My daughter is now 21 years old. She loves to look back at the Girl Scout scrapbook that she made when she was a scout. This activity is a great investment of time and materials. Plus, it is an easy meeting to plan 2-3 times a year.
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Creating a Girl Scout scrapbook is an easy and worthwhile activity to do with your troop. With a little advanced planning, your girls can create an individual keepsake of their scouting years that will last a lifetime. While you can begin your troop’s Girl Scout scrapbook at any time of the year, starting in the fall gives your girls a trip down memory lane that will make them smile at the end of the school year.
Twice a year, we devoted time to working on our scrapbooks. It is simply too overwhelming to do it all at one meeting. It was a tradition at our very last Girl Scout meeting before summer break to work on them. This always brought lots of giggles and grins were as they looked at their pictures from a few years earlier.
Three Important Things to Know Before Starting a Girl Scout Scrapbook
Decide Who Will Be the Photographer
Before you begin, have one leader in charge of taking the pictures, having them processed and separating them into a pile for each girl. Make sure whoever is the photographer gets enough notice to develop the film before your scrapbook meeting. My co-leader was in charge of this and she would develop the film and make individual bags of photos for each girl.
Leave Time at Each Meeting for Pictures
During each meeting, my co-leader would take candid shots or ask the girls to smile while engaged in the activity of the day. At the end, if we were making a craft project, she took one photo of each girl holding her project and one group photo at the end of the meeting with all the girls holding their projects.
Get Volunteers to Make Your Girl Scout Scrapbook for Younger Girls
When my troop was younger, I had two extra volunteers come to our scheduled scrapbook meetings. This is really important because Daisy Scouts get scissor happy and cut way too much off a picture! They also need help learning how to scrapbook. More eyes means fewer mistakes!
How We Made Our Make a Girl Scout Scrapbook
We Started Doing This Activity as Girl Scout Daisies
The first way to make a Girl Scout scrapbook is to use a basic Avery binder and page protector inserts. Avery binders come in an assortment of colors. I chose white for everyone to keep things simple. When new girls joined, finding a basic white binder for their Girl Scout scrapbook was simple.
Available on Amazon
Package of 100 Page Protector Inserts Available on Amazon
Colorful Cardstock Available on Amazon
For paper, I used cardstock that the girls decorate with stickers and markers, or themed paper I can find in Staples or craft stores. For example, we will do a scrapbooking meeting in late November. I make sure that I have bought all of the fall and Halloween stickers and paper at the beginning of the month, when stores are trying to get rid of these things. The same goes for the week after any major holiday.
You can also buy bulk themed stickers.
These stickers and more like them
Leaders of Daisies and Brownies, the following is a helpful hint from my personal experience.
When my troop was younger, before the scrapbooking meeting, I cut up the stickers and placed them in plastic bags with each girl’s name on it ahead of time. This prevented one girl from hogging one kind of sticker and it made each girl responsible for her own supplies. If she did not finish, she could bring the bag and the paper home to finish.
Are you planning on making a Girl Scout scrapbook with your troop?
