A Scrapbook for My Son’s Graduation (And the Stampin’ Up! Products I Used to Make It)

If you’ve ever looked at a box of photos from your kid’s childhood and thought, “I really need to do something with these,” you’re going to want to watch this replay.

My son is graduating high school, and since Easter I’ve been working on a scrapbook to document his entire running career, from his very first kids’ fun run all the way through his senior year of high school track and his college signing day. He’s been running since 8th grade, and since I was a runner and coached cross country and track myself, this one was really personal.

I shared the finished pages on Facebook and YouTube Live this week, and I’m so glad so many of you tuned in! Here’s a quick look at what I made and what I used.

The Album

I used a Stampin’ Up! 3-ring binder album with page protectors. It’s large, heavy, and beautiful, and the best part is I can go back and add pages any time. Since my daughter is a sophomore, I’m already thinking about starting hers now so I’m not in the same scramble next year!

High School Graduation Scrapbook Ideas Using Stampin’ Up! Products

I kept the pages pretty simple but used a lot of Stampin’ Up! products throughout:

• Party Alphabet Dies — these are the large, bold letters you’ll see all through the book. Pricey, but worth every penny, and they work great for cards too.
• Alphabet A La Mode Dies — these are on the Last Chance List right now for around $21 (regular price $42). If you want them, now is the time. They include letters AND numbers, which I loved.
• Mini Alphabet Dies — I cut out a full set of these in black and kept them in a little container. I just pulled out the letters I needed for each page. So smart and so handy.
• Foam Adhesive Sheets — great for adding dimension. I used these to pop up letters and photos throughout the album.
• Journaling Pens — I hand wrote dates, locations, and notes on a lot of the pages. These pens are really nice and you get two in a package.

I also used lots of our two-tone cardstock, white gel pens, and a few retired stamp sets I’ve kept over the years.

A Few Fun Details

For photos, I printed 240 pictures at Walgreens this week. They have codes for 50% off, so if you have a lot to print, that’s the way to go. For just a few photos, an Epson EcoTank works great at home.

I did notice after it was all done that I spelled “sophomore” wrong on one of the pages. I squeezed in the missing letter and just kept going! That’s kind of how scrapbooking goes sometimes.

My son has already spent a lot of time looking through it, and I cannot wait to give it to him all put together in order for his graduation party on June 14th.

If You Haven’t Scrapbooked in a While…

This was such a good reminder of how sweet it is to put photos into a real album. If you’ve been meaning to start one, I hope this gives you a little push. Watch the video replay to see all the pages up close!