Kit Leffler

A photo bouquet created by writer Lynn Hamilton uses craft store supplies including cork and craft wire.

Find your used disposable cameras that are full of old pictures and get them developed. You’re sure to find snapshots of people you don’t recall at parties you don’t remember attending, but you might also find some good ones of great nights and wonderful memories.

Now all you need to know is what to do with them.

Jordan Roberts, Shawnee, Okla., senior, may call herself a “scrapbook dork,” but her hobby has paid off. During winter break, Roberts made $300 making two scrapbooks for an organization in her hometown that hosts a summer camp.

Her hobby began in middle school and now she has a scrapbook for each year since. Roberts started this hobby herself and says she definitely didn’t catch the scrapbook craze from her mom, who she says is horrible with organizing family pictures. Since high school, Roberts has been putting together family scrapbooks for her mom and getting an outfit in exchange for each. One scrapbook she completed was her own baby book.

“I know it sounds elementary, but for me it is therapeutic to make them, and they are so fun to look at when they are done,” Roberts says.

Organization 101

Instead of sticking pictures to your wall with Scotch tape or shoving them into the corner of your mirror, make a scrapbook. It’s easy to do and can organize the hundreds of pictures lying under your bed.

Roberts suggests choosing your favorite pictures and sticking them into scrapbooks with acid-free, double-sided tape. She finds her scrapbooks on sale at Hobby Lobby, 1801 W. 23rd St. After choosing and sticking her photos in the scrapbook, she doodles or adds little notes around the pictures, telling what happened that night or what she and her friends did or said.

Roberts says, “It’s very entertaining to look back at them and laugh at what my friends and I have done in the past few years.”

Get Wired

Barbara Van Hoesen, event coordinator at Michael’s Arts and Crafts, 3106 Iowa St., makes picture displays using small terra cotta pots and craft wire. She makes hers by inserting foam into the pot and then pushing the wire into the foam until it’s secure. Then she coils the top of the wire and sticks the picture between the coils. Van Hoesen says anything that has a place to stick the metal wire such as glass jars with a cork or wood cutouts can also be used.

I made my own with floral wire and a small glass jar that I filled with M&Ms; to give it a little color. It only took about 10 minutes and was easy to make. I also added additional stems so that it turned into a kind of picture bouquet.

Downtown Inspirations

If you are overwhelmed with the plethora of ways to get creative with your photos, you have something in common with Lindsey Collier. Collier works at Crafty and Company, 918 Massachusetts St., and says she loves so many ideas but doesn’t have the time to try them out. Collier suggests simple ideas like using different cardstocks to showcase your pictures or even using an adhesive runner to stick on embellishments to give your pictures a little pizzazz.

To get a personalized, hand-painted frame, spend an afternoon at Sunfire Ceramics, 1002 New Hampshire St. You can choose from stencils, stamps and more than 40 colors of paint to create a frame that is as individual as yourself. Owner Cheryl Roth says after you have finished your design, a clear glaze is applied to the frame and it is fired in a kiln that reaches 1,900 degrees. There are so many different approaches, Roth says, that each frame is unique.

Saving your memories may take a little effort now, but it will be much easier than trying to remember them later.