I love scrapbooking - love it!!! I did a full scrapbook of my son's first year. Now I'm in the process of doing his second year. I don't know whether to stop at 2nd b-day or if I should keep going until the book is "full" -- This would probably go until the new baby is born. Then what? Continue making a book for Isaac and a new one for Hannah... or make a family book... or keep 3 books going. One family, one Isaac, one Hannah... What do I do? :) I'd like some tips on what everyone else does so I can wrap my head around the task that is at hand! Thank you so much!!! -B.
I've decided to continue doing my son's book and start a new one just for Hannah and when the event is a family event, I will start a family book. It may be better to do 3 pages of one event (one for each book) than just one so i can cut down on too many pics on every page! I can put my fave Hannah pics on her page, fave Isaac pics on his page and a page of the family and kids with the whole experience... sounds crazy but it might work! I think this will be much easier when they are in their individual sports and have their own friend functions... right now everything is family except b-day parties and play dates!
I do all three. The kids will go off with their own books at some point, so I'd like them to have their own books. :)
I say do a first year book for both kids and then make every book after that a family book. So keep doing the second book until you run out of pages so that it's a family book too. That way you won't feel obligated to keep doing separate books for each kid forever. Because if you're like me, you're going to end up doing none rather than three. :)
I scrapped the oldest until the second came along. Then I scrapped them together - whoever has an activity gets scrapped - All in the "same" book. I figured they could fight over it when I'm dead and buried.
I'm just too busy to make 2 or 3 different books.
YMMV
LBC
Hello B.! I definitely recommend that you continue making albums individually for Hannah and Isaac. You are recording their history, and when they are older, you can pass them down to each of them. My 3 children are older now. They have their own albums in which I have journaled to each of them how much I love them, next to their photos. They LOVE these albums of their childhood, and I know that THEIR children will love reading about their lives. Good luck. Good for you for starting scrapbooking when your children are so young! I didn't get started until they were older, and what a task that was.....but it was a joyful task....one that I still enjoy today. Good luck!
I have 2 kids, and a scrapbook for both of them. They're 6 and 7, and basically now, I do a page for all major holidays and major events like vacations, sports, or musicals. It's not stressful, so don't stress, just keep up on it. If a birthday or holiday comes up, I do the page and get it done so it doesn't pile up.
I made a book for each of my kids called School Years. It's school and extra curricular activities of just the one child. Pre-school through high school graduation. Then I have other books of family vacations, etc... I could keep myself focused that way. Each son actually has two whole books now. The kids love their own books. It's the first thing they show a new girlfriend.
I think it would mean so much to EACH of your kids to have their own scrap book...kind of like having your own baby book to look at. Then maybe one for the family too. Lots of work for you to have to do, but sounds like you'll be up to it since you love it so much. I wish I had the patience and talent for scrap booking.
Here's what I do.
I have a family book that when it gets filled I go on and do another family book.
I have a baby book for the first year of each of my kids lives.
Then I am doing a "toddler/preschool" book for each of them.
I also plan to do an elementary school book for each and a high school book for each.
My kids are only 5 and 1 1/2 but so far it works for us...and they LOVE to look at the pictures of themselves!
Good luck.
-M
We have 3 books, one for our daughter -our most precious memories, one for us as a family, and one that is for my husband and me as a couple -wedding memories, first date, etc. It's a bit more work but I see it as a chance to show our angel how she made our lives better and how we grew as a family.
I love scrapbooking too! What I do is I make school days books for all 4 kids. One is elementary(You can include preschool in this one) Then one with upper grades. Middle school tends to not have as much, then High school more. I do alot of specialized albums. Like a taking trips album, all in one album even Disneyland goes in that one. I also make a camping album for any camping trips. We go alot. I do family albums along the way year by year. You can always pick these back up after completing a specialized album. When my kids turn 21 they each get a birth to 21 album oversized 12x15. I didn't tell my oldest he was getting that on his bday. He loved it!! I have 2 criuse albums also. It's fun to do specialized albums then you don't get bored with doing the same thing and you're excited getting back to family albums. Other albums I'm going to do are a friend album for my daughter and a soccer album for my son. Have fun -D.
My girlfriend has 4 kids and she does a book for each of them and also a family book. It makes sense, especially as they grow older, as the childs book, will have photos of the friends and activities that interest them, the family album might have a few photos that overlap from each child's book, but mostly would involve family trips and holidays etc. I enjoy looking at her books and seeing how each child really is an individual. My husband does not support scrapbooking so my photos go into generic albums and are not nearly so cute, nor tell our story as well as scrapbooking does. Enjoy, whatever you decide to do with your photos.
Hi B.,
I have a suggestion for you that assumes that even though you LOVE scrapbooking, you may not have time for keeping up 3 books every year. My suggestion is that you continue scrapbooking a family album every year and then create a Blurb book (photo book that you create online and can have printed in hardback, softback, etc. just like a real book - self-publish so to speak) for each of your children every year.
I am not a scrapbooker, even though I think it looks lots of fun, so my husband created a Blurb book for our son's first year and is working on his second year (up to his 2nd birthday). We have it printed for us and all the grandparents as a Christmas gift. You can personalize, write little 'blurbs' in it (hence the name blurb), pick the color and more. My husband has made it look like it's a full on published book, it's really cool and me and our son love to look through it.
I didn't go back and make scrapbooks for the first years of my children's lives. They just have pictures in an album that is just for them. I did however start scrapbooking their school years. It has their school pictures, class pictures, some of their artwork, class parties, their birthday parties, field trips, etc. I keep a seperate scrapbook that is our family, my two children will just have to fight over those when I am gone! I also have done 8 1/2 X 11 scrapbooks with their 8 X 10 photos from when they were three months to their current school year. That will end when they graduate high school. I started at kindergarten with my daughter and I started with preschool for my son's book. It is really fun and I don't mind scrapbooking all the different books. Keep enjoying it! I love it too. I even host a scrapbooking night once a month!
~~D.
My mom make each of her 3 kids their own book. This book now belongs to me and I share it with my own kids. I am making each child her own book(s) as well, so they can keep them and pass them on. It is a really nice family tradition and my kids really like to see what I looked like when I was their age. My book also contains pictures of other family members, of course, as well as friends, etc.
