A while back, I blogged about the Brownie Scrapbook project for my daughter’s Brownie troop. My friend Brenda asked me about this project earlier this week, so I thought now was a good time to show you the finished scrapbook and share some thoughts on organizing a project like this for a group of Brownies or other kiddos.
First, here are some photos of the scrapbook my daughter put together.
For this project we put together a kit for each girl. We thought it would be easier for each girl to have a kit instead of a bunch of random products to choose from. If you’ve ever been to a scrapbook class or make-and-take where there were options involved…you’ll know where I’m coming from. The fewer decisions the better—especially with a room full of first graders who have never scrapbooked before. (At least that was my take on it.)
So back to the kits. We started with a 6 x 6 Preservation Album from SEI. Then, we purchased coordinating scrapbook products such as 12 x 12 patterned paper, buttons, paper clips, binder clips, flowers, a bit of ribbon, and brads. I sorted the buttons, paper clips and brads into bowls and then transferred them into small Gladware containers. The thinking here was that it would be easier for each girl to keep track of her embellishments if they were in a little Gladware container rather than in a plastic bag which would ultimately get dumped out and spread all over the table. This part worked quite well.
Also in the little Gladware container were punched shapes like hearts, flowers, and stars. One of the pieces of patterned paper we selected had words in colored circles (see the word “run” in the photo above.) I used a circle punch to cut out the words and divvied them up between the Gladware containers / girls. This made for a cute, but super cheap embellishment. The words said things like jump, twirl, play, sing, smile, laugh, etc. (Paper was from KI Memories (I think) but I can’t find it on their website.)
For each two page layout, the girls had a journaling page and a sheet of 6 x 6 card-stock or patterned paper to use on the facing page with their photos and embellishments. We purchased extra card-stock and patterned paper and I cut them into strips, 6″ long by 1″ or so. These strips were then used as embellishments for the scrapbook…such as on the journaling page.
The scrapbooks were called “All About Me” and included ten pages of journaling on various topics such as School, Holidays and Celebrations, Friends, and so on. I printed the journaling pages for each girl ahead of time, and at the first meeting we showed the girls a completed, sample scrapbook and had them start on their journaling. We sent the journaling pages home with them to finish up, along with a list of photos to bring to the next meeting.
If you’d like to see (and use) the journaling pages, here’s a link to the Word Doc I put together. Download brownie_scrapbook_6_x_6.doc The fonts used are Futura and Bradley Hand ITC…so if you don’t have those fonts on your computer and the document looks weird…that’s why. Also, the pages are formatted to be 6″ x 6″…so I just ran 6″ x 6″ card-stock through my printer to print the pages.
The girls were first graders, and for some, the journaling was quite a bit of work. So, if you want to do this project with younger girls, I’d suggest scaling back on the number of questions per page.
As I mentioned, we had the girls do the journaling at the first meeting (finishing up at home) and then come to the second meeting with photos and their completed journaling pages. We also invited all the Brownie Mom’s to attend the second meeting and help out. (A good call…though it would have helped if I had had a few more completed scrapbooks on-hand or photo copies of some example pages. I know this is shocking (wink), but not everyone scrapbooks…like the one Dad who attended the meeting. So some extra examples would have helped show the Moms and Brownies options for using the supplies, even though there were no real rules for which supplies went where and no preset design for the inside pages.)
All in all, this was a super fun project, and the completed scrapbooks turned out really cute. I wanted to have the girls create something that was a snapshot of their life at that moment in time. I love that it includes their own handwriting and is about their whole life—not just the Brownie experience.
OK…it’s late and I have rambled on and on about this. If I’ve missed something major (aside from the name of the KI Memories paper with the words on it) let me know in the comments. And if you want to share any of your scrapbooking-with-kids-ideas—you know I’d love to hear them! Thanks. 🙂
That’s a neat idea for the brownie troop! PS: did you know you can actually save the fonts into the word document? If you go into the save options on Word (they’re under options) there’s a checkbox called “Embed fonts with document”. If you check the box, it will make the file size a little larger, but it prevents the problem of someone else not having the right fonts and the layout getting all messed up 🙂
Thanks for sharing your Brownie Project. I have saved the info, as I am a Clover Kids Leader (K-3 4-H club) and usually have the kids scrap once a year. This will make that day much easier.
Love, love, love it! My dd is starting Brownies this month and I am definitely going to share this idea with the troop leader. Thansk so much for the ideas and download.
Aby this is one of the coolest Brownie projects I have seen in a very long time! My daughter’s troop is getting ready to start meetings back up for the year and I am going to show this project to the leaders. I think it would be perfect for the troop to do. I wouldn’t mind doing all the set up for this one and getting it ready for them. I believe that is the only way the leaders would agree to actually doing it. (None of them scrapbook either.) Thank you for sharing this! I’ve got some really great ideas for it, now!! Gotta go make a sample to share with the leaders!
-Katherine
Great idea Aby. My boys are in Scouts and are doing scrapbooks. However they are hodge podge hit and miss. I think I’ll try to show this to their leader and maybe they will add it this year. It’s much more productive.
thank you so much for sharing that document. I am thinking that I will have my daughter do one every year….
This is adorable! Thanks for sharing! The download will make this project so easy…
Thank is a wonderful idea, sounds like fun to do at home.
Soooooooo cute!! I think I may just do one of these with my little girl. Thanks for putting the journaling pages on your blog — saves a ton of time. Very cute idea!
What a great idea! I just shared it w/our troop leader. Here in CA 1st graders are Daisy’s–won’t be Brownies until 2nd grade. Thanks so much for the download of journaling prompts. This will make the project so easy!
Hi, I’m Julie. I’m a non-scrapper. Is there NSA (Non-Scrappers-Anonymous) meeting for me?
In all seriousness, these are very very cute. Lots of good ideas that would transfer to any craft project. Love the idea of using the gladware!
~J
Love the project…..I will need to share it with my Campfire group. It would be a great project or even “birthday” party project…Send the journaling cards with the invitations and have them bring them and pictures to match and put it all together at the party. You are just so creative Aby.
Ann
this is brilliant. thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for sharing the pages! I will be using that with both my daughters. They scrapbook, and I really like the 6 x 6 size for kids. The one thing that I wish they did more was journal, so this will really help.
Bradley hand is my favorite font btw 🙂
Love the scrapbook! I used your template as writing prompts for my daughter’s “this is me” scrapbook. She loved them! Thanks for sharing.
I love scrapbooking so as a leader I thought it would be a great idea for the girls to make their own books. Last night I bought each girl a 12×12 book. I first had 6X6 books and then returned them for the bigger ones (same price on sale). I out out a request on FB for any scrapbook donations for the troop. Hopefully we will get some from Moms that scrap. We are going to scrap their year in Brownies.