Create a Professional Adoption Scrapbook Album Fast

Create a Professional Adoption Scrapbook Album Fast
by Lisa Copen

When you are waiting to adopt a child, especially your first, it can seem to take forever, regardless of how long or short the wait actually is. One way to pass the time is to start your adoption scrapbook album now. As you begin to record some of your thoughts at the time you'll see why it's so important to still take the time after your child arrives.

Don't feel overwhelming with the task of creating an adoption scrapbook album. One of the easiest and most natural places to start is with an extensive list of topics about the adoption experience. This can help get you brain focusing on events you may otherwise overlook. These lists can be found on a variety of web sites including my own which has over 150 topics.

Consider purchasing a pre-made adoption album. You can buy a hard-cover book at your favorite bookstore, or even hire a freelance scrapbooker to do a pre-designed book for you. One of the best is the Adoption Scrapbook Album which is twenty pages of overlays, where you get to choose five that specifically fits your child's experience. They make your book look like it was designed by a professional, but with the price tag of doing it yourself.

Visit your local scrapbook store or craft store and find some stickers and other embellishments. You'll find that few mention adoption specifically, but you can find a lot of stickers with saying about family, baby milestones, love, and other life events. You can add these to your book when you need a little spot to fill and it adds some character.

Have fun writing down the day-to-day stuff and taking photos of silly things. Now with digital cameras you can take dozens of photos of things a close up of Cheerios to the pile of laundry. The more creative photos you take, the more fun you'll have journaling. Later on, you'll be glad you wrote and photographed about the uneventful stuff too and your child will love reading about it.

Be creative, but don't get obsessive about it. Don't go join "cropping parties" unless you want a new social group. Buy a nice paper cutter, stick with straight edges on your photos (no circles will save hours), matte photos using solid-color card stock and buy the patterned paper in bulk (craft stores have "slabs.").

Write it down now. It's a good idea to get the adoption scrapbook album done sooner rather than later so your toddler can look at it, at least start keeping notes as you go so you will have lots of journaling ideas to choose from. Purchase a small notepad to carry around in the diaper bag so you have it handy when you want to write down something that happened or just record your thoughts.

My son turns five-years-old this month. The first year of his life I grew so tired of strangers telling me, "It goes so fast." Now I find myself smiling at little babies and telling the new mothers, "Cherish it. It goes so fast." Adoption is such an amazing experience and every time you look into your little one's eyes you think you will remember every single moment. But our brains can only hold so much and our children do change quickly. Record those treasured memories now.


The Adoption Scrapbook Album is a quick, simple way to design a professional lifebook. Use transparency overlays, digital scrapbooking files, or special embellishments specific to adoption. Your and friends will love it, especially if you aren't a crafty person! Free poems and quotes from Lisa Copen at Scrapbook My Adoption