Scrapbooks by Sarah Nicholson
As we near the end of the school holidays I’m wondering if summer scrapbooks are still a “thing”?
I used to enjoy collecting tickets, stickers, tourist
leaflets and other paraphernalia with my children to document the fun we had
over the six weeks creating a permanent keepsake.
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| A collage of summer scrap! |
Once or twice, there were competitions at school for the “best” scrapbook after the holidays, but as with most of these things it is impossible for all parents to compete especially with the families who jet off on lavish foreign holidays and generally have more disposable income for more exciting activities.
It’s not a level playing field when the only excitement you have to write about is … the local playing field!
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/w9ned/3883245679/ |
And yet making a scrapbook, as the name suggests, can be a very inexpensive activity. It is just a patchwork of ephemera.
When I was a very small child, I had several scrapbooks
which I filled with random pictures cut out of magazines and the latest Avon
catalogue. It is an eclectic mix with no discernible narrative although I might
have made up a story in my head at the time.
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| Maybe the first book I ever produced? |
My eldest son is a sports journalist and quite early in his
career I got excited and immensely proud seeing his byline in print. I saved a
stack of newspapers, bought him a scrapbook, and told him to stick the articles
in.
Of course, he DIDN’T!
So last time I visited him I brought them all home with me, cut
out the relevant bits and even filed them in date order. However even I lost
interest and never got around to the gluing bit of the operation. I’m hoping
writing this might spur me on to complete my summer project!
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| words as well as pictures |
Thankfully he hasn’t saved any printed articles for a long time, most of his work is digital now. I’m sure there must be a way to produce a digital scrapbook, in much the same way as we produce digital photo albums … that we then get printed.
Because at the end of the day there is something special
about having something to hold in your hand. A keepsake, a reminder of what you
have done and achieved, whether in the six week summer holiday or part of your career..
Now where did I put
my glue stick?
Comments
I'm sure there are ways to produce a digital scrapbook. Recently my brother Paul showed me one that one of his sons had produced for him using such a site. It was all about his love of birdwatching, photos and descriptions that Paul had made and collected in the course of his lifetime observations. It was beautiful.
One of my sons was obsessed with bridges when he was about 4 or 5 - I really thought he was destined to become a civil enginee, only he discovered computers - and we filled a whole scrapbook with pictures of various bridges from magazines etc. I had thought he must be unique in being interested in this kind of thing until I happened to be chatting to someone at a work meeting who said she would be going home afterwards to get on with her young son's model of the Thames Flood Barrier!