Scrapbooks for Adult Children

I'm doing scrap/memory books for my adult children (ages 35, 32, and 27) and needless to say I have hundreds of pictures! I'm totally overwhelmed. I have cropped and sorted by kid and then sorted into subjects (toddler, school daze, cousins, camping, etc.). I have done a simple banner and page decoration but because I have so many pictures I need to put many pictures on the pages. I'm hoping they will find them treasures. Any words of wisdom?

What a wonderful project! I know it looks overwhelming now but it will be such an enjoyable project because every page will bring memories for you.

I would say to journal and tell whatever stories yhou remember. A lot of work but with my kids, when they look at their scrapbooks its the stories they spend the most time with and it seems to be their favorite parts.

They like the pictures but they love the stories!

Thank you -- I know how many wonderful memories (and a few tears) I have had going thru the pictures. My husband has helped me as well. We both work so after a long day we do enjoy looking thru all the pictures. I see all the darling layouts but with so many pictures to get in albums I can't really spend a lot of time making it "pretty" so I just have to do what I can. I have put narrow borders of nice/neutral papers at the top and then added alpha stickers for words like "At the Cabin" or "Growing Up" or "Pets" or "Me and My Dad" and then have to place the photos close together and journal under ones that have a real story. It comes down to "done is better than perfect" !! We are making this Xmas's theme one of "Memories" so have the scrapbooks for the kids, old family movies converted to CDs, memory quilts of old band, drum corps, music t-shirts and they don't know of any of it so should be a special Xmas morning! Take care.......

I am in process of doing the same for my two adult children also. One thing I have done to cut down on how many photos to use is to try to select just a few that tell or illustrate the story and then make a pocket on the back of the page and put in any other related photos.
Most of our photos were not great so that makes it much easier to eliminate.

Another idea is to do use the photo page inserts
(see below) between pages of your los. I have done that in my dd's book and one I made for my dad for his 90th.

Good luck and have fun.

I like Mary's suggestion. Do a few layouts of the really special memories and include the inserts with several photos in them.

I would suggest copying the pics so you have the original.
I did this daunting project myself for my kids when they graduated college. You have a few more years to scrap...trust me...they are gonna be huge books!
I did them chronologically...for the most part. I did all their school pics on one page...going around the 2 page layout...just an idea.

I covered sports in school, music, plays, etc. I will tell you...your kids will love it. My kids still take it out and show their friends..and my son brings his to school on retro day to show his pupils. They are now 28 and 31, so they've had these books for a few years.

Have a great time doing the books..it was a fun time for me, although working on a deadline can be tough.

Sounds like you are going to have an awesome Christmas this year. Good luck with all your plans!

Thank you DeeDee !! It is daunting but fun. I agree -- this may be something I continue to add to for time to come cuz I'm not sure I can get them as done as I like by Xmas with working full time too !! I will get the traditional albums to where we use up all the older pictures and then I have also began digital for our grandson and newer pictures. I like both methods!! Take care -- from Idaho!

I was going to suggest what Mary did....use the divided page protectors and make a "Project Life" sort of album for each....put in pictures, mounting on pretty paper, add a journal card with your memories in one slot, etc....
If you do a search in the gallery here for Project Life, you will see what I mean....also, you can google it.

Alison

Just a word of caution.....be prepared in the event that they do not appreciate the amount of time and effort that you put into these. I do make albums for my adult children and their apprecication ranges from "gee, thanks" to "wow, that's awesome." So....as long as you have no expectations of their gratitude, then you are golden. I love making books for my kids. I love the process and the memories. Those things make my day, regardless of their reactions.