Monica Wihongi has been scrapbooking for about 10 years now. "It's so much more than just paper and pictures," she says. "I have five children, and I want to preserve their memories. I've always taken a lot of pictures, but they just sat in boxes."

Then she discovered scrapbooking and, in particular, scrapbooking kits made by a Pleasant Grove company called Close To My Heart. "I went to a scrapbook weekend in Las Vegas with my home consultant, who has become my best friend (Close To My Heart products are sold through home demonstrations and catalogues, much like Avon). When I came home, the kids were so touched by the pages I'd done, that I'd taken time to do their story and their pictures. Whenever anyone comes to visit, they pull out their scrapbooks to show them."

Her scrapbooking, she says, has drawn the family together. "That feeling is what I like about scrapbooking."

And now that her kids are getting big enough to do their own work, they are getting interested, too. So, when Wihongi came across some kits for using scrapbooking techniques to make Christmas cards, she thought it would be the perfect family activity.

At a recent session at her sister's house, Wihongi and three of her daughters, Melia, 3; Serina, 6; and Ariana, 7; made Christmas cards for the girls' grandparents and some school friends.

The kits (also made by Close To My Heart) are great, she says, "because you don't need any adhesive, you don't need any scissors. They are easy enough for my 3-year-old to do. Yet, each card can be personalized. Each card is different."

"This is fun, doing it with my sisters and Mom," said Serina, who was working on a card for her grandmother.

"How do you spell Christmas?" asked Ariana. "It's a big word." Her mother wrote it out for her, and she carefully copied it into the greeting card she was making for her friend. "Dear Catherine," she wrote. "I hope you have a happy Christmas. I love you so much."

Her friends will be surprised to get the cards, said Ariana. "This is so fun!"

And, says Wihongi, "my parents are going to love getting these cards, with their personal messages."

You can add ribbons or embellishments, she noted. And, of course, you can make cards without kits. Cardmaking has become an important segment of the scrapbooking industry in recent years, as more and more scrapbookers are taking the methods and techniques they've learned for big pages and translating them into miniature cards and notes.

Scrapbooking itself is a $2.5 billion industry, notes Wihongi. "Everyone thinks it's just in Utah, because we have so many companies making products. But it's huge all over the country."

Scrapbooking parties have become the "quilting bee of the modern age," she says. "It's fun to get together and share ideas and work with other women." There's a feeling of pride, she says, that comes from doing it yourself. "I call it my guiltless pleasure. I can express my creativity and be with other women, but I'm giving back to my children. I'm creating something that will be a treasure forever."

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Close To My Heart My Originals card kits come with card stock that can be folded into the cards, and with stickers and greetings that can make each card different. They sell for $12.95 a packet, and each packet makes 12 cards. www.closetomyheart.com; call 1-888-655-6552

E-mail: carma@desnews.com