How To Make a Halloween Scrapbook for Your Kids

One of the items that comes out of the “fall decor” box every year is a Halloween Scrapbook I made for my kids one year (during one of my scrapbooking-obsessed years).

Here’s the cover:

I made it in a spiral-bound notebook (filled with heavy art paper) that I bought at Aaron Bros. I didn’t use plastic covering because I love the textile feel of paper and photos, but in retrospect (or if I were to do it over again), I’d probably cover it afterall (or use a traditional scrapbook with plastic page covers), because I had no idea how much this particular scrapbook would get so manhandled over the years! (In fact, of all the scrapbooks I’ve done for my kids, I think this is their favorite!)

Each double-page spread is devoted to one child, per year. On the right side is a set of three photos, the child’s age that year, and the date. (For the photos, I tried to have one headshot, then two full-body shots if I had them. For the date, I used a stencil and colored pens.)

On the left side is a page of thematic scrapbook paper, then my own handwriting where I tell a story about how they picked the costume, or a funny story about the costume, or trick-or-treating in it, or who we went with, or whatever.

Here’s one of Ricky’s early pages. This is the right side of the page:

And left page:

Here are some more pages I love: Continue reading

Instagrams: Very Cool App

First Day of School on The Oval, University of Montana -- Instagram by R. Sanchez

All right, I’m getting jealous of the iPhone now.

And no, not for its many apps, its smooth interface, its lovely graphics, or its powerhouse operating system – no, I’m jealous because one app in particular: Instagram.

Instagram is a photo-taking app that allows users to immediately apply filters to the photos and makes them look almost professional every time. Even folks who don’t know the first thing about photography can look like Ansel Adams right off the bat.

I showed off Ricky’s moody Instagram of the band and football players bursting out of the tunnel during the first football game here (and he hates taking photos, but this one was amazing). And my favorite blogger The Pioneer Woman even did a cute “Instagram Life in Rhymes” on her blog one day. The filters add a smoky, gritty, rich-colored layer to photos that give them an extra layer of feeling. Gah. I … just … want.Continue reading