Hey there scrappy friends! Aly Dosdall here, and I’m so excited (and a bit nervous) to be your hostess this week here at write.click.scrapbook. Happy Labor Day to our U.S. readers! Thanks for popping in today. When you're done be sure to relax with family and friends and take some photos, okay?
One thing related to scrapbooking that I really feel passionately about (among others) is making sure to scrap YOUR story. Many of us scrapbookers enjoy scrapping our children, grandchildren, pets, friends, etc, but have a hard time scrapping pages about ourselves. While scrapping the important people in our lives is absolutely worth our time, we need to make sure there is enough information recorded about US for our posterity and friends to enjoy as well.
A few years ago my Mom sent me several of my childhood photos. At first when I got them I stuck them in a folder and let them sit there, feeling completely overwhelmed at the thought of scrapping them. Then one day I just decided to get started because if I didn’t, no one else would. I went through what I had and organized the photos into categories: Infant/Toddler, Elementary School, and Jr High/High School. Then I just took one photo at a time and recorded some thoughts/memories about it. I picked out a collection of papers that fit the time period (late 70’s/early 80’s), got a pack of white cardstock, and went to work. At this point I’ve finished through some of high school and it has been so fun to relive these memories for myself, and to share them with my own children.
Today I thought I would pass on a few tips about scrapping your own childhood:
- Just get started! Don’t worry about waiting until you gather and organize all your photos. You may never start! Just take what you have and make a page. It doesn’t need to be perfectly organized and coordinated—it’s better to have something recorded than to worry about how perfect the album looks.
In my album, some pages ended up having nicely coordinated designs and products, and some did not since I didn’t get ahold of some of the photos until after I had finished most of the album. Most are traditional pages, but a few are digital. Does that matter in the grand scheme of things? Absolutely not. What matters is the photos and memories are recorded.
2. Keep the colors and designs simple. If you have a lot of photos to get through, don’t make each page your most amazing and time consuming work of art or you’ll never get the album finished.
In my album I kept the background cardstock white, used coordinating products, and kept the designs simple so I could finish each page in 15 or 20 minutes. That way I was able to complete three or four pages each time I sat down to work on the album.
3. Journal what you can. If you can’t remember the photos try asking a parent, sibling, or other family member who might remember. If there’s no one to ask, just journal any memories or feelings that the photo evokes. Take your time and don’t stress about it. Try to think about what your children or grandchildren would like to read about in the future.
On this page I journaled about something I love about my Mom—her love of reading and books which she passed on to us kids.
This spread features photos from 3 different events and times. What ties them together is that they all represent a family tradition. Rather than record details about each separate event, I journaled about some of my favorite family traditions and why they were important to me.
4. Sometimes you may not need to journal much. Just try to record facts: dates (even if it’s approximate), places, names, event or occasion. You never know how this information might come in handy for a descendant in 100 years!
In both the above and below pages I used brief list-style journaling. I didn’t really know or remember much about each photo, but when grouped together I was able to record meaningful memories even with the brief journaling.
And now a challenge: take at least ONE step toward scrapping your childhood if you haven’t. You could gather some childhood photos, organize the photos you have, choose a few to start scrapping, or create a childhood page. When you finish your page, post it in the flickr gallery. I’ll be checking out the gallery, and will share your creations on Saturday.
Well fellow scrappers, that’s all for today. Come back tomorrow for a few more tips on scrapping your childhood. Wednesday I’ll talk about scrapping heritage photos, Thursday is another give-away day (woo hoo!), Friday I’ll share some tips on fixing older/faded photos in photoshop, and Saturday I’ll showcase some of YOUR pages from the write.click.scrapbook. flickr gallery. Happy scrapping!!
