Scrapbooking

Creatively Keeping Track of Baby's First Year

By Shel Franco

Baby's first year of life is packed with wonder. From smiles to crawling, the excitement is nearly constant. While you may be filling in the blanks of a baby book, wouldn't it be nice to have a unique account of your child's first year?

When Karen Webster of Provo, Utah, was invited to a National Scrapbook Day workshop, she wasn't sure what to expect. The mother of a 6-month-old, Webster was intrigued by organizing piles of photographs she had accumulated since the baby's birth. "More than anything, I just wanted to get out of the house," she says.

Webster soon developed an obsession with scrapbooking, continuing to schedule time twice a month to work on her book. By the time her baby celebrated his first birthday, Webster had a heartfelt collection of photos, poems and journal entries attractively arranged in a scrapbook. As a bonus, the time she spent creating the book gave her a chance to relax and a feeling of self-accomplishment.

The nation is abuzz with scrapbooking. According to Marilyn Conner, owner of Southern Splash Scrapbook Supply, in Weslaco, Texas, finding supplies is as easy as logging onto the Internet or taking a drive to Wal-Mart. Once you're there, you'll want to find an album, paper, pens and stickers.

Sounds simple enough. But before you head out the door, you might want to know a little bit about two words: acid free.

"Acid free is important to prevent deterioration and damage to photos and memorabilia in the future," says Lois Benham, the owner of Scrapbooks! The Scrapbook Superstore, in Lima, Ohio.

The damage that Benham is talking about includes photos developing brown splotches and pictures fading or turning yellow over time. "I have one old photo with writing on the back," Benham says. "The ink spread through the paper and completely destroyed a nickel-sized area of the photo, right on the girl's face."

"Most people put a lot of hard work into their albums and would like to see them last for more than a few years," says Kathryn Schein, owner of the Internet scrapbooking site Scrap Happy. "That can be accomplished quite easily by taking just a little care in selecting the materials which you work with."

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