos and bits and pieces get shoved in an old shoe box or a drawer out of the way. Some things get lost. The memory starts to fade...well it does at my age anyway!

The answer of course is to make a scrapbook. A scrapbook will not only preserve those memories as fresh as the day they happened but is also great fun - you can even turn it into a scrapbooking party!

Scrapbooking is very popular, and rightly so. It's easy to do yet very creative. It's not at all expensive and yet it creates items of priceless quality. You can make a scrapbook of a birth, the life of a child, a wedding, a club, a school, a building project. You name it, you can make a scrapbook about it, and you can do it all yourself, with your family, or you can invite friends round to do it with you. Yep, I reckon scrapbooking has a lot going for it.

If you've never done it before, don't let that put you off for a moment. There are many, many places to go for advice and inspiration. There are a multitude of websites, of course, and lots of useful books (we have a dozen on our site alone) which will provide you with all the information you need: how to get started, how to find useful and free materials around the house, where to buy other scrapbooking goodies, how to arrange scrapbooking parties, even how to make money from scrapbooking if that's what interests you. If you can draw, that's one way you can add life to your scrapbooks. Same thing if you can sew. If not you can glue or staple, you can use sticky tape or self-adhesive materials. You can use your PC to print pictures and add titles with lively and attractive typefaces. Whatever type of craft or art you are already into can add something to each and every scrapbook you make - and doing so makes each one unique, a priceless personal treasure or a beautiful individual gift should you choose to give it away.

Making a scrapbook is something you can happily loose a few hours doing or, if you're a little short of time, you can just pick it up for five minutes here and there and then put it away again. It doesn't require a lot of space or dedicated tools either. You might want to get a few bits and pieces eventually but most things, scissors, ruler, pencils, etc., you almost certainly have already. As for workspace, a table or even a patch of floor is perfectly adequate.

So next time you've come home from a trip you think you'll never forget, don't just put all those things in a "safe place", put them in your scrapbooking box. Then next time you've got a few minutes, lock in those beautiful memories so they can never start to fade away, make a scrapbook!

Xandra Veal runs the very popular Craft Books Now which has lots of free information about craft books of all kinds and a store where you can find the perfect title to help you make a scrapbook.