Henry’s Easy-Peasy Scrapbook
I don’t have much memorabilia from when I was a newborn. My mom did start a baby book for me, but it’s kind of sparse.
I knew that I wanted to document Henry’s life for him from the very beginning and in a prolific way, but I also knew that I had to keep it as simple as possible or else I wouldn’t sustain it. That’s why I turned to the Living, Growing Scrapbook idea that I’ve been using to keep a scrapbook for our family (originally inspired by Amy over at Progressive Pioneer).
It’s so very simple. It just takes a three-ring binder, plastic sheet protectors, double-sided tape, card stock, and a pen.
Every once in a while, I upload pictures to Snapfish, search for a coupon, and have the photos delivered to our house. Then I tape the photos to the card stock, jot down a few notes on the side, slip them into the sheet protectors, and insert them into the binder. Voila!
It’s such an easy process; I honestly think it’s something I can sustain. And even though I think Matt and I will only have one child, if Henry does end up with a sibling, I’m pretty sure I can sustain a scrapbook for that child, too. In addition to the letters that I write Henry approximately every month, I also have a separate page where I jot down things that would normally get recorded in a baby book (i.e., first smile, first hair cut, etc.).
Maybe instead of calling it a “Living, Growing Scrapbook,” I should call it a “Quick and Dirty Scrapbook.” It’s so liberating to release myself from my tendency to strive for aesthetic perfection and instead just record our life in a sincere way.
4 Comments
Lekki
I love this idea – thank you for posting. So often things don't get done by me because they are not perfect – which is the worst outcome. I am starting this idea for my marriage 🙂
Melissa
I think that is a great idea. I have been scanning in all of my family's old photos, and I am really kind of sad how disorganized they are and how nothing was ever labeled or even indicates the date and year. Henry will appreciate it as an adult! One thing that I definitely recommend, although it may be harder on the budget, is to always opt for a higher quality photo album. I can tell a huge difference in photo degredation as I scan them in, among the photos that were stored in good quality albums vs. the very cheap flimsy ones. The ones in the better quality albums fared much better. The ones in the cheaper albums are more yellow, faded, or ended up stuck to the album slots. (Of course, as long as you make backups of your digital photos, you can always order additional prints if the photo starts to fade or yellow).
Anaïs
That's great! Just a suggestion: if you don't want you pix to fade or get yellow mark with time, make sure you use acid-free paper and tape 🙂
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