I have written a couple of blog posts about how you can include thanksgiving in your heritage scrapbooks. Adding pages to let your posterity know what you are grateful for is a perfect way to show who you are! Check out this article for a fun craft for the kids, and this one to document 30 things that you are thankful for in your life right now.
The idea for this post is a great way to get the whole family involved in documenting what you are thankful for in 2011. Consider including as many family members as you want. It can be yourself, your spouse, and kids, or extend the project to other family members like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
The idea is to take a picture of each member of your family that you are going to include on your layout holding a sign that says one thing that they are grateful for. To make this project work, have each member use a piece of solid white poster board, and black marker. If possible, have them each stand in the same spot to take the picture. However, you could include multiple families in this project and have them email you their picture that they take themselves and compile a very cool montage of photos from family members all over the country! So, get creative!
After you have your photos of your family members saying what they are thankful for, think of how you are going to arrange them on your page. This all depends on how many photos you are using. Let’s say for an example that you are using just yourself, spouse, and children, so you might have 3-6 photos for your layout. Cut them all down to uniform size. Matte them on colored paper to give your layout some color, and leave space in between each one so that you can see the colored paper.
Pick a thanksgiving quote to put in the center of the page. Consider a quote like this one, “Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing.” Or, look for a thanksgiving quote of your own. Arrange the photos around the quote. Try using a fall color palette for your layout like oranges, browns, and reds.
Getting your family involved in creating this layout will be a great way to start the conversation with them about what they are thankful for. It is also a great way to get a little glimpse into the personality of each member of your family.
Meredith Ethington is the author of this blog. To learn more about Meredith, and her history with Scrapbooking and Genealogy, go here. < Return To Scrapbooking