Scrapbooks: Do I Make One for My Daughter and Myself?

Here's what I do: I made a baby book (newborn - 1 year) and this I will keep. I make a family album for each year, and then I am working on a special book for each kid that they can take with them when they leave home. I call it "year in review." I make them a 2-4 page spread of all the highlights from the year.

Hope it helps!

What I plan to do (have done for one kid, will do for rest) is make a first year book for each child. For the rest of the photos, I do a family album each year. So we have a 2006 and 2007 book, but with a dd that was born 06/06, she has a first year book from june 06 to June 07. That seemed to be a nice compromise for me.
Good luck!

This sounds like it would just be a matter of how much time and effort you want to devote to something like that. If it were me, I would probably do a family one (for myself), and maybe some small ones individually for each child because it would be a nice keepsake when they got older.

My mom had individual scrap books for each of us. It was mostly baby pictures and then a page of school pictures. She wrote down cute stuff we said.

The bottom filing cabinet had the scrapbooks and also a folder for each of us. The fold contained 5-10 pieces of paper from each school year that she'd saved. It also had our class school pictures.

She also had wallet sized pictures of us on the wall in her room - a chain for each of us with all of our school pictures.

My mom had 5 kids.

I LOVED LOVED LOVED looking at MY scrapbook....all growing up and even now. It was fun to go through it with my fiance, too.

I am just doing one for my daughter which is a family one as well because there are so many pictures of the whole family in it that is is turning out to be both. I am keeping it going though...I have one scrapbook that is from ultrasound to 1 yr....The other, I started from about 1 yr and I am currently up to 4 or 5.. I am behind though since my daughter is 8 so now I am in the process of just choosing the :best" pictures which is extremely hard. But she loves looking through it and she is getting into it as well so she helps me.

Hi L.,

I have four girls. Each of them have their own that they know are theirs and that they can take with them when they are older and move out. I also have the family ones that they knoware mine and will stay here. When one is full ( I only do a few pages at a time when we get new pics from various events) I start a new one. My oldest is on her third and my two middle children are on the 2nd. We are still working on filling my youngests 1st. My girls love it when I let them get the books down and look at them. Until they leave home the books stay in my bookcase. They love it!

I am in the same dilema as you - I'm taking a cue from my cousin, and making a baby book exclusively for my daughter's first year and those landmarks. But, I'm going to do a "family" one as well. As I have future kids I'll do one for each of their first years, but only the one family album -with color copiers now days I figure someday they can make copies if they want. It would be great to do separate ones if I had the time, but I'm having a hard time staying on top of it as it is! And it can get to be a expensive hobby if you're not careful. :)

I love scrapbooking and have been doing so for about 6 years now. Just like you, before I had kids I would do one album... Super easy... Then #1 came along and I had to do his baby book, then #2 came along and I have not started on his baby book, but planning to (he is only 4 months old). Because I don't like getting behind and I just don't have time to scrapbook all the time, I have made the decision of making one family album scrapbooking. I think that it is important that my kids have their own albums, so at the end of the year I go on Shutterfly and make a "quicky" photo album that sums up their year. Not as fancy than doing the "real thing", but it is faster, cheaper, takes up less room AND still provides individual albums.

I do individual ones for everyone. It's a lot more work, but then when the kids grow up and everyone goes their separate ways, everyone can have their own scrapbooks to keep. I have a couple albums from when I was little, and they're fun for our children to look at. We only have ONE picture of my husband as a baby...it's a bummer!

Hi L., How sweet of your mother to start such a nice tradition. Definitely do a family book for you to keep and enjoy yourself that has all the detail you want for your memories all of hundreds of holidays and events you remember. In a few/several years you can pull from the pool to create books for your kids individually. Maybe as they hit major milestones it will be a great time to sit back and remember them as you do the project. As you plan separate books for your kids, they will not really want more than a high level representation of their younger years. Usually a couple of pictures/pages from each of their years is sufficient.

Personally, I would just make one family one. That way they don't have to haul around their own while they start their own life at college and new jobs, and I know that one thing my husband and I both love to do when we visit our parents is pull out the photo albums and scrapbooks. We'd never look at them if we had our own, they would just sit in a box somewhere!

I never had any interest in scrapbooking because it seemed like too much work. A friend of mine when to a scrapbook party a friend of hers had. She brought the book in and it looks awesome. The company is call Heritage Makers. It is all online. You can use templates or create your own. You upload pics and then drop and drag I just finished my first book. Check out thier website www.heritagemakers.com.

I made each of my kids a baby scrapbook of their 1st year of life. Then I just print off pictures for them and put them in order in a picture pocket page. Sorry I don't know what they are called you just slip a picture in a pocket and depending on what size of picture you have there are different arrangments of pockets 3 -5 pockets on a page. Then I will give it to them when they are gone and let them or their wife decide what they want to do with them but at least they are in order and organzied for them.

My mom used to put all her pictures in a box and now she is making albums for the three of us. And for other family members. I think it's easier going from when you first get the pictures. My mom has lots of time now, because she is retired. I prefer to make one album. Of course, I have more pictures of my first child than I do of my second. I try to take individual and family pictures. Have fun!!!!

It all depends on what you want to do with them later on down the road. I started scrapbooks for my kids with the intent that they could take them when they left home. Now I don't want to let them out of my sight :) Now that I have grandchildren, I make one scrapbook per child per year (from birthday to birthday). The oldest granddaughter loves to look at them as well as her mom's books from when she was a little girl. My sister started out doing books for each of her kids, then switched "mid-stream" and consolidated them into family books, figuring there would be less duplication that way. It really is just a matter of preference. Good luck!

It depends what you want to do with them. If you plan on keeping it for yourself forever and letting your kids see it when they come back to visit later, then just make one. Otherwise (and this is how I would do it if I were at all organized enough to keep up with scrapbooking) make one for each child that they can take later on, and one family one for you to keep forever. Or you could even make a duplicate one of each child plus a family one so you will have a copy of each of theirs. But that would take a terrible amount of dedication, ambition and organization. Anyway. That's my opinion. Good luck!

It's a lot of work, but I make each of my 3 kids their own books and a family one for me. I do this because my mom and mother-in-law both did it and I love the fact that I have all of those books that I can show my kids and look through myself. It's the family album that I get behind on - I figure eventually I'll have the time to put that one together!!

whatever you want to do.

I think you should do what you feel like you can handle. If you can keep up with a family one and one for your daughter than make two. I am going to make scrapbooks for all of my children that they can keep and ones for me to keep as well. But it is hard to keep them up to date but it is worth it.

Looks like you've got lots of advice and suggestions here already. But what I do is a little different, so maybe it will give you (yet another) option. I keep my scrapbooks by year. Only one per year BUT I scrap each vacation separate, in it's own book. That way the yearly books aren't so HUGE and overstuffed to look at. Plus then the vacation books can have fun "themes." I will usually use a particular line of paper for each one, unlike the yearly ones, which are all different. THEN each child has a "School Days" scrapbook that contains class and school photos and paper or artwork I want to keep. With technology the way it is now, I would rather have all the family memories together and scan copies for each of the kids when they are ready. Then they can have everything OR just pick & choose what they want. Meanwhile I'm not freaking out about getting so behind trying to maintain everyones books. Have fun and do what works best for you! :)

There are so many different ways to do this. It all depends on how much time and effort you want to put into it. If all your pictures are digital, you can make your entire scrapbook on the computer and then have multiple copies made.

I'm listed on Mamasource as a Creative Memories Consultant and would be happy to help you choose your options.

J.

How about scanning in and printing copies? Or I use shutterfly with my digital pictures. It is pretty easy if you are good at labeling your pictures and filing them. Label them year, month, date: 080613.picture.1 Then you sort in alpphabet order and toss them in the book. then edit. Easy and you can order as many as you want. I make one for every two years for each kid...and intend to give them some day. then I have the year album for the family and sometimes I do special ones like we went to Mexico three times so they are all in one album. and m husband hikes so I have two albums full of those photos. I also made a tribute album for him for his 40th recently. I scanned in baby pictures.

I really think Scrapbooks should be made for all children and a family one. The family one is nice to remember the activities that you do as a family, and the individual ones are nice for their birth and special events. That way when they move out and start a family of their own, they can take that with them. You can also put a duplicate pictures in the family book!

I have been doing family albums by year so every year there's a new album. I have three kids and thought it would be too hard for me to separate all the photos of them together and decide who gets what in their album plus I've noticed that they really like to see each other and how all of them have changed. I save any doubles or pictures I didn't use and the kids can take whatever to make their own albums. My daughter is six yrs. old and is on her second album, she loves to do it with me and I feel that we bond more when she picks her own pictures, asks me about them and puts it together than if I did it for her. My other children are little younger and not as into it yet but when they are ready there are boxes of photos for them to have.

It's really up to you. I have done one for each of my kids. They love to look through them and they love having a book that is filled with their own pictures and memories. I have also done a family one which contains family vacations and just fun things we have done as a family, going to carnivals, Lagoon, Seven peaks, camping. Maybe that is a little much, but I really enjoy it.

L.,

It gave me great pleasure to create a separate scrapebook for each child. In it I put things that were unique to them.ie. Their first day of school, etc.

My 24-year-old daughter loves looking at it and sharing with friends her "growing up years"

I also have a family scrapebook for things that we did as a family.
Family vacations, Christmas and other Holidays.

If you have the time and find pleasure in making scrapbooks...

With all my heart,
C.

Hi - there's a lot of responses - but here's what i do! I do Creative Memories and have since before my kids. When i had my first, i made her a baby book as well as all the pictures in our family albums. Then she had a toddler book with about one spread per month of her toddler years (2-5). In the meantime baby #2 and 3 have come along and I plan to somehow do the same for them. But my oldest is 5 and I will now start her school days album by only doing a few spreads per year for her. That way I can keep up with the 2nd toddler book and 3rd child's baby book! It seems to work for me and that way they all have the same type thing. Email me if you have any questions - I have learned to work quick and efficient to get them done!
J.

I am a consultant for a national scrapbooking company and I have three children in their teen and preteen years. My best advice to you is to KEEP IT SIMPLE and get it done! I started out with big ideas and fell behind very quickly. So now I am working on a Year In Review Album for the family for each year that hits the highlights of all of our important events and activities; a School album for each child through the Elementary School years; and a Christmas Album to put out during the holidays -- a great quick way to see their growth and changes through the years in just a few pages. If you write a Christmas letter, include it there. I have many other albums that are started but not finished and it became more stressful than fun.
Also many people have begun to realize that they really don't want to be passing 100's of albums down to their children! KEEP IT SIMPLE! Focus on your best shots and be sure to journal the stories behind the photos - what you can't see and won't remember if it's not written down.
Last but not least -- your life will be intertwined with your children's lives for many years to come, but don't neglect to scrapbook what's important to you to share with your children. If you are a person of faith, consider doing a Faithbook -- your spiritual journey. Or create a scrapbook of Life Lessons Learned; Family Values; or that sort of thing. If you have a hobby -- scrapbooking, gardening, or whatever -- scrapbook about those things.
Enough said... I feel the urge to go work on my scrapbooks! I need to follow my own advice here.
L. Powell

I would do one for your daughter and one for yourself. Each child loves to know all about themselves as they grow and get older. It is a great memory keeper.
C. B

Hello! If you are like me, you find scrapbooking so theraputic! It totally relaxes me! I have two children very close in age. I make one of each of them (one for each year), and then I also make a family book. The reason for the famiy book is that I am also an amature photographer. I love taking photoraphs as much as I love to scrap them! So the pictures I absolutely love go in the famiy book. :-)

Good Luck!

K.

i found that i only had time for making a baby scrapbook for each of my kids. then i wanted to move on to my own scrapbooks because those photos are the ones that are developed and taking up space in my house, whereas the photos of my kids are digital and they can look at them on the computer anytime. i put my son's preschool papers in a binder, which he also loves to look at. and i know later when he's older and ready to let go of them, he'll choose the ones that mean the most to him and those can go in a scrapbook or memory box with the pictures that mean the most too.

I love scrap booking for my boys, but it is a lot of work to make one for each of them and one for myself. So I make a family year book for the family then make digital scrapbooks for each of my boys. They are a little easier to make, less time consuming and come in a hardbound book. I feel better with the boys flipping through these books because I am not concerned about them messing them up. I am now am consultant for Heritage Makers. I love our products. At first I was a little hesitant about digital scrap booking, but once I saw a book, and the quality of it I fell in love. My kids love their books. And the best part is if something were to happen to one of your books, you can reorder it. Please take a look at my website I think you will like what you see.

A.
www.savingmymemories.com

I think you should do what YOU want to do and what YOU have time to do. There are so many ways to save memories. This is what I do --- My oldest son and I send a regular email journal with photos to family. The family enjoys it and it can be saved for him to enjoy later if he so chooses. My youngest son and I maintain a blog. I maintain a family photo album. Each boy has a trunk in which I place special things to be opened when each turns 18. Set a realistic goal for yourself. Make it do-able and fun. Otherwise, it will just stress you out and you might not be able to follow through and then you will be disappointed. Your children don't know otherwise, so it's your decision.

I have the perfect solution for you and would love to help you! You know you are going to want to keep those scrapbooks you work so hard on... but she will want one too! It is a time consuming project!! My answer is Heritage Makers... not just because I am a consultant, but because I now have 5 kids and I couldn't keep up! So now I do books for my kids for different occasions, but do a yearly scrapbook, memory book for me. The beauty of it is, that these are archived through Heritage Makers, so my plan is to wait until they are leaving the house or are getting married... then to reprint the books for each year and give them to them as a gift. This way I only make them once, but can give all my kids their own copies! It a great solution to an age old dilema!!
Let me know if I can help you! www.storybookwithme.com
____@____.com
S. Farley SAHM of 5!!

I wondered about that myself. I decided to make a family ancestoral one, one for myself, and one for each of my
children. Each child would have their own special history
(Who wants to share their memory books?) With copies of special photos in each book.
Yearly photo albums are also a great help. When the children are adults and settled, they get their own "This is your life". In duplicating the photos one protects their special memories in case of fire or natural disaster.

What I did is once I got married my scrapbooks revolved around my husband and myself and then when I had my son I did a book for him and then would just pick a few pictures that involved my husband or myself or just something extra special of my son and put that in a separate album that is going to be for the family. My family scrapbook doesn't fill up nearly as fast as my sons but that's completely normal.

I don't know if there is any easy straight forward answer. My friend is big into scrapbooking and has 4 sons with #5 on the way. She makes a scrapbook for each of her sons, I think they are identical. That way when they each are grown and move away they all have a scrapbook of the family events during their growing up years. I believe she also makes a book for herself.

I will tell you what I do. I love to scrapbook, and although I don't have time to do it as often as I would like, I do enjoy it when I can. When I started, I decided that I would focus on a family scrapbook. But I also do a special "Birthday" scrapbook for each of my kids. I do a 2 page spread for each birthday. I usually use the same theme in their book that I do in the family book. It is fun to see them grow year by year. I also do a school scrapbook for each of them as well. I hope that gives you some fun ideas!

If it doesn't end up being too much work for you, I would totally suggest doing one for each of your children, and one for yourself as well. Think of the treasure it would be for each of your kids to be able to look back on their own individual life. And keeping memories for and of yourself is just as important.

I'm also a scrapbooker and have asked myself this same question. Here's what I suggest: If you have the time to put in the effort for multiple scrapbooks, then I would suggest you do it...your child will definitely appreciate it when they're older. When your daughter gets older, and I mean, about 5-6 years old, let your daughter start working on her own scrapbook...that maybe you do a few pages in...while you work on yours. It's a great way to spend time together, and teaches your child all sorts of skills: creative crafts, concentration, etc., while she's having a good time. This is what I do with my daughter, and I thought she would be too young at first, but she enjoys it and continually surprises me with her creative nature.

I have one BIG scrapbook for me and then one for each of my kids. When I was making my oldest son his I couldn't stop thinking that I wanted to remeber all of these things too. SO I started taking my double prints (or just taking more pictures at the same events) and doing a page for him and one for me. On his I would write the things that he liked most about the day. Then on mine I would write my feeling. Also in my kids books I make envelope pages for each grade and put a few papers and report cards in there from that year. I am planning on giving them there books when they get married, or buy there first home.

I would say make ones for you and your daughter... that way you'll both have them it will make things a lot easier :)

When I had my daughter I made a book for her and I kept copies of the pictures in a photo box for me. Then when my son was born I did the same. If it was a family vacation or outing I did a small photo album for each vacation and labeled them, instead of one large one. This way the kids each have their own album of their lives growing up and when it is time for them to go through my stuff and divide it between them then they can do it however they want.

Hi Lacy,
I wanted to let you know that I feel it is important for your children to have their own scrapbooks. You can do a few differnt ways, If you have questions you can call me. I have a couple different ones for them. As for a family album the only things I put in them is items that don't pertain directly to them, Adults birthddays, barbaque etc. I am a Creative Memories Consulant, so if you need any help or suggestions I am here to help you. Sounds like you are a Scrapbooker for life, way to go.

I have exactly the same situation! I have 4 photo albums from growing up. My mom made them for each of us (there are 4 of us). My husband and I were discussing what to do about photo albums, and we decided to make a special baby book for each child (so far we only have our 5 month old son), and a family photo album for everyone to share. Less work for me, and we still have all the photos!

I think it depends on how much time you have. I am working on one for each of my little boys and I want to do a family one as well, but haven't gotten around to it yet. My 4 year old loves to look at his and see himself growing up. I have found it is harder doing 2 at the same time though, but i figured I started it for one and now i need to continue so it is a good thought thinking about the future. If you plan to have a few more kids, it could become a big project. Just do what works for you and have fun with it!

Hi L.. I was having the same dilemna. I decided to scrap my kids' first year and then after that I am going to do birthday books for each them. Otherwise, how do you decide which pictures go into which books if there is more than one kid in it? And you don't want to be scrapping the same picture in 3 books. I also do a scrapbook for my Christmas photo cards and letter that we send out!

Good luck!

I'm not sure if you're still looking, but if you want to do online digital scrapbooking, please check out my site: www.MyPhotobookStory.com. I am a consultant with Heritage Makers.

The products are the best quality I've seen, and the templates are 100% customizalbe. Plus, it's all online - no downloading to your computer.

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Please contact me at ____@____.com for more information.

Hey L.-

My mom did the same for me and my siblings. I do a family book and my son's book. In the family book, I do events that include the whole family and pictures of the family and sometimes just pages of my boy. In his book I will do events that include him. Like Christmas and His Birthday with pictures of him. But stuff like my birthday and an Uncle's graduation I just put in the family book.

I have 3 kids of my own and have gone the route of doing a scrapbook for each of them. The reason I went this route was because in the future when they are older and move away, get married etc, i would like them to be able to take their book with them. My parents never did scrapbooks and now we have to rifle thru boxes of old pictures to get a glimpse of our childhood. It is a little more work but worth it for me.

I would make a baby book for your daughter, from birth to one year, and then do a family one from there. THe first year is so important and has so many milestones, but after that, there are more family things that happen, like trips, etc. For each kid afterwards you could do the same...I applaud you for having the energy and time to do this at all!!!!