Heritage Scrapbooking - Recording The History Of The Family

The perfect place to showcase and protect your precious family photos, heirlooms, and memories, a heritage scrapbook album is wonderful way to document your family's history and create a lasting gift for future generations. While it may seem a daunting task when faced with boxes of dusty old photos, scrap booking is actually both fun and more easy than you might think!

At the heart of most heritage scrapbooks are the photos - pictures of your grandparent's wedding, your great-grandfather at work in the fields, a family Christmas celebration... Begin your heritage scrapbook project by gathering together as many photographs as possible, from boxes, attics, old albums, and relatives. These photos don't necessarily need to have people in them - pictures of old houses, automobiles, and towns are great for adding historical interest to a family history scrapbook. Remember, in your quest, that pictures from slides and reel-to-reel 8mm films can be made at a relatively low cost through your local photo store.

Family mementos such as birth and marriage certificates, report cards, old letters, family recipes, clothing items, and a lock of hair can also add interest to a family history scrapbook. Smaller items can be incorporated into a heritage scrapbook by placing them in clear, self-adhesive, acid-free memorabilia pockets. Larger heirlooms such as a pocket watch, wedding dress, or family quilt can also be included by photocopying or scanning them, and using the copies in your heritage album.

Historically, scrap booking was in the tradition much akin to storytelling, but with a tactile, wistful and visual focus. Heritage scrap booking preserves a legacy of written history in the form of memorabilia, photographs and printed media in decorated scrapbook albums. Heritage scrap booking with photographs has been around since pictures became available to the average person. Traditional scrapbooks tend to have photographs mounted with photo mount corners and notations with who was in the photograph and when and where the photograph was taken. In heritage scrap booking, the photographs included bits of memorabilia like letters and newspaper clippings.

Heritage scrap booking and family tree ideas include scrap booking layouts, scrapbook page ideas, scrap booking supplies, and journaling techniques and tips. A computer can be helpful in turning precious family photographs into a lovely scrapbook or decorative album via the creativity of digital scrap booking. Going en route to digital scrap booking, instead of traditional scrap booking, means less cost spent on scrap booking supplies and the ability to print out multiple scrapbook copies of beautiful scrapbook layouts. There are step-by-step guides available to using memorabilia, memories and old photographs to create a visual and historical scrapbook of family heritage and history.

Begin your page by choosing a number of photos for your page which relate to a single theme - e.g. Great-grandma's wedding. For a single album page layout, select 3-5 photos. For a two page spread, select between 5-7 photos. When you have the option, use only the best photos for your heritage album - photos which are clear, focused, and best help to tell the "story."

Use a pair of sharp scissors to trim away unwanted background and other objects in your photos. You may want to keep cars, houses, furniture, or other background images in some photos for historical reference, while highlighting just a specific individual in others. Cropping templates and cutters are available to help you crop your photos in a variety of shapes. Decorative-edged scissors can also be used to trim photos.

Heritage scrap booking can immortalize the cherished photographs of family and loved ones, documents, stories and memorabilia for generations to come. Scrapbooks can be much more than just albums with photographs, namely when it comes to sharing and preserving family history. A scrap booking website normally affords family scrap booking articles, a collection of scrap booking poems for heritage, history-themed scrapbook tips and scrapbook page layouts. There are many scrap booking web sites that offer monthly scrapbook layouts for the heritage scrap booking hobbyist. Family members can be included, along with a family tree that’s organized by working from the latest generation backwards in time.