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Scrapbooking for a Club or Group
As scrapbooking continues to gain popularity, even non-scrapbookers are aware that it’s a great way to cherish and preserve memories. You’ve probably gotten questions already from friends who know you scrapbook, ranging from casual curiosity (such as “How do you find the time?”) to “Would you help me get started?” If you’re part of a group or community, such as a school, church, or club, chances are you might be asked to help create a group scrapbook. It can be a lot of fun to do, and can help bring the group even closer together.
Scrapbooking as a Team
If there’s a lot of enthusiasm about creating a scrapbook for your group, you’ll probably have plenty of eager friends who want to jump right in with you. If you’re the only experienced scrapbooker, you might be looked up to as the leader, or perhaps you’ll sharing this position with a few friends who scrapbook, too. You might feel a little stressed by this, but being a scrapping mentor is both fun and rewarding. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Remember that non-scrapbookers have no idea what’s new, hot, or trendy in the scrapbooking world. What you got bored with months ago might seem really cool to them, and that’s okay! This might even be a plus, because you can use old supplies you’d never otherwise use. What’s old to you will be new to them.
- To begin with, you might want to establish a budget, or have everyone pitch in a few dollars and then go shopping together. Know how much you’re willing to contribute to the group’s supplies. Others might assume that they can use your supplies, but you know how expensive scrapbooking can be.
- If you’re worried about all of the pages in the album coordinating, try starting off with coordinating papers and embellishments. Even then, you’ll end up seeing people’s personal style on each individual page. It’s one of the unique things about a group effort album that shows how everyone contributed a part.
 A scrapbook for a group is going to contain different pages than a family or personal scrapbook. It will probably be more event-oriented, not having as many “moments” pages as you might be used to. It’s also an opportunity to include some unique pages, however. Here are some ideas:
- A sign-in or “roll call” page with pictures and a little bit of info on each person in the group.
- A “memorable quotes” page. Pass this around to the group (even those not working on the scrapbook) and let them write down their favorite quotes in their own handwriting.
- Create “autograph” pages like in your high school yearbook and let everyone leave their name and a message in their own handwriting.
Dividing the Work
With many people all working on the same album, it can get confusing—what photos have been scrapped, how many pages have been made, what order they should go in. The number one rule here is to not stress. The most important thing is not the end result but the experience. Your main concern should be that everyone has fun.
That said, here are some rough ideas for keeping everything organized. Follow them as strictly or roughly as you’d like. You know your own group the best and can figure out what works for you.
- Start off by asking everyone for duplicates of photos that they’ve taken. You’ll probably end up with a lot of photos that you wouldn’t use for your scrapbook. Remember that not everyone is an experienced photographer, so go ahead and use imperfect photos.
- Figure out how many pages you’re aiming for, based on the amount of time you have, the size of your scrapbook, and how many people are working on the book. Are you trying to complete the whole thing in one session, or are you going to divide it up over several meetings? Make sure people know how many pages they’re doing.
- Let each participant pick the photos that he or she would like to scrapbook. If people want to work in teams, try to keep them to two or three people per page. (This might be the case especially with kids and teenagers.) Contrary to what you might expect, the more people the longer it will take to make decisions and complete the page.
- While people are working on the pages, try to figure out an idea for what order they will go in. You can go around and pencil page numbers of the backs of pages, so when everyone’s done you can put them together.
- Put a couple of people in charge of getting every member of the group involved in some way. Let them go around and take pictures with a digital camera, or have them make one of the pages suggested above that people can add to.
Reproducing Albums
If you’re creating one “main” album for your group, you’ll probably have a many people wishing that they could keep it. When an album is special to a lot of people, it’s hard to decide who gets to keep it and how it’s going to be shared. But there are some solutions to this problem. You might even want to decide how to deal with this before you start scrapping, so that you can make preparations for later sharing the album.
- If you’re keeping a scrapbook for a group that only exists for a set amount of time, such as for a child’s classroom, consider dividing up the pages at the end of the time together. Suggest that the pages be framed.
- Color-copy favorite pages, or scan and print them using your home computer. For a smaller group, you could copy and shrink each page and create mini-albums from the photocopies.
- If you have enough time, make several copies of each photo at the beginning and let people scrap the same photos multiple times. Let each person keep a page they make, and the copies can be ‘donated’ to the group’s official scrapbook.
Membership in a club, group, or community is an opportunity for many scrapbook-worthy moments. When everyone gets involved, you can have a unique and special scrapbooking experience. Share your skills and talents with your group, and you might be surprised by the pages and albums you come up with!
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