Back when I kept an old-fashioned scrapbook, I used to include pressed flowers and ticket stubs and little bits of menus and programs and cards that I had cut out and even bottle caps. Now that I digi-scrap I don't do that any more and I think that is somewhat unfortunate as those little bits were meaningful and really help to awaken the memory and tell the story.
So I got to thinking, if the reason I am scrapbooking is to preserve memories, maybe I should make the effort to scan in those little bits and pieces and use them in my layouts, at least for those special events pages.
Tina I still keep those memories, but I also scan them. They not only make a great addition to a layout they also bring back memories. This is also a great way of sharing with family members that may not live so close, but still want to see what is going on.
One of the things I have been doing is scanning all of my parents pictures, plus. I scanned the blankets, sweaters and hats my mother knitted for my children. She is not longer with us, but the memories are still here. I have collected from my brother all documents, letters, cards, and even some of my mother's old Avon items, since she used to sell Avon. I have been putting together various books about each family member which shows a glimpse into the kind of person they were.
It has been fun and I know all are loving it. My aunt constantly expresses he love for the book I put together for her.
Wow Judy, what a wonderful thing to do for your family and future generations. You must have a super duper scanner. At the core of my being -- whether I'm writing or doing photography or scrapbooking -- is storytelling and those cards and letters and "bits" all bring my story to life. And while I love all my digi-elements and doodads, I realized that they aren't as meaningful as a ticket stub to a concert on a first date or the bracelet my son wore home from the hospital. I think there is definitely room for both kinds of layouts but sine I've moved to digi-scrap, I've not bothered with the meaningful bits that need to be collected, scanned, recorded, trimmed.....
I have a few physical scrapbooks I made back in the day as well (before I had kids). I never purchased special embellishments and such...just used the fun and memorable things that I collected during the event/travel (napkins, tickets, letters written and pictures drawn by my first students, pictures of family heirlooms, paper bags from overseas trips used as papers to layer on pages...etc.).
Now you've got me thinking. I've been trying to figure out how I'd like to do scrapbooks for my girls. (I never got around to making physical scrapbooks with all of their babyhood things). I think I'm going to go through their boxes and scan the gift bags/cards/bracelets/etc and take pictures of different babyhood items to extract elements from. Thanks for bringing this idea back to me. After all, for me the whole point of scrapbooking is to bring back specific memories vs. just looking pretty.
Now just to find time to scan/take pictures!
It is really hard to hold onto all those great pictures that were drawn for just because. I have scanned those off and even found my son's silhouette of his head he did in first grade. I scanned that off.
They make some interesting layers to their pictures. At the time they just loved doing the picture and it was very important to them.
My youngest brother now lives in my parents old house. In the kitchen there is still the wood cutting that my other brother did in wood shop in high school. Even now he still likes seeing it hanging in the kitchen.
The only thing I wish I did was asked more questions of my grandparents and wrote down more information. It is really hard going back through things and not always knowing where the picture was taken or if there was a special occasion.
Sharing has jugged memories in others and has added to the stories.
So yes I do scan everything and I do share. Yes it is great, but it does have a dual purpose. Everything is stored off site and in many different places. Many backups.
Here in Brazil is very trendy to do hybrid mini-albuns for memorable events, in a way you mix the practicity of recoloring and resizing papers/ making more compact pages and spending less in scrap material (here paper scrapbooking is really, really expensive, so most of people think its a hobbiy for rich madams that go to US every year and learn those stuff with her american friends, lol) and use phisical memorabilia, such as tickets, napkings, folders and so on. In my opinion, go hybrid is a good way to get the best from both words. And there are soooooo many ways of doing... Using only solid papers, memorablia and ribbons as phisic materials, printing only the elements (or some of the elements) and using phisical papers, etc.
About those priceless pieces of memory that we bring to digital world, a couple of months ago I had a great experience going to my mother´s house and taking pictures of things that last from my childhood: The 80´s radio, some (very ugly) dolls, a Teddy Bear I won in my 2nd birthday, another one from my brother bought years later... I did this to a challenge in which we needed to scrap a double layout about our toys when we were young, and I am still very tempted to go there again and take more pictures, extract them and keep, at least the pics, safe from the ages..
I agree with Lorien! When I transitioned to digi-scrapping, I realized that any physical items I wanted to keep, I could just add in to the pages after I print them (as long as I leave space with that in mind). I couldn't really convert to digi-scrapping until I got a good scanner. My plans are to either A. scan an item or B. leave room on the page to paste it in once my finished book arrives. There are some things that I think I will probably want to have the actual item of, but other things I can add digitally.
In fact, I used this recently for a page on seeing Jersey Boys with my mom! I like to save the playbills, but then it's just paper taking up space and most of it is full of ads anyway... So I just scanned the best pages from it -- cast & song list, poster art, etc. -- and was able to recycle the rest. Yay digi-scrapping!
This is why I still paper scrap, too... way tooooo much stuff to scan just to "fit in" to my albums. So, it's easier to still paper scrap them for me. Besides I still have a slight addiction to feeling the paper in my hands and I have a lot of supplies to use up still.
@Shawna, I know what you mean about paper - I do a lot of e-reading but still love to hold a book in my hands and the smell of the paper. I mostly do digital work, but I have a paper addiction and can seldom resist buying it. Unfortunately I don't think I'll go back to paper scrapping because of time, expense, space requirements.
@Tina: That is one of my biggest disappointments as of late. Every magazine I subscribe to is going digital versions only.
I just love holding it in my hand and tearing out only the pages I want to save for articles or inspiration. I'm going to miss that aspect of magazines. I too have an e-reader installed on my Asus tablet, but sometimes this nothing like holding a book in your hands.
As far as my scrapping stuff & not having kids yet... I am fortunate and blessed to have a small 8x8 room for my study/office and our hobbies, sewing, scrapping, and crafting. It helps that hubby is an artist: draws, paints, musical... so he's all for a creative space in our home.
It's really supposed to be a bedroom but it's downstairs separated from the rest of the condo off the kitchen so it makes more sense to be something else like a study.
i keep all the ticket stubs, pamphlets, etc and eventually scan them to put on my pages. Then, being the collector that I am, they go into a memory box where they sit and collect dust, but i can't seem to part with them.
I scan my sons pictures and use them in his pages. Keeping digital copies keeps the clutter down.
I stored a lot of those memories for years. My children were given all of their special items. Now I wish I had scanned them first to use them on the pages I am putting together of their early years.
When I started digi scrapping I had planned on scanning everything. I had my baby book with all of my treasures including all the cards when I was a toddler for my birthday from my grand parents. I even took a drawing and cut it in pieces so that I could electronically put it back together because it was too big for my scanner. Also scanned some "blowers" from our Millenium cruise celebration and my brother showed me how to extract them...in my beginning days of scrapping! My big project was scanning all of my Mom's photos from the years past. I still am trying to organize and label them so that I can give all of my brothers and sisters DVDs of all the images. My plan now that I know how to digi scrap is to go back and put together photo books.
If you have your digi layouts printed in an album (ie. from Blurb, Shutterfly etc...), another option to include your physical memorabilia (ie. ticket stubs etc...) is to save some blank spaces in your album to glue it into
I guess I've worked some with the scanning of the memorabilia as well, BUT with the items that are more 3D I've found that it's easier to snap a photo of them. Like I recently ran across some small figurines that my daughter had as a young girl, as I was preparing her room to be ready to host her for the holidays on college break. My son came home from work and asked why they were sitting on his BLACK wind breaker on the kitchen table. He doesn't get into the physical memories, so I just told him "Oh nothing..." and went back to picking them up...lol. I think I had decided to check the photos on the computer before putting the items up, and had gotten side-tracked with some things before putting everything away again.
How do y'all decide whether to scan or shot a photo to extra from?
If you shoot photos, what do you find and use as an easy background to allow for easy extracting?
I was using some odd green paper I had, until recently I found it was giving a green tint to some of the items edges, hence the BLACK wind-breaker.
For extracting complicated or fine edged elements, like things with hair or that are fuzzy or trees, I use a program from Topaz Labs called ReMask and it has a setting which decontaminates edges. It's pretty pricey but I love it. I has saved me countless hours.
@Tina I love doing extractions and so I just HAD to look at this ReMask program....needless to say I just bought it. I think for the savings in time when doing my extractions the price is more than worth every penny of it! Thank you!
Now I just have to learn it along with PS CS6 and my new camera! LOL!
@Janet - Remask is fairly intuitive but if you get stuck, they've got some great tutorials on YouTube or just let me know and I'll be happy to help. They're other programs are pretty awesome too - particularly Adjust.
@Tina Yes, I saw all the other programs and wanted them all but alas not in the budget right now. Maybe next month will be Adjust - I saw it and figured that one in particular could be really helpful too! Thanks again! Oh, and they do have some great tutorials, watched a couple!