Recent Scrapbook pages

Holly sounds like you lifebook is coming around quite nicely. Just wanted to tell you that I think it is great you are putting so much work into your childs lifebook.

We were recently the chosen adoptive resource for our new daughter. She is 6 years old. Her therapist wants us to create a scrapbook introducing us that he can use to help her with the transition. She will get the scrapbook before we meet her. Any great ideas on what we should include? Also, we want to write a letter to her as the intro to the book, but I am at a loss as to what to say. I have so many thoughts in my head that I want to say, but I want to be sure its appropriate. Any ideas here? Has anyone done this? I feel its so important and I want it to be perfect.

Congratulations! How exciting and what a neat thing to have a book of her new family. I would definately include pictures of the two of you, any other children, and any pets. Let her know what your favorite things are with words and pictures and tell her how excited you are to meet her. Make sure she knows you'll fill up all the blank pages with her doing some of her favorite things when she gets with you. Holly

Don't forget to include pictures of your house (inside and out) the back yard. Her bedroom. Things like that will make her feel more comfortable when she moves in. Pictures of other people in your family that she will visit often. Possibly pictures of the school where she will go if she has to change schools. Even pictures of teachers if you can find out who they are. When I visited the school in my area they were more than happy to let me walk around and take pictures as I wanted to. If she will have to attend daycare take pictures of that place and the people that will be taking care of her.. Try to include every person who will be involved in her life from the point when she moves into your family. Shannon

Hi, I am just about to start a lifebook for my 6 month old daughter. She's been with us right from the hospital. We were at her birth and have many photos of her and her birthmother. I'm an avid scrapbooker but I'm soooo afraid to start this book! I feel so responsible for saying just the right thing. I bought Beth O'Malley's book and it's been very helpful. From what she says, the book should be geared toward a 4yr old. It should have all the information in it that you have but should be stated simply. It is a door opener for future conversations as the child gets older. Has anyone created such a book yet and do you have a general outline of the order the info should be presented? Thanks for any input.

We just adopted a 4 year old, and I am working on her second scrapbook. The first one followed this format: 1. Poem to our daughter that I wrote myself (I'll share it w/ anyone who's interested) 2. A page explaining "How We Found You" 3. "The first time we saw you" page w/ pictures 4. A section on "Bringing you home" with a copy of the birth certificate (even though we didn't get her from birth) 5. Letters related to our court cases 6. Cute doings and sayings page (This one was fun!) 7. Photos 8. Information on birthparents 9. Clippings of notes/emails people sent when they found out the adoption went through 10. "The World as It Was"- descriptions of popular things during this special time (i.e. big movies, news headlines...) 11. Hand and foot stamps (yes, even though she's 4! She LOVED IT-- We put a picture of us doing it next to the actual thing) 12. Invitations, pictures, notes, etc. from several showers held in her honor. 13. "Mommy's and Daddy's Wishes for you"-- We each wrote a personal note to her 14. Our family tree-- One page for each person 15. More pictures of memorable moments 16. A clipping of her hair 17. Her favorite things-- page w/ pics of things she likes 18. Early travels (pictures-- we travel a lot) 19. Immunizations, physical info to be continued through the years (height, weight...) 20. A year of memories... I kept a journal during the year we were having visits with her and waiting for the adoption to go through. 21. Her first drawing of our family 22. A birthday page 23. Preschool memories- pics and work samples 24. Pictures of our home, holidays... 25. Copies of the records of court proceedings 26. In the very back I have a pocket for things like: a calendar page with all the events of our first month together, the paper I doodled on while getting our first information on her, her first letter to Santa... Hope this helps someone out there... Sherry

THANKS FOR THE INFO, SHERRY.

THANKS LYNN....MY SISTER IS A CM CONSULTANT....I'LL GET A BOOKLET FROM HER.

Thanks for the tip on C.M. I'm always looking for new and different items for my son's book. I didn't know that CM had an adoption booklet. I'll have to check it out!

Geri, Glad I could help. Don't be afraid to start the book! We adopted our daughter at birth. We met her the first time at the hospital the day after she was born. I have done her book just like any other baby book. We obviously don't have pictures of the birth, etc. I didn't try to gear her book to any certain age, etc. I just told about where we were and what we were doing when we got the phone call. I think alot of people worry too much about what to put in a lifebook--and I think the use of the word "lifebook" adds to their discomfort. I just scrapbook everything that has happened in a book. Each year I start a new book for Madison and a new family album. Because of the adoption, we have a two page spread on our adoption day. I put a copy of the wording the judge used when we "offically" became a family, and the pictures we took. If you have information that you don't want shared with everyone, I think you should do a small album for the child. You can put birthparents pictures, and other information the child might want to know---but not want to share with family and friends. These are just my opinions! Lynn

I didn't start scrapbooking until by bio son was nearly three years old, so I didn't have a lot of "pre-birth" pictures for him, either. In our family scrapbook, he just kind of "appears" and for that I made a page that consisted simply of his birth announcement on a beautiful background paper. Then I went back and scrounged for photos from showers, etc--even just pictures from the summer before where I was 'showing' to "create" that buildup. It was interesting to try and re-create four years of "pre-kid" history so we had a complete story of our family (I went back to our wedding as a starting point) So although I am much more 'conditioned' now to view everything as a "photo-op", I didn't think it would be fair to have a big build-up to our younger son's arrival home. What I am doing for him is the same thing--he just "appears" in our family history with a copy of his adoption announcement. I will then go back and create pages like "waiting...." with some of the photos we got from our agency, etc. I've also taken tons of pictures of "firsts" for him to try and make up for the 2.5 years that aren't recorded. Hopefully it will balance out!

I am adopting an older child (12) from foster care. We are his visiting resource right now, but June 12th he should be with us full time. I have another connection, as once upon a time 4 years ago, I was his social worker. Unfortunately the lifebook I started for him 4 years ago no longer exists. I have almost no pictures of him for the last four years he has been in a children's home. Or the first 12 years for that matter! I do remember things about him and am writing them down. I started his new lifebook with his birth certificate and was wishing I had his baby picture or foot prints. I had a thought and shared this with our foster parent association. I am taking ink and stamping the side of his fist and making a print(this looks like a baby foot print) and then each fingerprint( to make the toes). Looking for ideas for an adoption announcement if anyone has any ideas. I am a single parent and I have two other children as well. I am doing a page of all of us with this verse: "Some of my children grew in my womb and some of them grew in my heart, but now that we're a family, I can't tell them apart. "

This is a reply to the part of this thread that talked about adhering vellum to a scrapbook page without the glue/tape showing through... A few suggestions would be: 1. Use photo corners. You could insert the corner of the vellum into the corner and glue the corner to the page. 2. Use eyelets. Attach the item printed on vellum with the use of an eyelet or paper fastener. 3. Use stickers. Put a sticker (especially a nice decorative one like a flower or something to match the theme of the page) on each corner of the vellum to adhere it to the page. I hope I've helped! Jennifer

Hi ladies~ I'm a birthmom and I started a scrapbook for my son shortly after his first birthday. I have a semi-open relationship with his family and we correspond through our agency. I have been getting letters and pictures a few times a year. Originally I had intended to make pages that would chronicle the events in my life, my feelings and hopes for him. I was going to continue adding pages to it until it was full enough to give to him. Instead I began taking the pictures I received of him and scrapping them. Since I don't have the memories that go along with the pictures I spend a lot of time searching for quotes, poems and page titles that represent what I felt when I see each picture, what they mean to me. The book quickly filled up, and in 6 months I had an album ready for Cole. Luckily for me his mom and dad asked if we would like to get together with them ( just last week in fact) and I gave it to them then. Cole is only 20 months old, but it will be something that I can continue to add to and he will have as he grows up. Oops, this was going to be about vellum :p So now you know the story behind why I am posting here, but the real reason I wanted to reply here was to say that I use vellum all of the time on my pages. I like to use different computer fonts for the journaling on my pages and since I scrap using 12x12 I have found that vellum is the most versatile way for me to do that. They have come out with a tape designed especially for use with vellum, but I found that it still shows up if you use light colored vellum over dark card stock, and even under translucent vellums. Jennifer had really good ideas, and the only other thing I could add is that if you use vellum on a page as a photo mat, or even if you have some embellishments that are on top of the vellum then you can use your regular adhesive if you put it where the embellishments or photos will cover. I have also used spray adhesive, you just have to be careful to spray a light layer and let it dry a little bit before you put it on your page. The vellum is safe to send through your printer, some people say that they can tell the rough side from the smooth side and that one is better to print on than the other, but I can't tell the difference. When you print on it set your printer settings to transparency and let it dry for a few hours, or even over night before you touch it or it will smear. I also wouldn't recommend heat setting it because the heat tends to warp the vellum if you aren't very careful, and it still will need sitting time. Tearing the vellum also gives a really neat look. You can also crumple it up and smooth it back out and that looks neat as well. Good luck! lisa

Thanks so much for the vellum ideas! I printed my daughter's lifebook on swiss-dotted vellum, placed it on cardstock, then glued it in place. It looks AWFUL!!! I'm going to have to redo the whole d**n thing! I'll try the photocorners this time. I used Beth O'Malley's book, too -- love it! I am going to make the rest of the book a regular old "photo" album, with the occasional "scrapbook" style page. If she wants to take sections of it out to take to school, we can.