Creating a Year End Scrapbook

By Audrey Okaneko

With 2006 slowly coming to a close, I begin to think back on the year behind me. What did I do? What did I accomplish? Where did I visit?

Often, during the year, I take a few photos here and a few photos there. When I look at my photos I really don’t have enough to create a stand alone scrapbook, but I know I’d love to have the various photos included in one of my scrapbooks.

Then it hit me, why not create a “2006” scrapbook? This scrapbook can include all of my photos from 2006 that did not get into a separate scrapbook. For example, we went to the local car exhibit. It was a fun day and the cars were great. We took about a dozen photos. Not enough photos for a scrapbook of its own, but plenty to put into a “2006” scrapbook.

We attended several plays this year. I have all of the programs and ticket stubs. Again, these items are not enough to create a scrapbook on their own, but a few pages of “Plays of 2006” would hold these items wonderfully.

While I did create a scrapbook of our summer trip to the Middle East, I’ll also be adding a few pages to my “2006” scrapbook showing that the trip did take place this year.

My younger daughter is a junior in high school this year. I’ll include not only her school photo from this year, but I’ll also include a few photos of her friends and activities from this year as well.

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year. I’ll create a few pages of this wonderful event, celebrating their 50 years of marriage.

These are just some of the most memorable highlights of this past year. As I begin to go through the remainder of our photos from this year, I know I’ll be able to create pages that show the year behind us and the enjoyable times we had.

I also find that when I journal several months later, the words I choose are very different than the words I chose right after the photos were taken. My words can offer another perspective on the photos taken.

Consider taking your unused photos from 2006 and creating a scrapbook that shows what 2006 meant to you.

Audrey Okaneko has been scrapbooking for several years. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or visited at http://www.scrapping-made-simple.com.