By Allie McComas
Okay, it was my fault. I can admit it now. It all started one day when I was in a particularly "crafty" mood one afternoon and decided to work on my scrapbook.
"My dining room was a disaster area."
I got all of my pictures, embellishments, stamping sets and paper out, and had a mini-scrapbooking station set up on my dining room table. I had about two hours of time before the kids would be home from school, so I happily sat down and started working on a 2-page layout.
"Look Mommy, that's me!
This particular spread was of my daughter, Caitlin. We had just come back from visiting the grandparents in North Carolina and I had some great pictures of her with her cousins. I was a scrapping fool! And, as any great artist, I had been totally engrossed in my work. Time quickly passed and before I knew it, I heard the kids walking, or should I say barreling through the front door. "Mo--om! We're starving!" they all yelled, without hesitation. So, I hung up my "crafty" hat and replaced it with my "mommy" hat and went into the kitchen to make snacks.
As the afternoon wore on, I had completely forgotten about my masterpiece-in-the-works. It wasn't until I wondered why I hadn't heard Caitlin in a while that I put two and two together. I ran into the dining room to find what I feared the most -- a complete mess! "Look Mommy, that's me!" Caitlin said as she held up a sticky cut-up picture of herself. I looked around and, to my dismay, saw that she had gone through my treasured scrapbook, and pulled off her favorite pictures and was re-gluing them onto the paper I had been working on. My dining room was a disaster area.
I should have known better than to keep all of my stuff within Caitlin's reach. She was notorious for getting into my scrapbooks and tearing them apart. I couldn't blame her though. She really didn't know any better. And, she just loved looking through all of the pages and seeing herself in pictures.
She thought it was the best book she had ever seen. But, for that same reason, I kept them out of her reach. I thought about it for a minute and realized that I had made a mistake. It would be like if I put her favorite doll up out of her reach because she loved it so much and would want to play with it, and therefore mess it up.
Something just for Caitlin
What I really needed to do was to make something just for her that she could look at and enjoy every day. After all, the point of making scrapbooks is for enjoyment and reminiscing. Caitlin wanted that too. So, I decided right then and there that I was going to make Caitlin her own kid-friendly scrapbook.
The first thing we did was go through pictures so Caitlin could choose her favorites of people, places she had visited as well as those with her family and friends in them. These were the pictures that were going to make up her scrapbook.
After I got a feel as to how many pages we were going to need, we went shopping. We went out and bought 8x11 sheets of colorful card stock and cellophane sheets that are open on the top to slide the sheets into them. I let Caitlin choose a 3 ring notebook and we were ready to create her masterpiece.
I set up each page by gluing the picture (or pictures) in the center and then printed the names of the people and places below them. Then, I let Caitlin decorate each page. Later, without her watching, I slid the pages into the cellophane sheets. Then, I glued the top closed. That way, she wouldn't know how to open the sheets back up. Another way you could do this is by using a laminating kit. And Viola! Kid-friendly!
I went ahead and decorated the front, and titled the book "Caitlin's Very Special Scrapbook." When I gave it to her the next day, it was a huge hit!
Growing up with scrapbooking
She was so excited she sat right down on the floor and read it. She kept the book by her bedside and read it before bed each night. She felt very important that she and Mommy made a special book that was just for her. I told my fellow scrappers about the book and they thought it was a great idea for their little ones as well.
Since we made that scrapbook, we have added many pages to it. There are pages with pictures of her favorite things that she cut out of magazines as well as pages of activities in which she has participated, like the 4th of July parade last year.
Although I did this out of necessity, one very special thing came from the experience. Caitlin has developed a love of scrapbooking. Now, she sits with me at the dining room table and, with her own supplies, decorates pages for her own scrapbook. She no longer has any interest in my scrapbook. After all, she has her very own book to enjoy.