Looking for a unique way to celebrate Father’s Day this year? Check out some of the newest scrapbooking ideas and techniques to create a memento for your Dad that he’ll never forget.

One fascinating idea comes from DIY Network’s Sandi Genovese, who has come up with a one-of-a-kind scrapbook idea that makes a personalized keepsake with an unusual masculine flair.

Her idea involves making a three-dimensional scrapbook using — of all things — a paint can! This makes a wonderful gift that can be customized and relates to activities and interests that have a close connection with the person.

While Sandi chose an empty one gallon paint can for her container, you could use anything that’s big enough to hold photos and other souvenirs and which has a connection with the person who will receive the gift.

If this idea appeals to you, spend some time thinking about hobbies or interests that immediately relate to your father (or whoever it is you’re making the scrapbook for!) Is he a DIY enthusiast? Has he got a special interest in sports, arts and crafts, food or similar? Activities like these can suggest an object or container - a paint can, a bucket, an ice-cream carton - that can serve as the starting point for your 3D scrapbook.

Once you have the basis for your container, you can set about decorating it with photos, labels and other items that conjure up special memories. If the container or can is transparent, you can arrange for the photos to line the inside of this makeshift ‘frame’ and combine them with lettering, embellishments and other decorations as you see fit.

These inventive, home-made items often become the keepsakes with the most sentimental value, because they represent the love and affection that comes from your uniquely shared experience.

So if you can’t think of a shop-bought gift for Father’s Day, why not surprise him with an unusual 3D scrapbook?

Do you have a scrapbooking ‘mission statement’? What do you scrapbook about?

For some people, scrapbooking is more than just a way of organizing memorabilia - it’s a way of telling a story.

You can make a scrapbook album to chart the course of family members, a project or a place over an extended period. Seeing the changes that time brings helps to cement memories that might otherwise fade over the years.

Some people like to make scrapbooks to celebrate a particular event: it might be a trip or holiday of a lifetime, a graduation or - particularly appropriate at this time of year - a gathering of the clan at Christmas.

And there are many more options for making scrapbooks that go beyond the smile-filled snapshots, baby’s first steps or the African safari adventure holiday. There are scrapbookers who find ways to capture life’s more unusual or dramatic moments in their albums: moving house, remodeling a kitchen, even a trip to the hospital.

What is it about scrapbooks that makes them so versatile and powerful in recreating significant moments in our lives? Perhaps the very act of their creation is a key element in capturing the spirit of an occasion. Selecting photographs, newspaper clippings, notes, ticket stubs and other mementos places us back in the mental and emotional frame of mind we once experienced.

Choosing page backgrounds and layouts lends a style and personality to a collection of souvenirs and to recreate the context of an event or episode.

Scrapbooking can be an absorbing, labor-intensive craft - but it’s astonishing how time and detailed work can pass unnoticed when the right side of the brain takes control.

Sometimes, it’s activities like these that capture the memories and make them last.