Portrait Ideas & Uses

Scrapbooking Tips

Scrapbooks are excellent ways to preserve priceless memories and encourage a unique appreciation of family history. It can be a fun project or a lifelong hobby.

Tips to get you started:

• Select a scrapbook and its contributing elements based on their archival quality to keep your portraits safe (acid-free, lignin-free and non-yellowing guarantee).
• Sort everything chronologically by placing items in dated piles or files.
• Make each page an original statement with high quality paper, coloured markers, stickers, stencils, rubber stamps and decorative edge scissors or hole punches.
• Consider having a theme for each page or album.
• Encourage children to build scrapbooks for grandparents, giving the gift of a new page each year that features their school portrait.

Home & Office Décor

Create a miniature portrait art gallery in your home or office, and choose frames that complement your décor and personal style:

• Acrylic plastics for a clean and simple hanging, or desktop display clip frames and wall mounts.
• Mat kits with glass, pre-cut mats and backing board in one handy package.
• Spring-clip, back-loading, ready-made frames to complement any taste or style.

Develop your own ideas for collage displays or try these suggestions:

• Take wallet-size portraits from every year, mat and frame the group and place next to a 3”x5” framed portrait of the current school year.
• Create a collage mat and frame with oval cutouts for each school year portrait and place a larger current year portrait in the centre to create a point of focus.
• Showcase the change that can occur in a single school year by displaying fall and spring portraits side-by-side.
• Make a framed scrapbook page with your child, including his or her current year photo, key awards and other memorabilia.

Portrait Crafts

School portraits aren’t just for framing. The variety of sizes available in your portrait package lend themselves to great craft projects like these:

Key Chain: Laminate your wallet-sized portrait with heavy plastic and use a hole punch to string it onto a key chain.

Sun Catchers: Use coloured glass, suction mounts and other simple materials to create a pretty floating window display for your child’s school portrait.

Growth Chart: Use fabric scraps and/or poster board, pre-cut mats and other materials to frame school portraits. Hang vertically in a chart to show your child’s growth and developing maturity.

Best Friends Necklace: Laminate wallet portraits of close friends; punch a hole near the top and string onto a ribbon or cord.

Creative Frames: Buy plain, inexpensive ready-made frames and decorate with dried flowers, ribbon, buttons, medals and other sentimental objects.

Holiday Ornaments: Buy ready-made ornament frames or create your own.

Scrapbooks: See Scrapbooking Tips for a list of great ideas to get started in this popular craft.

Portrait Gifts

The gift of a child’s portrait links family and friends - whether they’re across town, the country or the world.
You can also buy a scrapbook album for grandparents. Work with your children to create a special page each year containing school portraits, awards, pictures with friends and other memorabilia. See Scrapbooking Tips for more “how to” portrait ideas.

Portrait Exchange

The tradition of swapping school portraits brings fun and pleasure today, and preserves memories of friends for a lifetime. Encourage your child to exchange photos with

• Classmates
• Friends in extracurricular activities
• Pen pals
• Distant friends
• Close friends