Do you have a drawer or cupboard overflowing with scrapbooking paper, stamps and stickers, but no time or ideas on how to put them to good use? We’ve got the answer: a simple DIY scrapbooking project that will gets the creative juices flowing, and help you celebrate your milestones and events across one year of your family’s life!
12 months, your family — go for it!
If you’re anything like me, you love the idea of scrapbooking and creating pretty commemorative projects — but finding the time and space to actually commit to a DIY project like this is near impossible. That’s the beauty of the “one-year scrapbook”: The secret to success is in the preparation!
This project is all about creating a scrapbooking template to celebrate 12 months in the life of you and your family. It makes most sense to run it calendar year, from January to December, but it’s up to you regarding which month you’d like to kick off. If you follow the calendar year, it can make a wonderful Christmas gift for family members.
Materials:
At the beginning:
- 1 standard-sized scrapbook with 13 plastic sheets (most come with 10 sheets so you may need to buy some extra inserts)
- Coloured scrapbooking and craft papers
- Assorted stickers, stamps, rub-ons and glitter
- Glue
- Scissors
Each month:
- Photos representing the month
- Mementos such as brochures, ticket stubs and maps
- Assorted stickers, stamps, rub-ons and glitter
- Glue
- Scissors
Make your memories last with these 3 keepsake crafts >>
Instructions:
Set up your workspace
Ideally, a large space like the dining table works best in order to lay out all of your materials. Make sure you have enough space in front of you to work on two scrapbooking sheets at a time.
Make notes
Write a list of the 12 months in the year and jot down notes beside each month, including special dates and milestones. Think birthdays, anniversaries, seasonal holidays, planned vacations, social gatherings, work milestones and schooling activities. Then create your first scrapbook page by crafting the title page. It can be as simple or as super-styled as you like, with or without photos.
Create layouts
Once the title page is done, lay out two pieces of scrapbooking paper side by side — these two pages will represent January. Play around with layouts, coloured paper, stickers and lettering until you’re happy with how these pages look. You have now created the template for your first month! Note: This is the basic template and the final result will be much more detailed once you add photos, mementos and stickers etc.
Create pages for the year
Repeat this process for each month of the year. The idea is to create 12 basic, double-page templates (24 pages total) representing each month in one sitting. This way, updating your scrapbook becomes a quick and fun 10-minute project at the end of each month, rather than an arduous full-day task you need to squeeze into an already-packed schedule. Try to match your paper and designs up loosely with your dates and milestones — for instance, use Christmas-themed paper or colours for December, or romantic designs for the month of your wedding anniversary. If you have kids, get them involved — including their little designs and drawings will only add to the scrapbook in years to come!
Ready to go
At this point, if you are planning ahead, you can pop your scrapbook full of templates and your scrapbooking supplies away and wait until you’re ready to decorate each page. Otherwise, if you’re ready to fill in one (or more) months that have already passed, you can start to fill in the blanks with photos and other mementos, such as brochures, ticket stubs and maps.
Tip: If finding the time is an issue, an effective way to fill your scrapbook is to set aside an hour or two every three months to fill in pages for the previous quarter. Download around 20-25 photos that represent the last three months to your USB and get them printed next time you’re at the shopping centre, or online via sites like Snapfish, then get crafting!
The end result
The wonderful thing about this project is that is allows you to create something of a “time capsule” celebrating 12 months in your life and it doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to create. Even if nothing all that exciting happens during that year — no big promotions at work, no pregnancy announcements, no fabulous overseas holidays — it’s still worth commemorating how you and your family spent your time. Sometimes it’s those smaller, less celebrated moments (like your toddler’s first lick of ice cream, or the first time your puppy swims at the beach) that are so much fun to reminisce about years down the track. And when it’s all done and dusted, you can start again for next year!
More craft ideas
DIY projects you can create from recycled materials
3 Toddler crafts you can make right now
Craft projects to dress up a baby’s room
Leave a Comment