Scrapbooking with Twins - Mother / Daughter bonding

By:Nancy C.

Twice a month I gather up all my stuff (and there is a lot) and head off to a friend's house to "crop". My husband rolls his eyes; my twin daughters say, "Are you going to Kathy's again?" They all wonder when this project will end. Don't they understand this "hobby" is never ending - we are always making memories and taking more pictures. Even though I get these looks as soon as I arrive back home they want to see all the pages I did. I often find one of them looking through our albums and they are always anxious to show them off to friends and relatives.

More often than not as I work on my albums at home my two girls get out their books, pictures and supplies and go to work on their own albums. All of my hard work is not in vain as my eight year old girls are creating their own books and learning the art of preserving their memories. They shop with me to pick out paper and stickers all acid free of course. They love trying all of Mom's fancy scissors and punches.

Megan and Kristen are branching out beyond the house now. They attended one crop with me and created calendars for grandparents and uncles (4 all together). All that work was worth it as we visited 2 of the homes this summer and they saw their artwork displayed. All the calendars went to out of town relatives so they feel like they are in grandma's house all year round.

The girls recently tied for first place at an art contest at their school. They won in the photo collage category. They took 12X12 paper, pictures, stickers, the circle cutter and templates and each created a photo collage. Kristen created one called "Watch me Grow", complete with a garden. Megan created "Life as a Twin" and did everything in pairs. We are awaiting return of the collages from district competition so we can add them in their albums.

They are now working on passing on the art of scrapbooking to their brownie troop. At a recent meeting one mother handed out invitations to a Mother/Daughter Creative Memories class. Megan and Kristen read it and said "We don't need to go - we already know how to do this". Another member of the troop asked if Kristen and Megan couldn't teach the scrapbook class and then it wouldn't cost $15.00! Kristen told them she would do it for $10.00, but they would have to come to her house because we had way too much stuff to bring to a meeting!

We haven't yet had the brownie class. The thought of 15 mother/daughters in my house for scrapbooking seems a bit overwhelming. But, it is obvious that the girls (and yes my husband) really do enjoy the albums we create and are eager to share that with others. I hope they continue this hobby and inspire others to start.

Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: Untitled, by Monica B.