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Heritage Pages Gone Digital
Ramie Ahlstrom - Scrapping Deck Cruise DirectorI've rarely had the chance to scrapbook heritage photos since I live so far from my family (gotta love the Navy for that!). It's always been a desire of mine to work with old photographs, and now with the help of technology, I'm able to do just that!
While visiting my mom and dad last spring, I helped my mom scan hundreds of photos that she had borrowed from my great aunt and uncle. It was a fantastic treasure to hold in our hands and a great way to spend a few days-reliving our family's history (or at least one branch of it).
After scanning all the photos, we burned them to CDs. My mom has one, I have one, and we gave my great aunt one as well. We also shared them with other family members so that everyone could enjoy them.
I've had these photos in my hot little hands long enough-it's time to scrap them! Originally, I had planned to reprint them all onto photo paper and then scrapbook them the "traditional" way using paper, glue and embellishments. But then I crossed over to the digital scrapbooking world. I decided that in the interest of time (which we all have little or none of), I'd scrap these pictures digitally and then give them as gifts to my mom and her family. (Mom-if you read this, I guess you're getting a sneak peek!)
Since many of the photos are of people who are no longer living and many whom I'd never met, I simply scrapped them with basic information and fun embellishments. This page features two of my great-grandfather's sisters. I don't know when or where the photo was taken, but it's a timeless image of people I would love to know more about.
There are many heritage type digital scrapbooking kits available, both as freebies and to purchase. Most of the heritage style kits have antiqued color backgrounds, with metal embellishments as well as ribbons and fibers in colors predominantly categorized as "old-fashioned" (brown, gold, maroon, dark green, etc.). Don't feel you have to limit yourself to heritage kits for your heritage photos. Because most heritage photos are black and white, just about any digital scrapping kit will work with them and look great.
This layout, featuring a photo of my maternal grandparents (on the right) enjoying themselves, uses a kit titled Seaside by Gauchogirl. The typical use for this kit would be beach pages, but I thought the colors lent themselves well to the black and white photo.
While flipping through the stacks of photos, we came across this one of my mom as a young lady. I don't think her facial features have changed a bit as she looks almost identical to this now (and I think she wishes she could find some glasses like those-they were her favorite). I used a bright colored kit to make the photo pop.
Baby photos are timeless, regardless of whether they are 40 years old or two years old! This one, of my mom at about a month old, is one of my favorites from the entire stack. My mom's father died when she was around a year old, and there aren't many photos of her as a baby or young child. This one captures her innocence and makes me do double takes every time I look at it-because my daughter looked just like her as a baby (and so did I, to tell you honestly!)!!
The simple layout uses realistic elements and a pastel background. Adding some text and word art completes it nicely.
This portrait, a family photo of my mom (with the glasses) and her siblings, screamed to be placed on a dark colored background. This one, a pattern of "stamped" diamonds, lent itself perfectly to the photo. I added a simple photo mat, a folded corner element, and some ribbon to make an easy layout! Text added to the photo mat creates a fun title block, and simple journaling was all that the layout needed.
I've got many more scanned photos to scrap and hope to work on them throughout the year! Maybe I'll even be able to give my family a CD of completed layouts by Christmas time…you know, it's never too early to start planning!!!
I hope you've enjoyed these heritage layouts. Going digital with some of my scrapping has been so much fun, and I hope you are enjoying it as well!
Ramie Ahlstrom
ramieahlstrom@ssreflections.com
Scrapping Deck Cruise Director
Reflections Publishing Group, LLC
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