Preserve Halloween’s fun with a frighteningly simple scrapbook

By Sandi Genovese DIY Network
What is the scariest thing about Halloween? As adults, the answer might well be the weight gain that results from snacking on Halloween candy. For kids, it’s more about dressing up and collecting the candy than it is about being scared.

What better time to take photos than when your kids are dressed in costume? And with the ease of digital photography, it’s simple to print multiple copies of each photo. This ability opens the door to a houseful of Halloween scrapbooks for kids without the worry of depleting your stock of original photos.

There are several different styles of mini scrapbooks that lend themselves to this project. The goal is for each child to help make and to keep his or her own mini book, so be sure to keep it simple. All that’s really needed are the most basic of supplies, including paper, stickers or die cuts, adhesive and a hole punch. Even the binding can be easily made by hand.

A black rubber band binding is frighteningly simple. Dot the rubber band with a silver or white pen and slide the band over a stack of folded pages, coming to rest in the middle fold. The rubber band binding works best when it is only slightly longer than the width of the pages.
Another binding that kids can make is created with a small length of ball chain. Craft stores carry ball chain in colors or you can pick it up at a hardware store for pennies. Punch a hole in the top of all of the pages and thread the chain through the holes to hold the pages together.

A boo-t-full mini book is bound with colored rings that are also available in craft stores. Metal key rings work just as well, as do colored plastic rings found in pet stores (their original use is to label bird legs).

And finally, a spidery mini book is bound with twist ties that are created with a thin gauge wire trapped between two fabric sticker strips

There’s no special trick to making these mini books — the real treat is to enjoy the photos with your kids and create mini books with them that need not be pampered or handled with care. When the supplies are inexpensive and the photos can be printed again and again, your kids can play with them or share them with their friends with no worries about preserving them for future generations. These spellbinding, simple scrapbooks are just for the fun of it.

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