Scrapbooking Supplies

Military Scrapbooking Ideas for Armed Forces Personnel and Their Families

Being in the military is a lifestyle all its own. You might be a service personnel or the parent, spouse or child of someone in the armed forces. The military life touches everyone who loves someone serving in any one of the service branches whether it is the Marines, Navy, Army, Air Force, or National Guard. Military scrapbooking ideas all start with how the military life affects you.

Scrapbooking Ideas for Military Personnel

As a member of the armed forces, you will want to preserve and document your military experience. Recording your memories of your service years is important not only for yourself, but also for your children and future generations. Your years in the service are not only personal, but they document our national history as well. You might have served in a war or responded to a national crisis. Preserving your memories of those experiences will tell others your first-person account of a moment in history.

Items to Include In Your Military Scrapbook

• Your service documents including your enlistment application
• Newspaper articles
• Photos of you receiving recognition
• Photos of returning home from a duty station
• Photos of your military friends
• Photos of your service stations
• A time line of your years in service, including where and when you served
• Pages or quotes from your personal journal, including your hopes, fears, and thoughts
• Information on the training you received, including when and where you received training
• Photos of boot camp, including your graduation
• Awards and recognition with journaling on how, when and why you received them
• Photos of your metals and ribbons including how, when and why you received these honors
• Highlights of your military career
• Photos of ceremonies you participated in
• Your retirement party

Scrapbooking for Family Members of Military Personnel

Is someone you love in the armed forces? You may want to document their military career for them, or create a scrapbook about how that person's military life affected you. Being the spouse, child or parent of someone in the military, you will have your own thoughts, fears, feelings and hopes about his/her military life. Your scrapbook can be a gift for the military personnel or for someone else in their family, like a son or daughter. It also can be an account of how military life affected your own life experiences.

Items for Family Members to Include in a Military Scrapbook

• Photos of you with your loved one in the service
• Farewell photos
• Homecoming photos
• Journaling of your feelings about being part of a military family
• Moving day photos from one service station community to another
• Letters or emails written from your loved one in the armed forces
• Photos of military family events like picnics or formal parties
• Newspaper articles

Scrapbooking companies are responding to the huge demand for military scrapbooking supplies. You can find albums with armed forces emblems on the cover. Stickers and embellishments relating to the military service are also available. However, it's your own personal photos and journaling that will create a military scrapbook that will become a legacy to future generations.

Christine Perry is an avid scrapbooker and has over 10 years of scrapbooking experience. Her favorite scrapbooking subjects are her reluctant teenagers. She invites you to her website, http://www.intoscrapbooking.com for more scrapbooking ideas and scrapbooking ideas with kids.

Many of us have friends and family serving our country, and what better way to preserve their memories than some special military scrapbook pages.

Paper is the background or backdrop for each page in your scrapbook, therefore choosing the right paper is a very important decision. You want paper that is acid and lignin free, as well as paper that has a high archival quality and has the proper PH level.  Below we’ll discuss what each of these terms mean and why they’re important for your scrapbook.

Acid Free

Have you ever noticed how an old photo fades and turns yellow? This is because the paper it’s printed on contains acid. The acid is removed during the paper processing, making it “acid free”.

Lignin

What is lignin and how does it affect photos and the paper they’re on? Lignin is the natural element that holds wood fibers together. Have you ever noticed how quickly a newspaper turns yellow and starts to look frayed? This is because the paper contains lignin. Like acid, lignin can also be removed during the processing of the paper.

If you want to include newspaper articles or prints in your scrapbook, copy them onto off-white acid and lignin paper for an authentic look. This will help preserve the precious memories without ruining your pictures.

Buffered paper

Buffered paper is created by paper manufacturers adding a buffering agent such as calcium carbonate or magnesium bicarbonate to neutralize contaminates. Buffered papers have a PH of 8.5.

PH level

Speaking of PH, the PH factor refers to the acidity of the paper. Acid free papers have a PH of 7 or above.

Archival Quality

Another term you’ll often see on scrapbook paper is “archival quality”. Archival quality is a term used to indicate paper that has undergone laboratory analysis to determine whether the acidic and buffered content is within safe levels.

Where to find Quality Scrapbook Paper

The paper you use in your scrapbook is the foundation for your pictures, memorabilia, embellishments and journaling. This is why it’s so important to choose the right paper for your scrapbook.

Here at My Scrapbooking Supplies, I promise that the paper I promote on this site is acid and lignin free, of high archival quality and has the proper PH level.

For a great selection of paper, including different patterns, colors, textures and designs, see the Scrapbooking Paper on Ebay Now page. Not only will you find a huge selection of high quality scrapbooking paper, you’ll also get a great deal.

There are only a few days until Father's day, so I looked around and found this quick tutorial for a Father's day card. Enjoy it! And if you are doing something different for your dad, please post below an show us what you did.

Here are some of the supplies Christina used to make her card:

- Paper Doll Dress Up Cartridge

- Beyond Birthdays Cartridge

- Chocolate chip cad stock

- Cuttlebug Embossing Machine

- Grosgrain ribbon

- Embossing folder