Dear Scrappy,

I am a thrower married to a pack rat.  Now my children are showing signs of inheriting their father¹s bad habits.  On every vacation we take and every event we attend, they want to save every brochure, every ticket stub, every thing!  What am I to do? 

Buried in Minnesota

P.S.  I admit I like to keep a lot of their school papers, baby memorabilia, birthday cards and every cute thing they¹ve ever made, but that's different!

Scrappy says:

Have you heard of pocket pages?

Ahh, pocket pages. The solution to having it all and keeping it -- safe in your scrapbooks.  Especially effective for travel and school days albums, the pocket page helps organize bulky memorabilia along with your photos of the subject and/or event.

These handy pages are a major component of the albums I put together from our vacation to the East Coast (14 days, 14 states, 14 rolls of film and plenty of pocket pages equals 96 pages in two 12 x 12 albums!) From Lincoln's Tomb to Andy Griffith¹s hometown to the Smithsonian Institute and back, our trip is recorded not only in photos we took, but by the brochures and interesting memorabilia we picked up along the way.  Safely tucked away in handy pockets and protected in the albums, these interesting tidbits are fun to pull out and read over again -- and have come in handy for school reports.

Pocket pages can be as simple as adhering a half sheet of cardstock to a full sheet or as elaborate as hand-sewing a see-through piece of specialty paper to a heavier base. 

Depending on your theme or the weight of the items being stored, the choice is yours. Many companies make templates for pockets and envelopes, but you can do it yourself easily by simply adhering a half size sheet of paper (or whatever size you'd like) to a full sheet of paper.  If you have 12 x 15 paper, simply fold up the bottom three inches and adhere the two sides -- top heavy items won't sit well in this size pocket, but your page protector will hold lighter items in place.

When making my own vellum envelopes, I cheat and simply unfold a regular envelope and use it as a template and then fold it back up with the vellum piece on top.

Other types of pockets:

• Cardstock:  This is best for thicker brochures and bulkier items. Use an adhesive that is meant to stick.  Foam tape (like what is used for shaker boxes) is great because it expands the pocket -- a too-tight pocket can easily tear.  For smaller brochures and single sheets of paper, eyelets, brads and even a good adhesive will do the trick.
  
• Vellum:  This is best for very lightweight items or photos.  Clearly, the beauty of this pocket is that you can still see the item even when it is tucked inside.    Best methods of attaching a vellum pocket is by sewing it  on, using small brads and eyelets or using an adhesive made especially for vellum such as the Scotch Vellum Adhesive by 3M.
  
• Fabric:  Literally sew or attach with other adhesive.  Use a pocket from an old pair of jeans or recreate one from a scrap of fabric.  Great for boy or guy pages.
  
• Shaped: Tiny items can be displayed in little pockets shaped like hearts or purses.  There are templates available or you can get creative and make your own.

The outside of the pockets can be embellished with a descriptive label, stickers, fibers, charms or if you wish the pocket to blend in with the rest of the page, use photos.

Now that you've made your pocket, what can you store inside?  Just about anything!  From snips of hair and other baby memorabilia to school papers to old documents (that you wouldn't want to adhere to your page, anyway, for archival safety!), a pocket is a perfect solution.  Some people who scrapbook heritage photos prefer to use copies and then store the original photo in an accompanying pocket.  This works for modern-day photos, too: when you don't have room for one more photo on your spread, put them in a pocket.

Pocket pages are great for storing treasures of all types and sizes in your scrapbook albums. The extra benefit is by including removable items, your are making your albums an interactive experience for all who look through them.