As scrapbookers, we sometimes unintentionally exclude ourselves from our scrapbooks. It may be because we're always the one behind the camera or simply because of modesty. However, even if you're not a scrapbooker, this is an easy, inexpensive way to record your personal favorites or simply words that describe yourself. This project also uses very few supplies, so it's a great place to start if you're new to scrapbooking. You could use photos if you like, but I decided to keep mine simple and exclude them.

Supplies needed:

• Mini album-any size will work, just keep in mind that the bigger the album, the more you'll have to fill it! The one I used is a tiny 4x 4 spiral bound with 12 pages (front and back) that I got a local discount chain for $1.00!

Your album needs to contain at least 12 pages (front and back-24 individual pages) or more if you want a page for each letter of the alphabet. (I combined X, Y and Z onto one page.)

• Letter Stickers or Stamps-or you could print letters with a cool font from your computer.
• Pens and Markers-to hand write your descriptive words. You could also type them and adhere them to your pages, but that's not as fun! (It's also nice to have your own handwriting on a keepsake-future generations will appreciate it.)
• Any additional stickers, paper, or photos that you'd like to use (optional)

First, decorate the front of your album and/or the first page on the inside of the album with the title, date or year, and your name. My title is "The ABC's of Me," but feel free to get creative. You may want to choose a color scheme for the entire album or just make each page colorful. Also, I tied fibers and ribbon onto the outside spiral binding of my album.

Second, create a fun letter for each in the alphabet. I stamped each letter onto patterned paper and then cut them out and adhered them to my pages-one letter for each page (with the exception of X, Y and Z, which as I said before, I combined onto one page) Or you could stamp directly onto the page, or use a letter sticker. The possibilities are endless-just make it yours.

Third, brainstorm what words relate to you that start with each letter; for example, for the letter "A," I wrote:

American Idol

Animals

Adam Sandler

Art

Alice in Wonderland

All of these are things I like or are my favorites. They scream "me" and all start with the letter "A." After you've brainstormed, start writing! I used a doodle-like approach and tried to write some words funky, some pretty; some in marker, some in pen. Whatever the style, it will reflect You!

I finished off my mini album by adding a few decorative stickers here and there to fill in some empty spaces.

If you like this mini album idea but want to take it a step further, use a standard 8.5x11 or 12x12 album, pick a theme, gather some pictures, and begin creating!

Here are some ideas for other ABC albums:

ABC's of Love (or Us)

ABC's of Baby's First Year

ABC's of Marriage

ABC's of Friendship

ABC's of Graduation

ABC's of Christmas (or other holiday)

ABC's of sports

ABC's of Pregnancy

ABC's of Parenthood or Grandparenting

ABC's for a Preschooler who is learning the alphabet

ABC's of Animals (to use as a learning tool as well)

These are just a small sampling of what themes you can come up with. The sky's the limit!

ABC albums are great to give as handmade gifts. They allow you to personalize a theme, usually require minimal supplies, and give you structure to the album so that you can complete one quickly.

I made an ABC scrapbook for my husband several years ago as a gift for our anniversary. Here are the ABC titles I came up with: (some are personal and won't mean anything to anyone but us, but for the sake of example, here they are)

Anniversary

Birthdays (we share the same birthday)

Costumes (we dress up for Halloween)

Dining out

Education

Family

Garity (nickname)

Honey (what I call him)

I love you

Joker (he is one!)

Key to my heart

Love letters

Memories

Now and then

Outdoors

Pathfinder (his car)

Quacktastic (inside joke between us)

Razorback fan (sports)

Sunday mornings

Together

Us

Valentine

Wedding

Xoxo (hugs and kisses)

You mean the world to me

Zzzz (sleeping)

So you see it's easy to come up with ABC titles that are customized to you so that you can create a personalized, special gift album that will be treasured for many years.

I hope you've gotten some inspiration and learned that scrapbooking can be easy and of course fun! Happy creating!