I have been writing most of my life, journaling, short stories and such. And I started scrapbooking in 1997. With two children I took a lot of pictures for special events, birthdays, graduation, etc. and kept them in cheap albums where they turned yellow and/or stuck to the cover. In 1997 I removed all the photos and put them in new archival and safe albums along with journaling for each page telling the story behind the picture. I loved doing it, my boys loved looking at it and even added notes to a page here or there where I had missed something.
I started when they were born and instead of them each having a baby book of their own they shared a family album. When my oldest son turned thirty I went back through our albums and made copies of pictures of him and his life for the first thirty years. I had kept sports articles from when he had participated in baseball, soccer and football and made them apart of the album along with report cards and annual school pictures, prom pictures and other lifetime achievements. He was thrilled with all the memorabilia and still goes through it every now and again and reminisces.
My other son turns 35 in May and I have yet to complete his album of his first thirty years but I have been steadfastly working on it since January and will have his first 35 years done in time. I am determined to do so. He has a son now and I'm sure he would love to share with him his school artwork, report cards as well as his overall lifetime achievements. He will see how much his son's actions and looks are similar to his and how many characteristics are the same.
When I scrapbook I feel like I'm writing a novel. The building of the character sketches are there for all to see, not tell, and are believable. A bad year is depicted in the report cards and artwork, more character building. And personality is fully developed in the many pictures of happy, mad, sad faces. The description is there in the journaling or the background of the picture. We've moved a number of times and they went to different schools, had different bedroom surroundings, etc. They love to go back and remember when we lived in a certain place and we had awful or wonderful neighbors,
I'm really working on two books at one time. The one I'm writing to publish and share and the one I'm scrapbooking to share and cherish for a lifetime and beyond.
