Leaving Legacies through Scrapbooking

Leaving Legacies through Scrapbooking Written by Cyn D Pagliolo Scrapbooking is more than just a picture album; it's a way to tell your story through photographs and journaling. You may not realize it but your scrapbook is a legacy left for those who follow you. What is a legacy other than something meaningful passed down from person to person. The scrapbook is something you loved enough to add your own special touch. Those special stories are your history for future descendants. Scrap the little things that happen in life as well as those big events. Those little things are what make our day-to-day life enjoyable and worth living. You know the old saying, "Stop and smell the roses once in a while," well, it's the same for scrapbooking. Sometimes even scrapping about a bouquet of flowers you have received or a day you went to pick wildflowers is a nice element to your life's book. Always remember to scrap the good along with the bad. As life is not just full of the good things, bad days happen to everyone and those stories should be shared as well. Everyone wants some sort of legacy left behind of the life they have played out. A wonderful way to accomplish this is with a scrapbook all about you, which includes all those small happenings that do occur daily. As scrappers we tend to leave ourselves out of the pictures, therefore leaving us out of the stories. Our histories are just as important as those we journal about. For our history to be left, we scrappers really need to focus on just one book being about ourselves. This way we can truly leave our own history in our own words for those loved ones later to view. Begin this special book as you embarked in life, the day of your birth. What a better way to start your history than to have an adorable baby page. An incredible addition to this particular layout would be things that happened the year of your arrival. Examples you could use: who was President of the United States that year, the cost of living, the number one music group, your parent's jobs at the time, and so on. Then continue on throughout your childhood, teen years, and adulthood. Anything of importance to you such as birthdays, school days, engagements, weddings, and babies, any awards you may have received should be included. Get in front of the camera not behind one. Take time to have a fun photo shoot. A friend or family member would love to do this with you! Get inspired! Use the imagination and just have a good old time with the camera. Perhaps you could choose a favorite place of yours that would add extra charm to your story. Remember back to earlier days when you truly loved having your picture taken - bring that back and have a blast. Constructing those captured moments, used just for your book, will be one of the best times you will have in life. Journaling about this fun time will be easy as it's fresh in your mind. Hopefully starting your story with the photo shoot might make the journaling for the rest of your book flow a bit smoother. A great tip for journaling is to always carry around diary to log in those details for future use. Creating an "About Me" scrapbook can be a scary and difficult project. The struggle of crafting this particular book will be well worth your time and trouble. Just think of the fulfillment you will receive once the album is complete. Although, an "About Me" book is never fully completed, it will be something you can keep adding to as the years go by. The pride you will feel will be something you can share with family and friends for years to come. You will be amazed at the amount of history that will be included in your book(s); it will be something for your children to cherish as well as their children. Imagine what you will accomplish! You complete one generation of family history that relatives won't have to struggle in search of, that alone should bring a smile to your face. Now that you have finished one legacy scrapbook, you can now start on the legacies that preceded you. Your "About Me" book was just one of the stepping stones needed to get you ready to place the family history together, and no longer be afraid to share your own story. Maybe now you will enjoy getting in front of the camera instead of always being the one capturing the moments of life.