Scrapbook with Kids using Recycled Materials

 
 
We love using recycled materials in crafts and activities.  There’s nothing like grabbing craft supplies from the recycle bin and creating, learning, and playing!  We made our own phone picture scrapbook together with the kids using recycled materials and now have a great keepsake of a season of fun with cousins!  The best news is that these are pictures from my phone that I never would have printed off let alone scrap booked into a memory keeper.  


Making a scrapbook with kids using recycled materials:

If you are like me, you always have your phone in your back pocket.  A mom has got to capture those cutie pie moments and lugging a big camera around just isn’t an option sometimes.  I love having a phone camera always on me a the slightest indication of a gummy baby smile.  With such access to capturing images, most of us have hundreds or thousands of pictures stored on our phones.  Those images usually never get printed!  All of those real-life, caught in the moment pictures that tell the story of our lives just get stored away and never to be printed or scrap booked.  
 
 
When they arrived in the mail, my kids loved looking at the “story” of our winter.  And, these pictures were clear and bright!  We decided to make a scrapbook with our high quality pictures using recycled materials. 
We used a cardboard box to create a front and back cover for our scrapbook.  A thin cardboard like a cracker box or cereal box will work best.  Cut the cardboard to match the size of the images.  We wanted ours to fit in the timeshel shell for safe keeping!  Use double sided tape to attach images to each other.  Fold a small piece of double sided tape over both sides of the left boarder of the image.  Arrange the tape so that it is mostly folded over the back side of the picture so it’s not laying on the image.  Firmly press the pictures together in a stack.  Add double sided tape to the left side of the covers as well.  
Gently fold the edge of the front cover up to create a book.  Again, press the edge firmly to ensure the double sided tape is adhering. 
Use recycled paper, ribbon, or scraps from magazines to  decorate the front cover.  We used scraps of paper to make a top border and falling dots on our scrapbook.  You can add decorations to the back side of images as well, even adding written descriptions for each picture in the scrapbook.
Now comes the fun part:  Looking through memories and the story of your life!  The envelope provided by timeshel is a great way to share your story with others. 
 
Because we made our scrapbook sized to the images, we were able to use the shell for storage of our winter memories in a narrative experience.  This little scrapbook will be kept safe in the hard plastic shell.