The personal yearbook

When my daughters graduated, I made each of them special scrapbooks of their high school years. Filled with their accomplishments, athletic letters for tennis and college acceptances and scholarships, these scrapbooks are more fun than their school annuals because they’re so personal. I left pages for friends and family to write a few lines and also included all of the newspaper clippings, photos, awards and certificates that had been kept boxed away.

Ready to create your own? Crafting a graduation scrapbook is easy with these simple tips:

Gather the goods

Start by going through all those boxes of photos and keepsakes to help recall favorite moments and anecdotes, hunt down clippings from events, and gather sports and school uniforms, awards and certificates.

Document the good times

Ask your teenager’s best friends to write about a favorite memory or funny story. Then write up some yourself.

Create the book

Make color copies or scan school-uniform fabrics or even clippings to use as backgrounds for your photographs. Cut some photos into silhouettes or talking heads. You can use thought bubbles to make them “talk,” write captions or anecdotes underneath or, if you hate your handwriting, just type up your stories and print them out. Above all? Have fun! The sillier you get making this book, the better it will turn out.