ShareThisGo wild this summer with mini-scrapbooks that feature photos of everything from planned vacations to casual family get-togethers. The long days of summer are packed with photo-worthy events that are likely to result in lots of pictures that need a place to live in order to be enjoyed.
Summer is also a great time to include your kids in the making of mini-scrapbooks. Each can be dedicated to one event or activity, and you and your family can create dozens of them this summer.
A trip to the zoo is likely to generate fabulous photos, and your kids will enjoy scrapping their animal photos in a peek-a-boo-style mini-book.
Each page is 6 by 12 inches, folded in the middle, resulting in a card that is a 6-inch square. A window is cut from the card cover, leaving the left side of the window intact, so that it reveals a photo each time it is opened. Once you create several photo cards, it's easy to turn them into a scrapbook by laying them in a row, overlapping the back half of each card with the front half of the next card in line. After all of the cards are attached, accordion-fold them into a mini-book.
Once the structure of the book is created, it's fun to embellish the pages with zebra-print paper and other embellishments that emphasize the animal theme. It's helpful to label each window with the names of the kids in the photos. A long strip of lined zebra paper makes a great belly band that holds the book closed.
A handmade scrapbook with peek-a-boo windows can be completed in under an hour, and the number of pages can be expanded or reduced to accommodate the number of photos you want to include.
The kids are sure to enjoy this scrap therapy and will have several mini-books to show for it. And when they return to school in the fall, the books will certainly help them to write about their sensational summer.
(Contact Sandi Genovese and find free video demonstrations of more photo projects at www.scrapbookshowgram.com.)
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