Whether it’s your child’s first tooth or her first lock of hair snipped by a professional stylist, mementos are an important part of scrapbook layouts.
My daughter lost her first tooth a few months ago and I immediately placed it in her scrapbook. It may sound gross, but her front baby tooth was so tiny I feared it would fall off her nightstand with even the slightest breeze, so I placed it in an envelope and snuck it into her memory album. (P.S. The Tooth Fairy still left money despite the fact that I wouldn’t let her take the tooth to add to her collection.)
Envelopes are an extremely functional addition to scrapbook layouts. In addition to preserving items such as baby teeth and strands of hair, they also make great keepers for ticket stubs, handwritten notes, tiny crafts and other mementos that are a challenge to attach to a traditional page design.
Some scrappers use a variety of envelopes to stash photo CDs or to place sensitive material that they don’t want to share with casual viewers. Depending on the nature of the memento or the size of your memory album you could feature a slew of envelopes in your book. Many times I use colored envelopes from leftover greeting cards, though there’s no rule that says you need to do the same.
My neighbor makes her own envelopes because it’s cheaper than purchasing the decorative ones that she likes. If you are familiar with the Japanese art of paper-folding called Origami, you could simply craft a few envelopes yourself using your favorite paper. Another option is to stitch three sides of a scrap of fabric directly to your scrapbook layout to make a pocket envelope. If you’re really crafty, you could add ribbon or buttons as embellishments.
If you are a beginner scrapbooker, then use an envelope template such as Kreate-a-Lope. The easy to use guide allows you to fold an envelope from your favorite patterned paper without running into issues with mismatched edges and unwanted creases. Once you master envelope folding, you can experiment with different materials, such as vellum.
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