Saturday, April 21, 2007

ABC Scrapbook Album - Not the Ordinary ABC's!

Whether you child is a toddler, pre-schooler, or kindergardener,an SBC album is a great educational tool (as well as alot of fun!) for them to have a book about the ABC's that they will enjoy and WANT to look at often, thereby helping them LEARN THE FUN WAY!!!

I made a scrapbook ABC album for my grand daughter and gave it to her when she was 2. Now, in 2st grade, she STILL picks out that book when she is at my house and totally enjoys looking through it, even tho she knows her ABC's. These layouts are not complicated, however you can make your ABC scrapbook as structured as you like. I used the "I Spy" collage theme.

But this isn't just a regular A is for apple, B is for boy ABC scrapbook album. I used ACTUAL things that she knows for the letters, not just the ordinary things. I also tried to incorporate a few things from her mother's life - D is for Dynamo which was the duck her mommy had when she was little. R is for Rainy Day, the rabbit we had when she was young and has now died. D is for Daddy, M is for Mommy and included a photo of each! These are memories that she will have for years, and can even hand down to HER children! Who knew the alphabet could have so many memories!

Q is for quarter and I glued a quarter on the page. N is of Nanny and I put a photo of me. M is for Mommy and Me and I put a photo of her and her mommy. U is for Uncle Michael and I put a photo of her uncle. Y is for yarn and I took a length of actual yarn and squiggled it up and glued it down! G is for goat and I used a photo of her mommy and uncle when they were little playing with a goat. Every letter a memory! What wonderful ideas can you come up with for your childs ABC album!

Educationally speaking: If you are making the scrapbook for a toddler or pre-schooler, it helps alot if they KNOW the picture they are looking at and can then relate the letter to the picture instead of learning the letter and trying to find something that relates to the letter.

In addition to some of the usual items or "normal" kind of items, I used items that meant something to her and only her. I used white cardstock for each page and those letters that have a color (p is pink, purple) i used that color to embellish - like strips across the page and then wrote "pink" or "purple" under the color. I also wrote the name next to each item in colored gel pens.

C is for California (she lives in California, die cut) cotton Candy (die cut and her and her favorite candy!) C is for Christmas (a photo of her mommy at christmas when she was 2) C is for Cinderella (stickers of Cinderella, although she now tells me that the pink dress is not Cinderella, it was Sleeping Beauty or whoever, I am bad at the names of all the princesses!) C is for coins (sticker of coins in this ATM card world)

D is for Daddy (photo of Daddy) D is for Dolphin (photo of dolphin when we took her to Sea World and she is now mezmerized wtih dolphins!) D is for Dynamo ( photo of her mommys pet)D is for Dragon fly (an unusual bug)

M is for Mommy and Me (photo of her and her mommy) M is for magician (die cut) M is for Mermaid (sticker) M is for money (stickers of dollar bills)

S is for sleeping bag (sticker, what she loves to sleep in when she spends the night at my house) S is for Strawberry Shortcake (sticker and she and her mom love this character) S is for Sylvester (sticker, she liked the cartoon cat) S is for saxaphone (die cut, she liked tooting horns!)
P is for Papa (photo of her Papa) P is for paw (die cut, from the Blue's Clue's days!) P is for Powerpuff Girls (stickers and she liked them back then!) P is for pumpkin (die cut, she loves carving pumpkins) P is for Panda (sticker, she loves animals)

So you get the idea. Create an album uniquely to your child and his/her likes, interests and family. They will enjoy them for years! Make memories in your ABC albums - education and memories - what a great combination!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

What Scrapbook Supplies Do You Need?

Don't forget - Scrapbook for Box Tops means free scrapbook supplies! Take a look over at my blog I am doing with my 7 year old grand daughter to help her with her school fund raiser.

Need some free scrapbook embellishments? Come on over and take a look! Just save those little pink/blue/white Box Tops 4 Education labels from participating brands and go "shopping". I have lots on the site to see, but I have so much, i just can't get it all on, so tell me what you want, like, need, theme you prefer or category and I can pretty much accomodate any theme.

Stickers, die cuts, punch art, paper piecing, stickers, fibers, 3-D embellishments and more! I always give you a little more than you "order" so click on over to Scrapbook for Box Tops and take a look and start collecting for a free shopping spree for scrapbook items you can use!

Scrapbook For Box Tops

Small Envelope Pattern

I found this pattern in all my inventory of scrapbooking supplies and embellishments. It is really a good pattern to use for adding an embellishment to work with journaling. Write your journaling on a piece of cardstock and slide it into the envelope. Decorate the front of the envelope.

Or, my favorite way to use this pattern is with vellum - make the envelope out of vellum and use a sticker on the front, or cut a photo the exact size of the front of the envelope and slide that in the envelope. Then you have a muted photo front to the envelope.






Click on the pattern and it will take you to a larger size to print out. You can reduce the patter to make is smaller if you like!