Scrapbooking with Kids

From Jill at scrapbook.com

Scrapbooking is a great way to spend time with your children, share your favorite hobby, and even reinforce skills learned in school without them realizing it. And, really, what kid doesn’t like cutting up paper, peeling off stickers, or drawing pictures? Try channeling some of your child’s creative energy into scrapbooking. Here’s how:

Choose a kid-friendly album theme. Just like adults, children will enjoy making layouts about the people and things they love such as their family, friends, a vacation, holidays, etc. If an album is a little ambitious for your young child, start with one of these great kids crafts ideas using your scrapbook supplies. Visit the Kids Crafts section of our Superstore for easy project kits, too.

Create boundaries.  Let children work with smaller pages such as6” x 6” or 8” x 8”. Specialty albums such as tag books or mini-albums are also a great starting point for children. Smaller spaces and more finite albums won’t seem so intimidating. Likewise, it can be overwhelming to a child if you let them choose supplies from your entire scrapbooking collection. Set out a couple of embellishments and paper choices that work well with the photos or theme they’ve chosen and let them decide which supplies they want to use. Themed kits purchased especially for the child are a great way to encourage a sense of ownership over their work.

Set aside basic tools and supplies of their own to use. Go through your supplies and set out things that would be of interest to your child and help them build their own supply stash. Punches,stamps and stickers are always a home run!

Teach basic design principles. Show them how to mat a picture, how to look at the picture to pick color schemes, and the importance of adding a title and journaling to each layout.

Allow creative freedom. Let your child decide which pictures they would like to scrap. Give them the option of choosing a color scheme, what embellishments they would like to use, and whether or not to mat a photo. They may not make a page just like you would, but they’ll love the process of creating “like you”.

Work for short periods of time. The younger the child, the shorter they will be able to sit and work on a project. Usually when working with four and five year olds, a project will take only 10-15 minutes. Older children can handle longer periods. Determine what works best for you and your child.

Help when asked. Remember, they don’t need to do it the same way you do it! Let them enjoy experimenting!

Regardless of the details, the result of scrapbooking together will be precious “together time” for you and your child and a wonderful book that you can enjoy together. It will show the things that they love combined with their own sense of taste and style. Together, you will create something that you both can be proud of and that will last forever.
For scrapbooking supplies and inspiration visit scrapbook.com