His-Story: History Scrapbooking! Part 1!!!

...Scrapbooking has become very popular of late. It is a huge pastime with whole ranges of products that cater to every creative need. From stickers to stylized paper, empty books to embellishing plaques; the scrabook community has it all. Because of the great variety one has the ability to be flexible, there really is no set rule. When designing a scrapbook you get to decide, its up to you! I guess that's one of the things that makes it so exciting.

...Here I am chiefly going to show what I have done with my historical scrapbook. Below are excellent links for some of the resources I use. (time line figures, scrap booking paper, history lap books, TOG) Right now my family is using Marcia Somerville"s Tapestry Of Grace curriculum for history.

http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/HTTA/timeline.htm

http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat2676

http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/teacherslounge/lapbooks.php

http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/index.php

...I started out by finding a large binder with lots and lots of thick pages. The front was blank so I got the fun of decorating it, I drew a scene and started painting with acrylics. As you can see I have not finished this part! The title is "Lauren's Scrapbook of Ancient Civilizations".

...Inside the cover is a blank place for the "Contents" to be added once I am finished. The first page is a decorative one, showing some examples of what will be displayed inside.

The first section is on Creation, it features drawings, charts, time lines and verses from Genesis. Old National Geographic magazines are a wealth of clippings on nearly every subject. Here I have cut out some scenes of the universe.

A neat trick to make your book go father is to add flap out pages. My book is about the size of a 12' by 12' piece of scrapbooking paper, so I just pick ones I like and glue the far edge on top of the existing page. This works best with heavier paper, like cardstock. Underneath more things can be displayed, which adds extra depth and hands on to your project!

Below is a fold out book featuring the seven days of creation. It is tied shut with a piece of yarn when not in use. The edges were trimmed with decorative scissors. These are great details to incorporate on your page if you have room! (sorry the picture is blurry)

Noah is featured on the page across from creation, including a sketch of the Tower of Babel. Sometimes I like to draw directly onto the books page rather than paste in a drawing. This page also has a flap, one side of it has a map and the other a genealogy .

...Turning to the next page is Mesopotamia. Here I put in the first overlay map I had done for this book. "Knowledge Quest" has some wonderful maps, which can be ordered on a cd to be printed whenever needed. Many of the maps I have made use theirs as a base. Then I add a clear overlay sheet for further details. At the bottom inside corner of the first page on Mesopotamia I mounted a small envelope for storing extra papers etc.. that would not fit on the page. Sometimes a regular sized mailing envelope works well, but elsewher I also use large ones for even more room.

Next is the "Patriarchs". It is fitting they should come after Sumer, which is where Ur most likely was. This page has Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. On the far page is a family tree my brother and I made while studying this time era. It seemed a shame to put it away somewhere never to be seen again, after all our hard work! So in it went, since it is on the far page I punched a hole through the actual book and it to be able to tie it with a small scrap of leather. (The family tree is a flap up) This way it does not flap open when turning the page.

Much of my clip art came from old illustrated book covers! Most of the time covers get ripped up and ragged anyways, so while making my scrapbook I went through the whole house confiscating book covers. Then I cut out the sample illustrations I wanted and glued them into my scrapbook!