Graduation Gift Book

Good morning! I am brand-new to this forum, and was looking for some input/ideas. I have been scrapbooking for 15 years, so I've made countless albums - for myself and as gifts. My daughter is graduating from HS this year, and I'm considering making her an album. Guess I'm overwhelmed, and not sure where to start. Has anyone done this? Any ideas ... would like to keep it at 1 album, 30-40 pages. Thanks for your help!

Welcome to SB.com!

I don't have children & have not done this, but I'm sure you'll find lots of answers from the talented ladies on here!

Welcome, and I'm no help, either. My dd is 3.

I have maintained seperate scrapbooks for all my kids from birth so I just put Joni's out for everybody to look through the day of her graduation party. It was definately a hit since many of the people at her party were in her books somewhere.

If you are just starting, my suggestion would be a page or two of the day she was born, a two page spread for every year from birth to age 18 and then pick special occasions, school activites she was really active in, and family pictures through the years scattered throughout.

I'm also going to suggest sketches and layout kits as you gather up the pictures to keep it from getting overwhelming. You can go through what you have and easily make a shopping list of what you need that way and won't go buy a bunch of stuff that you won't end up needing.

Start with picking the pictures out and deciding on definate layouts and go from there.

I don't really have many suggestions, but I just wanted to say, good luck! And I'm sure she will LOVE it! I wish my mom had done this for me! Congrats to your daughter as well! Graduation is such a fun time!

• j3Mel Said:

This is what a friend of mine did for her dd's graduation a few years ago with the pictures. I like to take one or two basic sketches to use for albums like this to use through out the album. I rotate the sketches page to page to givce it a different look.

Good luck! Look forward to seeing your completed project

If you go to the Gallery tab above, you can search for pages about Graduation to give you some ideas, or follow this link:

http://www.scrapbook.com/gallery/

Id say start with simple LO's, use the same paper pack, and maybe a 8x8 would go faster for you and be easier to create. Good luck, sounds like fun!

I made a gift album for my little sister when she graduated. I started it out with a letter to her from me to you By Alarae

and since I didn't have many baby pictures of her, I just did a book about her and her friends and big high school events like prom and then ended it with some of her senior pictures. I really need to do some of her actual graduation yet.

Oh and I didn't do much journaling since I wasn't there when the pictures were taken so I used mostly quotes about friendship for the titles.

You can see my sister's graduation album layouts here... http://www.scrapbook.com/myplace/index.php?mod=gallerie...

well if you've been scrapbooking for 15 years it doesn't sound like you need scrapbook tip, you just need album tips for a graduation album. Doing her entire life journey may be a bit much, but you could do a journey of her high school years. First day of school photos & class photos. Do a page for each year. Was she involved in school plays, sports, band, etc. scrap School dances/proms/homecoming. Does she take pictures at school football games, field trips etc. Just pictures of her and her friends hanging out, sleep overs. Take a picture of her Facebook page, keep school programs, ticket stubs, any type of keepsake from her high school years you can glue down. My dd went to France her junior year with her French class. So I would keep it at her high school years, maybe she has notes she kept from friends that get passed in class you could scrap (or do they just text now?) If you look in my gallery I made a layout for my husbands 50th surprise birthday party just for the guests to sign, now I just have to get around to scrapping the photos. Good luck!