Scrapbook idea...?

Sounds like you want more of a journal than a scrapbook, although you could do either.

"Scrapbooks" might have poems glued onto the pages, but I think of them mostly as having photos, images of various kinds, perhaps written titles, bits of memorabilia (tickets or programs from events, favorite anythings, etc), all just glued dimensionally onto scrapbook paper (often in a large book form).

"Journals" (see below) have mostly writing but that writing can be anything including poems. Sometimes people draw or doodle along with the journaled text though too. Those are usually smaller than scrapbooks (so they can be written in while on a lap).

If you decide on a "journal," there are options:

1. You can just buy loads of them in office supply and gift stores, and many online.

2. Or you can make your own at home by:

...2a. making the whole thing yourself, like making any homemade "book" though there are many types, looks, and functions of those

...2b. doing something like creating the page (or pages) yourself from photos, drawings, texts, etc, relevant to her Dad or with words of encouragement, inspiration, etc, then having them photocopied (in color if you want), and finally having Kinko's etc, bind the photocopied pages together with a wire spiral, plastic spiral, etc.

3. having a journal or notebook (blank or lines) made online with the your own image/etc or one of their thousands on the cover

(3) Some places to have those last ones made would be Vistaprint, CafePress, and Zazzle.

Each service has many images of their own or from previous customers that you can have printed on the cover (and sometimes on the pages themselves?), or you can upload your own images (anything from photos to things you've drawn or written, etc) to use.

Each service is a little different but here are their sites:

http://www.cafepress.com/+poetry+journals (their just Journals section is different)

http://www.zazzle.com/journals (this is their journals/notebooks section)

http://www.vistaprint.com/notebooks.aspx?txi=15077...

(2b) This choice might be the most personalized one, and still be affordable.

...So you could create the pages for the journal, etc, (or each friend could do different pages) using images/things that would be meaningful, and do that either digitally or by doing a collage then taking a scan or digital photo of it.

You could have the copies made from the digital image (you give to Kinko's/etc) or you could just use the physical page you create and photocopy it yourself** (to create as many of the journal pages you wanted--perhaps you'd have only one look for all the pages, or perhaps you'd have more than one look interleaved in the same journal). These would be like stationery pages.

Then have Kinko's bind all the pages with one of their nicer wire spiral bindings.

...For the cover, there may be special stiffer or coated papers that can be used to print another of your images onto, or they may have plain ones, etc. You'd have to ask them about those options. Or you could use a cover from another notebook or other source that you like, or just a stiff-ish stock from an existing binder or something else.

...The backs of journals and drawing pads are usually thick/rigid cardboard or matte board, etc. Perhaps Kinko's has those too, or you could salvage one from another notebook, or you could buy illustration board, etc, from an art supply store, etc. (Kinko's can cut the front, back and pages to the same size at once for $1 per cut if necessary.)

** If you put some of the images in the center of the page where your friend might be expected to write or draw, just photocopy those at a "light" setting so her writing/drawing can easily be seen over it.

Smash books by EK Success may work for this project.

Look at your craft stores for them

http://www.eksuccessbrands.com/kandcompany/smash/