Scrapbook binder with a bear cover and tie. Holds scrapbook pages.

Scrapbooks are wonderful picture books that you create yourself. What’s better than including pictures and sayings of all of your favorite things or things your family loves. Let your imagination run wild as you make one with a grandparent or grand friend. Check out these ideas:

• You don’t need a fancy scrapbook to hold your pages. I sometimes just use an old school binder and regular paper slipped into plastic sleeves if I’m making a collage from magazine pictures. However, if I’m handling real photographs I will use acid-free paper and materials to preserve them. In other words, use what you have, but choose wisely depending on what kind of a scrapbook you make.
• You will probably need supplies such as scissors, glue for scrapbooking, paper, and a scrapbook of your choice. You can also use embellishments for scrapbooking found at many craft stores.
• Make a simple, fun collage of scrapbook pages made from pictures and words from magazines or newspapers. Look for articles or pictures on-line that you can print off as well. Scrapbooks can have themes such as places we would like to visit, food we love, words we like, or it doesn’t have to have a theme at all.
• Choose to make a scrapbook from photographs you have. Choose pictures an older family member or friend might enjoy. Consider taking pictures beforehand so that you have current pictures together. Again, you may choose a theme such as summer vacation, our family reunion, or grandchildren’s pictures. Include names of people or places for an older person to read and remember if needed.
• Read this post on how to make scenic scrapbooks from old calendars.
• Look at your scrapbook together on your visit with a loved one and add to it if you can.
• Give an older person a mixed scrapbook of photographs and other favorite things such as: pictures of family members, places they have visited, poems they love, words to a song they love, pictures of foods they love or used to make, a recipe, a quote, pictures of favorite things such as flowers, etc… Consider their interests and all their favorite things. Combine them into a book they will pick up and look at time and time again!