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Tips for managing and sharing special graduation memorabilia

Contributed photo Debbie Heller, owner of Your Scrapping Cafe in Beavercreek, shows off one of her scrapbooks. Contributed photo

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By Susan Dalzell, Contributing Writer 12:15 AM Tuesday, May 24, 2011

It’s been 18 years of firsts: First tooth, first report card, first summer at camp, first junior high dance, first varsity track letter, first college acceptance letter. Those first few stashes of precious childhood mementos, maybe tucked into a dresser drawer or have since morphed into piles and boxes of photos, papers, art projects and assorted memorabilia throughout the house.

Now, the big day — high school graduation — is nearly here.

Whether you’re planning a party or just want to create a special gift for your grad, it’s not too late to get those memories organized to mark the milestone.

Once you’re organized, there are lots of ways to get creative and create special invitations, displays or gifts that highlight the unique personality of your child.

We asked the pros to share their advice on organizing and displaying these memories for graduation parties or as gifts for the graduate — whether it’s the Class of 2011 or for future graduates.

All of this advice can easily apply to other situations, including celebrations surrounding weddings, birthdays and anniversaries or even preserving memories of lost loved ones.

Get organized

Professional organizer Michelle Wearly, owner of Organized Life in Vandalia, said preservation is critical. “Remember to keep all memorabilia in a cool dry place in your home, not in damp basements or hot attics,” she said.

To get organized, she recommended a four-step process.

1. Gather your photos, memorabilia. “First step: Sort photos into a labeled acid-free box, back up photos on your hard drive and convert video tapes to DVD,” she said.

2. Organize all the memories. “Do this while everything is still fresh in your mind,” Wearly said. “Sorting titles can be as narrow or as broad as you wish: month, school year or high school.”

3. Decide how you want to view the memories someday, whether it’s creating scrapbooks or photo books, a memory box, online files or creating DVDs. “Keeping it consistent will give these memories an organized look while keeping everything together,” she said.

4. Schedule yourself time. This may be a bit tricky for those just starting now, but try to carve out time to complete this project. “It didn’t take two weeks to create 18 years of memories, so be realistic in your time management. Stick to a schedule, whether it’s 10 minutes a day, by the end of summer, or by the end of the year,” Wearly said.

Get creative

You’ve organized the pictures and knickknacks. Now what?

In the old days, about the best option to collect memories was to put together a photo album. These days, while traditional photo albums are still popular, their next-generation cousins — photo books — are usurping them in popularity. Many online photo services make it very easy to create a professional, personalized bound book using uploaded digital pictures. Most programs offer a lot of flexibility in layouts and backgrounds, as well as providing space to add personalized captions.

For a three-dimensional option, which can incorporate mementos as well as photographs, there’s always scrapbooking. It’s a hobby that has exploded in popularity in recent years and is well-suited to just this kind of project.

Debbie Heller is owner of Your Scrapping Cafe in Beavercreek. She said there are probably thousands of graduation-themed papers, embellishments and trinkets available for scrapbookers. It’s also possible to find materials related to just about any of the interests your teen might have, whether it’s music or soccer or politics. If you’re not planning to create an heirloom quality scrapbook, graduation wrapping paper is an inexpensive — and readily available — material. For art, you can always cut illustrations from graduation cards or download Internet images that don’t have copyrights.

The only limit on what to put in graduation scrapbooks is the creator’s imagination. “When I make graduation pages, I like to miniaturize things like the diploma, class pictures or the graduation program,” Heller said. Graduation trinkets can include little graduation caps and mini-rolled diplomas. Some designers like to include a lot of text, including letters, inspirational quotes or journal entries, while others prefer to focus on pictures and images.

Heller warned inexperienced scrapbookers to approach shopping with caution. “It can be overwhelming to walk into a store and see all the products,” she said. “The easiest way to get past the intimidation is to bring a friend. Ideally, bring a friend who knows scrapbooking and can steer you away from the temptation of buying one of everything.”

The scope of the project can attempt to encompass your child’s entire life — including birth and grade school mementos — or as basic as just memorializing the student’s last few weeks of school. Whatever the size of the project, leave plenty of time to get it done. That’s true both for seasoned scrapbookers and newbies. “Scrapbooking should be fun,” Heller said. “If you’re feeling like it’s a job or becoming a chore, take a step back.”

Shadowboxes are a great way to display individual scrapbooking pages. The boxes come in the standard 12-by-12 size of a scrapbooking page and can make a great gift for a departing grad. “Especially if they are going away to college, they can take it with them and be reminded of home,” said Krysi Joseph, owner of Krysi’s Scrapbooking Corner in Huber Heights.

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