The summer I turned five, my mom and I drove from New Jersey to Missouri in a big green Dodge Dart Swinger. She was off to finish a degree in education. I was thrilled to ride along. On the car floor sat a cardboard box packed for the trip. Inside it were my beloved fashion dolls, magnetic Chinese checkers, a deck of cards, an Etch a Sketch, a coloring book of tigers and lions, and a jumbo Crayola crayon set.

I remember a lot of things from that hot, wet Missouri summer. Like our neighbor, a nun from Hawaii, who--I swear!--taught me to hula. And the giant, spooky water bugs in the dorm where we stayed. As for the box, it's unforgettable: My mom and I had lovingly covered it with mod, Day-Glo flower-print Con-Tact paper. Lime green, hot pink, reflector orange. Popsicle colors. For me, that's what summer looks like.

Whenever I dig out the box--it's pretty worn now, but still downright jazzy--I can almost picture that hilarious hula lesson and hear that incredible Missouri thunder. Stuff tells stories, as my three kids and any respectable archaeologist know. That's why you'll love the projects offered here. They take a kid's mementos of summer--photographs, souvenirs, seashells, ticket stubs, you name it--and give them new, and longer, life. Who knows? Years from now, these keepsakes may seem almost as dear as the memories themselves. Almost.