The other day I watched a surfer get smashed by a 12-foot wave. He took his beating only to get back up again and face the next monster. When it came, he paddled like heck, jumped on the wave and rode it until it died. Next to me, my husband snapped pictures of the moment.

What special moments can you remember? Wouldn't you like to live them over and over again? You can by creating your own scrapbook. Here's how:

1) Gather your pictures, letters or other momentos. These can be pictures of when you were a baby, your first birthday party, your first date or pictures of the concert you went to last week. Ask your mother, father or grandparent if they have some pictures. They might surprise you and be willing to part with some of them.

2) Gather tools. Some tools you might need include background paper, a photo album, stickers, tape, page covers, markers and scissors. Be sure to buy acid-free supplies so that over time your photo album doesn't turn yellow.

3) Organize the pictures. You can organize by date and time. For instance, if you are making an album of your life, start with your earliest moments and proceed forward until now. If you are making an album of a family vacation, you might want to start with what you did on the very first day and proceed forward.

You could organize by subject matter too. Try separating your photographs into groups of events or things. For instance, dedicate one page to parrots and another to your trip to Seattle.

4) Put your pictures in the album. Using all the materials you have gathered, you can create a very simple or a very elaborate page.

You can use paper to make borders or backgrounds for photos. Cut the paper into whatever shapes you prefer and place them on the page where you want them (e.g., top, bottom, corners or underneath photos). Don't tape them down yet.

5) Trim your photos if they need trimming. You may want to cut away any unnecessary background that takes away from the subject of the picture. For example, if you had a picture of a girl on the beach, and you wanted her to be the focus, you could cut out the people running near her in the background.

6) Now you are ready to place the photos on the page where you want them. Don't be afraid to overlap photos or to place them over borders and background paper. Once the page looks just the way you want it, use photo tape to keep it all in place.

7) You can write above, next to or underneath pictures. Use your acid-free markers to write a sentence or two, a couple of paragraphs or an entire page of what happened while you were taking this picture. You might want to add a poem or some quotes that you remember from the day. What date was it? What time? Who is in the picture? What are they doing? Where are they?

8) Add stickers, drawings, magazine clippings, etc. wherever you want them on the page. These give an added touch to your finished work.

9) Put the pages in covers to protect them. This will keep other pages or things from rubbing against your photos and keep fingerprints off.

Create each page in this manner. There is no one way your pages should look. You're the artist, so go for it!

By storing and displaying your pictures in a scrapbook, they will last a lifetime. You can live all those special moments over and over again.

--Kathleen Spencer, Wahiawa, Hawaii. Art above by Amrita Singh, 9, Centreville, Virginia.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Skipping Stones