Scrapbook Pages that Cover a Year

I have seen many scrapbookers create a year-in-review page at the end of each year. I applaud them for being able to go back through the entire year and find the photos and stories that meant the most. Personally, I am not organized enough to be able to do this. Instead, I have decided to create some year-long scrapbook pages by starting at the beginning of the year.

The concept is very simple: think of a topic or theme that occurs throughout the year that you would like on a single layout. Early in the year, create a layout on this topic, leaving space to add photos and/or journaling throughout the year. Personally, I like to wait until I have the first photo to get started. Here are some examples that I am working on.

Recently I realized that I have no photos of the front of our home in any of my scrapbooks. Although my parents still live in the home that I grew up in, most people move over the course of their lifetime. Typically, when they are moving they are too busy to scrap the house that has been their home. After driving through a town in Long Island to show my children their father's childhood home, I decided that I would take a photo of our home during each season of the year and place them all on one page.

I started with one picture and created the whole layout. Now, all I need to do each season is to take a single photo and place it on the page. Since this will be going in an album with two-page layouts, I used these same papers to create a patchwork for the opposing page. On that page, I will include random photos taken around the house and journaling. The journaling will include stories such as my embarrassment over our lack of landscaping and flowers as well as simple facts such as the address and phone number.

Here is another example of a page that will take me a year, although in this case, it is the school year.

My children bring home artwork from preschool almost every day. We used to keep it all in a box but it soon became unmanageable. As a result, we now only keep a few but we take pictures of many special ones. I decided to use AMM Timesaver Cardstock for this layout because I had some in my stash, but it would be just as easy to make my own blocks. Now, I leave the layout easily accessible and periodically add a photo, sometimes with some journaling underneath. By the end of the school year, I will have a completed page that covers a year of arts and crafts. I am making a similar page for my older son, but his page will also include penmanship and coloring, so we can see how they develop over time.

Here are some other suggestions for layout themes that can cover a year:

• Celebrations or school celebrations
• Baby - photos of a baby each month for a year, perhaps next to the same toy to see growth as well as development
• Garden - planting, watering, growing, eating; or the crops for each season
• Favorites - your child's favorite food, book, or toy, as children can be fickle and change their favorites constantly. Choose a favorite topic and scrap it monthly or seasonally on the same page. For an older child or adult, try favorite songs, books, or restaurants.
• Monthly - one photo or story of a memorable event for each month. (This is ideal for people who don't get much opportunity to scrap.)

The key to completing these pages is to get started early and to keep them accessible so it is easy to add the photos throughout the year. When the year ends, your year in review will already be complete.

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