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Personalizing an Album

A poem can be the perfect start to an album. On a cover page, it can introduce the reader to what they are about to see. It can save you time in your journaling throughout the album by setting the mood of the album. A poem can also be used to personalize an album for the person you have given it to as a gift. Here I will share with you two examples. Each has a PDF which you can click on and print out. Print it on colored paper, or cut it out with decorative scissors.

This first poem was typed out in a font called "Girls Are Weird", which is one of my favorite, Gothier fonts. Click here for the PDF. To read it here first:

Strangers in a Box by Pam Harazim

Come, look with me inside this drawer,
In the box I've often seen,
At the pictures black and white,
Faces proud, still serene.
I wish I knew these people,
These strangers in a box,
Their names and all their memories,
Are lost among my sox.
I wonder what their lives were like.
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I'll never know their ways.
If only someone had taken time,
To tell who, what, when and where,
These faces of my heritage,
Would come to life again.
Could this be the fate of
The pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories,
Someday to be tossed away?
Make time to save your pictures,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours could be,
The strangers in a box.

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That poem not only tells the story of so many pictures that I myself have been handed down. But it also shows the importance of journaling in your albums. If the memory was worth keeping, make sure that down the line, whoever ends up with the books at least knows the faces. Who were they? Where were they? Am I related to them? Most of my pictures, I will never know if they are relatives or just people. And even if I figure out they are related, I don't know much more than what they looked like and wore because no one took the time to tell me their story.

The second poem I typed out in a font called "A Charming Font" which is a storybook kind of font. It also lends itself well to gothic needs. To print out this poem, click here. And here it is to read:

A Book of Memories by Shelley Catlett

This is a book I have given to you,
You look at it and say, "What do I do?"

Well let me tell you, this can be fun,
Include your family, it's for everyone!

You pick out some pictures of anything,
Or if you want, you can pick a theme.

You can cut them in circles, ovals or squares,
And stick them down single or even in pairs.

You can add colored paper to give some style,
Now isn't this fun, are you starting to smile?

You can add die cuts for a special look,
Wow, look at you, you're creating a book.

You can write a story, or any old thing,
It's part of the fun, we call journaling.

The stickers are there to add to the fun,
You add them to the pages, one by one.

Now your book is done, it sure looks great,
You can show it to your family and friends to celebrate.

I hope this scrapbooking was a fun thing to do,
Because it sure was a pleasure for me to give to you!

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Yes, I know this poem is a bit cheesy in comparison to the other one. But it demonstrates to the givee what they can do with their new album. It also personalizes the gift a bit more, since technically, you are handing them a blank book. I consider this poem a simplified "How to" for Scrapbooking.

Both fonts that I used to create the PDF's were found for free on the web. There are tons of them out there for you to download. And a fun way to scrapbook if you don't like your own handwriting, is to type out your journaling on the computer using a nifty font and then gluing it into your album. I will soon be adding a links page to some wonderful fonts I've found. But for now, if you would like to find these, just type in "Girls Are Weird" along with the word "font", or "Charming Font", and you should be able to find a site that offers them. Another good way to find fonts is to type "free Gothic fonts" into your search engine. You won't believe how many are out there. I'm a font addict myself.

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