by Elspeth Raisbeck

Created on: September 08, 2009

Could there be anything closer to nostalgic heaven than a photo album? There you have hours of memories pouring over events, fashions and bad haircuts. Well, there might be...did you keep a scrapbook as a child? And if so, what made you stop?

Many of us have an ever-growing pile of life's detritus that we don't want to throw away...we'd do something with it if only we knew what - right? Old wedding invitations, unwritten holiday postcards, little bits of local currency that isn't worth exchanging, the brochure, theater tickets, ball game tickets from that really memorable match - does this sound familiar?

Photographs are great for putting faces in the context of where you met them, but they're often formal and posed, missing the person behind the camera, which is usually you. Someone blinks or pulls a face, and I wonder if they can capture the real essence of a memory on their own.

What about the special meal in that little tucked away restaurant on vacation, the evening at the theater, that memorable day-trip? Include a serviette with the restaurant's name on it, the label from the wine bottle, the theater program and suddenly the camera in your mind's eye plays back its video, complete with all the sights and smells, giving a three-dimensional memory trip.

In a scrapbook, a lot of the meaningful but useless debris we collect can be stuck down and tucked away for posterity - my how the long winter nights will just fly in our old age! Technology will come and go but paper, glue and the need to sit and indulge in nostalgia will never fade.

Not convinced yet? Think about making one for a specific event or a special person? A baby, from scan pictures, birth announcement, first photos (all pink and wrinkled), a little inky footprint, wrist band from the hospital...right on to school report cards and swimming certificates. The list is endless - you can fill volumes cataloguing the transition from little darling to civilised human being via truculent teenager.

Scrapbooks don't need to be smart and grownup just because we are. We all have an inner child who loves cutting and pasting (maybe it doesn't currently extend beyond the computer), so this is an ideal opportunity to indulge her.

There are neat volumes you can buy from any stationary store entitled "Wedding Memories" and "Baby's First Book", or alternatively look for the foolscap size books you associate with your childhood - the ones with brightly colored covers and thick pages. Either way, all you need is

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