Sibling Revelry

Last month, my friend Samantha received the greatest Christmas gift. Her dream of adopting a second child was finally realized. The process was a long, heart-wrenching journey for her and her family but, of course, the end result was completely worth the effort.

Sam is in a scrapbooking group with me and eight other women. Because we were so excited for her, we wanted to do something special to help commemorate this event. We knew she was already working on an album of her own, so we decided to go a different direction with our gift. We tossed around a lot of ideas but they eventually came back to her daughter, Brooke. Brooke is a sweet little girl who has been the center of her parent's life for the past four years. While she is excited to be a big sister, we knew she would have a hard time taking it all in. So we decided to make an album for her. Making an album is a great way to help make a new sibling feel more at ease with the transition to sisterhood and to make her feel like she is part of the experience.

We chose the theme, "I love being a big sister because..." Each person filled in the blank and left a spot for a 4" x 4" photo to be added by Sam and Brooke.

Layouts by Cheryl Overton and Leslie Herbert

Here are some theme ideas:

• Waiting for Baby (with the older sibling helping to make the album)
• The Story of Me and My Sister
• Why Being a Big Sister Is Important
• Things I Can Teach My Baby Sister
• Advice for My Baby Sister
• Special Moments (candid shots of them together)
• Similarities/Differences
• Guess How Much I Love You?
• I Am Special Because...

After choosing the theme of your album, you need to choose the size and format. We chose to make the album 6" x 6". We wanted it to be small enough for her to be able to hold it and to carry it around with her. We also chose to use thick page protectors that can be sewn shut once the pictures are added, so that the pages cannot be ripped or damaged.

Layouts by Chris Olson and Jennifer Sizemore

Here are more ideas for types of albums:

• Make a small flip album that can be attached together with a binder ring.
• Making a set of trading cards with the appropriate stats.
• Make an accordion album so that all of the pages can be seen at once.
• Make an interactive peek-a-boo album where photos can be hidden under flaps that she can lift up.
• Instead of using page protectors, laminate the pages.
• Make an album out of fabric. You can sew on a transparent pocket which will allow for adding photos to the page.

Keep in mind when creating these pages that you want to make sure that they are not too bulky and that they are not over-embellished. Too much will just be a distraction to the page and will be something else to get damaged if the book is handled a lot.

Layout by Karen Bukovan

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