Start
writing, even when you aren’t sure where to begin.
Use a piece of scrap paper and just start writing. Take
a free-form approach and write whatever comes to mind. Really
think about your event or special memory. Once you get started,
and the words begin to flow, you’ll be sure to come
up with some great journaling text.
Do something fun. Write your own newspaper
article, comic strip, letter, or classified ad to capture
the essence or your specific memory. These fun alternatives
to standard journaling can add such life to your pages.
Journal even (and especially) when you don’t have
any photos. Putting words on paper and embellishing your
page with a theme that fits your special event will aid
in preserving your memories nearly as much as any photo.
Just because you don’t have a photo,
doesn’t mean you cant create a scrapbook page. Instead
of a photo, use a special memento as the focal point for
the page (such as a postcard, card, handwritten note, swatch
of fabric or other item). Then add journaling to detail
the special memory. You’ll be sure to picture it in
your mind for years to come.
Samuel L. Clemens, born in Florida, Mo.,
received patent #121,992 on December 19, 1871 for an Improvement
in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments. Clemens,
better known as Mark Twain and famous for stories such as
Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, also was an inventor and
received a total of three patents. While living in Hartford,
Conn., Twain, received his first patent for an adjustable
strap that could be used to tighten shirts at the waist.
This strap attached to the back of a shirt
and fastened with buttons to keep it in place and was easy
to remove. Twains invention was not only used for shirts,
but for underpants and women’s corsets as well. His
purpose was to do away with suspenders, which he considered
uncomfortable. Twain also received patents for a self-pasting
scrapbook in 1873, that was very popular and sold over 25,000
copies, and in 1885 for a history trivia game. Twain also
believed strongly in the value of the patent system. In
his book, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,
Hank Morgan, the Connecticut Yankee, said …the very
first official thing I did in my administration-and it was
on the very first day of it too-was to start a patent office;
for I knew that a country without a patent office and good
patent laws was just a crab and couldn’t travel anyway
but sideways and backwards.
Scrapbook Totes
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