Whether you child is a toddler, pre-schooler, or kindergardener,an ABC 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 2nd 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 used a 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!

Scrapbooking is all about memories. Well, favorite foods can have some great memories! Whether the foods are yours or your kids, make a scrapbook layout about them so you'll remember in years to come! You might not think right now that there is much to remember, but in years down the road, they are guaranteed to bring a couple good laughs!My grand daughter was 2-3 years old and she had her favorite foods and of course I had to document them! Her scrapbook would not be complete without these! This is a case when a scrapbook layout doesn't need any journaling - the memory is there, just not much to say about it but a picture holds a 1,000 memories! This way, you only have to do one scrapbook layout, instead of 1,000 words!!!

I Love My Chips!At 2 years old, she loved sour cream and onion potatoe chips! The bag was nearly as tall as she was! I used a couple shots of her with the bag of chips. Then I cut the front portion of a bag of her favorite chips and glued it onto cardstock, then glued that onto the back ground page. I did this for the sake of protection from the acid - I have no idea if the bag is acid free or not, so I just did it this way to help the unknown. Each photo is matted on cardstock so the actual photo never touches the bag. I used 1/4:" letterpunch for the letters.

Peanut Butter PrincessShe loved PB! So it was hilarous when she got ahold of the near empty jar and took her spoon and chowed-down! I used the same colors, blue and red, as in the jar label. Took the label off the jar and mounted it on cardstock and then on the background page. The letters are 1,1/4" die cut letter punches. Photos are doubled matted. The border is made with strips cut with a Coluzzle Template.

You Make 'Um, I Eat 'Um!

She didn't like the cereal by itself, but she did like the cookie bars you make from the Rice Cripsies. So one day when I was making them with her, I just let her eat off the mixing spoon! Then I cut the front out of the box, and the recipe for the cookie bars from the side. I mounted the front of the box on the layout and added the recipe (matted) by thread. I used eyelets on the recipe card and kind of "hung" it from the box front. That way she will always have that recipe! Photos are matted on cardstock.

All these scrapbook layouts are quick, easy and inexpensive. Use your own judgement about the acid free issues of the packages you use.

Scrapbook embellishments and creations are often seen but not used!Look around! Find them! Use them! Embellishments for your scrapbook layouts and pages are a fun way to scrap and add alot of dimension and character to the layout. But you don't have to spend alot of money for something unusual.

Just because it was not purchased in the scrapbook department, doesn't mean it can't end up on your scrapbook layout!! Pull out your imagination and see what one-of-a kind scrapping creations you can create to make your scrapbook layouts and page spreads the most unique and talked about layouts in town - and for sure the generations to come! Just seeing what you used as in your scrapbooks and albums will create a new memory of you for those looking at your albums.

Look around the house! Look in your junk drawer! The craft room, sewing room, kitchen or the work bench in the garage are all great places for finding things to use. We've all used the usual, ribbons, trims, buttons, snaps, and other "sewing" related items; beads and jewlery makings and the like. Even clay! Keep scrapbooking in mind while you shop yard sales - you'll be amazed at what you can find there!

BUT.......WAIT......DON'T STOP THERE!!!!

Here is a list of items that you can use - they are free and easy to obtian. I have not used all of them all, but most I have and it is pretty cool to create with these things.

But I would also like to hear from you guys about unusual things that you have used as emellishments in your scrapbook layouts. Especially the items that didn't cost anything, that are found around the house and such. Share your ideas as a comment here so we can all get that "Oh, cool! I never thought of that before" feeling that will throw us into scrapping mode immediately!!

Rings from soda cans: (we used to call them "pop tops" as back in the old days, the ring used to pull all the way off. Now, they just fold up inside!) Anyway, these little gems make great embellishments. Just bend the ring back and forth until it breaks off. I have used these rings for a clasp on an envelope, for an embellishment on a tag and as the "loop" part of a tie effect.

The square, plastic bread clips: - the ones that keep the bread bag closed - these come in a variety of colors. Just add a sticker, add some glitter. Add a 3-D flower embellishment. Then you just clip it on the edge of something, or if you have a tag, clip it on to the hanging strings. Hang it from a ribbon

Party favors or cake decorations: Depending on the thickness of the item, often these little plastic items can be used in a scrapbook layout. At my daughter's baby shower, there were little ring kind of thingys on the cake, I used those in the layout. My DIL's baby shower there was shiney, confetti decorations - little horses, bottles, pacifier scattered on the tables. I grabbed a couple handfulls at clean up time, and added those to a shaker box in a layout. These can also just be glued on! I used the napkins and party hats - cut out the theme of the party out and to make die cuts. Acid free is something you can pay attention to, but know that with page protectors and acid free cardstock, it is possible to protect the layout.

Aluminum foil: heavy duty kind. Just crinkle it up as you want and rub ink over the crinkles to add dimension and color! Makes a great frame for a masculine scrapbook layout!

Old credit cards, membership cards, school ID's and more: Ones that are no longer valid! Put credit cards on a shopping theme layout. A great embellishment for a "money learning" theme for teenagers. How about an expired AAA card for a "first driving" theme or a "just got my drivers license" theme? These are all layouts that are common in scrapbooks so an expired card is a great embellishment. Student ID's from school are one of the best memory catchers you can have!

Washers, thin nuts, small chains, old keys, paper clips, and other "hardware" items are great embellishments! Go to your local hardware store! They have buckets and bins full of little things like this that you could use on your layouts! This is a graet way to embellish a masculine themed layout.

And with the various holidays coming up, don't forget to keep an eye out for things depicting that holiday! Holiday decorations make the perfect scrapbook embellishments! And since we scrapbook all year round, what you save at Christmas time this year, will be available for ideas when you do your Christmas layout in June! Phrase banners are great! Use just the M from the Merry Christmas banner on the layout and then with gel pens, write "erry Christmas". The H from the Halloween banner and then write "alloween". If you have a banner from a birthday - often there is the number of the birthday . Instead of saying something like "I'm 5" , use the number fromt he banner on the background paper and they add photos and such. Any viewer will know it's a 5th birthday!

Use childhood things that you thought they were just for kids. They are for scrapbookers too! Free Paper Dolls can give you a fantastic embellishment! Print it out, color it and adhere it! How easy is that! Use coloring book pages for patterns for paper piecing. Just cut out the image and use it as a pattern to trace onto cardstock or vellum!

And of course, look online - there are so many places that have FREE offers - stickers, die cuts, paper piecing patterns . It's out there, you just have to look for it! Get on groups and do swaps - swap what you have for something you want that someone else has! This is quite a popular transaction in scrapbooking.

The art of scrapbooking is an endless opportunity to preserve memories for generations to come. Scrapbooking is easy, fun and so rewarding. It is for all ages, all types and every event, opportunity or part in life you can think of. All it requires is your imagination, a little creativity and some paper. How much you spend on your hobby is up to you. But just know, you don't have to spend alot in order to create a most fantastic memory album. You have it, you just have to use it!

On this photo you see here - I used a bottle cap from the bottles of root beer that were served at the western themed wedding, along with pieces of straw and pieces from the boutinier!

As a 12 year veteran scrapbooker, I think that srapbooking is the best way to preserve your memories. Photos aren't they only memory keeper...there is journaling about the memory, your feelings and the event. There is embellishments to match the event or memory and will add to the memory.

Anyone can scrapbook. You don't have to have an education or degree. My 7 year old grand daughter started scrapping with me at the age of 3 and loves looking back on her own scrapbooks that she has created on her own.

You don't have to have alot of money - scrapbook things are so inexpensive now and if you throw in things that you can use that you don't even have to buy - just have around the house or can pick up at places you wouldn't think have scrapbook supplies. The possibilities of collecting items to use scrapboking are only limited to your own imagination.

You don't need a bunch of spare time. Some layouts can take only minutes. If you have 30 extra minutes at the end of the day or on your lunch hour - you can scrapbook!

Whether you scrap alone or at a crop party - you set your own time limits, budget, themes, and anything else you want for preserving your memories for generations to come.