It’s so important to include bits of news and pop culture in my scrapbook. It’s a great reference point. We spend so much time scrapbooking our own history and we don’t give any context about the world around us.
Stephanie wrote about pop culture on her blog recently and how few scrapbookers capture it.
A couple years ago, I told the story of interviewing my dad and how he couldn’t remember what major events happened in what year. This type of scrapbooking helps solve that.
How Do I Choose What to Include? I Google things like “2004 News” or “2004 Pop Culture” and read a lot. I jot down things I want to note, then pick the best ones.
How Do I Find Images to Use? I use Google Images. Since this is for personal use, I’m okay grabbing copyrighted images. I search for each thing, making sure to set the resolution to Large. I save the pictures then crop accordingly.
It’s such a fun exercise to review what happened! My goal is to include one layout for each year.
Do you include news or pop culture in your scrapbook? I’m seeing it a lot in people’s Project Life spreads and I think it’s a good thing.
Almost Never Clever 
I include images from pop culture by doing a page of school Valentine’s Day cards. I save the best ones from each year my son was in elementary school, and then do a collage-style page. It’s fun to see Disney princesses, Spongebob, Star Wars and more. It reminds me of what was popular when he was little.
Of course, now that my son’s a teenager, I guess I’ll try your idea – no more cute little Valentine’s anymore…
I love the valentine’s idea! I’ll have to remember that when I have kids!
Thanks for the link and sharing your tips on where to find information on pop culture!
My pleasure! I’m starting to think maybe I should write some of these things down the year that they happen, but then again, it’s hard to know what’s important until you look back.
Love this! I think all the pop culture helps to add context. I still remember certain things based on the songs on the radio at the time. Especially when I was sixteen! 🙂
Songs! That is a good one. I need to look more at what songs were popular next time I do this!
Songs! That is a good one. I need to look more at what songs were popular next time I do this!
This is a a great idea. My daughter’s baby book has a section for “news from the month she was born” and right now it’s blank. I have to get on that.
That is awesome! Don’t worry too much about it, just do some searching! Some of the sites I found actually had news month by month.
I do include it in my Project Life pages. As things happen that are important or relevant (to me) I print out news articles about it to put in there. But I don’t have any in other scrapbooks, I need to start doing that!
Including pop culture items is one of the reasons project life really intrigues me!