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Most kids love crafts, regardless of their age or control over motor skills. They simply enjoy the creative process, and they certainly don’t mind making a mess with paper, markers, glue, glitter, ribbons, leaves, and pretty much anything they can get their hands on. And since crafts can make for a great way to spend the afternoon bonding with your kids and doing something productive (rather than watching TV, for example), there’s no reason not to pull out supplies and spend a few hours creating beautiful designs that can adorn your home or get sent off to family and friends. If you’re looking for something new to try, here are just a few fun scrapbooking crafts that you and the kids can undertake.
- Photo collages. The average page in any scrapbook consists of a number of photos crafted together to form a cohesive collage of some sort, often with a theme. But you don’t necessarily have to stuff it in a book. Instead, have kids create photo collages with pictures of themselves or the family and whatever decorative elements they prefer. Then put them into photo frames to place on the mantle, hang on the wall, or send out to grandparents, aunts and uncles, and other family members. They could even make miniature ones to give friends at school as a way to spice up the standard school photos that classmates generally trade.
- Greeting cards. Birthday, holidays, and other events no doubt pop up frequently on your calendar. And while you might not have a ton of time personally to create cards for these occasions, there’s no reason to spend five bucks on a card for every event when you could simply have your kids churning out greeting cards for every conceivable occurrence. You could even task them with creating personalized cards for upcoming birthdays or other milestones (anniversaries, graduations, etc.). With a pile of photos and plenty of craft items at their disposal they can make beautiful, one-of-a-kind creations to send out to loved ones for every occasion.
- Nameplates. As children move beyond infancy and begin to develop a sense of self, they often want to claim things as theirs. So one fun project could be to create nameplates for bedroom doors. If you start with some cardboard or stiff card stock you can help them to cut out letters, add pictures, and even embellish their nameplates with all manner of items, from fabric, felt, and buttons, to seashells, garlands of dried flowers, marbles, and pretty much anything that can be affixed in place with adhesive, string, or other binding materials.
- Pop-up books. If you really want to have some fun scrapbooking and stretch your kids’ imagination and abilities, why not help them to create pop-up books? They can write their own stories to begin, decide which parts they want to illustrate, and then use craft supplies to create 3D pop-ups before assembling their books.
- Photo albums. Even though the online photo album book is all the rage these days, what with easy editing and ordering, as well as a professional finish, they might not be as fun as getting crafty with the kids and creating unique and personal albums via scrapbooking. So dabble in digital – your kids will no doubt enjoy it – but don’t hesitate to go back to traditional methods for a change of pace and some personal interaction.
my wife likes to scrapbook i will send this to her