To Peel or Not to Peel–Removing Photos from Old Albums

Is your old photo album archival? Many of the older albums with black, gray or colored paper may not be harming your photos. Some of the older family heirloom albums may have valuable inscriptions of family history that you would not want to lose. And, the wonderful vintage albums have a charm all their own.

If you are fortunate enough to have a vintage family heirloom full of photos attached with photo corners to the black or colored paper, you can enjoy the best of both worlds. Carefully scan the photos and recreate the album by digital scrapping them. Add all inscriptions that are in the original album. Then you can choose to print a mini album for family members to enjoy or preserve your work on a CD. Either way, you’ve created an archival record of priceless family memorabilia.

Here’s something to get you started–Part 1 of a 5×7 mini album to spark your heritage scrapping. Page coordinates with Aunt Frances Wallpaper Samples paper pack at Kathryn Balint and Friends

http://www.kbandfriends.com/store/product.php?productid=16389&cat=0&page=1

Click on preview to download.

PLEASE do not share link with Yahoo Groups. Send your friends here for the download. Please leave me a little note about your heritage scrapping ’cause I’d love to know how you preserve your family memories.

School Days

These little one-room school house photos are priceless. They conjure up memories of Little House on the Prairie and the wish for a more simple way of life. Here is Nancy Hill’s fun layout of her aunt in 1923 using vintage children’s elements.

Nancy says, My Aunt Jane taught second grade for over 30 years. Here is a picture of her in second grade. She is the little “red head” in the middle row with a check mark on her dress.

Papers and elements by Kathryn Balint My Book of ABCs,
Peter Rabbit Book, Rabbit Tales
Template by Jeniffer Schmitt
all at www.kbandfriends.com

A-Musing Memories

I love this ATC from Ruthpics of her great-grandfather. It captures a glimpse of the fun and spontaneous moments in a life well-lived. So many heritage photos are serious and posed because of the delay necessary for the old cameras to snap the picture. To further highlight this wonderful snapshot, Ruth gave it a punny title of Tie One On and added a paper moon behind his cutout figure. Fun heritage treatment that uses wonderful imagination. You might try one yourself.

Elements from ATC Mak’ns Yesteryear by Kay Eflin @ www.kbandfriends.com

Journaling a Memory

 

This delightful layout is a perfect example of everyday memorabilia.  Nancy Hill journals the story:   

My grandmother tells of a time, when she was eleven, she and her sisters and mother took the train to Zainsville, Ohio, to visit her grandmother.  A young man she met on the train bought her a cup of hot chocolate in a pretty cup and gave it to her.  I still have that cup. 

Nancy’s grandmother is the little girl in front on a visit with her mother and sisters to her grandmother’s home in Zanesville Ohio.  Nancy used Lynnie Smith Tranquility Quick Page for this priceless family memorabilia.

Heritage ATC of Your Ancestors

Artist Trading Cards are a hot item in the scrapping world. Consider taking your heritage photos and turning them into your own ATCs to give as gifts to your family. The example here is Hazel, my husband’s great aunt who never married. Hazel was a beauty and I used the theme of longing for a lost love. ATC are unique expression of creativity and a fun way to share your everyday memorabilia.

Digital kit Gizmos 1 & 2
www.e-scapeandscrap.net

Treasured Photos

Imagine thinking you know a lot about your parents then finding hidden surprises in photographs. A dear friend of mine is organizing his brothers and sister to put together an album and stories of their parents, both who died in the past two years. He excitedly sent me this picture saying he had never seen a photo of his father at this young an age. It’s bent, torn, disfigured–but it’s a treasure. He asked older family members what they have in early photos of his father. Now it’s become a treasure hunt and a meaningful one to this family. In other eras, photos were not an everyday thing like they are today. Photos of children, especially, were more formal. I love looking at this old picture. He’s having it restored but I like it just as it is. It was waiting to be found and treasured, which is just what he and his family are doing.

Seaman First Class

Memories of difficult times may be hard to share. But in the sharing, heritage is passed from one generation to another. My father did not want to talk of his WWII experiences. They forever left a mark on him. We have this wonderful picture of him, a signal book for the Coast Guard, and his official discharge papers. The one story that is remembered was shared at his funeral last year. These vignettes are ones to treasure because they give a glimpse of the true person.

Seaman First Class George Levi Reeves from Little Rock, Arkansas, served in the U. S. Coast Guard during WWII. He enlisted April 16, 1943, one day before his 18th birthday. Originally hoping to enlist in the Navy, he was turned down after answering that he sleepwalked. When asked the same question at the Coast Guard, he replied a firm, “No!” George drove amphibious landing gear in the South Pacific, piloting the craft onto the beaches for the troops to land. He never forgot the trauma of seeing so many of his companions killed before they could take more than a few steps. He served faithfully and proudly and was a member of the VFW until his death June 13, 2005, at his home in Colorado.

George and Cliffa

Wedding photos are some of the most priceless momentos from family history. This beautiful couple is my husband’s grandparents in their wedding finery. George’s high starched collar and Cliffa’s hairstyle capture another era. We had this photo for years before we realized our oldest daughter resembled her great-grandmother–the eyes, the dimpled chin, and the mass of hair. That is a treasure to discover.

Digital kits:
Slice of Life and With This Ring
at www.e-scapeandscrap.net

Things That Stir Recollection

 

What is memorabilia? Mementos, souvenirs, keepsakes, and treasures, a whiff of aftershave, a pressed flower, a love letter, a baby’s knit hat. As Webster says, it’s anything that stirs a recollection. It conjures up nostalgia, sentimental thoughts of days gone by when we imagined things were simpler.

I am a scrapbook artist. More specifically, a digital scrapbook artist. Since it is said, a picture is worth a thousand words, one snapshot contains hours of memorabilia. The scrapbooking phenomenon has given us tools to showcase not only our pictures, but our stories through journaling and recording everyday events. It’s become the modern diary.

In Everyday Memorabilia, I want to share with you ideas for preserving your precious memories, and, I hope you’ll have ideas for me as well.

Baby is my husband’s Uncle Melvin in a wonderful old dress.  Kit is Our Family Tree @ www.e-scapeandscrap.net