Whether it's for a gift for family member or friend or a keepsake for yourself, a U.S. Marines scrapbook album is a great way to record time spent in the military.
Giving a U.S. Marines Scrapbook Album
This scrapbook can be a great gift for someone who is graduating from boot camp, going overseas or retiring from the military. This style of album can capture the months or even years a marine has spent serving his or her country.
Boot Camp Graduation
It has been said if you can survive Marine boot camp, you can survive almost anything. That said, graduating is still an honor of a lifetime. Some ideas for a U.S. Marines scrapbook album for someone graduating from boot camp include:
- A copy of the Marine's Hymn
- Letters to and from home
- A copy of This Is My Rifle: The Creed of a U.S. Marine
- Photographs of life and people at boot camp, including images from the graduation ceremony
- Awards, metals and honors
- Postcards of boot camp and surrounding cities
- A copy of the 11 General Orders for a Sentry
Overseas Marine
Going overseas can be a fearful or joyous time, depending where in the world your Marine is heading. A scrapbook designed to record his or her time overseas can be an emotional and time-consuming project. Ideas for laying out those scrapbook pages include:
- Letters or e-mails
- Newspapers from where he or she is stationed, as well as hometown newspapers during that time frame
- Photographs of Marine before he or she left and on leave
- Pictures from abroad
- Souvenirs from where the soldier is serving
- Lists of current events including popular music, sports teams' events and other world news
Retiring Marine
If you are making an album for a career Marine, than you may need more than one scrapbook. Those with 10-plus years in the military may have collected hundreds of souvenirs, awards and photographs. Dividing the scrapbook into time spent and where the Marine was stationed may be your best bet. Other ideas include:
- A timeline showing dates and places of service
- A photographic timeline of service
- Journaling the various letters, postcards and e-mails
- Creating a special section to highlight the annual Marine Ball and each year in attendance with programs and photographs
- Names and phone numbers of military friends (This information will come in handy when planning a reunion!)
Embellishments
There are several kinds of embellishments you can use to help design any style of Marines scrapbook, including:
- Marine Corps medallion laser die cut
- Stickers
- Dog tags
- Operation Enduring Freedom ribbon tag
- Operation Desert Storm ribbon tag
- Semper Fi die cut
- Marine stencil die cut
- Marine Corps medallion charm
- 2005 Marine Corps 230th anniversary silver dollar
- Bulldog die cut
Quotes
There are many quotes you can use to personalize your pages. They include:
- "Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem."
- "Freedom is not free, but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share."
- "Once a Marine, always a Marine."
- "The few, the proud, the Marines."
- "A ship without Marines is like a coat without buttons."
- "I can never again see a United States Marine without experiencing a feeling of reverence."
- "Uncommon valor was a common virtue."
More Military Scrapbooks
If you aren't as crafty as you'd like to be, you can also purchase a pre-designed Marine Corps scrapbook, a 32-page album that incorporates the Marines medallion on its cover. Each page is 12 inches square. The first section including scrapbooking ideas, techniques, instructions and sample projects to make your own pages. The second section has 20 decorative pages with top-loading photo sleeves. Each scrapbooking page has military and patriotic borders and motifs that can be removed or reorganized to personalize the scrapbook. Other military scrapbooks include:
- Army
- Navy
- Air Force
Preserve Those Military Memories
A lot can happen during a career in the Marines. Deployments to exotic places, personal promotions, and plenty of adventures all make good additions to a scrapbook. Capture those memories and save them for future generations of your family.
