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Things To Consider When Making A Scrapbook For Mother's Day

As Mother's Day comes around many scrapbookers are looking to make a scrapbook layout - but for what purpose? Here are three things you should think about when considering a project like this.

1. Your Mom. Dedicate a scrapbook or layout to your Mother. Whether large or small, it doesn't matter.

2. Your daughter. Scrapbooks get passed down to daughters. I'm not sure why. If you are fortunate enough to have a daughter, consider including one page in the scrapbook that is exclusively for her that features something you did together in the past.

3. Yourself. Include memories of moments you spent with your mom, daughter or even both.

If your mom is into scrapbooking, you might want to consider making a layout that she can attach to her own scrapbook. Feature moments or things that you did together within the year, or an event from your joint past. Choose a simple layout using colors to harmonize with the pictures you have. The relationship between Mother and Daughter can sometimes be quite challenging, so if you find yourself struggling to find the right words you can use something like a rub on to display your feelings, or find a poem or a favorite quotation on quotegarden.com (search for 'mothers') that sums up your relationship. One of my favorites is from Milton Berle 'If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?'

My mother and I have always had fun singing, so the best method for me to design a layout for her is to visualize one line from a song. She is also particularly fond of butterflies, so it won't be difficult to create just the right theme for her, and I enjoy creating colorful butterflies and flowers,  with the Garden Delight or Patterned Bug stamps from Inkadinkadoo. I usually stamp and emboss these onto colored card and cut them out,  but recently I've been experimenting with the Suakura embossing glaze pens, a fabulous way to make butterflies almost as colorful as the real thing. My latest page was made from the saying 'Friends are Flowers in Nature's Garden' because I found we had lots of small pictures of our friends. I cut these into circles and made them the center of flowers. It was a two page layout with small 3D flowers along the lower border and stamped bugs and birds flitting among the blooms. A great big tag with the name of each friend finished off the page, tied with a toning ribbon. Flowers are always a safe theme for Mother's Day, but try to make it as personal as possible by choosing her favorite flower, her favorite animal or at least her favorite color.

If your mother is not into scrapbooking, you can also create an entire scrapbook for her, but that doesn't mean you have to do everything on your own. If you can get your brothers or sisters to join it, it would be a great project for all of you. If not, and you have children, let them add what 'Grandma' means to them. It isn't often that the kids have this kind of opportunity. Each one can contribute, if not a page, a picture and tag that says something about what 'Mother' or 'Grandmother' means to them. One of the best things about scrapbooks is that everything is on the same level and it is the memories and personality that counts.

When choosing a theme for the whole scrapbook, how about a word. 'Busy' or 'Creative' would be just right for my Mom, or a simple color scheme of blues and lilacs; you can try looking for themed papers that can be associated with any of your mom's interests. A friend of mine has a mother who has collected sheep all her life; cuddly sheep, china sheep, glass sheep, every kind of sheep, so when they put together a scrapbook for her 60th birthday, guess what was the theme! In the past I've created an album with a pineapple theme and another for a friend who was seriously into rabbits. Both really enjoyed their personalized scrapbooks, but if there is nothing personal you can think of, try to get inspiration from your Mother's house. Her choice of decor should give you some clues.

For a whole scrapbook you will need

• 1 album with page protectors

• 20 good quality pieces of scrapbooking paper/card to use as a background. It's best to choose background paper that comes in sets, or to make your own, using card, stamps and Ranger Distress Inks. You can see how it's done in our YouTube video Ranger Distress Ink Ideas - just go to youtube and search for Dinglefootdotcom.

• Double sided tape

• 6 or more pages of contrasting papers. You can cut border, mattes and tags from these sheets.

• Assorted brads, stamps and embellishments, for example

• • Amy Butler Fabric Covered Brads ~ K & Company -- use these to attach tags and journalling papers

  • Amy Butler Belle Chipboard Alphabet - K & Company - use these to make heading for some pages

  • 20 Blossoms 12" x 12" Template ~ Hot Off the Press - use this template to create flower embellishments to add to your pages

  • some Tim Holz Distress Ink pads  - use to create patterns on plain background pages or to stamp and emboss with

• A pen to write your journalling with, unless you plan to do this on a computer.

• Other suggestions would include

• • and ink pad and embossing powder (gold and silver go with everything)

  • a paper punch to create cut outs on border or frames

  • some frames to place over your pictures

  • vellum to create focus on your pages

  • some mattes to place under other pictures

  • ribbon

  • some rubber stamps

  • Scrapbooking is a great venue for recycling broken things, broken earrings, left over buttons can all be glued in to pages to make delightful embellishments.

When adding pictures, try to pick at least one for every memorable event. Look for photographs that can tell a story about your mom's life (ask friends and relatives if necessary) or you can just focus on her life with you. You can create an effective two page layout with just one picture on one page and some journalling on the other, but it can be boring if the whole album is the same. Try to vary the layouts and the shapes of the pictures so your pages don't all look the same, but remember there is no right or wrong. The only opinions that count are yours and your mom's.

If you are pressed for time and don't have enough to make a scrapbook, get your mom the closest thing to one, an introduction to scrapbooking as a hobby. A good book, an album to start with and a scrapbooking gift basket may be just the thing to get her started, and who knows what you might get, next year.

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