I love giving gifts to family and friends that are unique and, often times, something I have created. While I have dozens of ideas for hand-crafted gifts, one of my most favorite gifts to give is a tribute album. Tribute albums are scrapbooks that feature the thoughts and memories, as well as photos, of the people close to that particular person. This special type of album is a gift that is truly priceless.
Steps for creating the tribute album:
Decide who the tribute album is for. Some ideas are: your spouse, parents, siblings, or other relatives, your child, a special teacher, friends, co-worker or boss, etc.
Pick a theme for the album. Consider the likes and dislikes of the person you are creating a tribute for. What are their favorite colors? Favorite hobbies? If this person loves cars, you could create a car theme throughout. It is important that each page in your album be similar in some way to the other pages -- this helps the album to flow smoothly from the first page to the last.
Contact all of those close to the person you are creating the tribute for. Make a list of everyone you can think of. Call them and let them know that you are creating a tribute album for your friend or family member and that you need their help. Tell them to watch their mail as you will be sending them further details. This gives them advance notice and helps to ensure the success of your project.
Determine how you will include journaling (the thoughts and sentiments of those who are helping to fill the album). The most common way is to use a journaling square. If your family is like mine, many of the people who will be sharing in this album are not scrappers. To make this process as simple as possible for them, include a rectangle piece of cardstock which will be the place they are to record their thoughts on. Make the rectangle cardstock as big or as small as you like, however I recommend a piece that is 3" x 5". I also recommend choosing a light neutral color of cardstock, such as white, ivory, or tan.
Now is the time to write up the instructions for those who are contributing to the album. I recommend using your computer and favorite word processing program, however, handwriting and photocopying the details are perfectly acceptable. Be as detailed as possible in your instructions. Be sure to state what you are doing, and then ask them to share their thoughts and memories of the person being honored. It is often useful to include journaling prompts, such as "What is your best memories of ________?" or "How has your life been blessed by _______?" Ask them to write these things on the card that you provide.
I suggest recommending your contributors in the instructions to use an acid-free, achival quality pen. Pens such as these are not hard to aquire -- most discount stores sell archival safe pens in their usual office supply area. If you are able, you may wish to purchase enough pens for each person to use and provide them with a pen. This makes the journaling task much easier for everyone and ensures that the correct type of pen is used.
There are few others things you may wish to include in your instructions to each person. You may wish for them to provide a favorite photo or two. You may also wish to provide more detailed instructions about their journaling. For example, you might want to have them only write the journaling by hand, no computer journaling allowed. Or you may be okay with computer journaling. The choice is yours.
One thing that ensure that your contributors send their card back is a self-addressed stamped envelope. This is a relatively easy way of making sure that you get them all back. Speaking of returns, be sure to give them a deadline!
After you have receive the journaling blocks back, match each one up with a photo or two that can be placed together on a page. If you live local to your contributors, in some cases you may wish to take snapshots of each person who returns completes a journaling block, specifically for the album. If you are doing an album for a teacher, consider making handprints of all the students.
Now the real fun -- create the album using the same techniques that you use for you own scrapbook layouts. It is that easy!
About the Author:
Brandie is a wife and homeschooling mom to three children, who also works fulltime from her home designing custom scrapbook albums and teaching scrapbook classes. For more information, visit: http://www.brandievdesigns.4t.com
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This site was last updated on December 31 1969 17:00:00.
