Children grow up too quickly, and I’m always looking for great ways to capture the magic of childhood. Enter Dr. Seuss’s My Book about Me! Pages of fill-in-the-blank questions extract both silly and useful information about your child, leading to the creation of a Seussical snapshot of your kid’s life. I was inspired to make another book devoted to my daughter and the fabulous person she is – an heirloom she would treasure (something I wish I had from my childhood). So, I tried my hand at something new. Scrapbooking!

Thanks to Scrapbook.com, my daughter and I had a fantastic time with our first foray into this fascinating world. An online superstore and community of scrapbookers, Scrapbook.com had everything we needed to make her “Book of Me.”  There is an amazing selection of products, tutorials, classes, and inspiring samples to get you and your little scrapbooker started. We decided on a small scrapbook in a very glittery Tinkerbell theme to reflect my daughter’s personality and nickname. We had a great time putting it together, and in my daughter’s words, “Scrapbooking is like an adventure for kids ‘cause you don’t know how it’s going to end up!” Using the Dr. Seuss book as a prompt, you will be amazed at the incredible art and story your child can create!

The Book

Title: My Book about Me

Click here to find the book and more in our Amazon.com store!

Author & Illustrator: By Me, Myself (with some help from my friends Dr. Seuss & Roy McKie)

Recommended Age: 4-8

Book Brief: In this twist on his classic style, Dr. Seuss encourages children to find out about themselves, while having fun writing and drawing their own biographies. The front cover gets you started by directing, “You paste your picture here. Then you write and draw you book about YOURSELF.” Playful prompts will have you laughing and enjoying some time with your child.

About the Dr. Seuss: Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904. After attending Dartmouth College and Oxford University, he began a career in advertising.  His advertising cartoons, featuring Quick, Henry, the Flit!,  appeared in several leading American magazines. Dr. Seuss’s first children’s book, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, hit the market in 1937, and the world of children’s literature was changed forever! In 1957, Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat became the prototype for one of Random House’s best-selling series, Beginner Books. Brilliant, playful, and always respectful of children, Dr. Seuss charmed his way into the consciousness of four generations of youngsters and parents. In the process, he helped kids learn to read

The Blast

Make a “Book of Me”

Utilizing resources found on Scrapbook.com

Location: At home

Click the image to view pictures of our Tinkerbell Scrapbook.

Cost: $5-$30 depending on what you have a home and the size of the book

Save money on your project by using a Scrapbook.com promotion created exclusively for our Book|Blast readers! Save $5 on any purchase of $50 or more*. Just enter the promotion code “bookblast50″ when you’re checking out.

At the start, I was both excited and clueless about my scrapbooking idea. Scrapbook.com gave me the tools I needed to make a book with my daughter that was beyond our natural creative capabilities. If you are a beginner like me, the support tools are fantastic. If you are already an enthusiast, you will be amazed at the resources and large community of fellow scrapbookers!

Our first step was to decide on a theme. Start with the helpful “Book of Me” articles on Scrapbook.com that offer great prompts and ideas. One article suggested making books based on the child’s name. My children were given names and nicknames based on people or places significant to our family, so this idea appealed to me. We nicknamed my daughter Tinkerbell months before she was born, and the name stuck. Her nickname provided a fun theme for her “Book of Me,” and we drew colors from her elegant birth announcement.

Next I needed to find the products we would use. The exciting part of scrapbooking is weaving together the physical scraps around your house that represent your child and the well-designed products made specifically for this purpose. I spent an afternoon finding all of the materials we would need. Scrapbook.com allows you to search the site by product, brand name, category, and color. I searched for products in black, white, and violet. I chose an album just smaller than a 4”x6” picture that fit our theme and was much less intimidating for me as a beginner than trying to fill a book of 12”x 12” paper. I purchased a couple of coordinating papers and frames. I searched through a category entitled “embellishments” to find some fabulous glitter and bling to give our book a little pixie dust sparkle. Then I prepared and printed 10 pictures of my daughter at her fairy best.

When our package came, we excitedly opened our beautiful goodies and laid everything out on the table. Since it all coordinated, my daughter could pick things out, assemble them together, and decorate and embellish with very little direction from me . . . and the result was still beautiful. In addition to the Scrapbook.com products, we used bits and pieces from her birth announcement and concluded with a poem my daughter wrote just for this book.

As you know all too well, raising children is full of millions of precious moments, and it’s difficult to hold on to the memories. Building a “Book of Me” using Scrapbook.com resources is a fantastic way to allow children to tell their own story and create an heirloom book about their childhood.

Click here to see some pictures of our final product!

Extra Tips for a Good Time:

• Don’t try to scrapbook your child’s whole life at once. Pick a straightforward theme to keep it simple.
• Select self-adhesive items to make it easy for your little ones.
• Make sure your kids can’t go wrong by giving them color-coordinated pieces.
• Have your child write a quick piece of “poetry” to give the book a very personal touch.
• Letter stickers are great for those who don’t want to worry about perfect penmanship.
• Use the $5 coupon (details above) to get a financial jump start on your project!

*Coupon subject to expire at any time . . . so hurry up and use it!