10 Ideas for Scrapbooking Your Pet

10 Ideas for Scrapbooking Your Pet

Okay, I'll be honest. By "pet" I mean "dog." That's the only kind of pet I have any real experience with, except for a horrible chameleon that once caused my stepson's room to stink to high heaven and forced us to bring live cricketsinto our home, one of which I stepped on in the middle of the night, and another of which I saw crawling up my husband's back as he sat on the edge of our bed removing his socks. The stuff nightmares are made of.

But dogs. Oh, how I've loved my dogs.

This week, I was a guest on a very fun episode of The Paperclipping Roundtable, where we talked about photographing and scrapbooking pets (but really, just cats and dogs). I thought I'd post a quick round-up of some of the dog-related pages I've created over the years, some of which were mentioned on the show.

Tip: Stage a shot to capture a particular Our sweet Ruby, a dogue de bordeaux or French Mastiff, would lie in wait to hear anyone say the word "walk," and if she heard it uttered even in a completely different context ("Has anyone seen the wok? I'm in the mood for Chinese food."), she would race to sit at your feet and stare at you with great anticipation. We teased her a bit by saying the magic word over and over while trying to capture her expression. And then we took her on a walk.

Tip: Create a collage of "baby pictures" of your pet, with various friends and family members.

Tip: Create individual pages to capture your pet's relationship with specific members of your family. My father-in-law was one of Ruby's biggest fans, and I had a couple of pictures that proved it.

Tip: How does your pet help—or hinder—around the house? Take some pictures of everyday chores and/or mayhem involving your pet and make a page. Ruby loved to chase the shovel and try to eat the snow right out of it.

Tip: Make a "personality" page that lists all of your pet's unique traits. Brainstorm the list with other members of your family. My list is tucked behind the picture, and you can read it below.

Tip: Take a paw print and capture some stats. I used red acrylic paint to cover Ruby's paw, pressed it to a piece of photo paper, and then trimmed it down for this page. (The paint washed right off of her paw.) Incidentally, this was my very first "published" scrapbook page, way back in 2004 or 2005.

Tip: Imagine what your pet might be thinking and capture it on a page. It's a fun way to document a pet's personality. Enormous thought bubble is a bonus. (Note: as mentioned on the podcast, we went from The World's Most Wonderful Dog, Ruby, to The World's Naughtiest Dog, Jovie, and this page proves it.)

Tip: Create a chart to compare your pet's abilities, tastes, quirks and traits to another family member. I made this one as a table in Microsoft Word, and used an "X" stamp to mark the columns.

Tip: Capture your thoughts on a beloved pet's passing using this poetic technique. Simply set up a text box on your computer and set a timer, then freewrite all of your thoughts and feelings, just letting your thoughts flow. Don't edit or second-guess or check your spelling. Just write. Then format your text (choosing font, increasing line spacing, etc.) to fill the text box. Then read it over and select just a few words and phrases to serve as your journaling, and paint over the rest. It creates an artistic, poetic effect that can serve you well when it's hard to find the words.

Angie Lucas is a writer and editor living in Bluffdale, Utah, with her creative-director husband, Travis, and their daughter, Keira Jane. She is a freelance writer, the former editorial director of Big Picture Classes, the founder of ellapublishing.com, and the former managing editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine.

For more info on Angie please find her links below.

http://www.angielucas.com/about.html

http://www.angielucas.com/angielucas.com

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