No doubt there are some school memories that you would prefer to forget, whether it’s that embarrassing time that you laughed at someone else’s joke so hard that milk came out of your nose, or the first time you were rejected by a member of the opposite sex.  But for the most part, school is a fun and exciting time in someone’s life that should be treasured and remembered, and there’s probably no better way of doing that than a school scrapbooking album.  To really make your album memorable and appropriate, whether it’s for your own memories or your child’s, how can you do this?  What are some good tips and pointers to remember to create your own unforgettable school scrapbooking album?  Let’s cover some of those here.

Do You Want a Theme?

Sometimes it’s better for each page of your school scrapbooking album to have a life of its own, so to speak.  But sometimes it’s a good idea to have at least one common element running through the album.  For example, if your school scrapbooking album is for your high school only, what was the team name or mascot?  What were the school colors?  Let’s pretend you grew up in a city that was named after an oak tree (such as Royal Oak or Oak Hollow) and your school’s teams centered around the oak tree.  Maybe the school paper was The Acorn, the football team was The Might Oaks.  The theatre group was the Hollow Oak Players – and so on.  By having an element of an oak tree on every page of your school scrapbooking album, even in some small way, you’re tying the entire theme together.  You might have a rubber stamp of an acorn or an oak tree hidden somewhere in each picture.  Or, use an oak tree leaf, whether real or a stencil, in one corner of each page.

Using the school’s colors is also a great way to tie together each page of your school scrapbooking album.  You don’t need to go overboard and have every page an overpowering blue and white, for example, but just use it in subtle ways.  If those colors were a navy blue and white, incorporate that combination in your page backgrounds, your paper colors, your embellishments, and so on.  You can also do this the same as you would that school theme, by having one particular element run through each page of your school scrapbooking album.  Maybe the bottom of each page would have a two braided pieces of yarn in those colors running along the edge, or one side of each page would be bordered by those colors.  Of course, whether or not you even want a theme to your own school scrapbooking album is your own choice.  You may not feel particularly tied to the school itself, and simply want to remember certain activities or groups you participated in.  This is of course your choice, and that’s one of the things that makes scrapbooking such a great hobby.

Celebrate Your Own Interests

Again, let’s say that you’re not particularly interested in remember the school itself when composing your own school scrapbooking album.  Maybe you want to remember your own hobbies and interests. 

When you do this, you can have each page be a different color or use a different focal point.  For example, suppose you child was in both band and played soccer as well.  For the pages that show your child practicing an instrument, you can have a musical theme for the paper and your embellishments.  If part of the school scrapbooking album shows your child at recitals or in the band during school plays, you can give those pages a theatre-type theme or look.

And when it comes to the pages that show your child playing soccer, it’s time for an athletic or sports theme.  You can use soccer balls and nets as embellishments, and get creative with the wording as well.  By doing so, you can show through your school scrapbooking album what a true individual your child is, and how he or she really enjoyed different hobbies and interests.

What to Include in Your School Scrapbooking Album

Another great feature of doing scrapbooking for a hobby is that you are not limited by hard and fast rules that say what you can and cannot include in your own personal scrapbook.  If you have a funny picture of your child wearing a cute hat, or want to remember that night at the opera with your spouse, you can use photos, ticket stubs, programs, passes, souvenirs, or virtually anything you want.  And your school scrapbooking album is no exception.  There is virtually nothing that you cannot include inside, as long as it fits of course!  Maybe your child studied exceptionally hard for a particular test or class and is proud of their grade – include that report card or the test itself.  Maybe you have a picture of him or her with a safety badge, or with the school’s bowling team, or anything else that made your child feel proud.  It may not seem like much to someone else, but why wouldn’t you include that type of thing in your school scrapbooking album?  A dried petal from the corsage they wore to the prom, the tassel from their graduation mortarboard, the acceptance letter to the college of their choice – all of these are precious memories, so don’t limit yourself to what you think should go into a school scrapbooking album, and instead include the things that you simply want to include.

Get Your Child Involved in Their Own School Scrapbooking Album!

And remember, scrapbooking is a great hobby for the kids, so don’t hesitate to have your son or daughter get involved in making their own school scrapbooking album.  After all, these are their memories too, and you want to make the album something that they’ll enjoy for years and years to come, even long after they’ve graduated.