Dude! Don't Mess with my Car!

Dude! Road Trip!

You're going to end up in some roadside trap and they'll want you to put a bumper sticker on your pride and joy.

Dude! Take the sticker for your scrapbook!



There's nothing like a bumper sticker to show the spirit and tackiness of the American open road. Leverage that spirit by plastering it across the page. Just keep it away from your photos as the chemicals in each don't mix well with photos and can damage things in long term.

Besides, there's no way the girls would use such a thing in their scrapbook, unless it said, " I (heart) my cat."

Dude! Roll On!

Dude! Go BIG!

So, the brochure from the site you visited has a giant pic. Use it!



On this page, I took the pix that best captured my memories at the memorial then cut out the big pic and label from their brochure.

Simple. Clean. Girly baubles would only detract from the essence of the place.

And attract cats.

Dude, mount your pictures!

Dude! Just because you're not using ribbons and bows doesn't mean you just glue your pix on the paper like you did in kindergarten. Mount them on another piece of paper first.



Mounting the pix in this page helps them stand out. Plus, since the pix are of all different sizes and of a variety of things the mounting provides some unity to all the shots.

Clean lines. Strong colors. Pix of hiking the kids up steep cliffs. And a lizard that would scare any cat.

Dude! You're on your way!

Dude, pick a manly topic!

First rule of men's scrapbooking: Pick a manly topic.

Try things like camping, car shows, carpentry, skydiving, hiking, hunting, remodeling projects, trips to sports stadiums, or fishing trips.

In other words, don't dedicate your scrapbook to your cat.

Pick something you

a. like to do
b. can take pictures of or already have a stack of pictures of
c. don't need to hide from your friends

For me, I chose my main thing to scrapbook was my trips National Parks. Use your scrapbook to keep the memories alive without using antlers as the main source of interior decorating.

Dude, where's the men's aisle?

So I like to take pictures and respect my family's adventures enough that I think their memories deserve something better than a shoebox. Yet, when I went into the local store to find a nice way to capture the essence of our life, I discovered that the stores assumed several things:

1. That I like flowers and ribbons and buttons and bows.
2. That gardening and grandchildren are my two greatest passions.
3. That when I look at a scrapbook I think it's fun to play "Where's Waldo?" trying to find my photos through all the garbage glued on the page.
4. That I own and photograph several cats.

Clearly, none of these things are true.

I figured that there must be a way for a man to plow through this stuff and make something worth the memories. The Scrappy Dude is a blog of that ongoing quest. Are you be man enough to join me?