I admit it -- I have scoffed at scrapbooking in the past. A single photo on a page with all kinds of doodads and folderols seems time consuming and expensive to me. But what Creating Keepsakes offers with this workbook is a brilliant cross between writing family histories and scrapbooking. From the moment I opened the book, my opinion of scrapbooking changed. Intrigued by their beautiful pages that are full of rich family history details, I found myself interested in not only looking at the design, but al so in reading the accompanying stories on each page.

This book is particularly helpful to the beginner. If you don't know much about scrapbooking, like me, you will get some great pointers on how to start. And if you don't know much about recording family histories, this workbook will give you some beautiful examples of how to make family stories come alive with photos and illustrations.

This beautifully designed book is divided into six chapters: Getting Started, Family, Babies, Childhood/Teen Years, Adult Years, and Family Traditions. Each chapter features color-photographed sample pages with fascinating journaling (short vignettes or longer stories about people in the photos) and helpful guidelines. These guidelines include checklists, teaching readers how to find the necessary information, organize that information, and plan the pages. There are also worksheets with questions to help you get started on journaling or forms, such as letters, research logs, or pedigree charts. Sample page templates also show how to organize the photos and the journaling.

What I especially like about this book is the variety of design and content on each scrapbooked page. There are eight different authors who have included their sample pages. Each author has a distinct style that shows options to inspire us as we begin designing our own family stories. And each chapter shows a sample of a stand alone album with the inclusive pages, along with pointers on how to recreate the albums.

The appendices at the end of the book are very useful. The Index details all the sample albums, checklists, forms, page planners, and worksheets and includes their respective page numbers. But what is really fabulous is the Supplies page, which breaks down each sample page and shares with readers the specific paper, embellishments, and fonts used so that we can easily recreate the pages we like.

There is also a special bonus when you purchase this book. You can download 72 different documents, which include checklists, forms, page planners, and worksheets. However, when I tried to download these documents, only one of the links worked (the Leisure Arts link on page 11).

In conclusion, I have to endorse this book, "Scrapbooking Your Family History: The Ultimate Workbook" by Creating Keepsakes. It is a beautiful volume that gives practical and useful information, includes great bonuses, and is reasonably priced. If you are interested in enhancing your family history with pictures, this book would be a great purchase for you.

Review written by Larisa S. Asaeli