Bored Kids Buster: Inspiration Scrapbooks

If you haven’t noticed….I’m on a bit of a vay-cay!  It’s my 12th anniversary and we’re livin’ it up.  I love remembering why I got married, and how much we are still in love.  (ahhhhh……..)

But just so I don’t go leaving you hanging for a WHOLE WEEK….check out this fun idea I shared last week over at Sew Dang Cute.  It’s such an easy and fun way to help finish out the summer with your kids!  Hope your summer is finishing off with a bang!!

Summer is coming to a close! Can you believe it?  It seems like it’s gone by so fast.  But one thing that plagues the last month of our summer is always “I’m so bored!”  I’ve run out of the GUSTO I began the summer with.  I’ve exhausted most of my grand ideas for entertainment.

And know what?  I bet the kids are sick of me too!  I get grumpy when I feel like an unpaid maid and referee.

So last week, I came up with an idea to get us thinking, away from the electronics, and having fun together.  (and bonus: it TOTALLY uses up a bunch of old supplies.  That’s my part for the environment!)

I started with some inexpensive “scrapbooks” that I bought at my local craft store.  I bought one for each of us.  And we’ll be able to use them several times, because it would take days to fill them all.

I told my kids to have at Mommy’s old magazines, unwanted stickers, out-of-style papers, and anything else they wanted to use.  This was really fun for them because they aren’t usually allowed to use Mom’s supplies.

I told them to think about things that made them happy, things they liked, things that described them.  Anything they wanted to decorate the pages.  This book is about YOU!

• The key is Mom made one too.  I sat down and talked with them about what they were making, and why.  And helped them with writing if necessary.  We all needed to spend some time together to be happy again!!

The differences between the pages was so entertaining.  And make sure that there’s NO right or wrong way.  Whatever is inspiring to the individual is okay.  (this page was about how Daddy snores really loud.  My 9 year old thought it was hysterical!)

Then we all decorated our books with our names and some other fun details.   (again, these are totally not full.  We’ll use them again another day)

My son cut out lots of pictures he thought were funny.  And put captions on them.

There was talk in both books about pets we don’t have.

My daughter wanted to use lots of stickers and pictures of make-up and fingernail polish.  And at one point, she cut out a picture of a model who she thought looked like her, except “when I’m grown up.”

I did a lot of words that inspire me.  And this page has words about music and art.  But it’s very minimal.  Which was fun.  (and there’s a hidden/not so hidden Mickey on there.  ‘Cause that’s one of my “things”)

And this one I did like an inspiration board.  I cut out colors I love, and ideas I like.  I like doodling on the pages as well.  Because it preserves your handwriting.  And I think that’s important.

We really had fun, working on these scrapbooks.  And the kids are already asking when we can work on them some more.  I had them entertained for a whole afternoon!  Plus, I gotta admit….it was pretty fun for me too.  We sure liked each other a lot more that day.