Scrapbook Crops

Have you gotten your kids involved in scrapbooking? There seems to be a multitude of moms who do scrapbooking. I wonder how many of them ever do scrapbooks with their kids? Having a fun activity all planned out for kids (to get them away from the TV or video games for a while) can be difficult! It’s so important to provide a time for them to learn something creative – once kids get started painting, drawing or scrapbooking they usually love it.

If you’ve never tried scrapbooking with your kids, here are some tips.

Make sure you have enough of the basic scrapbook supplies for everyone – glue, paper, scissors, and albums. There are lots of themed scrapbook albums for kids. You could find an album for each child (there are sports scrapbook albums, Disney scrapbook albums, and scrapbook kits for kids have similar themes to use for ideas. Or, you can find a large album for the entire family to contribute pages to. There are many small albums called mini-scrapbooks that can be fun for a quick scrapbooking activity time.

For some parents it works best to decide in advance which of their scrapbook supplies or materials they want to make available to their children. Set aside any materials you don’t want the kids to use (such as those you are saving for your own projects). Some moms just make all their supplies available. It’s something you should plan ahead of time – which of your supplies do you want to use in this scrapbooking activity.

Children’s Scrapbooking Activity Time Tips:

Tip 1: Have Fun

Make it an easy going fun time. Things don’t have to look perfect in these scrapbook albums – allow the kids to be creative. See if your kids can come up with some ideas on their own for them to devleop their innate creativity.

Tip 2: Scrapbooking Tools and Materials

Depending on the children’s ages, you may want to be sure that your tools (such as scissors) are the child safety scissors and remove any other sharp materials (such as exacto knives) from within their reach. Explain how any special scrapbooking tools you have work – such as punches – and show the kids how to use glue or glue dots.

Tip 3: Get Organized before You Start

Sort out your supplies in advance. It will really help if you use storage containers or organizer trays to keep all the supplies easy-to-find (such as your stickers, pens and glue).

Tip 4: Photos for the Scrapbook

Print out a selection of photos that can be used for the scrapbook. Having extra prints of photographs (so you can save a copy for your own scrapbooking) is a good idea.

Tip 5: Stickers, Rub-ons and Embellishments

Show the kids what types of supplies you typically use in a scrapbook. Scrapbook kits could be purchased in advance to help with more ideas and supplies for scrapbooks with themes, such as pets, hobbies, boy’s or girls scrapbook themes.

Tip 6: Writing and Journaling 

Explain how journaling – writing their own notes and captions – can add interest to their scrapbooks. Having some colorful pens to use can make this even more fun. If your child likes drawing, they can make some sketchs or drawings for the pages. Have them add personal details about themselves (their age, the date, and their name) on a page. This will be of interest later on in time when they look at their scrapbook albums.

Tip 7: Set Some Activity Time Rules

Keep drinks and food away from your activity area. Spilled liquids or food on your supplies would be expensive accidents that you want to avoid.

If you have teenagers who love computers, think about having them learn about digital scrapbooking – they may like computer scrapbooking as much or more than playing those video games!

Spending this quality time is a great way to bond with your kids and help them learn how much fun it is to be creative. They might come to love scrapbooking as a hobby as much as you do!