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Nov 16, 2012

Keeping Memories: Made Simple (Part 1)

Let's face it-I am not in any position to sit down and make a full on scrapbook of anything probably ever again.  I have one started of my wedding but it abruptly ends with only a few honeymoon pictures with the rest tucked away in a box to be finished "when I get some time."  My own mom gave me my baby book and a box of pictures and said, "maybe you will have time to finish this someday."  Ya right.  Memory keeping is hard.  It takes time to plan, it takes time to gather supplies and it takes time to actually do and guess what...I don't have the time just like so many others.  I do want to have some records of all the wonderful things there are in life however to leave for my children-both with photos and just in words.  So while I am not good at, nor will I ever be good at, making a full on scrapbook for my children, I am good at (or try to be good at) creating more simple records of our lives to leave for my children and grandchildren.  This is the first of a mini series of simple memory keeping ideas.

Idea #1: A holiday recipe book.  
 I got the pages for this book at Michael's a couple of years ago.  I covered each page with scrapbook paper and made recipe card pockets for each page too.  I came up with a few holiday categories like: desserts, pie and breads.  I wrote out a couple of my favorite recipes on recipes cards that I also bought and tucked them in the pockets.  On the front of the pockets I wrote a little note about why this recipe was meaningful, or a little story about the recipe or who it was that first made it.  I love the idea of leaving behind some of my favorite food recipes written in my own handwriting with a story attached to each one. Hopefully I can create a memory with my kids with each recipe too.

 Idea #2: Super simple mini album
 When Small Fry was 17 months old I took her to New York City to visit my brother.  I wanted to put all the pictures together from our trip but I needed to have it be quick.  I made a super simple album of cardstock, added a background paper to each page, added pictures with a few embellishments and wrote a caption about each picture.  I know that my own handwriting is not as neat as typing but I actually really love the idea of leaving as many handwritten notes as possible.  The point of this album is that you don't have to have the fanciest paper, or coordinating scrapbook packs to make an album.  It is the memories that matter-not the paper.

 Idea #3: Simple Scrapbook with no embellishments
 I made this when small fry was just a baby.  I just loved every picture I took of her and couldn't find enough ways to preserve them.  This one is made from a 5x7 scrapbook paper pack.  I attached each photo to the front and back of the pages and wrote a brief description.  Simple as simple can get.
 This one is the same idea just with horizontal pictures instead.


 Idea #4: Fold out paper bag album
 This is one of my favorites.  In fact I had forgotten about it until I went to gather up all these little memory books.  Now I want to make another one.  This is made from 4 paper bags that overlap in the middle.  There are enough places to put 12 different pictures so I made it with 1 picture from each month of Small Fry's first year.  The paper bags create nice little pockets too to put pictures in.  I again hand wrote everything. There are a few simple embellishments but overall it was really easy but turned out so interesting and cute.

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