Summer Scrapbook

by Christine Dvornik

Age: Preschool and up
Time: An hour or more
Type of activity: Arts and Crafts

As the season begins to fade and autumn approaches, keep your memories of fun in the sun in your own summer scrapbook.

Materials needed:
· White paper (several sheets)
· 2 sheets of construction paper
· Scissors
· Hole punch
· Ribbon or yarn
· Glue
· Markers, crayons, paint, glitter, or other decorative materials
· Summer mementos and souvenirs

What to do:

Step One: Spend some time gathering souvenirs, pictures, and other mementos that you collected this summer.

Step Two: Gather several sheets of white paper for your book and two sheets of construction paper for the front and back cover of your book.

Step Three: Line up all the pages along the left edge, and hold them together with a paper clip.

Step Four: Using a hole punch, starting about a half-inch away from the top of the paper, make holes about 1.5 to 2 inches apart going down the left side. Make your last hole about a half-inch above the bottom of the paper.

Step Five: Now it's time to consider the layout for your book. Decide which summer memories you want to put on each page. For example, maybe you'll devote a page or two to the beach, ballpark, or museums you visited. Or instead of gluing mementos, you may want to draw an event or memory you have from this summer.

Step Six: Decorate the pages with drawings, paint, or other materials. Let any glue or paint dry.

Step Seven: Now, glue your summer mementos to their pages. Let the glue dry.

Step Eight: Decorate the cover of the book using more mementos or your own artwork.

Step Nine: Put all the pages of the book together and line up the holes you punched on the left-hand side.

Step Ten: Cut one piece of ribbon or yarn about six inches long for each hole you punched.

Step Eleven: Thread the yarn through one hole and tie in a bow. Repeat this for each hole in the book.