Scrapping old award ribbons can be a fun project that celebrates your past accomplishments.
Important Accomplishments
Award ribbons are given out for a variety of activities:
- Sports
- Music
- Art
- Speech/drama
- 4-H
If you participated in the same activities in junior high, high school, and college, you've probably accumulated a massive collection of award ribbons. Since these ribbons are too precious to be stuffed in an old shoebox, creating a special theme album to showcase them is a wonderful idea.
Tips for Scrapping Old Award Ribbons
When scrapping old award ribbons, remember the following helpful tips:
- Make categories to separate your ribbons. If you have ribbons for track and field, for example, keep them separate from the ribbons you won in the local art show.
- Organize by date. If all your ribbons are from one type of activity, try organizing them by date.
- If your ribbons have string hangers, use colorful brads to attach them to the page. Otherwise, small glue dots or double sided tape will work well.
- Don't overload your pages. Since award ribbons can be kind of bulky, you'll want to limit each page to two or three ribbons. If you choose to add other embellishments, stickers or die cuts are a better choice than acrylic, metal, or other dimensional accents.
- Keep it simple. A scrapbook showcasing award ribbons doesn't need a lot of extra embellishments, since the ribbons are intended to be the focus of the page.
- Consider a neutral color scheme. Award ribbons are usually pretty colorful on their own, so you don't need a lot of competing colors in the background. Black, white, tan, cream, or gray backgrounds are very effective for this type of scrapbook.
Journaling Ideas
Like any other scrapbook layout, a page featuring old award ribbons needs some journaling. Here are a few questions to get you started:
- When did you win the ribbon?
- How long did you have to train or prepare for the event?
- How did you feel when you won?
- How did your performance at this event compare to competitions in the past?
You can also include photos, newspaper clippings, and other memorabilia related to the event on the page to help fill in the gaps. If you don't have these items, you may be able to find some useful information in the local newspaper archives or by contacting your former teammates to see if you can make copies of their photos.
Quotes to use when scrapping award ribbons include:
- "Would that there were an award for people who come to understand the concept of enough. Good enough. Successful enough. Thin enough. Rich enough. Socially responsible enough. When you have self-respect, you have enough." - Gail Sheehy
- "Let us remind ourselves that life is a pursuit and not necessarily the accomplishment." --Author Unknown
- "Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal." -Pamela Vaull Star
- "Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments." --Jim Rohn
Is Digital Scrapbooking the Answer?
One of the problems with scrapping old award ribbons is that your album can quickly become very bulky. If this is a major concern for you, consider digital scrapbooking. You can scan all of your award ribbons to make layouts that have all of the important details with none of the bulk. To learn more about digital scrapbooking, check out the following helpful articles:
